Jason Anderson

Yes, I could live without one. For any ripping I need to do, I have a secondary computer. A brand new Mac mini. The persistence of an optical drive is the main reason I'm considering just getting an Air next time I upgrade.

@JohnFordColey I had the original PC games, and I put my name "Jason" in once and was impressed when the announcer said my name. But she never did it again. This was in "The Ride". Shame, Jason is such a common name, of course they could put it in the system. Don't know why it only happened once though.

Can you dual-boot? That would be better. Though I'd rather install ChromeOS onto my MacBook and dual-boot there instead of try to use OS X on the Cr-48 which will probably be really slow. Let alone Windows 7.

I too can't wait for the iOS version. I love 2, and 3's new features look amazing. I can't wait! Would be neat if it could import my scores and settings too so I can delete 2 and just keep 3.

I wish I could run Flash free, but there's a lot of sites that still require it and a lot of the new HTML5 video players are extremely buggy or don't work the same way, so I have to stay with it. So any performance enhancements will work for me. If Chrome will let me replace it...

There's more keeping the laptops as thick as they are besides processors.

The optical drive, the HD slot and the ports.

The ports are already pretty narrow, but the HD and optical drive still stand in their way. And while the optical drive may go first, I don't want to be restricted to only being able to buy a MBP with a fixed size expensive custom solid state flash stick like the Air's. I need storage. I'd rather have lighter laptops than thinner ones. They could easily shave a half inch off of all four sides of the MBP's and still keep the same screen size. Just don't remove my ability to put a 12.5mm HDD in my laptop unless you're gonna offer a cheap 1.5TB Flash option.... didn't think so. They could probably make the screen thinner if they really want to get it thinner overall.

I'd sacrifice the following in a low-end MBP as long as the speed and power is maintained:
Optical drive (Rarely use it except to install OS X and we've seen that has a new method available)
FireWire (Don't use it)
One USB port (I have a hub)
Ethernet (The thickest port of them all. I have wireless, and if I had to I'd buy a USB-based Ethernet adapter.)
Possibly SD slot if it had to go, but then again it's the thinnest port on there.

Looks like the Konami Code.

The new Air's show us a taste of what Apple is moving towards. The optical drive is mostly useless these days. But not for everyone. The following does not apply to everyone, but it does apply to a nice chunk of people.

Movies are much more convenient when ripped into digital video file form. I have most of my DVD collection on a 2TB HD. I can watch whatever movie I want via Plex/Nine whenever I want without having to wait. No getting up to get the DVD, putting it in and waiting for it to spin up to launch DVD player then wait through the menus to get to the movie. It's just there instantly. No commercials. No frills. Just the movie.

So much software is done online these days. There is stuff that only comes in DVD/CD form, but it's such a minority compared to the vast amounts of programs you can get off the internet that you really don't need the weight-adding DVD drive taking up space. With the Air Apple ships what will probably be the future of larger software distribution; a tiny flash drive that contains both the full OS X installer and iLife '11. On one tiny device. Who knows if this might prompt other companies to do the same? Hell, can you see Adobe or Microsoft shipping CS or Windows on one? (If they don't already) The previous Air had two options for installing OS X. A) Buy a $99 DVD drive or B) install over the network from another computer. Now we get a much better option. If OS X came on this in the future, I wouldn't even need to use my DVD drive anymore.

By removing the drive, they allow themselves to experiment with smaller MBP's or MB's. Removing weight and adding empty space to either shrink or put more stuff in. Like i5's in the 13" MBP? Or even i3's?

I hope that the next MBP's have options for smaller thinner optical-less models with a small (Maybe 64 or 128) Flash drive and a second bay for an optional 2.5" HDD. The OS would go on the super-fast Flash drive and all your extra stuff could go on whatever size HDD you could find to put in there. I would get a 64GB just to put my entire User folder on the second drive.

Now, some people will still need it, and I don't think removing it from all the models would really make much of a difference. So I'd keep it on the 17" (Because what difference would it make on a model that large?) and the higher-end 15's. But remove it from the lower 15" and the 13" models. But keep it on the white MacBook since that's aimed mostly at students. At least keep it for now.

If only he were on TV right now. Imagine how awesome The Tonight Show would have been these past few months leading from the iPhone 4 leak to today's release. TRIUMPH would be in line right now making fun of everyone. Damn you, NBC.

Of course it's up another $100. What the heck, Apple? It was supposed to be your entry-level cheap machine for people who want a Mac but can't afford an iMac. Now it's $200 more than when it came out for the base level. I need one for my media center and waited forever for this update now can't get it still because of this price increase again.

Disappointed.