no cd drive in new macbook?

Guess I'll have to buy a SuperDrive - GRRRR. I didn't check the new MCP when buying because in my wildest dreams I wouldn't think Apple would get rid of the drive! Seriously...Especially with the large screen, some people watch movies (DVDs) or workout videos, install from disk and as I just realized, transfer photos from CD. We have a photo CD of our recent family trip and darned if I can't put them on the computer so I can add them to my online album and share with the family.

You just assume a computer manufacturer will add all the components necessary for a computer and add the features that make the process better. Like an art class with an easel and lots of paper and paint, but no tray to put the paint in to help with the transfer from one medium (paint tube) to the other (easel). Ball dropped Apple.

😁Hahaha...I know! I thought of it as I wrote it and wondered if I should choose another word! But it was a logical assumption and the only a** is Apple for not putting in what I would call a staple in computer building! Ah well! C'est La Vie.

Same type of question were being asked when CD drive took over flash drive. When technology upgrades Manufacturer push and sometime force customers to use latest technology and move forward even though customer is happy with current system and don't want to upgrade. Same case is here. It's 4G world. Who carries Flash drive when you have CD. Same way who will carry CD when we have PD, External Hard disks and 4G.

If you need an optical drive - which many users do not anymore - you can purchase Apple's external USB Superdrive. Apparently it has been reengineered to work with Macs other than the mini and MacBook Air. There are other 3rd party drives as well.

Best of luck.

shamguy4 wrote:

i just looked at the macbook pro video...

thers no cd slot.....that ***** how are we suppose to watch dvd's? or install software.....

cd's are still in and a huge part of our world....i dont get it

If you must have a cd drive not getting it is the best idea.

Come on already. Regardless of the available options, no new product will fill everyone's needs. Look at the specs, compare it with what you need. If enough match up, buy it. If not, don't. It's as simple as that.

As to your specific question, you can get an external DVD drive or use another computer to remote install. As far as movies, quite a lot are available for download now. Same with software too for that matter.

lol funny, but no one wants to carry an extra device to where ever they go.

Then you have a choice to make, get the new, thinner Retina display MBP and carry an extra device when you need it or go with the older version MBP and carry the DVD drive around inside all the time.

Like I said before, figure out what you need and which of your needs are essential, find the computer that fits those needs and get that one.

I agree it's ridiculous for the MBP to have no disc drive, surely if you want a really light weight machine you go for the MB Air or even an I Pad but the MBP should be exactly that a Pro machine & include a disc drive, CD's & DVD's are still very much in use. It's alright saying if it doesn't have what you want don't buy it but if you want a lastest spec MBP for the speed & display you have to suffer No drive. A poor decision by Apple !

On the other hand, I have not put a disc in a drive for months, maybe years, why should I carry one around constantly when I don't use it. Brilliant decision Apple

On the other hand, I have not put a disc in a drive for months, maybe years, why should I carry one around constantly when I don't use it...

...and when the space it occupies could be used instead to provide greater battery capacity, more efficient cooling airflow, and more and better-distributed ports, all of which are provided in the Retina MBP. Why indeed?

Every computer provides a considered balance between features, price, size, weight, power, expandability, accessibility, upgradeabilty, style, and probably other attributes I'm forgetting to mention. The computer that balances all those attributes in the way that best suits its prospective user is the one for that user to buy, regardless of what brand or model it turns out to be.

This discussion... Like so many others speaks to the weakness of apple's computer business and solidifies while it will never become the new standard. With hardware software integration just not getting a new MacBook pro will eventually necessitate an entire switch of OS and the peripherals that go with it. What might another hardware manufacturer do? Offer two MBPs - one with optical drive and shorter battery life or other features and one without. But, god forbid apple give us such hardware choices.

When my PC using friends defend why they haven't switched the least assail able rationale is " apple didn't give me the specs I wanted and it is a premium priced machine". If apple is going to chargesuch prices (because they are quality machines - likely the best with their chosen -by apple - configurations) they will never be able to appeal to many older, enterprise, or pro users. Naturally I then ask these people why they haven't switched to Linux, but that's a different thread ;-).

In any case these ballsy choices (what optical drive), low choice, and high prices is responsible for why each innovation alienates huge swaths of apple's business (look how the enterprise and creative industries reacted to the "innovations" in apples server hardware/software with lion. Or look at how iOSification of OSX combined with locking down bootcamp to windows only, the neglect of VPN and other Professional, science, and developer applications have soured apple with many in those markets.

It worries me, these choices, and more is the " then don't buy it " line that seems to pass so easily on the forums and apparently in apples boardrooms.

I agree: it's completely ridiculous not to include a disc drive. I like to purchase my cds and movies on discs, rather than risk having everything I own on a laptop, whether I back it up or otherwise. And then, hey, I can put my CDs in my car or DVDs in my dvd player. Discs are still a huge part of technological culture. This just seems like Apple's way of making everyone buy their music and movies through their software (very frustrating and surely very irritating to any other seller). Poor choice, Apple. I've been pushing Apple products to my friends for almost ten years, but I don't think I'll be buying this new model anytime soon.

Gods, I can't believe all this "I can't do without a CD/DVD drive" stuff. Those media are going the way of the floppy. Ten years from now, no one will be able to use them and kids won't remember them. "Come on dad! It's like using an unembedded cell phone."

Mr. Bleach ;-) Don't get me wrong. I just swapped out my optical drive for a SSD in my 8,1 MBP. I would have liked to have had the option for a SSD/HDD dual set up from the get-go. However, at that time, big daddy Apple said 'thou must have an optical drive, and no - absolutely no SSD'. Now, of course, it is so plain to see that now in 2012 optical drives are totally ancient technology that no one in their right mind has any need for. But, in 2011... well, then EVERY laptop save the Air (because that wasn't a real computer anyhow) needed one. It was oh so clear.

I know many many people who would (and do currently) find the idea of no optical drive beyond the pale. I understand why, too. There still isn't a real alternative to the disk for easy reliable storage, transport, exchange, and trade at a physical level. This has value. I do imagine eventually SDs and other solid state devices will universally replace the optical disk - but this hasn't happened yet.

So, I find all this talk of things 'going by the wayside' to be so much hot air and certainly a poor justification for this decision. We can't predict the future - and I hardly see any big market shift to justfy why in 2011 Opticals needed to be universal kit, and in 2012 they don't. The obvious solution: consumer choice in a variety of models until the market sorts our what is or is not needed...

But the designers at Apple - waxing philosophical about seemless software hardware integration - deem themselves fit to make these decisions for us. And that is annoying.