No DVD drive in new iMac ???

@babowa

The 'box' I use is the NitroAV 8-Port FireWire 800/1394b Professional Hub and Repeater. It has 8 ports and can connect up to 7 FW800 devices—the 8th being the controlling device, in my use an iMac. It can be bus powered but I've never used it that way—I use the included power supply.

At $164 it is not inexpensive but has come down in price 10% since I purchased it a couple of years ago. A Google search for "NitroAV" will find it.

Using the hub allows me to turn off those items not currently being used without having an effect on the other drives that are being used.

Thanks, I will check that out, although that's a bit of an overkill for me...... as it is, I don't have my externals on or plugged in unless I need one (or more). I rarely need one more than once a week (twice at the most), so it'd be a total waste of resources to keep them drawing power.

Use my CD/DVD Drive all the time. I was very excited by the prospect of the new iMac, but I certainly won't be upgrading now. I was absolutely disbelieving of this when I first heard of it. Astonishing arrogance on Apple's part. Triumph of design over functionality, too. Apple's great strength has always been the perfect marriage of the two. This is just dumb, and it's one of many recent decisions that seem to me to fall into that category. As a dedicated follower of Apple, I begin to fear we're watching them unravel, locked into a process of re-inventing their own wheel. All improvement is disimprovement.

I agree. I think the move is prematue, I was hoping for the new iMac to have a Blu ray burner installed, as I think were many others. This would seem the most sensibe technological advancemant - not removing the optical drive completely.

I guess the new iMac's lack of optical drive keeps costs down and gives the user an option of adding their own (presumably cheaper and more easily replaced if faults occur) 3rd party drive but as many others have menyioned I really don't see the point of making it thinner. My 2009 27 Imac looks great from the front still - I NEVER see it from the side!

I'm totally bamboozled by the remarks in this thread moaning about that lack of internal DvD drive.

I mean, doesn't it occur to anybody that the computer has DISAPPEARED ?!

The word "internal" is now meaningles - there isn't anything left for the drive to be internal TO. There's only the monitor.

Apple have made the only logical move available to them which was to precipitate out the one component of the CPU unit which was never going to shrink to oblivion.

What are they supposed to do ? Retain the base unit (or an ugly great lump on the monitor) just so they could say it had an internal DvD to keep you lot happy ?

What a bunch of numpties you all are. Why don't you go off and buy a dull-Dell 27'' flasher with a 2-ton tin can baseunit with internal drive to save my ears.

Or, just get yourselves a top-of the range optical drive and stick it in the USB like you do with all your other devices.

Huh? The humps in the back, holding the SDD/HD, motherboard, power supply, speakers, and all the interconnects. Don't let Apple's pics fool you into thinking the side edge size goes all the way across the back.

baltwo -

That's not the point.

A DvD drive has always been a peripheral device. Even when it was internal, it was peripheral to the core CPU in a way that a hard drive / SSD are not.

Further, it's a peice of technology which is static in terms of both size and function in a way that the items on your list are not.

Its days as an integral component were well numbered whichever way you look at it - it just takes people a while to get used to the idea, that's all. Another reason externalisation makes sense is that media writers have diversified so much - you can get one which costs £25 or you can pay £2500 depending on what you want to do with it.

I've not been "fooled" by any Apple pics, marketing blurb or even read any - it's just plain glaringly obvious to anyone that takes a few seconds to think about it that the DvD drive was hanging by a thread as far as an integral component goes, and for very good reasons.

You flapped your lips and spouted:

The word "internal" is now meaningles - there isn't anything left for the drive to be internal TO. There's only the monitor.

AFAIK, every iMac that came down the pike had a SuperDrive or comparable disc drive, which made it an all-in-one machine. Others have pointed out why they think Apple''s gone off the rails with this move and their hawking the slim edges, IMO, proves it. Now, are still totally bamboozled?

What are they supposed to do ? Retain the base unit (or an ugly great lump on the monitor)

LOL, my 2007AL iMac has no lump, but the new ones do!?

Besides, I really have to go out of my way to see that the sides of my iMac are a bit thicker than the new ones, still wondering what I'd do to take advantage of that now empty Airspace on the sides of the new iMacs!? Maybe I could glue an External DVD drive there???

"Its days as an integral component were well numbered whichever way you look at it"

That's absolute nonsense. Have you actually read this thread? Personally I use the optical drive to rip CD's, DVD's, burn family movies and copy photos for friends and family, as well as other uses. In case you haden't noticed, CD and DVD are still huge! And then there's the aspect of Apple trying to increase business sales. Eliminating the optical drive was a shot in Apple's foot! We use optical drives at work for various purposes, including archiving data. Belive me, the optical drive will be around for MANY years to come.

Also, placing the camera card reader in the back of the Mac was sheer stupidity. Very inconvenient.

I won't be purchasing one of the new Macs for the sheer inconvenience of them!

Been staring at my eMac, you'd never know it didn't have knife thin edges! 😀

indigopete wrote:

I mean, doesn't it occur to anybody that the computer has DISAPPEARED ?!

Apple have made the only logical move available to them which was to precipitate out the one component of the CPU unit which was never going to shrink to oblivion.

What are they supposed to do ? Retain the base unit (or an ugly great lump on the monitor) just so they could say it had an internal DvD to keep you lot happy ?

I don't know what kind of computer you use, but many people use one with a optical drive built in, in case you are not aware, the previous iMac had one and it was built in and it cost less.

Disappeared? I don't know what you mean by that, many people still use computers that seem to have materialized before them and occupy physical space in their homes and like it.

Please don't tell us what we should want, need or have in our computers, because you obivously do not know what I want, need or should have.

You don't thonk these new Macs are pregnant, do you. Like ready to give birth to their own optical drive.

LOL. What's the gestation period of an iMac? 6 months after purchase a blu ray drive bulges out the side!

But seriously, I don't understand the logic of making it thinner and lighter with less function. Design has gone mad when form wins out over function. I am sure it is Apples attempt at increasing their iTunes Store sales. I have 200+ audio CDs that I have ripped via my imac. My HiFi system now mainly streams them from my NAS drive. Without an optical drive there's no way of doing this and given that Apple refuse to give away any rights with downloaded stuff, to me it still makes more financial sense to have a hard cd copy (which incidentally Is better quality than iTunes 256kbs downloads).

I do stream most of my video files but still have a blu ray/DVD player- which at the moment is showing no signs of obsolescence. For a supposed "all in one" computer to lose what has become an accepted integral function of a desktop in order for it to lose weight and become thinner seems like either poor design or a move to satisfy a hidden agenda by Apple. I think they have also run out of ideas to keep them at the forefront of innovation when all they can offer is aesthetic changes at the expense of usefulness for an item where the latter is far more important than the former.

I have had my 2009 imac from new and can honestly say that in all this time I have NEVER noticed it from the side. And the only time in those 3 years I have moved it was to replace the hard drive under apples recent HD replacement scheme. Yes it was a bit heavy carrying it to the car but I creating wasn't thinking "you know the one thing that would really make this machine better is for it to lose a few pounds". It's not like .intake it on the train to work every day!

Look you guys, I seem to be banging my head against a brick wall here but I'll have another go at getting the message across.

From Apple's point of view (and mine as it happens) a DvD drive is an outdated, oversized piece of junk with moving parts that break down half the time and simply no longer belongs in a modern machine (as an integral component that is).

Furthermore, it's a 3rd party component over which Apple have little control but still get all the flak when it fails.

I have a 3 year old solid body Macbook Pro which is the most reliable and robust machine I've ever used over a period of 25 years, EXCEPT for the DvD drive which is a complete P.I.T.A. I am so pleased to be shot of these things even though I do need them from time to time.

To the DvD "power users" on this thread who keep complaining that they use them all the time and can't live without them - do yourselves a favour and just go with the flow and get an external. You'll have a far more reliable machine plus a much more powerful DvD drive that's easily replaceable when it breaks down.

Far from 'making their biggest mistake', Apple probably know exactly what they are doing. DvD use is vastly diminished compared to 10 years ago and is only going in one direction. (See for example . . . http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1270704/DVD-sales-decline-likely- die-internet-Digiboxes-over.html).

As for those that are throwing their toys out of the pram with the "I'm never buying another Mac" line - don't worry, you'll already have been factored in to their sales projections so off you go and get your Dell tin can that's big enough to fit around both the motherboard and the "internal" peripherals.

This happens every time Apple make any change like this - a whole lot of users start kicking and screaming, but a couple of years down the line it becomes clear as day that it was the obvious decision to make.