Q: No DVD drive in new iMac ???

Good option if they will (PCWorld though)

You'll have to check with the seller - in order to take advantage of the 14 day return policy, you must have purchased it from Apple online or at an Apple store. If you bought it from PC World, they may have their own policy.

zBernie2 wrote:

If you want to get a better idea of how a majority of people feel about the new iMac having no optical drive, no conveniently placed USB ports, and an SD card slot on the back, try these forums:

 

mac-forums.com

forums.macrumors.com

That's like saying if you want to get a better idea of how much of the population is sick, go to a hospital.

You're missing the point -- This IS the hospital, metaphorically speaking.

zBernie2 wrote:

You're missing the point -- This IS the hospital, metaphorically speaking.

The point is that nobody can say what the majority feels from such tiny, targeted samples.

For instance, I could point out that in both the forums you mentioned, there are at least as many posts from people saying how happy they are with the new Macs as from people unhappy about one or more of the things that bother you about them.

But it would be foolish to consider either representative of how the majority feel about it for the simple & very obvious reason that only a tiny fraction of users frequent those forums.

Google this and tell me there is not a majority in the threads reagarding this subject:

"new imac no optical drive"

zBernie2 wrote:

Google this and tell me there is not a majority in the threads reagarding this subject:

"new imac no optical drive"

1. The top hit for that highly targeted search is this topic, representing at most a couple of tens of users saying they are unhappy about the lack of the built-in optical drive. By no stretch of even the wildest imagination does that represent a majority of anything, be it iMac users or anything else. The same is true for any other relevant hit from the search -- the numbers of users saying they are unhappy about this are far to small too conclude they represent a majority view.

2. If you try "new iMac happy users" or any other similarly targeted search you will get results confirming that a lot of people feel that way too. Neither search means anything about how the majority feel because a) the sample is far too small to be statistically significant & b) you will always find some people on both sides eager to post their opinions online somewhere.

3. If you applied this same targeted search logic to any other issue you would see the same thing. You will find some users convinced they represent the majority view, no matter how few of them there are.

I've discussed the lack of an optical drive issue in the new iMac in several forums, and again, the majority of responses in those particular threads about this particular subject was negative.  They far outnumbered the posters who claimed that not having an optical drive was a non-issue.

zBernie2 wrote (emphasis added):

I've discussed the lack of an optical drive issue in the new iMac in several forums, and again, the majority of responses in those particular threads about this particular subject was negative. They far outnumbered the posters who claimed that not having an optical drive was a non-issue.

That does not mean the majority of people feel that way, just that the majority of those motivated to respond to those thread titles in those forums do. That's to be expected: when something is a non-issue for people they aren't generally motivated to go online to post messages saying that.

I meant the majority of people that have weighed in on the issue in threads regarding that particular subject, i.e., no optical drive in the new iMac.  I'm sure the majority of people who purchased a new iMac or happy with it, or they would not have purchased it.

Give me a 1" thick iMac with optical drive, one or two conveniently accessible USB ports and SD card slot, retina display, and I'll be one happy apple picker.

zBernie2 wrote:

Give me a 1" thick iMac with optical drive, one or two conveniently accessible USB ports and SD card slot, retina display, and I'll be one happy apple picker.

Would you be happy if such an iMac required a heavy duty cooling system to keep everything from overheating that spun up multiple fans to noisy levels every time you used it? That would be a necessity if it included a GPU powerful enough to support a 21" or larger Retina display & a power supply with enough capacity to run it.

The point here is that the more you put into the case, the harder it is to keep it all cool without it sounding like a jet taking off. By dropping the built in optical burner Apple was able to build a new iMac that isn't just thinner but also runs much cooler & quieter than any previous one, while still offering a significant increase in processing power.

So sure, everybody has a wish list for everything they would like a new iMac to include but since in the real world they can't have everything it is really about what they would be willing to give up to get it.

Apple really needs to open a "User Feedback" forum. That's where threads like this belong.

Since this is "Help & Support", I'll offer a solution for how to solve the problem. Get a superdrive and plug it in to the usb port. That's how to play and burn CD's and DVD's on the new iMacs.

alwaysforever wrote:

 

Apple really needs to open a "User Feedback" forum. That's where threads like this belong.

Not a forum, but threads like this should be submitted to http://apple.com/feedback/imac.html

That's not the answer.   Everyone knows that feedback will not be answered so anyone who posts there will never know if their comments are deleted (maybe even unread).

But (technically anyway) we are not supposed to engage in such discussions so there is little alternative but to issue the occasional call (equally no,no,) for the introduction of a new and specific forum.

Fortunately the moderators are understanding when it comes to subject matter like this (84,000 views and 837 replies) so until a change is made I think we should settle for the status quo.

It is an answer for everyone, everyone should use the apple feedback, but outside of that; disgussing the issue here is good and I have enjoyed the other opinions that are not my own - neither side is wrong but that doesn't make the argument meaningless.

-I am for optical drives until the next physical movie/software distribution medium, and the iMac being an all-IN-one should probably be capable of reading it; internally.

Not everyone is going to have internet, but also think if you had pay-per-bits internet for downloading all your software and streaming movies; this could all add up to be quite costly.

--I just reviewed Consumer Reports, the only PCs I could find without optical drives were made by Apple. Think Different?

R C-R wrote:

 

El Deanio wrote:

The Sonnet looks great with all those connections.  Am I correct thinking the Blue-Ray option is read only, no write facility?

The provided drive will burn CD's & DVD's but only reads Blu-Ray disks. OWC (among others) sells similar drives & ones that burn all current optical media types, including BR & one that supports the archival DVD format "M-Disk" & the extra high capacity BR formats.

 

If you are not absolutely wed to the idea of an internal optical drive, there are a lot of choices.

Thanks for that.  I will check them out.  If my next Mac doesn't have an internal optical drive then I will need an an external with dual bays if possible.  One with a single bay will be okay but I like to do Disc to Disc copying so a dual bay drive will minimise the use of any USB (or other) ports on the rear of the Mac.