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Rumour: Apple Wants Sony Blu-ray Drives for MacBook Pros
Posted by Matt Buchanan at 10:30 AM on March 1, 2008
AppleInsider says Apple is "actively" poking Sony (as opposed to other BR manufacturers) for slot-loading Blu-ray drives for MacBook Pros—Apple supposedly even wanted to offer BR SuperDrives with the new Penryn-powered machines, but "quality issues" meant Sony could only deliver combo drives. Apple said shno thanks for now.
Reasonably, winter wouldn't be a bad time to expect them to come through, especially with the even more efficient Montevina chipset to offset Blu-ray's battery-killing nature. But, Apple's official support for Blu-ray has been completely non-existent despite its exceedingly long rumour half-life.
On the other hand, Blu-ray's victory logically means we'll see them populating more computers in (sorta) short order, now that the risk of shipping machines with US$300 drink holders is gone. [AppleInsider]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
imTheKing
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@kineticarl: do some research before posting.
As for the Blu-ray drive, i would pay up to $600 for a nice blu-ray burner to drop in my current MBP.
imTheKing
Canoehead
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
How about an option to install Blu-Ray in a Mac Pro? And have a movie actually pay, you know, in a $3000 machine intended for A/V work?
Canoehead
gordeaoux
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@kineticarl: you mean the not quite 1080p of the standard mbp screen, you can get a 1920 x 1200 screen on the 17".
gordeaoux
dollarbill
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
Well... I don't really see what the problem with that is. I mean after all, Apple did invest in Blu-Ray. Probably not as much as Sony, but they did.
dollarbill
redkamel
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
or how DRM wont let me put a movie I own on my iphone cause it wont rip (theoretically)
redkamel
h0mi
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
I'd rather apple ship all mb's with superdrives. Blu-ray isn't quite ready for prime time on the PC given that burners & media are pretty expensive.
h0mi
kineticarl
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@daftrock: except for the not-quite-HD resolutions of the mbp.
kineticarl
djdare
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@BigDaddyM: combo in this instance means it would just be a blu ray reader, super drives are able to write as well as read.... Super Drive is just appleese for burner.
djdare
BigDaddyM
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
What wrong with a combo drive? CD/DVD combo or Blu-Ray/DVD/CD combo...
M
BigDaddyM
Pender
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@daftrok: There's a lot that's wrong with DRM even when you don't do anything illegal.
Having my DVD player inform me that I am not permitted to fast-forward through three movie previews before the menu screen appears comes to mind.
Pender
thistle.john
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
i dont see how i could use a super drive as a cup holder, i really dont... unless i poked a dvd 1/2 in, but even then, the cup would probably fall.
thistle.john
bobdobbs
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
Jeezus, Apple. You go through the effort of de-coupling the optical drive from the MacBook Air yet you insist on foisting this relic of '90s technology on MacBook Pro customers? Cut us some slack, will ya?
bobdobbs
Mandatory_Field
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
[Jobs] Poke "How about now?"
[Stringer] "No"
[Jobs] Poke "How about now?"
[Stringer} "No"
[Jobs] Poke "How about now?"
[Stringer] "I said NO, asshole!"
[Jobs] Poke "How about now?"
[Jobs] Poke "Now?"
[Jobs] Poke "NOW?"
[Jobs] "Hey, come back Stringer! Can't ya take a joke? Wuss. Boom...."
Mandatory_Field
daftrok
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
@jjbelsky:
Macbook Pros are not called Pro for nothing. Having HD drives makes sense given that everything else about them is HD. Also Blu ray won so don't get snippy about the hardware DRM just because you want to copy movies illegally.
daftrok
jjbelsky
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
So now macs will be infected with all the wonder hardware DRM that comes along with blu-ray. Fantastic.
jjbelsky
Xavoc
Posted 12:43 PM 1/3/08
Fo rizzle? I'm not sure how this is a huge revelation.
Xavoc
dancinbojangles
Posted 4:28 PM 1/3/08
They should let you take out and replace the DVD drive, like you can with the newer Thinkpads. I would probably get a Macbook if I could swap the burner out for an extra battery, since I don't usually feel the need to watch movies on my laptop anyway.
dancinbojangles
Kaiser-Machead
Posted 6:27 PM 1/3/08
@archercc: Since when was a swappable optical drive so popular in laptops that Apple was the odd duck of the group? The majority of laptops on the market do not have easily swapped drives.
Kaiser-Machead
archercc
Posted 6:27 PM 1/3/08
@dancinbojangles: User functionality isnt really apples bag, I wouldnt count on that.
If you want that you are going to have to go Dell or someone of the like.
archercc
SgtBeavis
Posted 2:38 AM 2/3/08
Offering BluRay on the MBP would mean that I have to seriously consider upgrading. However making a real docking station would make my upgrade overnight.
Yes, I know about bookendz. Don't bring that POS up.
SgtBeavis
lianna_g
Posted 5:19 AM 2/3/08
@Kaiser-Machead: the concern centers around lack of options Apple traditionally has orchestrated in order to push it's different marketing niches. There's no reason why multi-touch wouldn't be available for macbook or that it couldn't have a 15 inch lcd-other than marketing.
The concern here is if the mbp offers blu-ray at the expense of any other optical drive options. That's all.
lianna_g
Evo
Posted 5:33 PM 2/3/08
@jjbelsky: Hey, he's a nice fact for you: Apple is one of the board of directors of Blu-ray Associationi. I know! It's shocking, isn't it?
Evo
x23
Posted 7:52 AM 4/3/08
@dancinbojangles: you could do that on the G3 Powerbooks from 1998. hardly anyone ever did it though. extra battery made it weigh 19 pounds... and as soon as USB came out it pretty much made the concept of swappable modules like Zip drives and burners kind of a waste of time.
why bother getting a module-bay specific Zip drive for $50 more than the USB one that works on any other machine as well?
module bays require additional thickness as well. double walls on all edges.
x23