Apple to place optical drive on the bottom of future notebooks?

[Thank The Cheese]

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2436

As notebook computers become increasingly smaller and thinner, Apple in its design labs is turning to new methods of placement for optical disk drives (ODD) in an effort to optimize the rapidly diminishing real estate of the portable systems, a pair of company filings has revealed.

That looks rather annoying, though the iris certainly has a cool factor. I must admit I don't use my optical drive hardly at all, but I still don't like the idea of having to flip my laptop over to access the drive.

What does everybody think?

[limike28]

It's a novel concept. Perhaps more viable for a tablet device than a traditional laptop. Or it could just be one of those patents that will never really make the jump from concept to production.

[fryke]

I've already commented on it on macnews.net.tc ... It's a _really_ stupid idea. It _might_ solve one problem (they can make the device a _little_ thinner), but introduces at least one that is worse. To say the least.

If you want to make a device thinner and smaller: Get _rid_ of the optical drive. Simple. If it's so unimportant that you can put it out of a user's way, you can also have it as an external device that you only connect when you actually need it. Saves a *lot* more space and weight.

Some comments I've read talked about how this could be used for a tablet - because it really makes no sense for a MacBook (Pro) - but even with a tablet it doesn't really make sense. Sure, you're holding that in your hands, anyway, but having to turn it on its head in order to switch CDs/DVDs is simply not very practical.

[Yesurbius]

I agree - _VERY_ stupid. Get rid of the drive altogether. Ship software on flash drives

[mindbend]

HATE IT.

Unless that somehow gets me an extra hour of battery life, consider me uniterested.

So far, the slot load CD/DVD is the best thing out there (platter loaders make me feel like a caveman) and I don't want to give itup.

I fail to see where that gets them all that much, but obviously they feel it's important. But in this day of patents, a lot of companies patent things just in case. I'm sure Apple's R&D factory cranks out all kinds of things that will never see the light of day. Hopefully this is one of them.

[chevy]

It's not stupid. It's not adapted to our usage, that's all. So they will not do it. Or if they do, it will be for another product.

[fryke]

That's the reasoning I don't get. If it doesn't make sense, why would it "for another product"? Unless you mean a Mac mini and the iris would be on _top_ of the Mac mini, which could be freaky. But that's not what we're talking about here, and not what the patent's about.

[Mikuro]

I don't know. It seems like an inferior design to me, usability-wise. Apple's done some funky things with optical drives (the current iMac and G4 Cube come to mind), but those didn't seriously hamper usability. Also, c'mon, they were cool. This just looks like a hassle, and Apple's not known for making hassles.

I'm leaning towards the idea that Apple patented it just for the sake of patenting it. The fact that the patent details half a dozen different ways of having doors and goes on about the disadvantages of the technique tell me that even Apple doesn't know what they'd do with this.