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In 1998, Apple removed the floppy drive from the iMac and extended to all their products. In 2008, Apple removed optical drives from the MacBook Air. People co
by gry 16y ago
In 1998, Apple removed the floppy drive from the iMac and extended to all their products.
In 2008, Apple removed optical drives from the MacBook Air. People concede this will extend to all their products.
The optical death will be faster than the floppy, that's for sure. I'm curious, what's next?
- csixty4 16y agoWe'll find out in 2018 apparently.
- Groxx 16y agoI'm voting for keyboard. Just because I don't see how they could do it while still keeping it nice to type on. And of all companies, Apple seems likely to do so successfully if anyone is even capable of doing so. And if it is possible, I want to see what the heck it would be, and who would see it coming? I mean, heck, they already went to the opposite of what people kept saying they needed on their mice / trackpads - now there's no button.
- elai 16y agoMany many people do not use their optical drives. I used to use my optical DVD drive all the time, but in past 4 years I've barely touched it. It's use has dropped considerably. The keyboard no so much so.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoI'm voting that keyboards will be around for as long as there is a physical input mechanism of any sort. The throughput and flexibility with keyboards is just too great to get rid of completely.
- Groxx 16y agoPrecisely why I want to see someone successfully supplant it. We're so wired into thinking we need a keyboard, that it's nigh-ideal, that I really want to see something better because I can't think of what it could possibly be.
- ecuzzillo 16y agoNo, I think we found out today; it's hard drives. Hard drives are the new tape decks. After that it's unclear.
- stcredzero 16y agoHow about a single plug for monitor/power/data and the death of all other ports? (Or maybe everything wireless for laptops and other mobile devices?) The death of consumer-level computing where the user can actually get root? (Everything will be on a app store?)
- wtallis 16y agoI'd settle for a single plug for power (MagSafe) and a single plug for data (Lightpeak). If you want a data cable to provide significant amounts of power or power at significant distances, it will end up having to be thick and expensive, and so will the device providing the power. LightPeak has the potential to replace USB, Firewire, Ethernet, and all kinds of digital A/V cables, but it can only economically replace all of them if it doesn't have to provide DC power. I really don't want Intel to screw up this opportunity by trying to make LightPeak provide power under some circumstances but not others (like USB and eSATA), or by charging silly licensing fees (like Apple did for Firewire), or by crippling the controller performance to save cost (like USB's lack of DMA or low-latency transfers).
- sliverstorm 16y agoI cannot help but think optical is a BAD, BAD choice for miscellaneous small external devices.