Apple discontinues white Macbook

Sad Professor

Well, it's gone, a couple of years later than Apple probably would have liked. Now there's only the Macbook Air and the MacBook Pro.

Rest in peace, Plasticbook.

Dman001

It was hard for the Plasticbook to compete with the similarly-priced 11" Macbook Air. Although, I'd imagine there is still a market for the Plasticbook, for those seeking a cheap Mac with a DVD Drive.

The Mac Mini has also lost it's Superdrive. The death of physical media is soon coming!

jester77

Hopefully they will now drop the optical drive from the mb pro line and give it some extra juice

Tempted to update my HTPC mini, looks very slick now without the optical drive (plus mine doesn't have HDMI)... hhmmmm

Dman001

They should keep the Optical Drive in the iMacs and Macbook Pros, as Optical Media is still not dead. God knows people are still crying out for a Blu Ray Drive on their Mac.

whiterebel

So the often killed off Mini outlives the MacBook....:p

Sad Professor

The optical drive is far from dead but Apple are certainly doing their best to help it along. I reckon they are using the Mini as a guinea pig to see how people manage without one. The lack of optical drive is actually a selling point of the Air, but most people use the Mini as a media centre. A media centre without an optical drive isn't much use IMO. What if I want to rip a cd or watch a DVD?

harry21

Just bought one last week for the OH. She wanted the white one!!

jester77

I've been using my mini as an HTPC (Plex is awesome ) for years and I can't remember last time I used the optical drive, probably to upgrade to snow leopard. I ripped all my music years ago and now purchase from Amazon and 7digital. I stream most of my movies from LoveFilm and have a dedicated player for any rentals and most of my TV content is downloaded to my NAS sitting in another room.

I hope they drop it on the mb pros now. I never recall having to use the optical drive when out and about but I wouldn't be able to count the number of times I could have done with extra battery when there was no power source around. I would happily take an extra 2 or 3 hours battery life over optical drive any day.

Dman001

Sad Professor wrote: »

The optical drive is far from dead but Apple are certainly doing their best to help it along. I reckon they are using the Mini as a guinea pig to see how people manage without one. The lack of optical drive is actually a selling point of the Air, but most people use the Mini as a media centre. A media centre without an optical drive isn't much use IMO. What if I want to rip a cd or watch a DVD?

In an Apple-ideal world, I suppose they want you to do all your media dealings through iTunes, and purchase all music and videos in the iTunes Store.

In the real world, people will just Torrent all their DVDs, although I don't think this is as practical as Ripping DVDs.

I'm bewildered as to why Apple killed off Front Row in Lion, as there seems to be more use now than ever for it with the new Mini. Although, as someone speculated elsewhere, they will probably put it on the Mac App Store and charge people a fiver for it.

Edit: It's worth noting that Plasticbooks are still available in the refurbished Apple Store for €849, for those looking for a cheap Mac. Although Im not sure if refurbished Macs come with Lion installed, or are eligible for a free Lion upgrade.

Sean Quagmire

harry21 wrote: »

Just bought one last week for the OH. She wanted the white one!!

It's a collectors item now

Ah but its still a fine machine, just from a business point of view it was in-between their other products and didn't really have a clear market point.

Red Alert

I think the plasticbook's death was coming - it doesn't seem to fit Jobs' new vision.

Off topic - I'm disappointed with the new mini to be honest - they're obviously avoiding making it a headless iMac.

Ricky91t

I'm still delighted with mine, will keep it till I can no longer repair it

ZV Yoda

I loaded Lion onto our HTPC Mini today. Completely forgot they were dropping Front Row.

While Front Row was clearly an outdated GUI, the OH & kids (3 of them under 8 yrs) loved it because it was so straightforward to use. No messing about. Hit menu on the remote to wake the mini from sleep, then arrow up or down to the movie/music of choice.

I'm not a fan of fussing about with Plex or any other 3rd party software, but since iTunes is not so intuitive to use with the Mac remote, I'll probably have no choice now when the family start saying "Dad, the 'puter's broken".

So much for a quiet life...

Sad Professor

To get Front Row back, see here:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/19/os-x-lion-kills-front-row-heres-how-to-get-it-back/

Padgeman

I think it's a real shame, I really love my PlasticBook! I loved my iBook G4 before this too. I can't say I'll miss the endlessly cracking plastic on the top case though, one benefit of going all Aluminium.

opinion guy

Delighted to see this thing go - have horrid memories of mine

toitle

Hi there,
What's the deal with the cracking of the top case?
I have one of the first intel 13" macbooks.The case was cracked to bit last year and they replaced the top part (around the keyboard) but now it's even worse again.

I wouldn't mind but I look after it very well indeed.Is there any comeback on this?


Apart from that I am very happy with my machine.I upgraded the RAM and the HDD and it's perfectly adequate for my needs.

Dman001

toitle wrote: »

Hi there,
What's the deal with the cracking of the top case?
I have one of the first intel 13" macbooks.The case was cracked to bit last year and they replaced the top part (around the keyboard) but now it's even worse again.

I wouldn't mind but I look after it very well indeed.Is there any comeback on this?


Apart from that I am very happy with my machine.I upgraded the RAM and the HDD and it's perfectly adequate for my needs.

It's a design flaw unfortunately, where the lid hits off the Macbook casing. I know they are still offering to fix this problem for free with the newly designed Plasticbook, but I think they've stopped this with the old designed one.

The last Gen Macbook Air is showing up on the refurb store for €699. A great price for one!

Third Eye

Dman001 wrote: »

The last Gen Macbook Air is showing up on the refurb store for €699. A great price for one!

This offer is showing up on the bottom left side bar of Apple's home page but when you click it's at least €899.00.

Realtine

I LOVE my little white Macbook.
I'd hate to give it up.

Dman001

Third Eye wrote: »

This offer is showing up on the bottom left side bar of Apple's home page but when you click it's at least €899.00.

Yeah noticed that, but the one for €899 has a 128GB SSD. I'm guessing the MBA for €699 is the lower end model with a 64GB SSD, and must be out of stock.

faceman

Sad Professor wrote: »

To get Front Row back, see here:

http://9to5mac.com/2011/07/19/os-x-lion-kills-front-row-heres-how-to-get-it-back/

Didnt realise they binned it! I use(d) Front Row alot! :mad:

RacoonQueen

I like my plasticbook.