macnn/electronista
01/23/2008, 10:30am, EST
Wednesday, January 23rdMacBook Air's Superdrive needs special USB port
The MacBook Air's special processor is not the only example of the ultraportable veering away from Intel's reference designs, Electronista has discovered. People familiar with the internal design of the system have explained that the external Superdrive DVD burner available for the notebook should only be recognized by the Air rather than any computer due to custom requirements from both the subnotebook and its peripheral.
While external optical drives have existed that rely on the USB port alone, the particular power demands of the Apple-made drive should prevent it being used elsewhere; the sole USB port has been boosted past its specifications to supply enough power to use the drive with just the data cable rather than a direct power connection, say contacts.
The computer's port should allow other optical drives; however, the design choice essentially limits the $99 add-on drive to the Air alone. No external AC power connector exists on the external burner to support systems that more closely follow Intel's official power requirements.
Filed under: Apple, upgrades/storage
Other story tags: MacBook Air
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Rather than deviating from the USB spec, why couldn't they have found a way to include Firewire? Would the inclusion of Firewire really have added *that* much thickness to the Air?
Sigh..
Maybe v2 will have firewire included?
So you're stuck, buy Apple's wonky drive, or go without.
I still think this is a great computer though despite the whining! I also have a cube that is still working great with 896M of ram and 120G of disk.
The Dell lightweight series (D400, D410 & D420) all use a proprietary cable that provides power & USB. It cannot be used on any other model (except maybe some other Dells). So Apple isnt breaking new ground. So, much ado about nothing!