By extension that will mean that the Air's Superdrive will have to be the only thing connected to its sole USB port (at least while its in use), right? If the drive requires beyond standard power then even a powered USB hub won't work. So if you have an external drive that you want to burn files from you'll have to copy them to the Air first (if you have room on its little internal HD). Then disconnect everything USB and attach the super special Superdrive.

It is what it is but its good to understand that these are the compromises that have to be made to use the Air's drive. Forewarned is forearmed.

Apple should probably create a low cost adapter for the optical drive, providing power when in use at another workstation. It could draw from wall power, or perhaps a second USB port, or even firewire... Whatever, it should be very low cost to the user so the brick-of-an-otherwise-useless-optical-drive is mitigated in a meaningful, and reasonable way.

I can't imagine anyone "wants" an external drive that only works with one machine.

wow, nice insight there. That sounds pretty useless, i'll stick with my MacBook thanks.

Perhaps for the same reason the iPod dropped firewire. The chipset for firewire is still rather large. So it may not fit.

People also need to remember, this computer is NOT intended to do everything that the other MacBooks can do. It is intended to be 3 pounds and that's it.

I'll kick anyone in the head that buys this with an intension to do video editing on it.

Also, this machine is for people that already have a computer and want something portable.

It is also designed to show off some new Apple Technology that will make its way into other computers.

...do you need it to work with, for christ's sake? how many computers do you own that lack optical drives? you kids need a drive to hook up to your refrigerator? if it had a separate power supply, you'd be bitching about the extra power brick. you know you would. you like to b****.

this drive is designed to address the fact that altho you will mostly want to tote the air around with as little hassle as possibly, you may occasionally have need of a drive to rip music, or install software or write discs. the rest of the time, you can carry around a very light, thin notebook. for most people, the drive will sit on their desk at home or at work. or get stuffed in a bag fo travel. if that doesn't appeal to you, don't buy it! personally, i have no use for the MBA. but i can see its appeal to others, especially if you don't already have a current portable.

Well said, rtbarry!

...it makes sense. I have a MB, my wife has a MBP, and I bet I stick in a disc about once every two months. My music is done wirelessly through airtunes and we have a small network here that also incorporated the iMac. If I had a choice today and needed to replace my MB, I would choose the MBA. All I do is drag it to my office and write my process notes on it for my patients and use it wirelessly to bill insurance and scheduling with iCal. Really, how many of us DO video editing? I have 4 applications that automatically log in: iCal, Mail, Safari and Word. I rarely use anything else, and I suspect there are many users who are like that. Honestly, I think many computer users here are a big bunch of babies! Although, to be fair, Apple has hatched some turkeys in the past, like the Duo Dock. Remember that POS?

I find it very interesting that even those who understand its usage and what Apple intended with the MBA, always end with "I have no use for it but I understand what Apple is doing."

The problem is, how many people are going to be saying that? Maybe we will all be proved wrong, and Apple made something people will want, or maybe this was one of the biggest mistakes Apple ever made, time will tell...

hope this new air thing comes with a lifetime subscription to .mac or something. so far im not sold.

The special drive is so you can use it with your MBA without external power. So either you buy this drive and get that feature or you buy a third-party drive that has external power.

Um, did you rtfa? It also states While external optical drives have existed that rely on the USB port alone...

So it appears that the requirement is more because of Apple, not because it can't be done.

And I always love how when Apple does something like not include a PC card slot in the MacBooks along with the ExpressCard slot (while Dell tends to have both), or switch all the PCI slots in the pros to PCIe (with no legacy support, again, as opposed to Dell), it's all "Apple's forward thinking and innovative, and they don't follow the crowd", but when they do something like put a non-standard USB port on their machine to get their external drive to work, we get the "Well, Dell does it that way" excuse.

So, how come Apple can be both?

The only thing you can't do is use this drive with another computer. As if you needed to do that.

Yes, because why would anyone with an external drive expect it to work with any computer. It should be limited to just one specific brand of computer. So what if you don't have a DVD-RW drive in your mac or PC? Why would you expect to use any ol' external one to perform those tasks. Stupid people.

...several people who have pre-ordered. some of them post here occasionally.

the fact that people who don't need one can still appreciate its potential market does not mean anything more than that. it's not for everyone. it's not for me, right now. if i didn't have a new MBP, it would definitely be high on my list for evaluation.

that clear things up?

did you know that although you're paying $1800 minimum for this thing, if you want to enjoy Front Row or the like, you still need to shell out another $20 for the remote control.

Sounds like Apple is starting to learn from the large home builders. Get people to spend $700,000+ on a house, and charge them extra for the garage door opener.

Yes there are some drives that can run on USB alone, However, every one of those I've seen requires you to plug it in to TWO USB ports to get the appropriate amount of power to make the drive work.

You folks that just can not wait to put Apple products down, well, I just feel sorry for you. You will suffer with Dell products that have similar limitations and lack the advancements just to point at Apple.

Well, sorry but you are pointing at the end of a train that is quickly leaving the station. As Apple moves to totally integrate the home with electronics that all just work together with no fuss or muss, you will be stuck trying to make media center servers from Microsoft work with DRM cloged VISTA. :-)

Toot, Toot. All aboard the future!!

:-)

Unfortunately FW is not as hot in the PC market as it is in the Mac market.

There are a LOT more USB devices you can use rather than FW (eg. printers, scanners, card readers, iPods and harddisks).

but it's not the only/best choice in every application. i'm not an engineer, but i'm sure there were several considerations in choosing the port configuration for a device that had to optimize its form factor, some being...

- expense - power consumption - heat - physical chipset size + of course, ubiquity of commonly used devices

This is the first Mac in several years (AppleTV, iPhone, iPod Touch do not count) that does not have a firewire port. This is a very slippery slope. Very unfortunate indeed.

If the power requirement is the only difference, it will take Belkin or some other company all of about 5 seconds to come out with an adaptor that will include AC to provide the extra power.

And as a single counter-point to the "demise of FireWire", here at work (an all-PC, 8,000 employee company) we just started getting new computers. I was surpised to see that the new laptops have FireWire (of the 4-pin variety). There is absolutly no use for it on our machines as we have no FW peripherals that I know of. So the FW port must have been just part of the baseline specs for the laptops, not a specific configuration choice by our procurement guys.

This drive is only meant for the mba so compatibility is not a big issue. I don't think this is a conspiracy. You simply can't power this sort of device on plain usb. If I had an mba id much rather have the drive bus powered than have to carry an ac adaptor for it. So Apple made the right call.

I am sure we will see hubs that support the drive energy requirements.

Also, if you really see yourself needing a drive connected 100% of the time you are probably better off with a Macbook or a Macbook Pro - nothing wrong with that.

My friend's Dad was worried about not having a drive, then we asked him when the last time he used the drive in his 12 PB - could not remember.

In a way there is something nice about the simplicity of this machine. Sure its limited for some but for most people out there who rarely use the power of their computer this laptop is great. if the feature set bothers you, don't buy it. buy that dell.

Spoken like a true fanboy.

Better get to class and let the adults talk :)

Apple states clearly the system requirements on this page:

http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

"..Thin, light, and easy to take with you, this drive is designed specifically for MacBook Air.

Requires MacBook Air with available USB 2.0 port"...

Some discovery. They read Apple's web page.

The power supply only works with the MBA too! How horrible.

The complaint/remark I don't understand is the dire prophesy that the MBA is "Apple's biggest mistake ever!!" I hope and expect it will sell pretty well, but if it doesn't? So what? They spent a few million bucks developing this thing. If it flops, chalk it up to bad market research and move on. The engineers no doubt learned a few things that will apply to future to products regardless.

how could apple engineers know more than the halted teenage geniuses who troll on MacNN?

apple's biggest mistake ever is, apparently, making things that people want to buy, in ever increasing numbers. boo, apple, boo.

"throw more bologna sammiches down the basement stairs, mom!...

mom! bologna!"

http://mbp12.com

All good things to those who wait.

Until the Air was released you could only use the MacBook power adapter with a MacBook and not a MBPro because of the wattage difference. The Air uses a 45w power adapter so you cannot use it on either of the two models but theoretically you should be able to use either the 60 or 85w adapter with the air as long as the plug fits. My guess is that it will make the Air sit crooked.

So, whats so "horrible" about that?

IBM/Lenovo has a similar Super Multi-Burner Drive that works from a single USB port on ThinkPad X40/X41, X Series Tablet, and X60 Series notebooks. Will this drive work on the MacBook Air? Or, can the MacBook Air SuperDrive work on these Thinkpads?

Furthermore, Samsung makes a DVD-RW Dual Layer Drive for the Q1 Ultra UMPC (ultra-mobile PC). Once again, this drive will work from a single USB port on the Q1 Ultra UMPC (the one with the split keyboard on the front). Once again, can the MacBook Air SuperDrive work on these UMPCs? http://mdjosephkim.blogspot.com/

It lacks so many features, yet it has agreat desig and it's really ultraportable. I can't wait for a new generation of these laptops (dear god, I hope they won't stop producing them at all) http://www.maconair.com claims, that there are some patents for the future expansion