Apple's new Mac mini ditches the optical-drive

Mac OS X and the MacBook Air weren't the only Apple products to receive updates on Wednesday -- Apple's Mac mini gained a few new features and lost an optical drive too.

Like the MacBook Air laptop, Apple has worked Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors into the Mac mini, as well as beefier graphics chips, which the Cupertino company says adds up to performance that is twice as fast as the outgoing models.

The little desktop, a prime example of the tech giant's minimal design ethos (it's just an aluminum block after all), also gains a new high-speed Thunderbolt port to sit alongside the carry-over of four USB ports and one HDMI port (yes, it can be hooked up to a TV).

The new Mac mini ships with Mac OS X Lion, Apple's desktop and laptop operating system, and falls in price about $100 to start at $599, though with more memory and other options the price can hit a high of $1,849.
Like the previous generation Mac mini, which had a "super drive" CD/DVD player and burner built-in, the refreshed Mac mini has a one-piece aluminum body and is just 1.4-inches tall with a 7.7-inch square shape.

"Mac mini is designed without an optical disc drive. Because these days, you don't need one," Apple says on its website. "It's easier than ever to download music and movies from the iTunes Store. And you can download apps from the Mac App Store with a click."

However, for those not quite ready for Apple's disc-free future (there may be a couple of you out there), there are some workarounds if a DVD is needed to install software, or a CD needs to be ripped to iTunes. Mac OS X Lion enables the Mac mini to access the optical drives on other PCs and Macs wirelessly for such tasks and it also can work with an external USB optical drive.  

And, as always, the Mac mini comes without a keyboard or mouse.

Apple bids farewell to the MacBook

Everyone knew Apple was introducing something today, but what no one knew was that it was going to be saying goodbye as well.

In addition to Apple officially making OS X 10.7 available for download, it unleashed a fresh set of MacBook Airs, updating both the 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch model. Now they include a Thunderbolt port, Intel Core i5 or Core i7 chips, backlit keyboard, and faster 1333 MHz memory in up to 4GB. And slapping a $999 price tag on there makes for a very attractive, and yes, very thin package.

The knock on the Air before today was that it had outdated chips. Now you can’t say that, and there’s no longer any good reason to buy the old entry-level MacBook (that white plastic one), which also started at $999. Apple clearly agrees: If you head over to the company Web site to shop around for a laptop, the MacBook is nowhere to be found. The lineup goes right from Air to MacBook Pro. (The exception is if you’re in the education field. Apple will make the basic MacBook available to that group only.)

When the Air was first introduced in 2008, many considered its niftiest feature to be its capability of fitting inside an inter-office mail envelope. In other words, it was seen mostly as a pretty feat of engineering, but impractical for most people — no optical drive? How would that ever work?

Flash forward to the present, and this is the laptop Apple is going to be pushing most new buyers toward. The big hint about that is the fact that they’ve decided to use the new Air as the first laptops to come standard with Lion. The  Air, once a novelty, is now the standard Apple laptop.