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Apple

Apple Discontinues USB SuperDrive After 16 Years (9to5mac.com) 61

Posted by BeauHD from the end-of-an-era dept.
Apple is discontinuing its USB CD and DVD player accessory, the Apple USB SuperDrive. "As noted by one of our readers, it's no longer possible to buy an Apple USB SuperDrive online via the official Apple Store in the US," reports 9to5Mac. "The product's webpage says that it's 'Sold Out,' and given that it's a product introduced in 2008, it seems very unlikely that Apple will ever produce new units again." From the report: Customers can still use their location to see if there's still a unit available for pickup at one of the Apple Retail Stores. The product is still available in other countries such as the UK and Brazil. However, it's probably only a matter of time before Apple's USB SuperDrive disappears from all stores. The MacBook Air was the first MacBook without a built-in CD drive, which led the company to introduce an optical drive sold separately. Apple completely phased out optical drives from its computers in 2013, when all the Macs available in the lineup no longer had a CD reader.
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Apple Discontinues USB SuperDrive After 16 Years More

Apple Discontinues USB SuperDrive After 16 Years

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  • White?? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Tuesday August 06, 2024 @06:58PM (#64686508)

    1) Then can't one just buy/use a non-Apple USB optical drive?
    2) Why would you want a CD/DVD burner instead of CD/DVD burner + Bluray player for about the same price?

    https://www.amazon.com/LG-Elec... [amazon.com]

    Is it because they aren't white?? Does Apple do something proprietary? (I have something similar that works fine under Linux)

    • Re:White?? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Tuesday August 06, 2024 @07:01PM (#64686516)

      A non-Apple alternative? That's considered heresy!

      • I had a colleague at work who used an external Sony DVD burner drive (from 2006) for many years for his MacBook Pro setup, eventually one day when we're cleaning offices we came across an Apple USB SuperDrive and he started using that instead, he gave me the Sony DVD drive and I use that for many years up until mid-Windows 10 (like 2022 update) when it stopped working because there were no longer drivers available for it (not a problem under Linux!)

        My USB floppy disk still works though and sometimes it ca

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Osgeld ( 1900440 )

          I have never needed a driver for a USB optical drive, even the sony I occasionally use at work

          • Bizarre, since an optical drive should be using bog standard USB mass storage API. Differences might be due to writing where there may not be the desired speeds in the standard?

          • You needed software to create playable video DVDs on macs (not a driver). I wouldnâ(TM)t bet that this is still there. Things like writing 90 CDs worth of mp3 onto a DVD just worked.

            • Re: White?? (Score:4, Interesting)

              by NoMoreACs ( 6161580 ) on Wednesday August 07, 2024 @05:51AM (#64687106)

              You needed software to create playable video DVDs on macs (not a driver). I wouldnâ(TM)t bet that this is still there. Things like writing 90 CDs worth of mp3 onto a DVD just worked.

              AFAICT, you need Software to create a Playable Video DVD on any Computer Platform. However, macOS can create Data CDs, DVDs and (I believe) BDs straight from the macOS Finder.

              There were two Apple-Published Video DVD Authoring Tools: iDVD, and DVD Studio Pro (and its little friend, Compressor). iDVD was the best-in-class (simplified) DVD Authoring Companion to Apple's simplified Non-Linear Editor, iMovie. To its credit, Apple even maintained the last remaining functional version of iDVD (probably still do!) for Free Download; but it was finally rendered Obsolete (along with all 32-bit Apps), with the Release of macOS 10.15, Catalina in October, 2019; so a pretty good run. Unfortunately, DVD Studio Pro met the same fate:

              https://larryjordan.com/articl... [larryjordan.com]

      • A non-Apple alternative? That's considered heresy!

        Huh. Maybe Apple should offer a solu, oh wait.

    • Reply to self...

      Oh, I didn't even realize the example model I posted is a Bluray WRITER and BDXL (100GB) writer, in addition to reader.

      Write: CD-R: 24X, CD-RW: 16X, DVDR SL/DL: 8X, DVDRW: 8X/6X, DVD-RAM: 5X, BD-R SL/DL: 6X, BD-RE SL/DL/TL: 2X

      Read: CD-R/RW/ROM: 24X, DVD-ROM: 8X, BD-ROM SL/DL: 6X.Sustained transfer rate BD-ROM 26.97 MB/s

      USB 2.0 only, though. I often need to read CD/DVD/Bluray, and occasionally burn CD's and DVD's. Have never had a need to burn a Bluray, though (plus the media is crazy expen

      • I doubt there ever was an optical drive that would even come to the speed limit of USB 2.0. Have people really forgotten how slow those things were even compared to the mechanical hard drives of the time?

        Actually, I checked: there are Blue-ray drives faster than 8x, that just about won't work on USB 2.0.

        • USB 3 also more efficient (CPU load) and can deliver all the necessary power without having to resort to the silly "dual A" connectors on many of them, pulling power from two ports at once. Some laptops don't even have two ports, or two free (using an external mouse or charging or something).

          So even if in 99% of the cases the raw speed isn't necessary, it is still silly that in mid 2024, it is difficult to find a "modern" external USB 3 optical drive.

          I know optical media is dying, and there isn't a large m

          • It simply makes no financial sense to update a 20 year old design to use a 10 year old interface, so a handful of people can still keep using it. Especially not when the drives work fine with an external power supply. Unless you find a way to make it "the new vinyl".

            • > It simply makes no financial sense to update a 20 year old design to use a 10 year old interface

              Literally pennies, and I think it is more of a nonsense to expect USB-C only users to have USB adapters to use products made in 2024.

              You also know that most USB devices made over the last several decaded most people use are nothing more than RS232 circuits?

              > drives work fine with an external power supply

              Other than 3.5" drives, I have never seen an USB drive powered by an external supply.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        USB 2.0 only, though. I often need to read CD/DVD/Bluray, and occasionally burn CD's and DVD's. Have never had a need to burn a Bluray, though (plus the media is crazy expensive, and I think getting rare to obtain, since it never really caught on for data storage).

        All optical media are USB 2. At 480Mbps, even UHD Blu-Ray only has a max transfer rate of 150Mbps or so.

        Sony also stopped making recordable optical media.

      • > and I think getting rare to obtain

        Nope, there is loads of it out there, especially of you are ok with SL discs.

    • Yeah you aren’t in purchasing. Time is money. Yes there are cheaper options from other vendors but now you’re writing up a second PO and everything else associated with that.

      Case in point. McMaster Carr. They sell literally everything from nuts and bolts to metal stock to toilet plungers. Are they the cheapest? Often not. But they stock a million items and it’s convenient.

      • Yeah you aren’t in purchasing. Time is money. Yes there are cheaper options from other vendors but now you’re writing up a second PO and everything else associated with that.

        Apple has a corporate market share of sweet-fuck-all-% No one is sending out POs for this stuff, they are clicking "add to shopping basket" on a website.

    • > 1) Then can't one just buy/use a non-Apple USB
      > optical drive?

      You can. And I have. It's been a few years since I've had occasion to use it. And I think mine is USB2 and not USB3, because it takes two USB cables/plugs to get enough power to operate. But it worked perfectly out of the box.

      > 2) Why would you want a CD/DVD burner instead of
      > CD/DVD burner + Bluray player for about the same
      > price?

      It's the same drive it was 16 years ago. Back then Blu-ray was fairly extortionately priced and

    • I have one of these:

      https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod... [amazon.com]

      It plays really nicely with MakeMKV and is LibreDrive compatible [makemkv.com] (unless something has changed since I bought mine).

      • Nice recommendation. USB 3, metal too. Although reviews are mixed, no mention of Linux anywhere, most recent review a year old and it is 12 years old ? (WOW)

        Looks hard to find something "perfect" now (reasonable cost, reliably supports all media, confirmed Linux compatibility, USB 3, trusted name), I suppose.

        • It's been a few years, so my memory may be faulty - but I think I settled on that because a number of MakeMKV-adjacent people were using it. Might have been on their (MakeMKV's) forums, or it might've been on Reddit.

          But yeah, it's not a recent device by any stretch of the imagination. Unfortunately it often seems that "hackable" and "recent" are inversely correlated.

    • 1) Anyone can.
      2) Anyone can buy either or both.
    • Any USB-C device on Amazon will work on a Mac just fine (excluding Chinese crap that doesnt work with any computer). Make sure you have a matching USB-port; thatâ(TM)s we I have one usb-c to 4x usb-c and one usb-c to 4x usb-a hub.

      I bought a cheap cd read/write and dvd writer. Canâ(TM)t see me creating DVDs ever. Cost 15-20 pound.

    • 1) Then can't one just buy/use a non-Apple USB optical drive?
      2) Why would you want a CD/DVD burner instead of CD/DVD burner + Bluray player for about the same price?

      https://www.amazon.com/LG-Elec... [amazon.com]

      Is it because they aren't white?? Does Apple do something proprietary? (I have something similar that works fine under Linux)

      Yes, absolutely.

      Even though I have a couple of SuperDrive-equipped Macs, I still bought an LG External USB CD/DVD Burner, to have M-Disc burn support. Works fine, no Drivers needed!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by necro81 ( 917438 )
      At the time of its introduction, the SuperDrive was one of the very few (only?) external CD/DVD burners that didn't require an external power supply (or the hack of plugging into two USB ports). It had a single USB (type A) plug and that was it. And it just worked - no driver installation, no bloatware, it would seamlessly work with any software that read or wrote to an optical drive.

      The SuperDrive still required more than the 500 mA @ 5 V that a standard USB port could provide. To support it, Apple h

    • 1) Then can't one just buy/use a non-Apple USB optical drive? 2) Why would you want a CD/DVD burner instead of CD/DVD burner + Bluray player for about the same price?

      https://www.amazon.com/LG-Elec... [amazon.com]

      Is it because they aren't white?? Does Apple do something proprietary? (I have something similar that works fine under Linux)

      Yes, 3rd party Blu Ray drives (which by design also support DVD and CD) work fine on Apple devices. You just connect via a USB port and go. I've had one for a few years now on my iMac - it works fine. Apple does nothing proprietary with the SuperDrive as far as I know and I didn't know it still existed. I guess its market was Apple fan boys. I'm having to go through my memory here, but I have a vague recollection that for some reason Apple never officially supported Blu Ray on any devices, although

    • I had an LG optical drive once. It died about a month out of warranty, and it was pretty bad at writing discs in general. I think I'd buy something else.

      • I bought an LG WH16NS40 5.25" drive ( for my desktop in 2016)
        16x BD-R writing, BDXL support, DVD/CD/M-Disc, etc.

        It has seen a lot of Linux use and still running strong, 8 years later.

        Those slim notebook-type optical drives are probably much more fragile and less reliable. I have a DVD writer one somewhere which I ever rarely ever used.

  • The MacBook Air was the first MacBook without a built-in CD drive, which led the company to introduce an optical drive sold separately.

    So brave...

    • Apple showed a lot of "courage" in their various products. And other companies got courageous too because Apple did. :-/
      • I will never forgive Samsung for removing the headphone jack.

        Annoyingly, I need to cable my expensive Bluetooth headphones into my computer because the Bluetooth chipset in this expensive HP ZBook is shit.
    • Yeah, they should have been so brave to still keep floppy drives in their notebooks way into the 2000s like most PC notebooks. Because PC users still needed them.
      • I remember getting annoyed when they discontinued luggable's with 5¼ drives.

        I actually really enjoyed the modularity of the ThinkPad's and Dell laptops from that era where you could hot swap out the optical drives on a needs basis.

  • Since it wasn't introduced until the aluminum MacBook Air, it's silver.

    I have one, with a USB-A to USB-C adapter on the end of its cable. Only USB-A device I still own.

    • "Only USB-A device I have" - still have a scanner, keyboard and mouse, some 1TB hard drives, an iPad, old iPhones plugging into USB-A on one end. So I got one USB-C to 4x USb-A hub.

    • > Only USB-A device I still own

      Interesting in the polar opposites these days.

      I've yet to get my first USB-C device, excluding the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.

      I have a few USB-C mains adapters/car adapters to charge devices but nobody I knows has anything that plugs into them directly, mostly because they use iPhones. I have a USB-C to lightning cable passengers sometimes use to charge with but thats basically it. If I gave them such a cable they wouldnt even find a chanrge to use. I frequently hav

  • I have one hardly used, and one new in the box that I never got around to using.

    I guess I'm good.

    I dunno.

    Have not used one in years.

    I got stuff backed up in disks though.

    Should probably move it all to a hard drive.

    Before I die.

    Maybe I will leave as a project for my child.

    He is 8.

    Maybe I'll see his 10th birthday.

    Probably not.

    Soon I will be "discontinued" too.

  • Just curious. I see a lot of unknown brands. :(

    • Re:What is a good third party optical drive? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by rsmith-mac ( 639075 ) on Tuesday August 06, 2024 @10:23PM (#64686754)

      LG basically rules the optical drive market these days.

      Any of their current drives will do; they basically only make minor variations on the same design.

      • LG basically rules the optical drive market these days.

        Any of their current drives will do; they basically only make minor variations on the same design.

        Second vote for LG. They work, even on USB-A most are Port-Powered, all are Class-Compliant and Driverless. And as a bonus, they support burning M-Disc Archival Media; which is perfect for irreplaceable data you want to keep for literally Centuries.

        Paid a whole $26 for a little external LG CD/DVD (there are BD versions, too) burner, barely 1/2" high, and it works great.

    • > I see a lot of unknown brands.

      Yep, same thing has happened with projectors and many other devices.

      Really they are all the same device, labelled up as a company you cant pronounce and will never see or hear anything of again.

      I'd just get the known brands anyway. Although some of the "no name" projectors I have actually tried really seemed to work very well, I was quite surprised with some of them.

  • Real Mac users know that Other World Computing (OWC) always has your back whenever Apple discontinues something.

  • Why sell a accessory your customers can't use
    Current apple silicon MacBooks can't even use thethe accessory based on user comments: https://forums.macrumors.com/t... [macrumors.com]

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