Now I know I'm not the only Apple fan here, so I thought I'd post in case you missed it.

http://www.macrumors.com/2008/10/09/apple-invites-media-to-notebook-event-october-14th/

The name of the event is "The spotlight turns to Noteooks"

From Gizmodo:
<<Apple's just sent out invites for the October 14 MacBook event being held in Cupertino at Apple's headquarters.>>

Yataaaaaa!

I'm finally glad to see they are having a special event about their notebooks. I have a Macbook Pro and I love it. The only complaint I've had so far is the battery. It's already worthless after a year and a half of use. Besides a new case design, do you think they would include Blu-Ray?

Apple like slot-loading drives, using them throughout the rage...but currently slot loading blu-ray drives (at least to my knowledge) price in at over a thousand dollars.

That would make a big impact on the price, but it apple want to lead in the movie and design field where they are known for success, blu-ray really is a must...

Colin Colehour: "do you think they would include Blu-Ray?"

Hardly. save for top-of-the-line MB Pro (or equivalent if renamed), I expect all their notebooks to lose onboard optical drives in favour of MBA SuperDrive. Apple's notebooks are for editing of, not primarily for viewing high-density video discs. I wouldn't be surprized either if they culled the product line, and made upgraded Air cover both MB and Air, plus upgraded MacBook Pro for the high-end graphics/ gaming stuff.

I doubt that will happen...

That's a feature of the air, it's a simple laptop for portablility that isn't meant for primary computer use.

If it were to happen, people would be mad at having to carry an extra dongle...I for one won't be buying one if it's like that, I'd prefer it to be thicker than have no built-in disk drive.Also there would be no distinction between Consumer Pro and Air lines.

I think the lines may merge sometime in the future, but not until disk drives are replaced by downloads, and for that we need high-speed internet.

maybe they will offer two models, one with and one without...but I highly doubt it

If you only could chose between 2-3 cpu-speed/ hd size/ (USB/FW) ports variants of [upgraded, not necessarily exactly the same as today's] MB Air at one end, and 2-3 speed/ hd size/ ports aplenty/ onboard drive of [upgraded, not necessarily exactly the same as today's] MB Pro at the other, then your argument becomes moot. Apple may not be designing products via focus groups, but they certainly take heed of sold units, read the numbers, and act thereafter. Remember the near-universal outcry and initial dislike over dropped diskette drives? And then of absent optical ones in the MBAir.... in both cases gone within a week of first enthusiastic user reviews. Frankly, removal of onboard optical drives is a cheapo way of gaining volume for a larger battery, or lowering overall weight, while not precluding use of in-advance uploaded, hd-resident disk images....

<<currently slot loading blu-ray drives (at least to my knowledge) price in at over a thousand dollars>>

Dosn't the PS3 have one? :/

Do Sony make Blu-Ray drives btw?

Also does the PS3 have a burner or just a reader?

Anyway don't most consoles end up costing the company money, which they recoop from software sales?

Anyway, I was just going on what I've heard. Probably not true considering what you've said.

Yes I'd assume Sony made them and yes Sony is loosing money on the PS3. I would expect that it's only a reader.

But I would still guess the drive was less than $1000*, as there's a lot more to the console than just the disk Drive (Think of the size of it :P)

* Guess based on price of UK console converted to Dollars and $100-$200 taken off :P

*sigh*

They never make things easy for us do they? Well at least Tuesday's only a day away.