Hi All

This might be a silly question or answered previously but will the new MacBook Air Superdrive work on any Mac? I have been wanting to purchase another DVD Burner so I can copy on the fly and thought that this may be a good way to go as it will match my Alu iMac and have the all important Apple Logo on it...

I can't see why it would not work being USB but just thought I would ask the quesiton, if any one gets there's with the Macbook Air would you mind plugging it into an iMac to see if it works?

Thanks Daniel

Only works in an air as it has a special high powered USB port. Will not work in any other computer.

Bugger... Back to the original plan of a standard LG or Pioneer drive and an external case.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I think Steve Jobs is loosing it when announced that this 'uber USB' powered device can only work for the Air. Who wouldn't want an extra drive for your desktop or MacBook. I'm sure there's enough juice in FireWire 800 to justify it's power consumption and few people use that conenction anyway.

I think the idea is that not many people need the funcionality in consumer Macs (iMac, macbook etc). And if you want to copy on the fly, whack another drive in your Mac Pro. But I definatley see your point, how hard would it have been to work on all Macs.

Apple are not stupid and if technically feasible, they would have allowed the air superdrive to work on any computer. I am not aware (they may exist but I haven't seen them) of any external DVD burners on the market which do not require a power supply. As burning a DVD requires a reliable and steady supply of power to the laser, I understand why Apple have used a Super USB port. I am not even sure if the Firewire protocols supply enough power for consistent, reliable burns.

would have been perfect for me
my imac superdrive has carked it

wont read or write to dvds anymore
only cds

It won't work with a standard USB port or standard powered hub because of the protective current limiting required on the power bus in the USB standard. If you build up a USB power slave without the current limiting (Jaycar had a kit a few years back, dunno if they still do it) and plug this between the 'puter and the Air's Superdrive, then it might just work.

They could have just given it a power supply and opened it up to all macs

Would've been more ugly/design wise or something I guess.

Or... howbout a superdrive with a built in battery! Apple engineers make the USB port charge the battery when its not in use for other Macs, and when there is insufficient power to burn the drive throws an error message on the screen

Apple seem to ship SuperDrives that make it very difficult to change region codes as many times as you want. If I had to buy an external DVD burner, I would only get something that would let me change between regions.

Insert DVD.
DVD player launches.

Ignore region coding request.
Launch VLC. Play.

Works for me.

It's only really intended for the Air because it lacks an internal drive, and giving it a power supply when it's intended for a portable isn't terribly smart.