I read a number of Apple rumor sites speculating about Apple replacing the Mac mini (a moment of silence for mine that passed on last week) with a Mac nano. Some of the rumor items speculate that Apple might dump the optical drive (DVD) from the unit to save space. Here’s the thought that prompted this posting though… When Apple introduced the iPod nano, they dumped the hard drive from the mini line and went to flash storage. I think Apple needs to keep an optical drive for at least playing CD music and DVD video without having an ugly cable attached device on a Mac nano. But, what about dumping the hard drive from the Mac and either going all flash storage (say 30GB) with the option of a 80 to 320GB drive in a small enclosure either beneath or above the Mac nano with a seamless bus plug (like a notebook in a docking station) instead of a cable? I just hope they have it ready for sale soon. I need to replace my Mac mini and am waiting for Leopard and whatever new Mac emerges before doing so.

	Read more at MacDevCenter
	www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2007/10/mac_nano_first_mac_to_dump_the.html?CMP=OTC-13IV03560550&ATT=Mac+nano+First+Mac+to+Dump+the+Hard+Drive