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Why didn't they just drop eject to fit the power key?!

hachre

hachre

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 26, 2007
690
43
I have been using my new Air for a while now and I really don't get it. Why didn't they drop the eject key? It does exactly NOTHING. Even when I have a USB CD-ROM attached it does nothing. I eject via the Finder. Maybe it works with the Apple branded external drive but come one...

In my opinion they should have left the keyboard layout the way it was and just replaced the eject button with the power button.

Does anyone agree?
 
The eject button is on the F12 key. It does whatever F12 does when you press it. It's not like they added a F13 key, they basically did exactly what you're asking here.

F12 used to be volume up on my old MacBook, everything moved 1 key to the left and rather than F5 and F6 being blank (or used for the backlit keyboard), F6 is used for "rewind" and only F5 is blank.
 
That's how you eject the SuperDrive since there isn't a button on the drive.
 
KnightWRX said:
The eject button is on the F12 key. It does whatever F12 does when you press it. It's not like they added a F13 key, they basically did exactly what you're asking here.

F12 used to be volume up on my old MacBook, everything moved 1 key to the left and rather than F5 and F6 being blank (or used for the backlit keyboard), F6 is used for "rewind" and only F5 is blank.
Click to expand...

Yes, key count wise it is. But they had to shift all the actions on the function keys to the left by one key to fit the power key in. The result is that there is only one empty key now (F5) and no longer two which were used for keyboard brightness. Also when you hit next (for iTunes) now you have to hit another key than you had to in the past (physically). I keep hitting the Eject / F12 key now...

What I would have liked them to do is really leave everything the way it is and just replace the eject button with the power key. Who needs an eject button on computer with no drive?

rkahl said:
That's how you eject the SuperDrive since there isn't a button on the drive.
Click to expand...

You can also drag the icon to the Trash, use the Eject menu button, press Cmd E, use the Finder menu, use the Finder sidebar, etc etc...

To me it makes no sense to have a physical eject button on a computer that has nothing to eject.
 
rkahl said:
You can also drag the icon to the Trash, use the Eject menu button, press Cmd E, use the Finder menu, use the Finder sidebar, etc etc...

To me it makes no sense to have a physical eject button on a computer that has nothing to eject.
Click to expand...

True
 
hachre said:
You can also drag the icon to the Trash, use the Eject menu button, press Cmd E, use the Finder menu, use the Finder sidebar, etc etc...

To me it makes no sense to have a physical eject button on a computer that has nothing to eject.
Click to expand...

Except when needing to eject the CD prior to booting, which would result in none of your methods working.

There, reason solved, next.
 
KnightWRX said:
Except when needing to eject the CD prior to booting, which would result in none of your methods working.

There, reason solved, next.
Click to expand...

1st of all you can keep the mouse button pressed while booting to eject. I believe you can even hold Cmd + E.
And the brilliant Apple needs a dedicated physical key because they don't have any ideas on how to handle eject on boot? Please...

But really? You are just arguing for arguments sake...
 
Also, its been stated before that the eject key is needed for some keyboard shorcuts.
 
LinkMx said:
Also, its been stated before that the eject key is needed for some keyboard shorcuts.
Click to expand...

OK, that is actually something that I can let count ;)

KnightWRX said:
Well, I'm counter balancing your ranting for ranting's sake. :D

Seriously, the eject button doesn't hurt.
Click to expand...

Hehe, well it wasn't a rant really. I was just curious if anyone really missed this button or if everyone found it as useless as I do.
 
hachre said:
Hehe, well it wasn't a rant really. I was just curious if anyone really missed this button or if everyone found it as useless as I do.
Click to expand...

Well, I find the Dashboard shortcut on the F4 button fairly useless (and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so), but I don't think Apple should get rid of it.

Really, I don't see any harm in keeping the eject button around. Even it its use is limited. It's hardly the only key on a keyboard that goes unused most of the time.
 
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