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nickedynickOct 21, 2010
Buls**t. Apple regularly get credited with all sorts of ideas which were neither theirs or original. Netbooks have been around for quite some time without optical drives, for example.
Floppy disks were still standard on PCs until well past when Dell stopped including them by default back in 2003. People are still buying music CDs, games still come on CDs and DVDs, and I'm sure it'll be a long, long time before device manufacturers stop sending out driver disks with their products.
Closed AccountOct 21, 2010
They still make floppies, is that how you get your music?
norman619Oct 21, 2010
You got your music on floppies? O_o?!
antdudeOct 21, 2010
Yes, MIDI files. :D
norman619Oct 21, 2010
Damn I forgot about those. LOL
stevenberry54Oct 21, 2010
I'll give you credit for netbooks and lack of optical drives, but I think it's been quite a good while since at least 50% of manufacturers stopped sending driver discs. I in fact just bought 2 NetApps (worth over 30k) and they didn't bother to include a CD or DVD. Hell, even the last webcam I bought (which I can't even remember when) still told me to go to Microsoft's site to get the download -- If the OS didn't already have drivers on it for Plug and Play. Apple seems to get credited because they're the one's actually making any real motion in the industry regarding innovation.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
norman619Oct 21, 2010
LOL!!! So says the Apple fanboy.
stevenberry54Oct 21, 2010
I'm not a fanboy for 1, and 2, notice, I just gave credit to two other companies (one being Microsoft) for going the software-only route. Name another company that has a reputable name (Other than Google) who gets products and technologies moving in the way they do (oh.. here come the Google Fanboy comments now..)
kingpOct 21, 2010
I understand what you are saying, and agree somewhat, but I still have to LOL @ Apple and "innovation".
stevenberry54Oct 21, 2010
MagSafe? LightPeak? Designs? (manufacturing), Software in general? Don't get me wrong, I know sooo many other companies come up with amazing creations and I love any and all technological advancements, but Apple has a leg up because of the direct hardware/software integration.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
tinfoil209Oct 21, 2010
If Apple only supports Apple hardware then that's how you get this cute usb stick making it all "work". Also you can fit a lot into those little USB drive thingies.
w0lfcakeOct 21, 2010
Apple's innovations are based around decreasing compatibility or making it more expensive to be compatible with already perfectly working s**t.
I'm mainly talking about ports. Like the mini displayport requires a mini displayport to hdmi connector which costs another bag of pennies as if they weren't a rip-off already.
Don't get me wrong though, I love Apple products, those innovations people talk of are just plain bulls**t. So are the bulls**t ads that you can watch on the site every time a new product comes out, they toss in a British guy to make the video sound smarter to the people who actually fall for it, they tell us how awesomely green they are by making their stuff recyclable and reducing the packaging size as if a majority of the people buying the s**t gave a damn.
midnitteOct 21, 2010
Considering what version of opengl Apple uses, I dont think they get to take any titles for software innovation. They haven't made any innovations on the desktop, they've just been doing a better job then microsoft.
Light Peak is designed by intel, not Apple. Considering Apple doesn't allow manufactures to license magsafe, is quite hostile towards them, and has issues with its own cord, I don't think its as big an innovation as you think it is.
latrosicariusOct 21, 2010
Your web cam didn't require a driver CD because its built using a Generic Driver Model and your OS already comes with those standard drivers! When was the last time you needed a driver to install a USB mouse, keyboard, headset, memory stick, hub, printer, scanner or any other USB peripheral? They are need drivers to work, yet because they're all built using standard drivers, they work out of the box without any need for an installation CD. Its done this way on purpose, and it has nothing to do with Apple. Its an industry-wide direction.
stevenberry54Oct 21, 2010
I know your point, I was referring to the *Logitech* software that comes bundled with webcams for additional features. I know there are standards.
weirddemonOct 21, 2010
They don't include the disks because of this *NEW* technology called *partitions*, which are typically less than 10GBs and holds the OS. On PCs, you press F10 during start up (usually) and it allows you to reinstall the OS without disks or flash drives.
=/
mtnxfreeriderOct 21, 2010
HP and at least one manufacturer (Dell I believe or Asus) has offered the ability to "burn" recovery media onto a flash drive since windows 7 came out a year ago. Netbooks have been around without CD drives for years, and Sony put out an expensive laptop sized like the macbook air with no CD drive a long time ago. Apple puts out a new overpriced netbook, and suddenly.. they are responsible for the CD's death? The Macbook air barely has any market share compared to their macbooks and iMacs, let alone comparing them to actual windows based netbooks. There will never be more macbook air's out there than PC netbooks... so WHO is really responsible??
mtnxfreeriderOct 21, 2010
and related... where the **** are the touchscreen laptops???
mredofcourseOct 21, 2010
"HP and at least one manufacturer (Dell I believe or Asus) has offered the ability to "burn" recovery media onto a flash drive since windows 7 came out a year ago."
Apple had this functionality when OS X first came out...and not just recovery, but the full system.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
trekkie1701cOct 21, 2010
If you had a big enough thumbdrive, you could do a full system backup on any Windows system with USB support (I think since Win 98). I'd be able to easily back up my entire system on to a thumbdrive in Windows as well... assuming you can find me a thumbdrive that can hold the terabyte of files I have. Or even with just the system files, most people don't have the newer 16/32gb thumbdrives that you can actually do that with, and 2/4gb doesn't really cut it for system files :P
But no, Apple is just contributing to something that's been a long time coming. They're in fact being rather slow about it; CDs have been half-dead for awhile now. Sure you still get music on them, and there's a few software companies that still provide them, but for the most part you can go without a CD. And even those that do give you a CD, you can usually find the software online from their website. It's getting to the point where you don't even need a CD/DVD to install operating systems anymore. That's not Apple's doing. That's the rest of the industry moving along with the times.
In fact despite this "death blow" that Apple is "pioneering" I honestly haven't taken content off a CD/DVD in quite awhile, save for using another computer to copy a Win 7 DVD to a thumbdrive so I could upgrade without a working DVD drive. And I don't own a single working Apple computer :P
jagedlionOct 22, 2010
I love my old sony z505. Great build and its 0.5Ghz p3 is still good enough for internet and even video.
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
Sure, netbooks ship with no optical drive, yet they still ship with optical media for re-installation, which requires you to purchase an external USB optical drive if you need to recover from a hard drive crash.
if Apple made you buy another piece of hardware to re-install your damned OS, the Apple haters would explode in phony rage.
let that sink in for a moment.
elvismmiOct 21, 2010
I mostly agree with you – this doesn't end the use of obsolete technology, but surely you can agree that optical drives are quickly becoming less relevant.
And Apple stopped including the floppy in 1998 with the introduction of the iMac. I can't tell you how much flack I heard them getting (mostly from PC users). Hindsight is 20/20.
frostcrowOct 21, 2010
As the author says " I came to the realization that I had never once used the optical drive in my current MacBook Pro " I'm sure many apple/mac users don't know why their machine has an Optical drive.
PC users on the other hand need Optical drives to install the millions of software titles you can purchase for the PC.
/buddabum
nascenttOct 21, 2010
The optical drive on my laptop died years ago, and I've not missed it at all. I "burn" images to usb drives if I ever have to bot to a disk, otherwise i download programs from the web.
People I know that have also lsot the ability to use their optical drive don't miss it either, with few exceptions of people that burn their mp3s to play in their cars.
dang3rousdOct 21, 2010
Of course I see no mention of the advent of things like Steam which has been around for years. Right now there are 2.5 million users online in steam and thousands of games for sale. I havent purchased an optical game in probably 2 years. These things have been around for a while so this idea of a non optical system for programs is FAR from new.
mtnxfreeriderOct 21, 2010
I havent used the optical drive on my 2 laptops in 3 years. Except... on my desktop I burn MP3 cds for my car regularly, but even that I could just put the songs on an SD card and never need the burner..
pixelatedsoulOct 21, 2010
@dang3rousd
Actually Valve just announced that Steam currently has 30 Million users. So that emphasizes your point further.
http://www.gamingunion.net/news/steam-tops-30-million-users--3054.html
weirddemonOct 21, 2010
What are you talking about? We don't need the ODD just as much as mac fags. All of our software can be downloaded on the web. In fact, MS even sells Office KEYS now if you don't want to buy the disk.
nubnubOct 22, 2010
I barely ever use my dvd drive anymore...
bosskeyOct 22, 2010
Nice try, but the software library for a Mac is technically larger than for a PC, because it can run Mac and Unix software natively, plus Windows and DOS software in virtualization.
Adobe gets 50% of their revenue from the Mac market and it's on DVD.
Much of the useful software on my Mac is freeware and shareware, downloaded.
smogerOct 22, 2010
Hindsight is 20/20? Apple dropped floppies WAY early and created a huge market for iomega's usb floppy and zip drives.
By the time I finished college in 2004 most students were still very comfortably using zip disks and floppies. I had mostly moved on to emailing my files to myself by then, but the school definitely had floppies and zip disks listed as required course tools for most courses in the IT program.
jagedlionOct 22, 2010
But when Mac got rid of its floppy's burnable CD's were still expensive (and rarely worked unless you finalized the CD anyway) and thumb drives died all the time (I lost 3 sticks to the school's macs. It was a slaughter). It was terrible. Hindsight says, why didn't the idiots wait until the technology to replace it actually existed before throwing it out!
ieatskunkOct 21, 2010
I thought Apple was against USB. What happened to their precious firewire?
cryptanOct 21, 2010
What happed to PC's precious floppy disk? Win some, lose some.
tsuruchibrianOct 21, 2010
What happened to the MAC's precious monochrome display?
bacwerdsmanOct 21, 2010
What happened to the kitty that chases your mouse? Win some, lose some.
mredofcourseOct 21, 2010
"I thought Apple was against USB."
I don't know why you think that. Apple was one of the first to adopt USB. It's been in every Mac Apple has introduced since 1998. Apple was using USB in their Macs *before* FireWire and there have been a few Macs with USB and no FireWire.
The only time Apple chose FireWire over USB was when the original iPod came out that was Mac only. Back then, USB with 1.1 was a very slow 12mbps (theoretical max) so Apple went with FireWire which was over 40 times faster.
Apple eventually transitioned the iPod/iPhone line to a combo USB/FireWire (which explains the iPod dock connector) and now all iOS devices are USB (through the dock connector to maintain legacy and provide other functionality with the extra pins).
Apple doesn't have a vested interest in FireWire...they license it for free.
johndesmaraisOct 21, 2010
Apple was one of the first computer manufacturers to include USB support in their machines.
bosskeyOct 21, 2010
Both sides of this thread are correct.
The original Apple iMac was credited with pushing USB into the mainstream. Sure, they didn't invent Intel's USB, nor did they do it first, but nobody had heard of USB until Apple put it on the iMac, drawing fire from both PC users ("Where's my serial and parallel ports?") and Mac users ("Where's my ADB?"). And Apple has left FireWire off many recent models.
But Apple plays the other side too. Apple held back USB 2 on the Mac to make Firewire look better, so Apple shipped Macs with incredibly slow USB 1.1 ports much longer than they should have. And it's happening again: No new Macs have USB 3, which is particularly annoying on the hideously expensive Mac Pro towers. (I own and love an older Mac Pro, but they no longer sell them as cheap as I paid for it.)
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
Well, having more than one "option", something PC users think they can't live without, for I/O ports, was too confusing, so they stuck with USB.
I mean, can you imagine, having more than one type of external I/O on a machine? It's madness I tell you! Who can keep up?
Also, Apple was using USB before you likely ever heard of it.
cryptanOct 21, 2010
So who else has included a flash drive with their OS on it? It's not that they STARTED killing optical drives, it's that they are making a move, and as soon as Apple makes a move, everyone follows. So they, in turn, made a huge blow to the optical drive.
nickedynickOct 21, 2010
It's been a stable way of installing Linux distros for years.
cryptanOct 21, 2010
What's your point? No manufacturer has included a flash drive with their hardware. If they include an OEM OS, they put it on optical media.
tsuruchibrianOct 21, 2010
@cryptan
His point is that simply using a technology (booting from usb flash drives) that has been available for like 11 years now, is not revolutionary.
Flash drives are cheap now. Apple is willing to spend $2 on media and other companies are only willing to spend a $0.002 on a stamped CD. This is not an innovation from Apple. This is just another example of Apple customers willing to pay a price premium for something that's a bit cooler.
The rest of us will simply have to continue to use our own generic flash drives until they are so cheap that even dell includes them for free. But then again, I would simply erase their flash drive and use it for other stuff anyway, because I am cheap.
cryptanOct 21, 2010
@tsuruchibrian
My point is that now that Apple is starting to do this, others will follow suit, hence the end of the OS on a disc. People copy Apple all the time because guess what, people like "Cool."
And how many people out there know how to put an OS on a flash drive? Or even know that its possible? How many people do you think know how to get into BIOS and change boot order? How many people do you think have any idea what a BIOS is/does? Fact is when people open up their brand new "Air" they will see that picture on this article, and say "Cool I didn't know that was possible" One less use for a CD one more step closer to being obsolete. This story is less about the fact that you can install an OS from a flash drive, but more about making it "popular."
If you ask the average Joe who invented the automobile, chances are he will say Henry Ford, or at least want to say Henry Ford because no one knows who invented it, but everyone knows who made it "popular."Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
tsuruchibrianOct 21, 2010
@cryptan
One reason people copy apple is because it's cool.
Another reason people "copy" (note the quotes), is because technology is constantly getting cheaper. In this case, it is not that others will copy Apple so much as it is cost effective for Apple earlier because their customers are willing to spend more money.
If technology kept getting more expensive, and vendors had to continually find ways to make their products more affordable, it would be Apple "copying" emachines. And emachines would be the ones setting the bar for cheapness and crappiness.
tsuruchibrianOct 21, 2010
Maybe one day PCs will be able to boot from a USB drives. I predict it will happen in 1999. --me from the past
mredofcourseOct 21, 2010
Exactly.
Macs have been bootable from flash drives for years. Before Windows by the way.
While this article is hype...and should be noted, it's not Apple saying they did this revolutionary OMG thing, it is true that Apple has done something no other PC vendor has done and that's ship their computer with the OS on a flash drive in the package.
It's a nice touch, just like any number of the nice little things Apple packages as a premium product.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
tsuruchibrianOct 21, 2010
I have no problems with Apple. My disagreement is with the article and those that think this is an amazing innovation.
I think probably an even more useful solution would be to simply distribute a utility that would download a bootable OS (for restoring a computer) to any flash drive. That way it's not the end of the world if you lose your cool apple flash drive. Not only that, you can use it for other stuff until it is time to restore if you want.
mredofcourseOct 22, 2010
@tsuruchibrian,
"I think probably an even more useful solution would be to simply distribute a utility that would download a bootable OS (for restoring a computer) to any flash drive."
That's what I'm saying. Apple has been doing this since OS X first came out. You can take the OS X installer and install OS X on a flash drive and boot from that with whatever other software you install on it, or you can use Disk Utility and clone the installer or make a special recovery bootable flash drive.
It's always been a combination of no copy protection + the Mac seeing a USB drive (flash, optical or hard drive) as just a regular volume under OS X.
smogerOct 22, 2010
..another reason other companies follow apple, is because they don't follow apple, but no one pays attention until apple does it for some reason, and then suddenly everyone who did it first are seen as the ones who copied apple
jagedlionOct 22, 2010
My computer didn't come with a cd at all! They just partitioned off a bit of hard drive and stored a backup there. So... are you telling me that Lenovo is a step ahead of Mac?
And windows is available as a download. Stick be damned
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
First of all, IBM did that before Lenovo did.
Secondivly, if you don't realize that if your hard drive crashes you will lose the recovery partition along with your boot partition, then have fun with all that when it happens.
jagedlionOct 22, 2010
I did know IBM did it before Lenovo, I just didn't own one. I wasn't under the impression that IBM was first either though. Plus you still have the license key should you need it, and you can download MS images for free. Assuming you are out of warranty and need to reset on your own.
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
So you're saying that it's better to have to download an entire ISO from Microsoft, burn it on to a DVD, assuming you have a working computer at this point, then reinstall, that it is to simply place a USB drive into your laptop, hold one button down, then hit the power button?
I've done IT and Helpdesk for at least a decade now, and personally, I am tired of the download/burn/install/register recovery method. Having everything on a USB drive makes the most sense. I'm sorry you don't see that yet.
jagedlionOct 25, 2010
You know, Mr. IT, that you can just put in on a stick, not a cd? It's not 1992 anymore. BIOS's boot to USB now. The only difference is whether I want the manufacturer to charge me $30 for a $5 usb stick to save me the time to copy the backup. If I didn't like money, or had no idea how to copy files to a USB, I'd pay for that. Hence people who buy Macs.
donkeybonggggOct 21, 2010
Apple isnt solely responsible but a step towards the extinction of cds.
1 USB drive = No CD's & Manuals = Less net weight & less items in a package = Faster Packaging and Delivery Time = Cut costs (labor + material) = $$$
Also, as a LEED AP manufacturing engineer, I can say that this is perfect "Green" Manufacturing. (Cutting costs by saving resources).
So the price has to go down, right?Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
godsbongOct 21, 2010
I agree, sounds more like garbage for the masses to devour as legitimate news..
/que apple fanboy comment bury brigade
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
hmm... funny how the Apple Haters are 10x the elitists the Apple Fanboys ever were...
pgm_01Oct 22, 2010
It is garbage. Silicon chip technology will not ever be priced low enough to compete with aluminum glued to a polycarbonate disc. As people have faster and more stable internet connections they will be able to utilize downloads more but for physical media, CD, DVD, and Blue Ray will be around for a while.
enantiodromiaOct 22, 2010
Yeah.. instead of $0.001 for 700M of CD media, it will be $0.01 for 700M of flash media!
stillblueOct 21, 2010
It's not about who does it first, but about who can make it mainstream. Although no company has made it mainstream yet, including Apple.
gwhenningOct 21, 2010
Did nobody read the article?
A) Apple is being [rightfully] credited with being the first large scale computer manufacturer to ship the reinstall OS on a Flash drive.
Name one other company that does this. Dell? Nope. HP? Nope. IBM? Nope
Yes YOU can put windows or a linux distro on a USB drive, (just as you can with OSX) but you are the one doing the work.
B) The Mac App store is making it easy to download and purchase software, removing the necessity to use the optical drive.
Yes, you can download and install software on Windows and Linux (apt-get), but the majority of paid for commercial apps installed on computers today comes on a CD. Apple's Mac App store allows hundreds of smaller developers to reach out to Mac users and display their products. You no longer have to go to a store and buy a copy on CD Rom. (Yes, Steam already does this for games, this is like Steam for all apps.)
The combination of the two items brings the Mac one step closer to not needing an optical drive, and that is what the author refers to.
That being said, I think it's a STUPID idea to get rid of the optical drive. I use mine for most of my software installs, (Yes, you can share over a network, by why slow yourself down or limit your installs on your laptop to days when you are home?) watch movies, rip new music, etc.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
g8kprOct 22, 2010
I can understand what you're saying, and I agree that this innovation should NOT be considered a "Mac" idea. However at the same rate, PC's have had their fair share of "look at what WE invented" including Windows 95, Internet Explorer, among other things. These were brought out like nothing like them had existed prior. When I had my mac, my friends used to laugh at my GUI interface and say DOS was so much better.
Then 95 comes out, and the same people are praising how much better it is.
At any rate. I think the point about CD's and DVD's is that, no, they're not going to dissapear tomorrow, next week, next year, or even in 5 years. But their use will deminish quickly over the next few years, and things like this is the reason. Technology changes, people should not be surprised by that anymore. Record Players, VHS machines, 8-track's, all have gone by the wayside, yes, there is a niche market for some of these items, and yes you can still by some music on vinyl, but for the most part, it's gone.
Barenaked Ladies saw this 5 years ago. They felt that CD's were a dead technology, and wanted to put their songs on USB key's for people to buy. However It didn't happen (not sure if it was their record label not going for it, or stores weren't prepared to sell the product).
I got into a discussion on another board about Blu-Ray, I said that it was a dead technology, and of course got blasted with "Blu-ray sales are the highest they've ever been" which is probably true, but my point was that they're on their way out. It will take time, but people will start to embrace newer technologies over the next few years. Sites like netflex, pirate Torrent sites, and itunes selling tv shows and movies. Some blu-ray discs even come with "digital copies". The movement has started towards "video files" vs "video disc's" the same way music has moved from music Cd's to Mp3's. Sure you can still go into a music store, and buy a CD, but those stores are hurting.
In Canada, we've lost "Sam the Record Man" a staple music store, and an icon on Yonge Street. They just couldn't compete against the MP3 and illegal downloading. Then went "Music World" the next big one. The only music store I know that is surviving is HMV, and I bet you they're struggling, they've had to move into movies (as did all other record stores) and then they branched into Console games, their latest move is branching into Graphic Novels. They don't have a big selection, but they have the popular titles, such as Watchmen, Dark Knight returns, Y The Last Man, and recently The Walking Dead. Plus some DC Crisis on Infinite Earths, and other various Marvel and DC fare.
So no, DVD's, CD's and Blu-ray discs are not dead yet, but the nails are going in their coffins. Today's kids under 15 will be telling their kids "When I was young, we didn't transfer files over networks, we had to go to the store and buy a CD with music on it"
and their kids will say "What's a CD?"
monikahOct 22, 2010
ya u r right... games cds are still charm for users. And even for important data, people trust cds and dvds
hipmanOct 21, 2010
"Before my headline gets you all worked up"
Like that isn't exactly what you wanted, so we'd read your stupid article.
avatar78xOct 21, 2010
Hehehe! I was thinking the exact same thing!
a2fanOct 21, 2010
I'm annoyed by these headlines that are all about hooking you for the page view $$$ -- the content isn't compelling enough to stand on it's own.
dumptakerOct 21, 2010
That's why I only read the digg comments and never the article.
/s
ma77h3wOct 21, 2010
I thought it was just me
macparrotOct 21, 2010
From the moment that software, music, video content, and so on started to be downloaded, the optical drive began it's long slow march into obscurity and death. It has nothing to do with Apple and they weren't the ones who "killed" it. They're just a little ahead of the curve with some of their products.
mikborOct 21, 2010
Just not this one.
latrosicariusOct 21, 2010
Apple didn't invent the netbook?!!!? What do you mean? They didn't invent the USB stick either???????? Awwwwww, this contradicts my inner mac fanboy
norman619Oct 21, 2010
The optical disc is mainly for storage and application installs. I can't remember the last time I even used a regular CD. DVD's aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Apple is great at marketing existing ideas as their own.
Closed AccountOct 21, 2010
I use both all the time—to archive and share files that otherwise would be too big to email or upload to the cloud or on an FTP server (and let's be honest, how many people can afford monthly broadband/hosting for large files). USB memory sticks are fine for some uses, but like the ZIP disk, I have to keep bugging people for them back.
mredofcourseOct 21, 2010
I didn't realize Tech Crunch was the marketing department of Apple.
jshhmrOct 21, 2010
I can't wait until the bury button comes back!! Apple fanboys have to be the most IGNORANT ones. The ONLY think Apple does is sell a Lamborghini body with a Hyundai engine, but still charges you for the full price. If Apple makes it, then 100% of the time, there is a better, cheaper alternative. That's a FACT. How is that innovation? The ONLY think Apple knows how to do is market to idiots on TV.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
macparrotOct 22, 2010
Relax Francis
ljseinfeldOct 22, 2010
Car analogy fail.
Good luck with your hundai/hundai body combo.
jshhmrOct 26, 2010
Exactly how is it an analogy fail? Apple sells pretty, overpriced garbage with OLD technology. You get a Ferrari body, with Hyundai parts, while paying for a Ferrari. EXPLAIN to me how that is not the case? You know I'm right, but you Apple idiots are so f**king dumb, you don't even know it! THIS is why I hate Apple. Idiots like you that have NO clue!!
dingedarmorOct 21, 2010
No, Apple just joined all the others who had already seen that it was dead.
The article is full of sh*t.
nrsmsnOct 21, 2010
They should have titled the article: "Yep, Apple ALSO Killed The CD Today"
defktOct 21, 2010
Optical Disks will always have thier place...especially with the costs associated with tape drive backups and equipment. It'll cost much less (and take up less space) once multilayed halfterabyte bluray disks are carouselled(sp?) in the same fashion. Having a physical disk is still appealing to a wide array of people.
macparrotOct 21, 2010
Will "always" have their place? Technology marches on and leaves stuff behind all the time. By the time half-terebyte optical disks are available, they won't (and mostly are already) not needed or wanted. As said above, many of these same arguments came out when Apple didn't include a floppy in the first iMac. You still using those?
trekkie1701cOct 21, 2010
Yes, Optical drives will always have their place. Have you tried throwing a floppy? It *might* crack a bit. Tried throwing a thumbdrive? With the way walls are made today, you'll probably damage the wall at the same time. Now try throwing a CD? Nice, satisfying shatter.
They can't be replaced until we get another storage media that does the same thing D:
nascenttOct 21, 2010
You realise you can buy tb hdds now for very little, sometimes for the price of a spindle of bdr's which are only 25gb
A spindle of 20x 25gb discs = 500GB, half of a tb drive. That doesn't include the price of the bluray drive.
Just buy a tb drive, get a cheap ide to usb adaptor and use it like a large floppy disk.
sixthreeOct 21, 2010
No it isn't.
asrrin29Oct 21, 2010
"Mac App Store"? Apple didn't invent it. It's called a repository, and the only thing apple did was slap a price tag on it, make it shin, and call it the latest greatest original apple idea. Repositories have been around on linux, Unix, and Free BSD for decades.
charlotte_webOct 21, 2010
Apple didn't invent it, but as a revenue engine, Apple sure is going to popularize it. I guarantee Microsoft is assigning a team leader to put together a development team for a Windows Store today, and probably many hardware manufacturers are doing that as well.
macparrotOct 21, 2010
I don't think Apple claimed to invent anything of the sort. iOS apps through iTunes has been a huge success for them and this was a natural progression. A lot of developers will gladly pay Apple that 30% (which in my mind is too high but I'm not a developer) to not have to worry about dealing with credit card companies, PayPal, and all the rest. No longer having to mass email all your customers to let them know about updates, new versions and so on.
bosskeyOct 22, 2010
Many developers claim that Apple's 30% is a fantastic deal, given that marketing, sales support, and related costs can exceed that amount and also, anybody with any retailing experience at all knows that traditionally, the manufacturer only gets 50% of the retail price after wholesale and other middleman markups. Apple lets you keep 70%.
bosskeyOct 21, 2010
You're actually claiming a repository has all the functionality, revenue, licensing, ease-of-use (one-click buy and install), automatic update notification, and ecosystem implications that the Apple App Store does?
ljseinfeldOct 22, 2010
Jeesus.. you Lunix guys bitch about everything. I like Linux, but give me a f**king break. If it was THAT cool, more people would be using it. It's free for chrissake.
I mean ... jeez Apple's software just shuffles a bunch of 1's and 0's around... Everybody knows that 1's and 0's were invented by Linus years ago....
theliOct 21, 2010
MG Siegler is such a f**king tool.
badqatOct 21, 2010
FTA: What there won’t be are any optical discs.
Apparently, Segler missed the fact that Apple lowered the price of the MacBook Air optical drive to $79, and it's one of the first options that come up to be selected when you are configuring your new Macbook Air at the online Apple Store.
ano233Oct 21, 2010
While I do have a certain interest in seeing the CD/DVD's demise I have a hard time believing that it will be able to compete with the cost effectiveness of CD/DVD media anytime soon. You can buy the average CD/DVD (at least in the US) for under $0.25, the average cost for a similar amount of USB storage is about $20.00. Economies of scale could bring that down but the inherent manufacturing complexity USB storage as compared to the simplicity of CD/DVD storage manufacture makes me doubt that USB could ever be cost competitive on a per Gigabyte basis.
charlotte_webOct 21, 2010
Are you looking at retail cost for a flash drive? I'm looking at Newegg, and the cheapest 4 GB drive they have on there is about $7. And software distributors won't be paying retail for the drives, they will be buying them wholesale and in bulk, so they will get them for much cheaper.
I don't think the disc format is dead, though. Blu-Ray burners are dropping in price, and I think the media cost is $12 for a 25 GB disc. But, Apple is ignoring Blu-Ray altogether.
Plus, my fear with distributing software on flash drives exclusively is that flash drives are so small and easy to lose. I think of what I go through now, tearing up the house looking for an install CD; put that software on a tiny flash drive, and it's all over.
Closed AccountOct 21, 2010
I don't care if they are getting their drives for 80% off retail. They are nt going to pay $1 for a flash drive to ship millions of an item when they can pay about 10 cents for a DVD. (They don't pay retail for those either.)
And they certainly aren't going to change because hte Macbook Air...which sold like 50 units last time around...doesn't have a drive. Apple doesn't have the power to change a f**king thing in the computer market. Tehy simply are not a computer company anymore.
tabris82Oct 21, 2010
Imagine those tiny flash drives finding a home spring loaded but hidden inside your actual laptop... much like the doggle of a usb mouse finds its home inside the mouse when not in use. That or get a file drawer for these things!
spider_manOct 21, 2010
Fanboi alert!
When this does happen, it won't be primarily because Apple (with it's small PC market share) decided to cut it's own costs and stop including DVD drives in their systems.
norman619Oct 21, 2010
No s**t. Apple does not drive the market. You have to be mainstream to do that. Hardware vendors like HP and Dell have far more of an impact on computer standards than Apple ever has. I'm still laughing at the idea that the iPad is an original idea. This article and the fanboi replies here illustrate the stereotype of Apple users being technologically ignorant so well.
ljseinfeldOct 22, 2010
Who said the iPad was an original idea? --Or even the iPod for that matter?
Better yet, how does your choice of computer hardware / software justify your delusions of grandeur as opposed to people who like other software / hardware?
charlotte_webOct 21, 2010
The DVD drive isn't included because they are trying to create an ultra-thin/ultra-light notebook, and the DVD drive wasn't a necessary component.
ljseinfeldOct 22, 2010
stop making sense
mittu106Oct 21, 2010
This article is complete arse gravy, digital distribution and repositories have been around for far longer than Apple have been dipping their toes in the water and software has been available on USB for some time as well (one that springs to mind is Norton, which now comes on a USB stick rather than CD/DVD).
Apple have invented/expanded on/pioneered precisely dick that is mentioned in this article.
jqp123Oct 21, 2010
Yes, the thing that is really killing the CD/DVD is the network, the internet.
About the only thing that Apple deserves credit for is officially acknowledging this fact and putting it into practice.
norman619Oct 21, 2010
Nope. Try MP3 and teh wide adoption of mp3 players are what killed off the audio CD. My car stereo supports mp3 and USB so I haven't even bothered burning audio CD's a LONG time now. DVD's on the other hand are still very much in use.
avatar78xOct 21, 2010
Wonder if the author has ever heard of Steam? - albeit Steam is just for Games at the moment.... but its basically the same concept.
hitdrumhardOct 21, 2010
And its vastly successful.
dexanthiaOct 21, 2010
And it's only been around successfully doing this for what, 7 years now? Apple is way behind the curve of early adopters here. Netflix, Steam, and Blizzard, to name a few, are way ahead.
brandonmayOct 21, 2010
Well, Steve DID mention Steams online store, which he did say is where is decided to go with the Mac App store. So, its not like Apple is saying this a completely original idea.
avatar78xOct 22, 2010
brandonmay, While what you say may be perfectly true, the article does not mention this and conveniently gives all the credit to Apple...
The quote:
"Plenty of companies have tried Internet distribution for a long time. Some have success, and some don’t. But none have the type of central repository that Apple is offering here. This is going to be huge"
Is clearly incorrect - Steam IS a central repository (albeit just for games) and it has been very sucsessful (not sure of exact numbers but 30 million users of steam, and a few million logged in at any one time seems pretty sucessful to me!)
http://store.steampowered.com/stats/
gkiltzOct 21, 2010
The entertainment industry did plenty to kill the CD. They are so copyright-obsessed, they are in the process of loving the DVD to death!
norman619Oct 21, 2010
Nope. Most people still have DVD players. Only dif is more people play burned DVD's in those players.
ljseinfeldOct 22, 2010
I haven't played a DVD, burned or otherwise, in at least a year.
qwed88Oct 21, 2010
You really have to love how the Apple fanboys attribute everything to Apple.
The disc media format has been dieing without Apple for some time now.
I'll agree with others and say Steam had a lot to do with that, and cheaper flash storage has had a whole lot to do with that. But it sure as hell wasn't Apple.
tdeletOct 21, 2010
Apple (and media companies) want to get rid of CD's because it is so easy for people to rip CDs to MP3 (and likewise rip movies). If you don't have a CD player in your computer, you are going to buy the MP3 or rent/download the movie. [That said, I purchased one CD recently...and I don't remember the last one I purchased before that. 2 years ago?]Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
macparrotOct 21, 2010
You couldn't be more wrong. Music companies did everything they could to prop up CDs because they make more money off one than individually downloaded songs. They fought as hard as they could to not allow CD ripping to iTunes and other similar music services because they wanted people to buy their music again. The end result was the death of pretty much all the retail music stores.
Now we're going through this video. Don't believe it? How many BlockBuster and other rental video stores have closed down since video could be bought or rented through your computer? I said a few years ago on Digg (look through my comments and you'll find it if you have the time and patience) that BlockBuster was going down and many said I was crazy.I say it here now, DVDs and Blu-Ray have less than 5 years of life before they too go the way of the Dodo. Blu-Ray looks and sounds great, but CD audio was better than MP3s and it didn't save them. As the quality and ease of use goes up, the number of people wanting physical disks goes down. Optical disks are a technology that are on their way out with or without Apple's help.
rickybennettOct 21, 2010
if i had a bury button i would bury this for being lame
Closed AccountOct 21, 2010
Apple alone will not change markets. But at least for the price of an apple product yer getting a USB drive outta the deal. And personally I'd rather have that than 4 CDs.
diggeradoOct 21, 2010
"Stop, take a breath"
Why? Do you think I care if optical disks go away?
worldgate989Oct 21, 2010
Why would anyone buy something which is totally dependent on wether or not 1) that company stays in business and 2) you have their permission to play it. I dont need permission to play a dvd or audio cd. Why would i buy a s**tty mp3 when there so many lossless formats out there.
smogerOct 21, 2010
HP and Dell have been shipping their computers mostly without restore discs for YEARS, and now that the small fry in the market jumped on board it's going to kill optical drives?
Steve Jobs is a marketing genius.
kingpOct 21, 2010
Yes, and it is such a major pain in the ass when you have to reload windows after your hard drive has died...and guess what? Your restore partition died with it.
I wrangled with a support rep to get discs (which they eventually sent), but it was a much longer process than it should have been.
ricksiteOct 21, 2010
Apple IS shipping a restore drive. I am not up to date on what PC companies are doing now but a few years ago I remember some companies putting the restore on the system hard drive. When it failed you were screwed.
smogerOct 21, 2010
ricksite: please read the article. it centers on optical media(the "disc" i referred to).
Hard drive partition restores are a pain if that hard drive dies, yes. But that's not the issue being discussed.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
badqatOct 21, 2010
Uh, but don't those HP and Dell products you speak of have optical drives? Isn't that what we're talking about? The drives, not the "restore discs?"Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
nrsmsnOct 21, 2010
But I had already bought an official record album on a flash drive like two years ago at the same price for a CD. So no credit to apple to think they're a headliner on this idea.
itcollOct 21, 2010
i am sick of stories like these
brilo1Oct 21, 2010
Way to start the fanboy war zubs! Many many companies have ditched cd/dvd roms quite some time ago long before Apple.
The good side of this is now I have a purpose for my Xbox HDDVD drive!!!
wiazfliaOct 21, 2010
Wow, I had no idea Apple invented the flash drive AND online software repositories (cough *Linux* cough). Impressive...
tinfoil209Oct 21, 2010
With today's ISP allowing you to download a raw DVD in just hours, I can see why needing an optical drive is rare. My lightscribe DVD burner is rarely used. Yet with a desktop, and liked with a laptop, having a drive to just be there is good. Let it collect dust, for the price of desktops and laptops I like it being there. The idea of "ohh my USB drives are full, i'll just burn it" is relevant IMHO. This is just Apple's approach of "we took this away cause we say you don't need it".
Ohh and the floppy disk drive argument is stupid. They took that thing out when it was still relevant to "geeks". Difference is since only geeks need it, lets charge more for it.
atomic1fireOct 21, 2010
still, CD's/DVDs are still an inexpensive way to transfer data,
and in most cases, if you have a lot of movies on your computer, then it ultimately falls to you to back them up if your computer goes out.
Cd's and DVDs are still useful for carrying the media physically and even with broadband making bigger downloads easier, it's still an issue of connection speeds in specific areas.
wraithtdkOct 21, 2010
Beyond ridiculous. The only way this will "kill" a storage medium is if every software manufacturer gets on board, and since thumb drives cost a hundred times what an optical disk does, that's not going to happen. "But what about the online appstore" you say. Great, if you have a fast connection. If you're one of the poor souls still on Dial-up or satelite, however, you probably still want a physical product. Hell, a lot of people still do regardless.
Then there's the fact that this article talks as if Apple has done something bold and new here. Microsoft and a million other companies have been doing this for YEARS. I really wish digg still let us bury stories. This is just dumb.
officewriterOct 21, 2010
Even if Apple didn't single-handedly take down CDs, the fact remains that eventually they will be cast aside for a better media, whether that media is a USB drive or some other storage device. This may not happen in the near future but is the inevitable fate for all technology.
ieatskunkOct 21, 2010
Why is Apple even using USB?? I thought they were against USB in favor of FireWire.
arschgaudiOct 21, 2010
I think they realized that USB was the mainstream interface. Look at the iPod, they dropped Firewire after only a year or two.
The again, they managed to f**k the iPad.