Comments on: Are Optical Drives Going the Way of the Floppy? http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/ Sun, 27 May 2012 04:22:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Still More Victims Caught in Apple’s Wake: Apple « http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351692 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:02:37 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351692 [...] Then, following the quarterly earnings call where Steve proclaimed Apple’s love of flash, Apple announced an update to a drive-less MacBook Air: a MacBook which already lacks a SuperDrive. [...]

]]> By: Jeremy099 http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351691 Wed, 05 Aug 2009 07:46:28 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351691 Those are SSD’s (solid state drives) they are used as mass storage for actual computers

This article is talking about SD cards (typcally used to store the pictures in digital cameras

SD *cards* are much MUCH smaller than SSD *drives*

]]> By: Khürt http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351690 Thu, 23 Jul 2009 11:21:21 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351690 @Pete,
I am concerned about data loss (not theft). I have an external drive where my photos and other media is stored. I use BackBlaze ( I do not work for or have any financial interest in BackBlaze ) to back that up. Should my HD fail or my house go up in flames, my documents can be recovered from the Cloud.

Please elaborate on how “Backing data up to a cloud is not secure and you lose control over the information”? Give facts. Not opinion.

]]> By: The MacBook Air is Doomed http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351689 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:01:42 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351689 [...] rented and sold at the iTunes Store. Unlike the floppy, Apple has a vested interest in speeding the demise of the optical drive. Should Apple remove the optical drive on Pro lineup, the impact would be immediate for the MacBook [...]

]]> By: Eric http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351688 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:06:01 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351688 Blu-ray discs go for about $5-$10 each, and can hold 50 gigs. Soon 200 gigs.

Yeah, SD cards will be competitive some day. When they’re so cheap we shoot our photos on them and leave them on. SD-ROM.

]]> By: Eric http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351687 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:28:56 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351687 I have been thinking for a while now that internal DVD drives are going to go. The cost to replace an internal DVD drive is prohibitive, and many iMac owners I know buy a cheap external drive to use when their internal one breaks. That position has to change. And to get slimmer, more power-efficient, lighter laptops, the DVD drive is the next thing to go. Anyone wanting to watch DVDs can get a cheap external drive. And you don’t often need to read or burn a DVD when you have a laptop on your lap, most often you can put it on a desk and then burn, so an external drive is no hassle, as long as it can get it’s power from the laptop.

]]> By: karl http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351686 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:28:52 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351686 Some nice figures that speak for SD here:

http://www.gnegg.ch/2009/05/no-more-hard-drives-for-me/

]]> By: SeanBlader http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351685 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 05:31:55 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351685 Discs for movies yes. Discs for software forget it. In fact, I can’t even remember the last software I got that came on a disc maybe Vista? The few operating systems I’ve picked up since then were downloads, those being Windows 7 and a few editions of Ubuntu. In fact I’d bet in ten years physical media goes away entirely and everything is done via the cloud. Sneakernet is so 20th century.

]]> By: Howie Isaacks http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351684 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:30:35 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351684 I still use mine, but then I’m always having to burn something for a customer. I also burn the latest Mac OS X updates onto DVDs for use out in the field. Not everyone’s internet connection is nice and fast like the one I have at home.

]]> By: David Crellen http://gigaom.com/apple/are-optical-drives-going-the-way-of-the-floppy/#comment-351683 Tue, 14 Jul 2009 22:48:39 +0000 http://theappleblog.com/?p=28334#comment-351683 Apple has always *successfully* abandoned media before its time: Mac was leader in the nascent 3″ drives in lieu of the then-ubiquitous 5″ floppies, etc.

In the original days of memory, there was the expensive EPROM (erasable, programmable, read only memory), the moderately priced PROM (One-time programmable read only memory) and the cheaper ROM (factory programmable read only memory).

With Apple’s foresight and the above analogy to flash memory, I can easily see Apple defining a factory-programmed, multi-gigabyte, read-only SD device which could house Snow Leopard distribution (or Logic Studio). It would not have to be reprogrammed and would cost a tiny fraction of a flash SD card and be a permanent storage device for the bootable software.

It would be like making a “Gold SD” and, guaranteeing millions, would probably cost less than distribution on DVD’s.

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