It's about the cloud
That's great, Jon, but the difference between digital media stored on a DVD and digital media stored on a flash drive or external drive is non existent.
You mean other than the extreme difference in cost? I will give someone a DVD without blinking (10 cents), but I am not so generous with a flash drive. Because that costs $12 - $40 depending on the size, I want it back. Not only that, but everyone has a CD/DVD player, even those without computers. "I'm not dead yet!"
I sure hope your 10 cent DVDs last as long as you think they're going to last, I wouldn't count on it though.
If I am giving away a DVD, I don't care if it is archival. It is 10 cents, they can keep it, whatever.
However, pressed DVDs and CDs -- which I did describe -- will pretty much last forever. I only do a digital download if it is much cheaper -- like a single song--- so I do a lot of those. Sometimes -- as with Beatles music -- I can get a CD for half the price of what Apple charges for just a download, so I rip it to my iPhone. The CD is indeed archival quality. And codecs change over time time, and Apple has no problem obsoleting anything 'too old'. Some day I won't be able to play back my 'protected AAC' songs from Apple. My CDs sitting in the basement however can and will be reripped to the latest codec -- 512kbps AAC-super-plus, and I won't have to spend another penny. Music and video companies LOVE it when you re-buy the same old content. Atta boy! Baby needs a new helicopter!
You seem to want to talk about burned optical media, so let's go there, too. A good brand like Taiyo Yuden can be had for 10 cents a piece in bulk and are archival quality, unlike the crap you get from Memorex. I will trust that for archive more than ANY hard drive. Hard drives may die in just 3 years (like my last Seagate piece of crap). I don't consider anything backed up on a 2nd hard drive to be truly 'archived' either, though that is what I often do as well. Geez, even tape is safer than hard drives if you can still find it. Burn two copies on a Taiyo Yuden DVD, spend a whopping 20 cents in total, and put the disks away in a plastic sleeve. Only magneto-optical was safer than this (may it RIP).
The removal of optical media from Apple devices is really not about you running your own server farm of multiple hard drives to protect your memories. One solar flare and all of your cherished data is toast no matter how many magnetic copies you have (though I can't say I am worried about that too much, though it will happen SOME day) -- it is about creating a new market for Apple.
Apple wants you to stick everything in the cloud. Amusing to me, because backup on optical is almost free, immediate access on 2TB hard drives is incredibly cheap (entire new drives are less than premium storage sites annual fees). Apple/Google/IBM and others want to sell you server-based storage when for the first time in history, unlimited LOCAL storage is practically free (optical) or petty cash (1TB/2TB hard drive).
Removing optical from the Mini is about driving people to the cloud. This is also why Jobs hates Blu Ray. They want to kill off the alternatives, and 50gig per BD for a little over a buck is way more storage than you are going to get on the cloud for a buck. Burn two copies, you are much better protected than a server farm in India.
Stuff I use a lot, I will put in the cloud, but I will NEVER trust another company with my data for 'archive'. It is just bad judgment. Multiple hard drives and archival optical are vastly cheaper and way more reliable than the whims of a company offering free services. Apple has repeatedly shown its colors on how much they can be trusted when they shut down Web sites on Mobile Me and .Mac and just say, "GET OUT!" They may need to reformulate iCloud a few times before they get it right (this is time #3 already by my count), and they have no compunctions about tell you you better take your data or lose it. Apple isn't unique in this game by any means. Next they will charge you not to jerk you around, and per year you will pay more for your cloud storage than buying a new 2TB every year will cost, for less than a 10th of the storage cost.
Back the mini, isn't it used as a Home Theater PC a lot? No DVD? Really? With the recent Netflix fiasco, expect to see RedBox capturing marketshare. A Home Theater PC that can't run those $1 rentals from RedBox doesn't sound that great to me. Ah, I forget -- Macs are for the Elite! (not the 'Rest of us') We elite NEVER rent $1 DVDs/$2 BDs or get them for free from the library. I stand corrected.
Hey whatever -- I wasn't going to buy one anyway, so can't say I give a crap. I do love my iPhone and iPad, so I do love some of Apple's products, but I reserve the right to think for myself despite that. Not all that glitters is gold. I just find it amusing how my Apple brethren are willing to pay more for less and call it a plum. I see it with Lion as well.
