exactly ...and how many of them buy tons of DVDs and CDs and want to play or rip them on a computer? 1/10 of 1% if that.
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Why is Apple trying to phase out physical media 10 years before the public is ready?
- Thread starter StephenCampbell
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Or burn something onto a CD.
There still isn't a viable way other than an optical disc to copy very large amounts of data and give it to someone on a cheap, disposable medium. Sure, there are thumb drives, but those are pricey.
My wife (a teacher) makes a movie for each 5th grader going on to middle school. This movie typically comes in at about half a gigabyte - very cumbersome for downloading, and it can't be played in a DVD player hooked up to a TV (many students in her district don't have computers). So she burns 80-ish CD's every year to distribute to the kids. Doing this "in the cloud" won't work; optical media are still the most viable solution.
For those who still need optical drives, should Apple take them out of their offerings, you have a choice - get an external drive or don't buy Apple. I can count the number of times I've burned discs in my almost 3 year old MacBook. In fact, I can only remember burning discs for my luddite parents.
My area has no highspeed...still.
Tired of all this cloud bs, I could barely load google on the dial up we had. Im fine for slicing it out of the comp, but include it in the sale.
Tired of all this cloud bs, I could barely load google on the dial up we had. Im fine for slicing it out of the comp, but include it in the sale.
I'm sixteen, and I buy CDs all the time. I buy them because I want to support the artist, not an online distributor. I use my optical drive for that, and I watch movies with it. My internet is nowhere near fast enough for me to download movies. Too much of a hassle.
I posted a similar topic on a music forum here. The responses are the complete opposite of this forum. Obviously, CDs are not "deadtech" (ridiculous) and will be around for a while.
I posted a similar topic on a music forum here. The responses are the complete opposite of this forum. Obviously, CDs are not "deadtech" (ridiculous) and will be around for a while.
I'm not giving up CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays anytime soon, this is why Apple sells external DVD drives.
Artists get paid when you buy digital copies too. I don't understand supporting the online distributor. What's the difference between Walmart or Target or Joe Blow records taking a cut of the sale vs. iTunes or Amazon?
Digital music will outsell physical media for the first time this year. Face it, the CD is dying a pretty quick death.
CDs are hanging on for the same reason audio cassette tapes still were a decade ago - cars. Most people have cd players in their cars. Sure, new cars and car stereos have multiple ways of connecting your digital audio device but most people still listen to the radio or cds while driving. Being able to burn a cd of whatever music you want to listen to that day is a big deal for a lot of people. They too will soon get over the fact that they can just connect an external drive to burn or read physical media, and eventually they'll get cars that they can plug their ipod/iphone/whatever into.
They're doing it to cut the cost of putting a disk drive in every Mac and, more importantly, get people to rely more heavily on iTunes and the whole Apple ecosystem. Locks people into buying more and more of their stuff.
I agree that disk drives are still very important. I consider any computer without one not usable as a main machine.
satellite?
better invent a time machine then. this stuff is the future of computing.
The artist is making the same amount from the CD or the internet. If you buy off iTunes, some goes to the artist, some to the label, some to apple. If you buy a CD, some goes to the retailer, some goes to the label who produced the album, and some goes to the artist. It's the same thing.
Audio CDs probably have a few years left in them. But in like 5 years, many more people will have 10+ mbit internet connections, hard drives will hold 10+ TB, and you will be able to get lossless from the iTunes store.
You need to remember the time. In 1998 the iMac did not have a CD burner. CD burners then were very costly (I believe north of 1k) and if you could find blank CDs they were not exactly cheap, Email was still text only, Flash drives could not really be bought yet and at the time the only way to really move small files between computers was by floppy disk. Zip disk were not common and cost a fair amount of money.
Not to saw that the writing for the end of floppies was not on the wall even then but good wall. It was not for at least another 5 years before floppies were finally completely killed off. I see flash drives as what finally put an end to floppies as it was a good way to easily move fills between computers. I know the last time I had to use a floppy was in 2007 but I had a teacher who was REALLY old school and I had to go out and buy a box of 5 to do it.
Bingo. There is a great example of why optical drives are not ready to be phased out. There is no good cheap disposable media to phase it out. Cloud services just are not ready for it and they tend to bitch big time when you start having 10+gigs streamed from them. I have had my public dropbox folder suspended before in the past because I had way to much file streaming from it plus it was REALLY REALLY slow for those big files.
I know for school I burn a few disk every semester to turn in for class because when I am done I can toss them and there is no reason to worry if I do not get them back. The files are just a little to large to email and they are file types that often get blocked by email services.
This summer I built up a collection of old flash drives dating back to 2004ish that I can rotate between on stuff I turn in but that still only a handful of drives and even then I do not want to loss them but not a huge loss if I do. They have to be cycled threw depending how many are currently with the grader.
Apple doesn't control the public
They control what products the public gets. This doesn't just apply to Apple.
Like they did with vinyl?
No, that's not really true, for vinyl offers an ambiance that all digital sources fall to deliver.
And they don't degrade is storage, if well cared for, just in over-playing on poor tables.
Apple doesn't control the public
Have you ever read, uhh..."certain users'" posts around here? It HAS to be Apple mind control.
I totally agree that CDs/DVDs/Blu-Rays will be used for a long time. Also, I don't like this control Apple is imposing on everything. And I don't think the iPad can replace the desktop/laptop.
Steve Jobs is crazy and Apple is screwing up!
Steve Jobs is crazy and Apple is screwing up!
So, it's a business. And it's a business that somehow has the authority to FORCE it's customers to buy new things when they change them.
Is it really a move forward if the public was perfectly happy without it?
Like they did with vinyl?
No, that's not really true, for vinyl offers an ambiance that all digital sources fall to deliver.
And they don't degrade is storage, if well cared for, just in over-playing on poor tables.
Hell yes, I was DELIGHTED to leave vinyl behind in favor of CDs. Audiophiles and purists are welcome to vinyl, but for the rest of us the CD is worlds better.
By the same token, it's now time to prepare to leave CDs (and other optical media) behind. We have other options now. Better options.
I wouldn't call downloadable music better.
Buying an Audio CD is like buying a master. You have a (near enough) full quality slice of audio that you can play on any CD player, play on any computer, play in almost every car. But then you can also rip that to a file that has the same privileges and benefits as a download - but at the quality you want. And then you can put that file on your iPod or any other device. (this is why I buy film DVDs and not downloads at least)
Albums aren't for me. I rarely like everything a band or musician does. But I can see that CD's are the best way to get music for the range of devices and options you get with it, and the price can be cheaper than a download version too.
I'm cruising along nicely at 40mbps now, after spending a decade on 512kbps. But even then I don't want cloud services, well, for personal files and documents. They can have a mirror of my iTunes library if they want.
I don't like DVD's or Downloads. I think they should replace the CD/DVD this something that doesn't get scratched and is smaller (Maybe 2 - 3 inches?) and also Solid state (?). Trying to get rid of physical media is a joke.