Posted on 07/11/2009 8:41:34 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Last month, most of Apple's MacBooks were upgraded with SD card slots. The most popular 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pros both now have card readers. Apple even explains how to build a bootable SD card. Why on earth would Apple go through the trouble of explaining how to create a boot disk from an SD card? That seems way out in left field. They never did that for USB key drives.
I think there is more to it than that. Apple doesn't just do things like SD cards. "You can just throw in a USB SD card reader" had been the mantra up until this point. Apple didn't need to bother itself with these little things.
Now, I think things have changed. The SD card has become part of Apple's MacBook strategy. It should be arriving on the MacBook Air and the regular MacBook at the next updates...and it might even take the place of the DVD drive on the next MacBook.
That's right, I think the SD card is going to replace the DVD drive on most of Apple's laptops going forward. If you really need a DVD, you'll be able to buy an external USB Superdrive - but that option will mostly be a safety net.
Remember when Apple killed the floppy with the iMac? This will be the same thing. You could buy external floppy but how many of you really did?
Think about it. What would you rather have on your laptop? An easily rewritable 32GB SD card the size of a postage stamp that can hold about the same amount of data as 8 DVDs or a big spinning disk that can scratch easily and takes up about 1/4th of the internal usable area in your laptop?
It is a no-brainer; optical is over.
(Excerpt) Read more at pcworld.com ...
What are the read/write life cycles for flash memory?
I can also download movies, or burn DVD's to iTunes for download onto it. I have music, both videos, and and lots of CD audios. I love the App store at iTunes. I can even download a program to keep me from getting a traffic ticket in DC (in the news this week).
The trend toward flash memories is migratory. It began with necessity. Digital cameras forced the revolution to quicken. Now, we are seeing the first fruits. A 2TB isn't out of sight. It's just too darn expensive RIGHT NOW.
But, due to foresight of some in the computer industry, it's uses have blossomed and grown. There will soon be no spinning disks. After that, there will not even be anything to connect. It will just migrate through the ether, to where ever you desire...
Who knows what is next... Steve Jobs (and the Apple folk) probably has an idea or two!
Facial Detection: Another patent application, filed on March 8th, 2008, addresses the use of facial detection to allow a device to determine whether a user is passively interacting with the device. As an example, Apple describes how a user watching a video may have to periodically interact with a device in order to prevent a screen saver from activating. Apple's invention utilizes automatic facial detection via a camera on the device to determine that a user is present. The method may also be used to grant or deny users access to restricted applications or other data. -MacRumors.com
Depends on the type of memory. IIRC, NAND Flash (the kind used in solid state drives) has 1 million read/write cycles before the memory block becomes unusable. 1 million sounds extremely low, but SSDs have read/write controllers that distribute the load across all of the memory blocks. The net result is that an SSD will have a longer practical lifespan than the average 5 year life of magnetic platter hard drives.
Basically, if you don’t use the Flash card all that much—let’s say you want to archive documents for long-term posterity as part of an archival storage project—the data will be preserved for many, many, many years. Much longer than it would be preserved on a standard magnetic platter hard drive or on an optical disc.
I think the SD cards are physically too small to be a truly practical medium. They can get lost in the folds of your clothing or between the pages of a book. They make no sound when you accidentally knock one off your desk. They must be tweezed in and out of their slot with your fingertips. Making them a little bigger and more massive would actually make them more practical.
No, I’m not Henry Birdseye. Someone here posted a link to the “Fascism” clip on that page, and I saw the computer one, too. It seems Henry was a TV news reporter in New Mexico.
Yup. Continuing my previous comment, I actually like the form factor of Compact Flash cards. Much smaller than that, and they are just too hard to label.
Yeah, I have it on my other laptop. I thought you could authorize up to 3 computers with one license.
Haven’t heard about OpenOffice yet. I’ll go check it out right now.
That would be really stupid. When they went away from floppies the floppy was already almost gone, the vast majority of software was shipping on CDs by then, floppies were pretty much just boot disks and and sneaker net items. CDs and DVDs are still a primary mode of distributing software, sure downloads are coming on strong but when you’re dropping multiple hundreds of dollars people tend to want something solid. Maybe in another 5 to 10 years, but not yet.
It’s from Sun Microsystems, it’s open source, and it’s free. If your license is for 3 computers, go for it; I just wasn’t sure.
I’m not sure either, I’ll look tonight. Thanks for your help!
“$3398 10MB Hard Drive”
I love that. I remember one MacWorld cover that proclaimed, “Massive Hard Drives Coming,” which was touting 100MB drives. :-)
True enough, but I think someone made a SCSI version so you could attach one. The 128k Mac, was supposed to be a 256k Mac, but not enough chips were available, so Steve Jobs decided that no one would ever need more than 128k.
The original 3.5 Mac floppy was 400k but was big enough to hold MacWrite, MacDraw, the operating system, and plenty of room to store files.
People commonly referred to the 3.5 floppy as a Hard disk.
The Apple II GS had it all, with a better gui, but Apple milked it dry and went Mac, I have owned about all of them except some of the more esoteric priced models. My needs now are much simpler, and about any of the Core 2 duo's are fast enough for what I do.
Those dang cars will never replace horses. Of course we are about to retro to bicycles...So maybe you won't have to change.
I have one of those I use on my Mac Mini which is connected to my 52 inch TV, in my bed room, works great.
I’m sorry, but the IIGS’s GUI wasn’t that good.
What is your prediction for the time frame when I send video to a technical ignoramus on SD for $0.30 and they can play it, not on their computer, but on their $99 “SD player” that they got at Best Buy and attached to their TV?
I already have 2 terabytes of video files hooked to a player I got from Western Digital, around $100.00. My TV already has an USB thumb drive port, many others have SD slots. I play nothing from a DVD anymore, I use HandBrake on anything not protected and have a couple other programs that let me get around those pesky disc.
I record anything that I want to keep, from TV, with ElGato’s EyeTV.
Yes it was, except for the resolution, which had nothing to do with the features, the GUI had that are still not available on the Mac, there was even a pretty decent GUI for the Apple IIe
How nice for you. Now tell that to someone who has trouble getting a DVD to play. Which is an awful lot of people.
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