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I just wrote a little piece and want to ask, Is this worthy of posting as a blog in the M-F blogs area?
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How little USB flash drives could replace CDs/DVDs
I just an idea. Just a little blog like thing I want to post. About how I think these little drives could easily replace the optical media we use today.
Music
Firstly you release all CD's on USB drive instead. A 1-2GB one is all you'd need. And then you don't have to constrained to the size of the disc. You just release your album on a USB drive big enough to fit your album + bonus content. And if you kept the album cases the same size roughly as they are now then you could have the album art and lyrics and other things too.
Also this means you won't need to have a disc drive in your home theatre set up. You just could just have a really tiny box with a USB port. Plug in the album and it plays. The box would also have ports to speakers and visuals like TV's and the like. This little box could we wireless enabled too. Kind of like the home theatre hubs we have now just much smaller. And smaller is always a good thing. We can decorate our homes better. And I'm sure the business world would find many uses for these smaller boxes too.
ipod
At the moment to listen music legally in your ipod you need to purchase from itunes or buy the CD from store, take it home, rip the tracks and upload them to the ipod. But if the album was released on USB or similar drives you could just plug the album into the ipod and within itunes (on the ipod) click upload album from the drive. And within a few mins of album purchase you could be listening to the album on your ipod.
I think Apple really need to be patenting this technology now. Cause I feel this disc-less future will come one day. And even if it does not, no loss to Apple. They patent stuff all the time that never sees the light of day. Cause to me having to wait till I get home (cause I do not own a notebook) to listen to an album can be a real drag.
Movies
Just like music (Music DVDs though are treated like movies for the purpose of this discussion), the movies can be released on a USB or other drive. And then if your movie + bonus content is a little larger then a disc say you don't have cut things to fit the disc, you just put the movie + bonus content on a drive the right size. And the home theatre box I mentioned above could the used for music and movies if hooked up to a TV.
Be it Blu Ray or standard dvds, you'd only need the one tiny box that would play everything. Pretty much plug in the drive and play the media content, whatever it is. And before you cry will this kill blu-ray? I say no. As to me blu-ray is the higher quality content and not the media it's on. The media only exists cause the content needed more space. So you can have the same high quality blu-ray content shipped on a 25 or so GB drive. They'd be shipped in the same sized boxes as movies are today so the cover art and advertising and little booklet would still be there.
Software
Just like the new MBA's OS, you'd just release the Applications on the USB drives. And install them via drive. Many people make USB versions of their favourite game or application discs. So this is very doable.
Also you won't have to release some software on multiple discs anymore. You could just have only large USB drive for it all. And you'd select what parts of the software or game you want to install.
Cost
I can see 2 possible outcomes of the cost if this was to happen.
1. Many many USB flash drives are made to meet demand and this drives down the cost of flash storage. To the point where a say 1-2 GB usb drive would be treated the same as a blank cd or dvd is today. Something rather disposable that would easily put data on and give away. Like when you burn data onto a disc for a mate, you don't ask for the disc back. And the smaller flash drives will be same. They'll become so cheap you won't bother asking for the drive back. You'll just buy 10 more at the local store and think nothing of it.
2. The other possible outcome is every big movie, music and software company goes into a bidding war to get supply of flash drives. And cause of this there is limited supply after all of this, left for the average consumer. And this lack of supply could raise the prices of flash storage. But I see option 1 more plausible cause if they stopped making all the billions of discs they mach each year they could easily make enough flash storage to meet needs for the foreseeable future.
Durability
Discs are prone to scratching and snapping etc. And you have to be really careful, especially with the Blu-rays cause even finger prints on the data side of the disc can affect it's performance. You'd have so such issues with a USB drive. And if there was a little cap hinged to the drive itself to cover the metal prongs then the drive was not in use, then you've something much more durable then a disc.
And the data on the flash drives should last for a long time, 10 years + I'd suspect. Cause you're not constantly rewetting and deleting sectors like in a standard SSD drive. The USB sticks would be read only, just like a disc. Sure a few smart cookies would be able to hack this but as long as it's too hard to hack this for 95% of the population then it's ok.
Packaging and Shipping
A USB drive is smaller then a disc. A little thicker but nowhere near as wide. And this means for many things would could house the drive and instructions in a much smaller box. And that'll keep all the green people happy. Also smaller boxes equals more boxes per pallet greatly reducing the cost to ship the product around the country or world.
Conclusion
The vinyl record died. And if the disc (CD, DVD) died and was replaced by mini USB drives I'd be happy. Sure I do have 1000+ music cds all store bought. But I only rip them once to my itunes list then they just look pretty in my room. So in short they take up a lot of space and do nothing. And things that look pretty but do nothing we usually call antiques. Maybe it's time the disc died.
*******************
How little USB flash drives could replace CDs/DVDs
I just an idea. Just a little blog like thing I want to post. About how I think these little drives could easily replace the optical media we use today.
Music
Firstly you release all CD's on USB drive instead. A 1-2GB one is all you'd need. And then you don't have to constrained to the size of the disc. You just release your album on a USB drive big enough to fit your album + bonus content. And if you kept the album cases the same size roughly as they are now then you could have the album art and lyrics and other things too.
Also this means you won't need to have a disc drive in your home theatre set up. You just could just have a really tiny box with a USB port. Plug in the album and it plays. The box would also have ports to speakers and visuals like TV's and the like. This little box could we wireless enabled too. Kind of like the home theatre hubs we have now just much smaller. And smaller is always a good thing. We can decorate our homes better. And I'm sure the business world would find many uses for these smaller boxes too.
ipod
At the moment to listen music legally in your ipod you need to purchase from itunes or buy the CD from store, take it home, rip the tracks and upload them to the ipod. But if the album was released on USB or similar drives you could just plug the album into the ipod and within itunes (on the ipod) click upload album from the drive. And within a few mins of album purchase you could be listening to the album on your ipod.
I think Apple really need to be patenting this technology now. Cause I feel this disc-less future will come one day. And even if it does not, no loss to Apple. They patent stuff all the time that never sees the light of day. Cause to me having to wait till I get home (cause I do not own a notebook) to listen to an album can be a real drag.
Movies
Just like music (Music DVDs though are treated like movies for the purpose of this discussion), the movies can be released on a USB or other drive. And then if your movie + bonus content is a little larger then a disc say you don't have cut things to fit the disc, you just put the movie + bonus content on a drive the right size. And the home theatre box I mentioned above could the used for music and movies if hooked up to a TV.
Be it Blu Ray or standard dvds, you'd only need the one tiny box that would play everything. Pretty much plug in the drive and play the media content, whatever it is. And before you cry will this kill blu-ray? I say no. As to me blu-ray is the higher quality content and not the media it's on. The media only exists cause the content needed more space. So you can have the same high quality blu-ray content shipped on a 25 or so GB drive. They'd be shipped in the same sized boxes as movies are today so the cover art and advertising and little booklet would still be there.
Software
Just like the new MBA's OS, you'd just release the Applications on the USB drives. And install them via drive. Many people make USB versions of their favourite game or application discs. So this is very doable.
Also you won't have to release some software on multiple discs anymore. You could just have only large USB drive for it all. And you'd select what parts of the software or game you want to install.
Cost
I can see 2 possible outcomes of the cost if this was to happen.
1. Many many USB flash drives are made to meet demand and this drives down the cost of flash storage. To the point where a say 1-2 GB usb drive would be treated the same as a blank cd or dvd is today. Something rather disposable that would easily put data on and give away. Like when you burn data onto a disc for a mate, you don't ask for the disc back. And the smaller flash drives will be same. They'll become so cheap you won't bother asking for the drive back. You'll just buy 10 more at the local store and think nothing of it.
2. The other possible outcome is every big movie, music and software company goes into a bidding war to get supply of flash drives. And cause of this there is limited supply after all of this, left for the average consumer. And this lack of supply could raise the prices of flash storage. But I see option 1 more plausible cause if they stopped making all the billions of discs they mach each year they could easily make enough flash storage to meet needs for the foreseeable future.
Durability
Discs are prone to scratching and snapping etc. And you have to be really careful, especially with the Blu-rays cause even finger prints on the data side of the disc can affect it's performance. You'd have so such issues with a USB drive. And if there was a little cap hinged to the drive itself to cover the metal prongs then the drive was not in use, then you've something much more durable then a disc.
And the data on the flash drives should last for a long time, 10 years + I'd suspect. Cause you're not constantly rewetting and deleting sectors like in a standard SSD drive. The USB sticks would be read only, just like a disc. Sure a few smart cookies would be able to hack this but as long as it's too hard to hack this for 95% of the population then it's ok.
Packaging and Shipping
A USB drive is smaller then a disc. A little thicker but nowhere near as wide. And this means for many things would could house the drive and instructions in a much smaller box. And that'll keep all the green people happy. Also smaller boxes equals more boxes per pallet greatly reducing the cost to ship the product around the country or world.
Conclusion
The vinyl record died. And if the disc (CD, DVD) died and was replaced by mini USB drives I'd be happy. Sure I do have 1000+ music cds all store bought. But I only rip them once to my itunes list then they just look pretty in my room. So in short they take up a lot of space and do nothing. And things that look pretty but do nothing we usually call antiques. Maybe it's time the disc died.