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Post by Christopher J on Oct 29, 2005 18:22:25 GMT
I read in the Metro yesterday that Bill Gates and Microsoft are developing a wot-not that will eliminate the need for DVDs, CDs and VHS Videos and all entertainment will be available to download from the Internet. I bet HMV and Virgin Music are happy to hear that. What other spaced out pieces of technology is this bloke going to think up next? Next week we'll probably be hearing he's developing light sabres for use in the army.  I think he's been watching a bit too much Red Dwarf and needs to come back down to earth in my opinion. |
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Post by Chris W on Oct 29, 2005 19:40:55 GMT
Chris You have to remember.... love him or loathe him.... he did predict in that mid-late 1970's that every office member of staff would have a PC on his/her desk within 25 or so years...... he wasn't far out then........ I for one would be sad to lose the CD.... & and as a radio presenter am still mourning the pass the pass of vinyl...... but that's the price of progress Perhaps I'm being a cynic, but its just seems to me that whatever format is released today will be made redundant and obsolete in a few years (this cycle is becoming increasingly rapid), which just allows/gives the publishers/owners of the recording another chance to make some more money out of us.....  Even within the same technology (e.g. CD's) we see the same recordings repackaged and resold to the masses who continue to buy them   |
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Post by Tomcakes on Oct 29, 2005 19:49:55 GMT
Rather strange considering it's been possible to do this for years. Like this podcasting lark - it's been possible to transmit sound files over networks for years, yet it's branded as something new?
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Post by q8 on Oct 29, 2005 20:18:23 GMT
I have heard that this new doodah is something to do with solid state storage technology and will be forward compatible for the solid state computers of the future. I *think* it is a large version of the card reader thingies.
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Chris M
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Post by Chris M on Oct 30, 2005 0:17:49 GMT
You can already buy solid-state memory cards in the shops that have larger capacities than CDs (Jessop's in Croydon were selling 1GB memory cards and 2GB in at least some of the formats. CDs are 650-800MB). They're still too pricey for a casual purchase, but you can get them cheaper online). As music on audio CDs is (very approximately) 10MB/minute and MP3s are (equally aproximately) 1mb per minute you don't even need that capacity. My current collection of 5002 MP3s takes approximately 19GB of disk space.
My phone can play music from SD cards, and its not designed as a music player. The technology is already here. SD cards have a write protect option, so I wonder how long it will be before read-only SD cards are sold in music shops like read-only tapes used to be. Say a typical album is 12 tracks averaging 3 minutes each, in mp3 format that only needs 3 minutes X 1MB/minute X 12 tracks = 3MB X 12 = 36MB. 64MB cards are available for less than £9each online. Wholesale they would be much cheaper, and I suspect (but don't know) that the overheads for getting the music on there would be cheaper than for CD (no moving parts). I suspect therefore that whoever could make a profit selling albums on SD cards for £12-15 high street retail, which is not dissimilar to the current price of albums on CD.
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Post by q8 on Oct 30, 2005 5:29:58 GMT
Yeah I know you can get large memory cards already but this new gadget appears to be an enhancement of it and built-in too. Wether it will be the same format is anybodies guess.
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