Was anyone aware of the new format coming to town?

It's like a little miniDisc, about the size of a quarter and holds 500MB. I can't even remember the name of the little thing, but the article I read never mentioned whether it had compression (one would assume so) or what type it was. The feel of the article was that the industry has decided that the public doesn't much care about the sound quality of a given format, what they want is convenience, portability and recordability. It is NOT being supported by Warner or Sony, but apparently others are in line. The article had a picture of the new Lenny Kravitz packaging, which was about the size of a jewel case, but had a little area to actually hold the software. Big plants are gearing up to manufacture both hardware and software. I couldn't be less interested, but obviously the industry wants to shake things up for some reason. I wonder how the dust will settle, and what, if any, effect this will have on the aspiring SACD and DVD-A formats.

 

IBM Microdrive, or a derivitive therein.

Or at least, it may be. Tiny little HD:

http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/micro/overvw.htm

 

I think this goes by the name DataPlay. It's not a tiny harddrive, just a tiny disc.

Anyway, who needs it? Are CDs too big? Nobody (except the Japanese?) liked the 3-inch CD.

And it wouldn't save any retail shelf space because retailers have to have them in cases big enough that they aren't ridiculously easy to steal.

What kind of label can they have on something the size of a quarter?

Think how easy it would be to lose.

Maybe for a specialized market, like sending on manned space missions. Otherwise, what's the point?

Now, the little harddrive, on the other hand, is a great idea.

 

Savings #1: They don't have to print any label.

Profit Bonus! You'll have to buy another one!

*Bingo! Struck It Rich!*

Sell it to the government as a "Part" for the space mission that will insure that they will pay a gazillion $$$ for it.

 

Yes, I recall reading that story on the Dataplay format. I am not going to buy a DataPlay player. For information go to www.dataplay.com

The titles available on DataPlay are:
*NSYNC - Celebrity
Aaron Carter - Oh Aaron
Adema - Adema
Britney Spears - Britney
Brooks & Dunn - Steers & Stripes
Kenny Chesney - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
OutKast - Big Boi & Dre Present OutKast
OutKast - Stankonia
Pink - Missundaztood
R. Kelly - TP-2.com
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing
Usher - 8701

 

[QUOTE
The titles available on DataPlay are:
*NSYNC - Celebrity
Aaron Carter - Oh Aaron
Adema - Adema
Britney Spears - Britney
Brooks & Dunn - Steers & Stripes
Kenny Chesney - No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems
OutKast - Big Boi & Dre Present OutKast
OutKast - Stankonia
Pink - Missundaztood
R. Kelly - TP-2.com
Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing
Usher - 8701 [/B][/QUOTE]

Whoohoo, well, there's more than just "another damn format!" to keep me from buying it.

 

FWIW, most, if not all, of these are on BMG-related labels.

 

I'm going to hold out for a 24 carat gold chip that will be implanted into the brain. Will have every song ever recorded on it, just a thought away, right there in the old noodle.

 

So, where would you put the tubes?

 

I think one of the main objectives for the record companies is that these discs could be totally copy-controlled. I read about this in USA Today several months ago when the Napster thing was still a hot issue.

 

It's an idea that might work for recordable media but I don't think many folks would actually put all their eggs in this basket...so to speak. Don't see it happening.

 

if it is really similar to a computer HD, that does not look like a good idea for a portable device - HDs are rather brittle and will hardly sustain the abuse that is usually inflicted on a portable medium.