Apple patents adapter for mini optical discs

The wii has a slot-loading drive that plays different sized discs...

For anyone that's interested, you can view the application on the uspto.gov website. It's application number 20070271577.

Apple has patented two ways of doing this, not all ways.

So rather than force people to use standard size disks, let's keep up with the wonderful non-standrd stuff. Small disks. Misshaped disks.

I find the current mac line perfect for these, for it gives me a good reason NOT to open them.

My buddy just bought an external HDD and it came with one of those mini discs. So, they're out there and that's is a viable reason to have a solution. But, then again, the glass is always half-empty to testudo as long as Apple is the one filling it.

The first PowerBook G4 came with a slot loading drive that could read both standard sizes (yes, the smaller disk IS a standard size)

We should stop adopting non-standard disc formats for our machines. Leave mini disc readers to third party manufacturers. I remember the Iomega Zip drives we used to backup data from our hard drives in the 1990s. That was an essential technology back then because Mac hard drives were no larger than 500 mb and Zip disks held 200 mb. The mini discs today are hardly essential. Most people can use their iPods as backup disks, buy an external hard drive, or a thumb drive. Also, the Mac does not need to play Wii games unless you are too cheap to buy the Wii. Let the japanese release a Mac clone with dozen of slots for discs and catridges and watch it flop. I wouldn't mind this technology but like it says above: it is not a critical technology

it's not a "critical issue"

My buddy just bought an external HDD and it came with one of those mini discs. So, they're out there and that's is a viable reason to have a solution. But, then again, the glass is always half-empty to testudo as long as Apple is the one filling it.

And exactly what of importance was on that disk, anyway? Maybe if they just stopped putting in worthless disks, there'd be less plastic crap cluttering the landfills.

Wrong-sized disks, just because people make them, doesn't mean they should be adopted. In the good ol' days, what if someone gave you a 3" floppy? Would you have said "Hey, we need to be able to read this?" or "Hey, you ever heard of a 3 1/2" floppy?).