apple news/media reports
11/30/2007, 11:30am, EST
Friday, November 30th
Apple patents adapter for mini optical discs
Recently published by the US Patent and Trademark Office is an application from Apple, relating to optical disc drives. Originally submitted on May 22nd, 2006, the application details an an improvement to slot-loading drives, which allows them to play smaller-sized three-inch discs, in addition to regular-sized five-inch ones. Normally, only tray-loading drives can play both. The application is attributed to iPod engineer Anthony Fadell, who has devised two possible adapters: one with two folding halves, and another in which four sections lock together.
If used in future Apple products, the technology could be a minor but welcome addition, since even the most recent iMacs and MacBooks are unable to run three-inch discs. The issue is not critical mainly because such discs tend to hold promotional media, rather than critical applications.
Filed under: computers, Apple
Other story tags: patents, optical, Fadell
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I find the current mac line perfect for these, for it gives me a good reason NOT to open them.
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?).