disc

3.5 million 3D Blu-ray movie discs sold in U.S.

Up to 3.5 million 3D Blu-ray movie discs have been sold in the U.S. since mid 2010, according to a new report from research firm IHS Screen Digest.

Half of these discs were picked up through retailers, while the rest were bundled with 3D TVs, says the study, titled "Life in 3D: BD3D's first year of sales." Furthermore, 507,293 out of 1.75 million retail copies flew off the shelves in 2010 alone, compared with the 363,000 2D editions sold in 2006, the first year the format debuted. (Do note that the Sony-led Blu-ray standard was competing against the HD-DVD camp back then, whereas 3D Blu-ray has cornered the entire 3D movie disc market for home consumers.)

"Once [consumers] have 3D in the home, they love it and are hungry for content, snapping up BD3D movies as soon as they become available," said Jan Saxton, film entertainment senior analyst for IHS. "Sales reached this high level despite the fact that the number of BD3D titles on the market was relatively small compared to non-3D Blu-ray."

The growth could accelerate in the second half of this year, the report says, with the number of 3D Blu-ray titles available expected to reach 93 by the end of 2011.

(Source: Crave Asia)… Read more

Sony to stop producing MiniDisc Walkman devices

Due to shrinking demand, Sony will cease production of MiniDisc Walkman devices this coming September, Nikkei reported today. This marks yet another blow to the dying format, which experienced a roller-coaster ride of popularity during its 20-year lifetime.

During MiniDisc's introduction at CES 1991, Norio Ohga, Sony's president and CEO at the time, boasted that "the success and benefits of CD and analog compact cassette led to a new need--a need based on satisfaction with CD's wonderful sound, durability, and quick random access, and a need based on the portability, recordability, and shock resistance of the analog cassette. It is a need for MiniDisc."

A need, indeed. After launching the first MD products in 1992, Sony would go on to sell more than 22 million MiniDisc devices (as of March 2011), with millions more sold by other companies that licensed the technology, including big names such as Sharp, Kenwood, Panasonic, and others. … Read more

The 404 856: Where we have liftoff (podcast)

We all watched NASA's final space shuttle launch this morning before heading into the studio, and by "we" I mean Wilson and me, because as usual, Jeff couldn't care less. Nevertheless, we're still excited about Atlantis and spend part of the first half of the show watching videos and talking about the official Atlantis fanfare written by Emmy-nominated composer Bear McCreary and produced by actor Seth Green!

We're also mourning the death of Sony MiniDiscs, checking out a new way networks are handling product placements, and singing a brand new Tang That Tune!

The 404 Digest for Episode 856

Atlantis launch a bittersweet end for space shuttle. Fanfare for final NASA shuttle mission. Sony to kill the MiniDisc Walkman in September. TV networks inserting ads and product placements in show reruns. Kidrobot launches Street Fighter toys. The missing person living in Savannah.

Episode 856 Subscribe in iTunes (audio) | Subscribe in iTunes (video) | Subscribe in RSS Audio | Subscribe in RSS Video… Read more

Addressing CDs and DVDs automatically ejecting in OS X

Apple included an optical drive in most Mac models, and even for those who do not have an internal drive there are options for using external USB or Firewire drives. While optical drives should accept formatted and blank optical media, there are times when people find that discs automatically eject from the drive when inserted.

This happens because the drive cannot recognize the formatting of the disc and also does not recognize it as a burnable medium. Usually the drive will recognize a disc and attempt to communicate its file-system structure to the computer, but if it cannot read the … Read more

Ejecting external optical drives in OS X

When an optical disc is mounted in OS X, it cannot be ejected by pressing the button on the optical drive, as is the case with Windows PCs. In fact, even though some of Apple's OEM drives contain the standard eject button, it is hidden by the system's chassis. When mounted, the disc is locked by the system so to eject it you will have to do one of three things:

Drag to the trash Dragging a removable disc to the trash has been in the Mac OS since early on. It is how floppy disks were ejected … Read more

Music collection database

It's hard enough to keep up with a digital music collection spanning thousands of tunes over gigabytes of disk space, but what do you do if you have LP records, cassette tapes, Edison wax cylinders, and other musical media? Duck Software's Album Tracker can help music lovers get a handle on their ever-expanding libraries. It's a highly customizable music database that lets you organize your music by genre as well as title, artist, and other typical categories. It's not a music or media player and doesn't try to reorganize or convert your library; it simply … Read more

Flying disc fun

Frisbee Forever is the fully licensed flying disc app that lets you guide a Frisbee disc through colorful obstacle courses. Against a cartoonlike 3D backdrop, you start by flicking your Frisbee onscreen, then guiding the disc through rings and around obstacles, all the while gathering stars as you go. You have the option to use onscreen control arrows, but I found the tilt controls to be much more fun. If you gather all the stars and make it through all the gates to the finish line, you'll be awarded a gold medal along with experience points and Star Coins. … Read more

Musical magic and flying discs: iPhone apps of the week

Most everyone has probably heard about the controversy over the location-tracking behavior on iOS devices since last June. Recently, when a developer made a program to show users' location data on a map, people were understandably concerned that their whereabouts could be tracked through their location logs without their knowledge. Apple promised in an open letter that it would resolve the issue, though the company claims it was not using the information for anything.

On Wednesday, Josh Lowensohn reported that Apple made good on its promise with the release of iOS 4.3.3, reducing the size of the "crowdsourced" location cache, and the device no longer backs up the cache to iTunes.

Even though I downloaded the software and checked out the map to see that my iPhone did indeed track my location, I was never terribly worried about it and took Apple at its word that the location data wasn't being used for anything nefarious. Still, I'm glad to see the company has listened to user concerns. Hopefully this will lay this latest Apple controversy to rest.

What do you think? Were you nervous that your information was being used without your consent or do you even care? Let me know in the comments.

This week's apps are a piano app that lets you play hit songs and a flying disc game that's both graphically beautiful and challenging.… Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer e-mailed questions from our readers. This week there were questions about burned discs no longer being recognized, upgrading from OS X 10.4 Tiger, using a third-party PDF printer in OS X, and CPU temperatures spiking in MacBook Pro systems. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present a few answers here, we certainly welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Burned CDs not being recognized anymore MacFixIt reader "Russell" asks:

When I insert a CD, which … Read more

Options for when a Mac cannot read an OS install disc

Retail DVDs that are stamped as opposed to burned track-by-track in a home burner are more compatible with drives and usually can be read by most DVD burners. Despite this, sometimes there may be issues with a particular drive that prevent a disc from being read or used in special situations such as a boot drive.

If this happens with your boot DVD, there are several options available:

Replace the disc

Check the disc for any visible errors, and if they are present, then try replacing it. Sometimes people have had success in getting new discs at Apple retail stores, … Read more