Dell Finall Drops the Floppy... Sorta

steve

<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-963747.html?tag=fd_top"; target="_blank">http://news.com.com/2100-1001-963747.html?tag=fd_top</a>;



"Nearly five years later..."

miami craig

Pathetic, yes it is. The thing only bad thing about apple dropping it when they did was that they hadn't jumped on the CDRW boat yet, and there was absolutely no way to get files from one place to another (not including the internet) that came with the computer. So people had to buy 3rd party hardware. It was still a good move, im just saying. It had its drawbacks.

powerpc

now if iOmega was smart...they'd jump on the boat and start telling people to "replace your floppy with a zip!"



since there won't be any floppy anymore...





dis zips if you want. But they are still a viable option. Esp. in the eduaction setting....

telomar

An iPod make a great floppy, if the other computer has Firewire.

smithjoel

Why you'd you get with that though? It's not standardized and dosn't sound like it will be. Just get a CD-RW and be done with it.

stunned

I think those memory flash hard drives are great!



Only drawback is that most of them are PC formatted and hence if u wan to copy from a Mac to such a drive, it will take ages.....



Unless of course u format it using a MAc format, then copying from a PC to the drive will take ages...



Sigh. A dilemma <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />

eugene

[quote]Originally posted by PowerPC:

<strong>now if iOmega was smart...they'd jump on the boat and start telling people to "replace your floppy with a zip!"



since there won't be any floppy anymore...





dis zips if you want. But they are still a viable option. Esp. in the eduaction setting....</strong><hr></blockquote>



Capacity is one reason why floppies are dead, but reliability/durability is another reason.



At this point, the network and optical-media are king, and Iomega will evenetually go bankrupt or become just another external optical drive and HDD maker...not a very glamorous future...

powerpc

i wonder if these keychain deals they are offering are USB 1.1 or USB 2?

buonrotto

Well, the truth is that while there should have been some kind of media recording/hardware device to transport data, anything that fit on a floppy would have fit in an e-mail. Even 5 years ago, anyone who had a computer had e-mail.



As far as IOmega, it did't help thet their products were/are only slightly more reliable than a floppy.

matsu

A chance for dataplay? It really is a neat little idea 500MB, 4X read/write speed, size of a dollar coin, compatible with MP3/4, AIFF, QT, etc etc... One drive for computers and palm/ultraportable devices. Seems to be going nowhere at the moment though.



Or better yet, mebbe we could standardize on ONE flash memory format, something that would be included on all MoBo's and work driverlessly in Windows, MacOS, Linux, whatever...



Or,



build "thumbdrive" functionality into the basic USB2.x or firewire2 specs. I think some thumbdrives are "driverless", but if it were "universal" then we'd instantly have the perfect floppy replacement. It would work with unlimited capacities and on any available port just like a drive.

torifile

Or we could just have our computers networked such that the data is accessible from anywhere. That's the way I do things. Removable media is too much of a hassle.

klinux

Dataplay is so dead... Vaporware.

matsu

Seems like it... Did they have their European product launch yet?



I guess 12cm discs are plenty small for most uses, especially playing music and films at home. But, with storage densities becoming higher all the time, mebbe the powers that be ought to drop down to 8cm discs when the time for blue laser or flo-discs arrives?

scott

[quote]Originally posted by BuonRotto:

<strong>Well, the truth is that while there should have been some kind of media recording/hardware device to transport data, anything that fit on a floppy would have fit in an e-mail. Even 5 years ago, anyone who had a computer had e-mail.

</strong><hr></blockquote>



How can you email a file to wherever you might go? Let's say I'm going to a meeting in europe and I need to take my powerpoint presentation with me. How do I email it there?

klinux

He means e-mail it to yourself at your corporate/Hotmail/.Mac/whatever account and access from there. Or use a service like Yahoo Briefcase or .Mac.

pfflam

zips have a long healthy future . . . before they either diversify or then flop . . . but in the education market they cannot be beat for simple ease of use, speed and general convenience.