Apple's plan to wipe out disc drives is nearly complete
The disc drive is dead -- or it's at least issuing a triumphant death rattle.Not in PCs just yet, but certainly in Apple's Macs. Earlier this week Apple introduced updated versions of its MacBook Pro with Retina Display, alongside an all new Mac Pro. What wasn't updated was Apple's line of non-Retina MacBook Pros, the only Apple devices that were still sporting a disc drive. In fact, Apple axed the 15-inch version and trimmed the non-Retina line to a single, 13-inch machine. The company has whittled away at product lines like this in the past, and it's usually a sign of imminent extinction. Related storiesRed Mac Pro to be auctioned off by Bono's charityli>A US-made Mac Pro is a token gestureMac Pro available in December, starts at $2,999All this started with the arrival of the MacBook Air in 2008. The specialty computer trimmed the MacBook Pro's inch-thick size by getting rid of the disc drive and many of the ports.A high price tag kept most people from snapping up an Air over one of Apple's less expensive notebooks. But as time went by, slimmer, cheaper, and more powerful models came out, and it eventually replaced Apple's plastic MacBooksas the entry level notebook. But rewind back to 2008, and Apple was making a gamble. It was a whole three years before the company wouldintroduce its Mac App Store for distributing software -- both its own, and apps made by other companies. It was also years before some major third-party companies, namely Adobe and Microsoft, were pushing their biggest products as cloud subscriptions. Even Netflix's streaming service -- now usedby more than 40 million subscribers worldwide -- was still in its infancy. There were some stopgap measures though. One was a new feature built into OS X, Apple's desktop operating system, as well as a utility for PCs that let Air users tap a working disc drive from another computer using Wi-Fi. Apple also sold a standalone external disc drive for $79,as well as offering its OS recovery tools on USB sticks. Those USB dongles were later replaced by a recovery tool that could download a fresh copy of the OS over a broadband connection.Click to enlarge.Josh Lowensohn/CNETApple wasn't the first company to exclude a disc drive from its machines, though Apple's move came at a time when many PC competitors were aiming to upgrade the disc drives on notebooks from DVD readers to drives that could read high-definition discs. For Apple, which was making an increasingly large amount of money selling movies and TV shows through iTunes, this never made much sense. Also, the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray -- which were two warring hi-def disc formats -- didn't end until a month after the Air's 2008 debut. Some of the initial notebooks with those drives were not only big but also required high-end hardware that ballooned costs.Hindsight is 20/20/>The benefits of all this seem obvious. Since the Air, ditching optical drives has led to slimmer and svelter devices all around. Last year's iMac redesign was one of the most dramatic. By removing the drive and using new manufacturing technology, the once boxy machine was cut down by 40 percent. Its sides were tapered down into a 5mm edge, which is close to the thinnest part of the newest MacBook Air. The same goes with the new Mac Pro, which Apple says is one eighth the volume of the previous generation. That change was not just the optical drive but changes to other components as well, like moving from hard drives to flash storage, and a redesigned cooling system that pulls air through a hollowed out central core. Like the original Air, all that comes at a price. The machine starts at $2,999, and a second, higher-end version runs $3,999. Apple's MacBook Pros with Retina Display have two Thunderbolt 2 ports.Josh MIller/CNETThe new Mac Pro is indicative of a direction Apple started back in 2008 but never quite perfected, which is offering future expandability on its nearly tinker-proof notebooks. That's not a new thing for computing, but it's been limited somewhat by the ports Apple's gone with. Many, like Firewire 800 and ExpressCard were offered up only on the higher end products, and phased out of the consumer machines.That changed in 2011 when Apple started using Thunderbolt, a collaboration with Intel that combined DisplayPort technology with PCI Express. That consolidated ports to the point where Apple made a sister product -- its now languishing Thunderbolt Display -- that requires only one jack on a computer to supply it with an Internet connection, USB, and visual information. The only thing missing is enough power to run the computer, something that could change with future chips, and versions of Thunderbolt.The next generation of the technology, Thunderbolt 2, is now starting to make its way into the Mac Pro and MacBook Pros, and promises even faster speeds. So as the disc drive has disappeared, Thunderbolt has flourished among Macs. PC makers, however, have opted for USB 3.0 instead.The new Mac Pro: You have to see to believe...See full gallery1 - 4 / 10NextPrevIn hindsight, it seems painfully obvious that trimming drives, and thus size, would help other parts of Apple's business. Between making both its gadgets and its packaging smaller, the company can get more product to places in one shipment. For something like the iPhone (which, to be fair, never had a disc drive), that's resulted in a 60 percent increase in the number of boxes Apple can ship versus the one it made in 2007. That makes a big difference when those devices are being loaded into an airplane for a big launch, which can cost $242,000 a flight, according to a recent Bloomberg report. The big question going forward is what else can be cut to trim size? Products like the iPhone and iPad have shown that something as basic as a keyboard or mouse pad can be successfully reimagined as one big screen. Perhaps just as big of a jump could happen with Apple's computers as well.
New TV Guide app tries to bridge gap between TV and streaming
New TV Guide app tries to bridge gap between TV and streaming
Finding streaming TV shows or movies is a mess. No service or app has a complete collection, and getting what you want often feels like rummaging at the Internet's garage sale.Some services have risen up to try to help; the Xbox 360 offers excellent Bing-based search of Xbox media apps, while Fanhattan does the same on iOS, although you have to enter the app to begin searching.Fanhattan lacks one important feature, though: a listing of shows on actual, live TV.TV GuideBridging the cord-cutting and cable/antenna TV landscape is TV Guide, which tries to implement streaming-media hooks into its existing tradition TV listings service.How does that work, exactly? TV Guide does it by offering a separate Watchlist area where searched-for shows will show every instance on TV listings, streaming services, and even on-demand cable channels. When you click the "streaming services" area, listings from other apps appear. Currently, the connected video apps are limited to ABC, ABC Family, CW, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, MAX GO, Crackle, and iTunes. Notably missing are Netflix and Amazon, although TV Guide's executives say that more services will be available in the coming weeks.Searching for streaming videos can be done in several ways: through a discovery-type curated grid of shows not unlike what Netflix and Amazon Prime already offer up, or via a search for shows or even artists/celebrities. Adding these shows to your watchlist creates a tracker for your interests.TV Guide still has its old-fashioned listings, too.TV GuideThe feature, however, is currently far from perfect. I added David Lynch (always my favorite test) and found a number of episodes of "Twin Peaks" scattered hodgepodge, with links to iTunes and Hulu Plus, along with movies like "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," but TV shows weren't collected into a single "Twin Peaks" show icon. Clicking the Hulu Plus link on these shows didn't successfully launch the episode in Hulu Plus, either: I received the Hulu Plus message "an error has occurred." Also, for some odd reason, my David Lynch page has dozens of episodes of "The Cleveland Show."The TV Guide app update just launched this morning, and it's free via ad support. Some of these kinks will hopefully be ironed out soon. If an app designed to be a media hub doesn't work perfectly, then I won't use it until it does. The spirit behind TV Guide's app is smart and necessary; standard TV listings and a search directory for an ever-growing rat's nest of TV and movie-streaming apps both need to be integrated in the future landscape of television. Apple's likely to crack the nut best whenever the Apple TV finally emerges in its next evolution, but until then, TV Guide might be a smart, easy solution, provided the app can start working better and manage to be intuitive for TV viewers who could be streaming app-averse.TV Guide's universal app works on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Finding streaming TV shows or movies is a mess. No service or app has a complete collection, and getting what you want often feels like rummaging at the Internet's garage sale.Some services have risen up to try to help; the Xbox 360 offers excellent Bing-based search of Xbox media apps, while Fanhattan does the same on iOS, although you have to enter the app to begin searching.Fanhattan lacks one important feature, though: a listing of shows on actual, live TV.TV GuideBridging the cord-cutting and cable/antenna TV landscape is TV Guide, which tries to implement streaming-media hooks into its existing tradition TV listings service.How does that work, exactly? TV Guide does it by offering a separate Watchlist area where searched-for shows will show every instance on TV listings, streaming services, and even on-demand cable channels. When you click the "streaming services" area, listings from other apps appear. Currently, the connected video apps are limited to ABC, ABC Family, CW, Hulu Plus, HBO GO, MAX GO, Crackle, and iTunes. Notably missing are Netflix and Amazon, although TV Guide's executives say that more services will be available in the coming weeks.Searching for streaming videos can be done in several ways: through a discovery-type curated grid of shows not unlike what Netflix and Amazon Prime already offer up, or via a search for shows or even artists/celebrities. Adding these shows to your watchlist creates a tracker for your interests.TV Guide still has its old-fashioned listings, too.TV GuideThe feature, however, is currently far from perfect. I added David Lynch (always my favorite test) and found a number of episodes of "Twin Peaks" scattered hodgepodge, with links to iTunes and Hulu Plus, along with movies like "Eraserhead" and "Blue Velvet," but TV shows weren't collected into a single "Twin Peaks" show icon. Clicking the Hulu Plus link on these shows didn't successfully launch the episode in Hulu Plus, either: I received the Hulu Plus message "an error has occurred." Also, for some odd reason, my David Lynch page has dozens of episodes of "The Cleveland Show."The TV Guide app update just launched this morning, and it's free via ad support. Some of these kinks will hopefully be ironed out soon. If an app designed to be a media hub doesn't work perfectly, then I won't use it until it does. The spirit behind TV Guide's app is smart and necessary; standard TV listings and a search directory for an ever-growing rat's nest of TV and movie-streaming apps both need to be integrated in the future landscape of television. Apple's likely to crack the nut best whenever the Apple TV finally emerges in its next evolution, but until then, TV Guide might be a smart, easy solution, provided the app can start working better and manage to be intuitive for TV viewers who could be streaming app-averse.TV Guide's universal app works on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Brains behind Hulu leaves NBC
Brains behind Hulu leaves NBC
After a little more than two years as NBC's chief digital officer, Kliavkoff says he has accomplished the goals he set for himself and the company's digital unit when he joined in August 2006. He is taking time off before jumping into his next project. Kliavkoff, 41, has chosen to exercise an option in his contract and leave NBC at the end of the year but will remain available to CEO Jeff Zucker "during and after the transition," he said in an internal e-mail. "I believe in my heart that this is a best time to start, run, or invest in digital companies and I am very excited about moving on to my next challenge," Kliavkoff wrote. In Silicon Valley, the book on old media executives is that they're not supposed to "get it." Nobody says that about Kliavkoff. "George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital," said Zucker in a statement. "We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that, and did an outstanding job job for us. "George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital. Today, our digital properties are thriving across the company."--Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal CEO"Today, our digital properties are thriving across the company, and are now embedded in each of our divisions. So I completely understood when he said he was ready for the next phase of his life, and I am grateful for all of his efforts. We wish him all the best in the next chapter of his career."He was Hulu's first CEO and helped set the strategy for the site. In its first four months, the video portal leaped into the top 10 among video sites and has become the one legitimate challenger to YouTube. Kliavkoff's group oversaw the online distribution of NBC's Olympics coverage, which delivered 1.3 billion page views and streamed 10 million hours of video to 52 million unique visitors. According to the internal memo from Kliavkoff, it was the "largest digital media event of all time." Digital revenues across NBC will exceed $1 billion in 2009, Kliavkoff wrote. Even before arriving at NBC, Kliavkoff was a rising star in digital media. He was executive vice president at the digital arm of Major League Baseball Advance Media (MLBAM). At a time when all the other sports were offering only stats and player bios on the Web, MLBAM began generating big revenue by charging fans to watch games online.
After a little more than two years as NBC's chief digital officer, Kliavkoff says he has accomplished the goals he set for himself and the company's digital unit when he joined in August 2006. He is taking time off before jumping into his next project. Kliavkoff, 41, has chosen to exercise an option in his contract and leave NBC at the end of the year but will remain available to CEO Jeff Zucker "during and after the transition," he said in an internal e-mail. "I believe in my heart that this is a best time to start, run, or invest in digital companies and I am very excited about moving on to my next challenge," Kliavkoff wrote. In Silicon Valley, the book on old media executives is that they're not supposed to "get it." Nobody says that about Kliavkoff. "George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital," said Zucker in a statement. "We asked him to help us change the fundamental orientation of a traditional media company from an analog to a digital mindset. George did that, and did an outstanding job job for us. "George came to NBC Universal when we were nowhere in digital. Today, our digital properties are thriving across the company."--Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal CEO"Today, our digital properties are thriving across the company, and are now embedded in each of our divisions. So I completely understood when he said he was ready for the next phase of his life, and I am grateful for all of his efforts. We wish him all the best in the next chapter of his career."He was Hulu's first CEO and helped set the strategy for the site. In its first four months, the video portal leaped into the top 10 among video sites and has become the one legitimate challenger to YouTube. Kliavkoff's group oversaw the online distribution of NBC's Olympics coverage, which delivered 1.3 billion page views and streamed 10 million hours of video to 52 million unique visitors. According to the internal memo from Kliavkoff, it was the "largest digital media event of all time." Digital revenues across NBC will exceed $1 billion in 2009, Kliavkoff wrote. Even before arriving at NBC, Kliavkoff was a rising star in digital media. He was executive vice president at the digital arm of Major League Baseball Advance Media (MLBAM). At a time when all the other sports were offering only stats and player bios on the Web, MLBAM began generating big revenue by charging fans to watch games online.
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