Apple Updates SuperDrive Firmware 53
mmarlett writes "(Potentially) In your software update panel: 'The Power Mac G4 SuperDrive Firmware Update installs new firmware on the SuperDrive which addresses an incompatibility with 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media, and the 2x SuperDrive in the Power Mac G4. You must perform this update if you intend to use 4x DVD-R or 2x DVD-RW media in your Power Mac G4. This update also enables you to eject audio CDs that are copy-protected or have mastering errors. This update is required only for the Power Mac G4 (Digital Audio), the Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver) and the Power Mac G4 (Quicksilver 2002) with an internal Apple SuperDrive.'"
How about one for the DVD/CD-RW drive in iBooks. (Score:3, Interesting)
I had one CD that due to a pressing error had a large blob of paint on the reverse side. I inserted it without checking the underside, and then had severe problems attempting to eject the disk. I had to reboot and hold down the trackpad button to get the disk out.
I've also got an audio CD that isn't copy-protected, but has a hidden track at the start. This too appears to lock up the drive, and won't eject without a reboot or a bent paperclip.
Re:Um, no (Score:5, Interesting)
> And finally, Apple isn't "cozy" with the DMCA at
> all. It was the quickest path to get a vendor from
> illegally distributing iDVD, which is Apple
> proprietary material, with OEM CD-RW/DVD-RW
> drives. Though the DMCA may make us cringe, Apple
> was 100% in the right:
Even if Apple would have been in the right, I still don't believe Apple even made the threat. All we ever got was the other party's word (no posted copies of actual documents), and that word changed from the original story a few weeks before.
The original story was that Apple had asked *nicely* for him to stop distributing iDVD with his drives that competed with the SuperDrive, and he agreed to keep good relations with Apple. It was weeks later that the story broke again, this time with him claiming Apple had used the DMCA.
This struck me as a smear campaign on his part to blacken Apple's good name. The DMCA is a bad law, and it gives any company fool enough to use it plenty of bad PR.
Apple does not deserve this. Steve Jobs is one of the very few leaders of the computer industry to actually stand up to the RIAA and MPAA for his customers. He is the only one with the courage to do so during his Grammy Awards acceptance speech:
"If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own."
Steve Jobs, 2002 Grammy Awards
Re:Um, yes (Score:1, Interesting)
I didn't realize at the time that Apple was only paying MPEG2 license fees per SuperDrive they shipped, not per copy of iDVD. I just wanted to save some money by getting the low end QuickSilver, which wasn't available with a SuperDrive BTO option, but now I'm using iDVD illegally! I don't even know who to send my money to in order to get legal. Oh well. ;-)
I don't know what they do these days, but they'd be smart to only ship iDVD with machines that have a factory-installed SuperDrive. Would have saved the headache from that whole fiasco a few months back.
Re:How about one for the DVD/CD-RW drive in iBooks (Score:2, Interesting)
When I got my CD burned properly, it was no problem. But even with bad data, the system should never hang like that, so I hope they will fix it! (yes, I submitted feedback about this, but I suspect it's not the most direct path to the developers involved)
Re:Um, no (Score:3, Interesting)
Yup. Apple created iDVD, so they could choose which DVD players would be supported. Hell, if they'd wanted to, they probably could have done it by individual serial number. It's their software, so they can do whatever they want with it.
You can complain about it, of course, but nobody will pay any attention to you. To Mac owners who bought SuperDrive-equipped machines, iDVD is free. It's not available to anybody else. So you don't have much ground to complain.
They were "RIGHT" to leverage their software to increase their hardware sales?
Sure. Apple's been doing that since 1984. Apple is a hardware company, but the only reason-- well, not the only, but by far the best-- reason anybody buys their hardware is because of the software that runs on it. You can't run OS X on a Toshiba laptop, and you can't run iDVD with a third-party external DVD burner. That's Apple's way of doing business. If you don't like it-- though you'd be in the minority-- you're free to buy somebody else's stuff.
They were "RIGHT" to RESTRICT FUNCTIONALITY of their product to suit their needs?
You kinda lept from A to C without going through B first, here. How is supporting only a limited set of DVD burners restricting functionality? It's no different than when any computer software works with only a limited set of computer hardware.
That said, Apple would have been entirely within their rights to restrict the functionality of iDVD. In fact, in many ways, they have. iDVD is a consumer product, designed to be easy to use but not especially powerful. DVD Studio Pro, on the other hand, is designed to be more complex, but a lot more powerful. iDVD could, in theory, do everything that DVD Studio Pro does. But Apple decided to deliberately restrict the functionality of iDVD to keep it simple. So yeah, if this had been a restricting of functionality, Apple would have totally been in the right to do it.
You make as good of a product as you can, for the lowest price you can.
On what planet? On this one, you make a product that's as good as it has to be, for as much as people are willing to pay. That's how you stay in business. Apple has demonstrated repeatedly that their standards are higher than a lot of other software companies'; even Apple's free software is better than most comparable commercial products in the Windows world. But that doesn't mean Apple is running a soup kitchen. It's a business, not a charity.
Making a product CRAPPIER to make another product sell better does not help the consumers at all!
Better bring Mercedes to task, then. They sell the crappy E-class, just so people who don't want a crappy car will buy the S-class. For that matter, Boeing is really on my shitlist, too. They sell the crappy 737 just to boost sales of the 747 and 777. And what's with IBM selling all of those crappy Intel-based servers? They should be selling mainframes for $20 each with lifetime warranties! This process of selling a crappy product for less money-- or, in the case of iDVD, even giving it away-- has got to stop!
And keep trumpetting until the RIAA and Micro$oft lobbies have managed to buy all of your rights out from under you.
Okay, you've officially dropped off the deep end here. I kinda regret spending this time responding to your other points, because it's only now, when I see the last couple of lines of your message, that I realize you're kind of an idiot.
Oh, well. Maybe somebody else will read and be enlightened.