Chapter 12. CDs, DVDs, iTunes & AirPlay

Disks, it appears, just can’t get a break. Show me a disk technology, and I’ll show you a spinning storage medium that the world eventually abandoned, usually led by Apple. Think about it: The iMac was the first brand-name computer to arrive without a floppy disk drive (1998). The MacBook Air and iPad don’t have CD/DVD drives. These days, even Windows PC manufacturers have left the floppy drive for dead. Joining it in the great CompUSA in the sky: Zip disks, Jaz disks, SyQuest disks, SuperDisks, Peerless disks…

Disks Today

So what’s springing up to take their places? Let us count the disks.

Hard Drives

Thanks to the Mac’s Thunderbolt, FireWire, or USB jacks, it’s easier than ever to attach an external hard drive for extra storage.

CDs, DVDs

CDs and DVDs may be fading from the scene, but they’re not gone yet. These disc drives are still built into every desktop Mac and many laptop models—and even if you have a laptop without a drive built-in, you can buy an external one. Which is handy if you have a many-hour flight ahead of you and want to watch some movies you picked up at the library.

CD-ROM stands for “compact disc, read-only memory”—in other words, you can’t freely add and delete files from one, as you can from a hard drive. But most Macs can also record onto blank CDs, of course, and blank DVDs, too, thanks to a built-in CD/DVD burner. A burner can record onto either of two kinds of blank discs:

  • CD-R. You can fill this type of disc with your ...

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