CD

Episode #687

April 2, 2022

Some time in the early 1990s i was at a K-mart store. i went to the photo film department to pick up some 110 film cartridges for my Kodak Tele-Instamatic 608 camera.

There was no 110 film on the shelves. There were only 35mm film cartridges.

i walked over to the music department. There were no vinyl records in the racks. They had all been replaced with CDs (Compact Discs).

Had i just stepped through a time portal?
Where had the familiar technology gone?
It was progress.
My camera and my turntable were now obsolete.

Of course, today my iPhone is a digital camera and music player. i have it in my pocket at all times.

Apple is no stranger to replacing old technology with new. In 1998 Apple dropped the floppy disc drive from the iMac. 
In 2012 Apple dropped the CD/DVD drive from the iMac.
At the presentation, Phil Schiller said “in general, it’s a good idea to remove these rotating medias” because they are bulky and use power.

But what about all those installer discs? And what about my CD collection?

Apple continues to sell a USB SuperDrive CD/DVD external burner/reader which replaces the previously built-in slot in their computers. i bought one early on.

For a while, Apple even sold an external 3.5” floppy drive.
One day i walked into an Apple store and asked to buy a floppy drive. The Genius laughed at me.
“You don’t need one of those,” he chuckled.
“My client has some important financial data on floppy and no longer has a floppy drive in her computer, so yes i do need one.”
He sold me the last one in inventory for $50. I wrote a check for the purchase just to make him use the old financial technology.

When my wife and i go on a road trip we check out books on CD from the library. The library has a huge selection. My car has a CD player, but the radio recently failed.
i went shopping for a replacement radio. 

Radios today are a large screen with Bluetooth, audio jack, USB and Apple CarPlay inputs. Almost all of them have no CD player. Some do not even have an audio jack. The one Kenwood radio in inventory at the Pro Car Stereo shop that does have a CD player, does not include CarPlay.
CarPlay is Apple technology which allows you to connect your iPhone hands free to the car radio display.

i have a CD player connected to my computer. I can rip (copy) audio book CDs from discs into MP3 file format on my SSD storage drive. If i add the MP3s to my Apple Music app, tracks ordered nicely into a playlist, i can listen to the book on any of my devices. 

If i buy the CarPlay radio, the ripped audio books can be played from my iPhone to my car radio. 
Easy.
Progress.

R.I.P. CDs.