Posted 07/16/09 at 10:11:02 AM by Paul Lilly

Apple's iTunes and other online music services might be all the rage, but don't go putting CDs into the same category as 8-track tapes. According to a new survey by The Music Ally Speakerbox, CDs are still the preferred medium.

The survey polled 1,000 people and found that a whopping 73 percent, or nearly three-quarters, preferred purchasing CDs rather than downloading their groovy tunes. And these aren't just older folk resisting change, either. The survey found that 66 percent of respondents between the age of 14 and 18 would rather buy a CD than shell out for an MP3 online.

"Music fans have spoken and digital is evidently not the clear cut replacement to the physical CD," said Tim Walker, chief executive of The Leading Question, the research division of music consultancy Musy Ally responsible for carrying out the survey.

Surprised by the results? Hit the jump and tell us which medium you prefer. 

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Posted 05/12/09 at 06:00:00 PM by David Murphy

One of the most rewarding parts of doing these weekly freeware roundups for Maximum PC is the sheer wealth of software that I get to play with each month -- applications that I not only use myself, but ones that I feel compelled to tell you about as well. But coming in a close second are the responses that you, the readers, leave in these posts. For as much as I scour the Internet to find awesome new programs for you to check out, you too have become my eyes and ears for the latest in amazing free software.

You might guess where this one's going. I'm looking toward the pool of Maximum PC users this week and highlighting programs that you, yourselves, have recommended in the various comments you've posted to these articles. For a number of you have left links and comments featuring compelling alternatives or hidden gems that relate to the programs I've posted. Although I'm featuring your best answers this week, don't let that stop you from joining the discussion! If a certain freeware application has really caught your eye, jump in the thread and say something! Or hit me up on Twitter and let me know when you've found something great!

After the jump: The Maximum PC commenters get their day in Freeware Court!

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Posted 05/04/09 at 09:32:53 AM by Paul Lilly

RipNAS this week announced two new storage devices, the Statement SSD and Statement HDD. Both come capable of ripping CDs, leading the company to claim the former as the "world's first Solid State Drive Ripping NAS." And as far as we know, they're right.

The aptly named Statement series also challenges traditional NAS design in aesthetics. Instead of a bulky box, RipNAS chose a svelte silver enclosure that would fit right in with a home theater setup. Combined with its media streaming capabilities and dead silent operation (SSD version), RipNAS might be on to something.

On the hardware front, both boxes come an Intel Atom dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and four USB 2.0 ports. The SSD version will come configured with 500GB (2x250GB), and 3TB (2x1.5TB) of storage in the HDD version.

No word yet on pricing or availability.

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Posted 03/27/09 at 08:01:03 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Asustek is now busy sprucing up its Eee PC range. The wafer-thin Fold/Unfold notebook, the dual touchscreen Flipbook and voice-controlled Eee PCs are some of the most innovative products on its release calender.

An optical disk drive (ODD) may be pale in comparison to all the scintillating stuff just mentioned, but it is still a big deal for netbooks to have one.

Taiwanese website Digitimes is reporting that the ODD-equipped Eee PC E1004Dn netbook will become available in mid-April. The website also claims to have learnt from its sources that Asus will be releasing the 1080HA, which is fashioned like the MacBook Air, in the month of May.

The E1004DN was showcased at CES 2009. It happens to be the first Eee netbook equipped with an ODD. Apart from the DVD drive, it will feature a 10” display, an Intel Atom N280 processor, 1GB RAM and a 120GB HDD.

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Posted 03/23/09 at 12:00:00 PM by David Murphy

I just picked up a new netbook the other day.  And you know what that netbook had?  A lot of things, but "optical drive" wasn't on the list.  So there I sat, staring at a stack of CDs all full of my most critical applications, games, and movies.  Then I had a brainstorm: Rather than run down to the local electronics store to buy a lame external optical drive, I figured I would convert all of my optical media and slap it onto one of the external hard drives I have sitting around.

To do that, I turned to a suite of applications to rip, burn, encode, convert, and create all sorts of image files.  It was a daunting task at first, but it sure beat shelling out for more hardware.  Based on my troubles, I've come up with a list of five of the must-have applications for your CD manipulation needs.  And these aren't just a list of applications for new netbook enthusiasts.  These free apps have a universal appeal for anyone who's ever had to interact with their optical drive at any point.  I would assume that this would make up 99% of all computer users--the one percent being anyone who just bought a new netbook without any kind of secondary system in their house.  Whoops!

Click on the link and check out the five free apps for CD manipulation mayhem.  Trust me, it's just that exciting.

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Posted 03/16/09 at 01:30:00 PM by David Murphy

The beauty of a Live CD is that it gives you a chance to access your computer or a batch of alternate applications without actually having to load up your operating system.  You only need to pop the CD into your optical drive and boot it up from your BIOS -- this self-contained environment runs independent of anything that's located on your drive partitions, even though you can still perform a variety of tasks that manipulate the data on your drives.  

For example, you can test our new Linux distributions using a Live CD, saving you the time and hassle of blanking an entire partition just to see if it's the right distribution for you.  You can also manipulate the partitions of your drives using a Live CD, expanding and creating volumes to create alternate locations for new operating systems, files, or whatever it is you'd use a separate volume for.  Live CDs are great for troubleshooting your system (or saving your data) when your primary operating system won't boot, and they can also be used to break through Windows installations that you've lost the password for.

All that functionality...  and you don't even have to install a single program on your machine!  Click the link to check out some of the best Live CDs that you should have sitting on your desk.

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Posted 01/05/09 at 02:31:09 PM by Andy Salisbury

As digital music stores become more common and convenient, the age of the compact disc as the preferred medium is coming to a close. In fact, according to year-end sales figures released by The Nielsen Co., sales of CDs are down a whopping 20 percent.

The sales of physical discs have dropped from 450.5 million in 2007 to only 362.6 million in 2008. And during this time, digital album sales made a gigantic jump of 32 percent over their previous year’s sales.

Apple’s iTunes music store has been particularly successful, having broken the 1 billion song mark with 1.07 billion sold. Along with this, their sales went up 27 percent over the previous year.

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Posted 12/09/08 at 04:02:36 PM by Andy Salisbury

The Department of Optics at the University of Granada has recently revealed a new technique that provides the means to identify the difference between a bootlegged CD and one made industrially (other than checking if the top has “Workout Mix” written in Sharpie).

At a base level, they’re simply checking out the light diffraction from the surface of the CD. Ideally, it’ll be noticeably different between a CD made at home and made at the factory. In fact they’re so confident with the process, they’ve filed for a patent.

Sadly, they’re a bit late. For many of us, the CD boat has sailed and this technology is generations behind. But, there might be some of you out there that still prefer your music in disc form, and to that I say kudos.

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