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New, Flexible CDs Arrive

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the but-I-liked-shattering-CDs dept.

Mortin writes "A company called Flexstorm has developed a new type of CD, dubbed flexCD, that is about 140 microns thick, 1/10th that of a normal CD, and most importantly flexible. The technical specs on this new technology are quite impressive, boasting a weight of only .6 grams on the flexCD 80. Producing a flexCD also only takes .3 seconds, less than that of a normal CD."

8 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. An adaptor? by diablochicken · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to the specifications, this would require an adaptor to play in existing CD drives.

    If they're pushing this as a supplement to advertisements (distribution via mail, magazine, what have you), how are they going to get the adapters to people? How are they going to overcome the barrier of getting people to actually use the adapters?

    Seems like there's a bit of a bottleneck in this biz plan.

    --

    goats.com: better than .cx
  2. Why this will fail by KurdtX · · Score: 3, Insightful

    With our adapter, the flexCD plays in most existing CD and DVD devices
    Who remembers CD caddies? And how much you hated them? Why would you want to go back to that?

    And for non-technical people (the ones that can't set the time on their VCR), they're not going to be able to figure out how to use the adapter and will likely end up destroying their CD players, particularly if they try it with a slot-loading one.

    Sure, it will be great for people who like the CD inserts in magazines, and may be the best thing in the world for them, but I've yet to find an insert that would make me want to keep around an extra caddy just so I could play it. But then again, it would be nice to be able to fold up a CD and stick in an envelope instead of buying the special CD protective packages, so it might work.

    Oh, and what do those naked men have to do with CDs?
    --

    Kurdt
    I'm not anti-social. Just pro-technology.
    1. Re:Why this will fail by jridley · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Actually, I like caddies. I'm kinda pissed that I couldn't buy a caddy drive when I built my new Athlon XP last week. The old caddy drive was 2X and I just couldn't live with the speed anymore, so I had to cave and get a tray drive. Ugh.

      Try giving games to 3 year olds and see how long the CDs last. Then put them in caddies and see how long they last (hint: case 1, about 3 days, case 2, 6 years and counting).

    2. Re:Why this will fail by Galvatron · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What would have been perfect is if the cd format had originally been done with a plastic case around them, just like a 3 1/2 inch floppy disk. Unfortunately, the guy who thought up cds based them on records, and just didn't really think of a protective case.

      --
      "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
  3. Re:What's the point? by wadetemp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about for magazine subscriptions? If it's a magazine where they send you a demo disc or the like every issue, they'll just send you the adapter with the first issue, then never again. And then the benefits pay off... they can send multiple CDs per issue, from different vendors, and not have to worry about bulk.

  4. In a way, these are scratch-proof by yerricde · · Score: 3, Insightful

    When are we going to see scratch-proof cds ?

    With these new floppy discs, if you scratch the thing, you probably just scratch the medium, and the underlying flexible medium has not been scratched. Because producing and selling adapters costs less than producing and selling an album, you can just shell out a couple bucks for a new adapter if yours gets scratched.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  5. Not for today's drives; think next-gen cdroms by Khopesh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    you're right. however, you are thinking 'today' when they are thinking 'tomorrow' ... this isn't something we'll see for a while (unless the adapter is simply a case or a flash program).

    when cdrw came out, no cdroms could read them. soon after, ALL cdroms could read them. similarly with this (if it flies, and it should); cdrom/dvdrom and writers released after some date in the future will all be able to read this new technology, and at that point, you'll see flexible cds in the mail and in your cereal boxes.

    problem is getting this standardized and implemented into future drives. ...and let's not forget DVD players and CD audio systems -- great for the car!

    --
    Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
  6. Archive Performance Ratios by 4of12 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It would be interesting to know how this technology compares in terms of

    1. $/GB
    2. GB/kg
    3. GB/cm3
    as an archive media versus magnetic disks and DLT.

    Perhaps the biggest drawback may be sheer capacity. I swear that a 600 MB CD is getting to be as useless as a 1.44 MB floppy relative to how much data needs to be archived.

    --
    "Provided by the management for your protection."