Seagate just announced their "new" heat-assisted magnetic something-something technology to increase HDD platter density. Sounds good, but I wonder about it's "newness". This works by heating the surface of the disc up and then writing to it magnetically.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't we had this technology for years? Sony's MD discs work by using a laser to heat the disc surface, then writing magnetic data to it. They were invented in 1986. I'll admit that it might be new to hard drives, but this is sixteen year old technology. That's positively ancient in computer years.

well I guess you could say the technology is new to the hard drive companies...

besides, I'm not sure if this technology will ever see the light of day... at least no within the next couple years... companies are always thinking of better ways of storying data butou never see it implemented in a retail product... I guess it takes some really special technology to change how people make harddrives...

so I wouldn't count on seeing this technology at least within the next 5 years, or maybe even at all...

i am fairly disapointed about the minidiscs failure as a data medium. they could have been very cool and it would have drove prices in disks way down.

They're only a failure in America. In Asia and most of Europe, MDs are as popular as CDs. I think that if they improved the software on NetMD, it could rise to the same level as MP3 players.

As far as I know, Sony did the same thing with beta as they are doing with the minidisk. They are not letting anyone else make/sell the product without brutal royalties... this really slows down the market but then Sony monopolizes it... I guess they think they can make more money this way.