Filed under: Software, Productivity
Disco public beta and today-only macZOT price
Disco, the new burning app with so much buzz, has transitioned from a private beta to a public one. We've covered our fair share of Disco already, but to summarize: it has burning features that place it somewhere in between the Finder and Roxio's $99 Toast 7. One feature I didn't know about before though is Discography, a built-in search engine that lets you search through all the files you've previously burned. Users can search when the file was burned, when it was last edited, and to what disc it was burned - now that's innovation, boys and girls.However, today is the last day Disco can be had for the introductory price of $14.95. While you can purchase at this price straight from Disco's site, macZOT is running one of their zany deals where three lucky buyers will win a Lacie DL DVD Burner with LightScribe, and some sort of a bonus is included with every purchase. You'd better hurry though: as of this writing you have just under 14 hours to hop on the Disco + macZOT bandwagon, and after today, Disco's price rises to $24.95.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mark said 1:16PM on 10-30-2006
Awesome, another style over substance Mac app I can get my hands on. ;)
But really, it seems get all this hype lately over these cool apps. Cha Ching had a similar buzz and let's be honest, if it didn't have a pretty interface no-one would bat an eyelid at it. It's like a money manager for children.
I'm all for simplicity but some people takes things too far. Hopefully disco has some features to go along with the asthetics.
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David Chartier said 1:25PM on 10-30-2006
Disco has a *ton* of features under the hood; it isn't just a pretty UI. Mutli-session burning, good selection of disc formats (HFS+, Joliet, Hybrid, etc.), DVD VIDEO_TS burning (i.e. - it can burn a DVD movie from ripped source files), it can create a disk image (instead of a burn) and that Discography search rules; you can search *all* the files you've ever burned and find out exactly which disc they were burned to. *Killer!*
I'm giving it a run-through right now for a TUAW review, but don't be fooled: there are a ton of great features under the flashy UI hood.
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Jabberjaw said 1:25PM on 10-30-2006
At it's current iteration, it's not worth 15 bucks. It just doesn't do enough of the essentials that a disc burning app should.
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mark said 1:29PM on 10-30-2006
So you're saying it is style over substance? I'll be honest, I haven't tried it but nothing I've read or heard has convinced me this is the disc burning app I need to have.
My worry is that developers and spending too much time on things like making the window smoke instead of actually putting in features people would really appreciate. The substance has to come before the style.
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Alex said 1:38PM on 10-30-2006
Mark,
What features are you looking for in your dream disc-burning app that this one is lacking in?
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Thijs said 1:46PM on 10-30-2006
I'm loving it! Drag-and-drop files, burn, erase or just create dmg's with ease; in AppZapper style.
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alberto rodriguez said 1:57PM on 10-30-2006
but if i already have toast, there is no point in buying this right?
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Jabberjaw said 2:08PM on 10-30-2006
Here's one feature. The ability to burn Audio CDs and have it take advantage of the nifty Spandex feature. Right now I can drag out of iTunes and directly into Toast and burn an audio disc. No dice with Disco.
And while the smoking feature is cute, I'd like to be able to preview it without having to burn a CD.
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dburney said 2:13PM on 10-30-2006
Right - if you have toast, you probably don't need Disco. But for some, Toast is overkill in both cost and size. If you want drag & drop burning, an automatic cataloging system and multi-session capabilities then I encourage you to check it out. There's also the warm and fuzzy feeling you get for supporting smaller Mac app developers.
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Bryant S. said 2:13PM on 10-30-2006
Just downloaded it onto my Macbook...according to the settings window the Macbook has an "Underage graphic card" which means NO SMOKE.
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Jules Stoop said 2:16PM on 10-30-2006
Well. It means you won't have to use Toast any more, would you :)
At least, that would be enough of an incentive for me.
@Jabberjaw: I wonder what you do expect form a 15 bucks disc burning app.
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Jabberjaw said 2:35PM on 10-30-2006
Jules,
I expect something that has a tagline like "We're having Toast for breakfast" to be able to compete and to include a basic feature of nearly every burning application for the past decade. The developers named the price, not me, so the "get what you pay for" argument is bunk. If they're selling a strictly data burning application, then great, but they haven't brough much in terms of new ideas on disc burning to the table.
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Brendan said 2:47PM on 10-30-2006
Disco cannot compress a Video_TS folder to fit on a standard DVD. As most DVD's these days are more then 4.7GB, this app is useless for burning movies. I chose Popcorn.
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Adam Turetzky said 2:48PM on 10-30-2006
And we need this over Burn because it's pretty?
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Adam Turetzky said 2:49PM on 10-30-2006
I meant for that to be a hyperlink http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/
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Szedlk dm said 2:55PM on 10-30-2006
If you drop audio files in, you can switch to audio burning on the top right corner. Although, you can't adjust the amount of silence between tracks.
Anyway, it isn't worth to switch to this release of Disco from any basic disc burning app (LiquidCD, Burn, etc). Maybe the next version.
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Jules Stoop said 2:57PM on 10-30-2006
Jabberjaw (e.a),
I think this app has a pretty decent feature set. For instance, the seemless spanning, multisession support, and integrated database spring to mind.
Besides that it has a very nice - innovative - workflow and it's even designed to be fun to work with. Regarding pricing: on the website it's clear that the price will be 24,95 after the introductory offering of 14,95.
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Steve said 3:05PM on 10-30-2006
I've been using Disco for a week now and, while it's not perfect, it does 99% of what I need a burning program to do. I only ever used a small subset of Toast's features (would rather compress my ripped DVDs with Visual Hub or Hawkeye). Toast just seems like a lot of bloat from an out of touch developer. Disco has the feel of a program that was thoroughly thought through by those who wrote it, not just for looks, but for ease of use and feature set.
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Hammo said 3:06PM on 10-30-2006
Having previously criticised this app, I actually bought it today. I don't have toast or any other apps, and the built in burning in OSX is very lite.
Works a treat. 8 minutes pay well spent. ;-)
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Jabberjaw said 3:07PM on 10-30-2006
ok, nice to see the audio feature has been implemented. It still has a ways to go. I still want to be able to drag and drop from iTunes.
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