Filed under: Software
Countdown to Disco.app 1.0
Disco, the media burning application that people either love or despise, will finally be released as version 1.0 in just over a week. An official countdown timer has been added to the developer's blog to help you keep track.I've used Disco and I've got no major complaints. Sure, I could just use Toast, but Disco is less expensive. Plus, I like the database feature. As of this writing, the introductory price of $14.95US is still available. Disco requires Mac OS 10.4.3 or better.
Thanks, Gerardo.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mark said 1:44PM on 1-31-2007
Do they pay you to announce a 'countdown' or something?? ie, I could forgive you for announcing the 1.0 release, but announcing a countdown for this already over hyped app that gets far too much attention over here is too much for me to handle.
The hype machine is in affect.
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Nick said 1:26PM on 1-31-2007
Ah, yes, Disco "you know, that Disc burning program that does a fraction of what Disk Utility does but actually costs money".
http://toxicsoftware.com/blog/second-hand-smoke/
Count me out.
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blinkcowz182 said 2:03PM on 1-31-2007
@Nick
I'll second that.
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Kyle Brown said 1:40PM on 1-31-2007
Bought it, tried it, hate it.
Not only does the smoke effect not work on my weak GMA950, face it: Toast REALLY IS BETTER. Much better.
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Hobbes said 1:54PM on 1-31-2007
I bought it for $5 bucks (an incredible price indeed), but ended up going back to Disk Utility for all my disk burning needs.
The app worked flawlessly and looks good. The smoke effect never worked on my Mac Pro, no matter what I try. Maybe the 1.0 release will fix that.
I've never felt the need for a dedicated disk burning tool (other than Disk Utility). Not sure (for me) what the benefits of Toast or even Disco would be.
Nonetheless it's a very good app and for 14 bucks you can't go wrong.
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Roberto Felgueiras said 2:06PM on 1-31-2007
I thought it was good till I tried the new Toast (8) and I went back. If you have like burning needs, they by all means use disco if you like it. If you burning needs are a bit heftier, the new toast is a really hot app. It looks like it just needed a little competition to innovate the interface and such.
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Roberto Felgueiras said 2:08PM on 1-31-2007
BTW - The smoke never worked on my Mac Pro either, but worked flawlessly on my MBP. Go figure.
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Justin said 3:10PM on 1-31-2007
The reason smoke didn't work on MacBooks and Mac Pros was because of the lack of nVidia and Intel support for that particular effect.
They've already announced on their blog that 1.0 will bring smoke to all current Macs (they re-wrote the effect from scratch), in addition to a number of fixes to the bigges issues with the beta versions of Disco.
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Peter said 2:20PM on 1-31-2007
Have they fixed that issue where if you cannot remove a file from the list of files to be burned? Or resize that window?
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Donald Burr said 2:27PM on 1-31-2007
Does Disk Utility keep a searchable log of all data you've burned in the past?
Does Disk Utility perform automatic spanning of backup sets that are larger than a single piece of media?
....hmm, didn't think so.
These are the two major features in Disco that won me over, and are well worth the $15 I paid for it.
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Devon Shaw said 5:10PM on 1-31-2007
Also bought it, tried it and tossed it aside. No smoke = no fun and Toast 8 is pummeling the crap out of Disco in terms of functionality.
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Nick said 2:57PM on 1-31-2007
@ Mark
I distinctly remember a blog post here for a New Years resolution that said TUAW would avoid doing this type of hyping
I guess I shouldn't have expected so much from this place
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Bungle said 3:24PM on 1-31-2007
Got it for $5, used it four times, got three coasters. No thanks, game over.
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Word Diggity said 3:54PM on 1-31-2007
Here's something Toast can do that Disco can't: create a Redbook-compliant audio CD.
Another Toast trick. Say you downloaded some FLAC files. What do you do? Drop them onto Toast and create a disc image. Mount the disc image with Toast and it will show up as an audio CD you can import with iTunes. Let's see Disco do THAT.
Bear in mind, I don't "hate" Disco. But it's way overhyped considering that it doesn't do anything you can't already do with Disk Utility.
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Raul said 4:47PM on 1-31-2007
Heh. I downloaded the demo a few weeks ago, see what all the hype was about. Looked in the settings... what, no smoke? It was supposed to show off as (almost quite) literally burning the disc, so... meh. Tried to backup some things I'd done that week.
*buzzer sound*
Three coasters out of three perfect discs. Right. Drag and drop to uApp. That made me happy. :)
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Gerardo Algarin said 6:01PM on 1-31-2007
Hi, i am the one who send the "tip" of the countdown, it was not my intention to bring something bad to this great site, i live in Mexico, my Currency is 11 times under valued compared to US Dollar, i also have this app for 5 USD = 55 pesos so, for me is a great little app that does the job, and does it in an atractive way... so, sure toast is better, but i can't afford it... so be nice with this page, it only grab my attention because of the countdown...
P.S. Sorry for my bad english...
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Samual Icky said 6:42PM on 1-31-2007
I bought Disco and well I kinda like it... I typically just use it to burn CD/DVD's I plan on playing on my DVD player... Disco just makes it easy to burn "hybrid" disc... far simpler than disc utility... I hate the smoke effect (i would rather give the cpu cylcles to folding@home)...
I do have some issues with it... like window resizing... easily removing files... a few stalls... and I DESPISE disc spanning as it just isn't smart. If I have two folders each around 800MB and burning to a 760MB CD you would think thats what 3 cd's nope I tend to use 4 cds!
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Jules Stoop said 7:20PM on 1-31-2007
The countdown is a nice idea and disco is a cool little app for just $ 15.
Now I'll go and send Jasper an e-mail and ask for a free license ;)
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MrBlank said 11:46PM on 1-31-2007
Why do you guys compare Disco to Toast? Disco is $15 while Toast is $100. Other than burning disks, they aren't parallel. It's a bit unfair. It sounds like a bunch of needless bitching.
Toast does a ton of crap that I don't need. I like having the option of a less expensive program that does what I want and I think the UI and smoke are nice (you can turn it off if you want). Be glad that there are other options out there.
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iva_t said 12:45AM on 2-01-2007
They compare it to Toast because that was the whole platform that the Disco guys used when they launched the program -- "Eating Toast for breakfast" or something equally asinine. There were also a ton of posts about how it was going to do this and that and revolutionize burning, and oh look, it has a smoke effect, and the authors' own blogs were filled with just too much hubris. Then when people tried it (myself included), it was just a buggy program that really didn't offer that much that wasn't already available for free. So, when yet ANOTHER post appears talking up Disco without it really earning this type of hype, people have a small tolerance (myself included again).
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