With their newly-updated Toast Titanium 9, it looks like Roxio is really embracing new ways of using media, moving beyond Toast's original disc-burning functionality. New features include AVCHD camcorder video conversion, support for creating Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (though why someone would want to make HD DVDs at this point is anybody's guess), automatic tagging of unknown audio tracks via their "audio fingerprint," internet audio stream recording, and more. Previous support for CD/DVD burning and TiVo video is naturally still included.
Perhaps most interesting is the new Roxio Streamer, which allows video streaming from your Mac to "your Wi-Fi connected iPhone, iPod Touch or to any Internet connected Mac or PC." It seems like Roxio has recognized that disc-burning has a limited future and is steadily moving Toast towards streaming, etc.
Toast 9 is $99.99, but previously registered users are eligible for a $20 mail-in rebate. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
TrueDisc is a new CD/DVD burning application that features "master copy" burning capabilities, for the creation of discs that are highly resistant to damage. TrueDisc (yes, the company shares the same name as its software) claims that up to 90% of a disc's data can be damaged before its software is unable to access and read it. To create a master copy, TrueDisc breaks up files into cells, adding special so-called "redundant cells" to protect the original content. That means the less data you burn to a disc, the more redundant cells that can be created, but TrueDisc promises maximum space efficiency, and the software uses a non-proprietary file format for the greatest ease of use for recovering data. The software supports burning of non-rewritable media only, such as CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R/DVD+R DL, and it is available for $52 for a limited time, with a regular price tag of $89.
Everybody's favorite funk-inspired disc burning application, Disco has hit version 1.0 and features a wealth of new enhancements and additions. With improved disc naming, a beefed-up Discography function, and minor interface enhancements, Disco 1.0 has seen a wealth of improvements to warrant the $15 price tag. Oh, and the infamous Smoke interface now works on almost any Quartz Extreme-capable Mac. The demo version limits users to seven complete disc burns, and the software requires OS X 10.4.3. Folks who participated in the beta testing should be eligible for a free upgrade to 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.
But... only if you took advantage of yesterday's macZOT offer! I see as of this morning Disco is still available for $14.95, so maybe the freebie is still valid. Apparently when you register, the surprize (sic) is revealed: another license to give away to a friend. That's a brilliant way to spread the love. If I buy a copy today, I'll update this post if the freebie is still available. Considering Disco's fantastic UI, cool tricks, and excellent implementation, what's going to happen to venerable (and for a while, pretty much standard) Toast? If they don't at least drop the price I'm not sure what advantages it would offer. I'd like to see El Gato build some support for Disco too, boy that'd be cool.
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.
Disco, the new burning software that's been blazing a name for itself, has entered a more or less public beta. Those who pre-ordered through a MacZOT that was featured not long ago should be receiving ticket numbers with which they can redeem a beta download, otherwise you can email beta [at] discoapp.com to see if Jasper Hauser and crew will randomly select you for a lucky download of your own.
If you're interested in seeing more of this $14.95 piece of burning shareware check out the Disco blog for more screenshots and explanations on what the developers are shooting for. It's a pretty impressive app, both from feature and UI standpoints, and definitely worth a look if the Finder's burning abilities leave you wanting, while Toast's ridiculous 'discounted' price of $80 leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.
Toast is great, and Mac OS X can handle burning a few types of CDs and disk images natively, but what if you need something in between Toast's $80 price tag and Mac OS X's basic burning abilities? Burn might just be the answer you need. This open source app can handle CDs, DVDs, VCDs, various data disk types, disk images and more. The source is readily available in case it's missing something, and both Mac OS X 10.3.9 and QuickTime 7 are required, though many features seem to be 10.4-only. Enjoy.
I used the question mark because nothing is set in stone here, but TUAW reader Ann-CA tipped us off to a report at the DVD Newsroom that Hollywood might actually be close to lifting some of their over-the-top restrictions on DVD burning. This slightly loosened grip on their content could allow for things like DVD burning kiosks (it better be a darn fast burner), and it could also give the green light to vendors like the iTunes Music Store to allow burning of purchased videos.
The panel in charge of making and (finally) rewriting these rules is called the DVD Copy Control Association, according to DVD Newsroom. This DVDCCA is currently working on licensing the encryption technology (Content Scrambling System, or: CSS - nothing to do with web design) to digital distribution services, which is the key to allowing video burning.
No ETA is offered on when these rewritten rules could see the light of day, or when video burning could arrive in the iTMS. If Hollywood's reaction times of the past are any indication (and I genuinely hope they aren't), however, we might all be using 7th or 8th gen iPods before we can watch iTMS video on something besides Apple-branded devices.
Apple has released a firmware update for SuperDrives in a variety of PowerPC-based Macs, including:
PowerBook G4 (12 -inch 1.5GHz)
PowerBook G4 (15-inch 1.33GHz, 1.5GHz, or 1.67GHz)
PowerBook G4 (17-inch 1.67GHz)
iMac G5 (17-inch 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz)
iMac G5 (20-inch 1.8GHz)
Mac mini G4
The update "fixes burning speeds when writing to certain recordable DVD media". Check out Apple's support document and download page for details and instructions on installing the update.
We
mentioned BackityMac
1.0 a couple of weeks ago, and since then it's had a minor .1 update with a big new feature: backing up to
CDs/DVDs. As icing on the cake, BackityMac can also span disk images that are too big for the media you're using,
putting that 'size matters' issues to rest.
BackityMac 1.1 is donationware, a Universal Binary and available
from Whimsplucky
Software.
With their newly-updated Toast Titanium 9, it looks like Roxio is really embracing new ways of using media, moving beyond Toast's original disc-burning functionality. New features include AVCHD camcorder video conversion, support for creating Blu-ray and HD DVD discs (though why someone would want to make HD DVDs at this point is anybody's guess), automatic tagging of unknown audio tracks via their "audio fingerprint," internet audio stream recording, and more. Previous support for CD/DVD burning and TiVo video is naturally still included.
Everybody's favorite funk-inspired disc burning application, 
But... only if you took advantage of yesterday's 
Disco
Toast is great, and Mac OS X can handle burning a few types of CDs and disk images natively, but what if you need something in between Toast's $80 price tag and Mac OS X's basic burning abilities? 
Apple has released a firmware update for SuperDrives in a variety of PowerPC-based Macs, including:
We
