R, DVD, Blu-ray. Why did the massive industry built by Japanese engineers decline?Once upon a time, it was standard for ...

If you used or owned a laptop in the 2000s, you'd probably remember that it sported either a DVD or Blu-Ray drive for popping in installation discs, movies, and even the occasional album from your ...

Optical drives were once so common that virtually every computer came with one, or even two. Now this storage solution is quickly becoming obsolete — it's increasingly rare to find a mainstream ...

A decade ago I got my first Mac without an optical drive. So I got an external USB "superdrive" (CD/DVD writer). But that one now no longer works. I don't really need an optical drive, as I've copied ...

Optical drives are still practical for many users, whether to play old CDs and DVDs, install software, or create backups—especially with modern laptops, which are usually supplied without a drive.

One of the most interesting parts of the recent Apple Mac Mini and MacBook Air refresh is that Apple is moving away from optical drives. Apple isn't the only company to do so, raising the question "Is ...

These days, very few of us use optical media on the regular. If we do, it’s generally with a slot-loading console or car stereo, or an old-school tray-loader in a desktop or laptop. This has been the ...

Das_POD's DIY CD player kit lets builders fit a used CD-ROM drive into a laser-cut aluminum case, turning salvaged hardware ...

One truism about computer hardware is that, once purchased, it immediately starts falling behind the leading edge of the technology curve. Consider the Dual-2.0GHz Power Mac G5 I purchased in ...

The FIC Condor is a great small-formfactor case, no doubt about it. Only problem is that I've killed several optical drives by installing and trying to operate them in the vertical slot that is the ...

Forward-looking: As consumers increasingly turn toward digital distribution and data center operators try various storage methods, optical discs haven't stopped evolving. A recently published paper ...