'EcoDisc' allegedly trashes man's optical disc drive
Maybe he should have read the warning label
UK magazine PC Pro today told the world how one of its readers didn't read the warning label on a free cover-mount disc and as a result got it stuck in his computer, allegedly damaging the machine's optical drive.
Last weekend, the UK's Mail on Sunday newspaper gave away a free DVD of Neil Diamond's movie, The Jazz Singer. Written clearly on the back of the package: "No Apple slot in drive [sic]" with a big red cross over the drive's icon.
OK, so that's not exactly well-constructed English, but the meaning is clear enough: don't put this disc in a Mac.
PC Pro's reader did so anyway, and slipped the disc into his machine "before realising the implications". Now "the disc drive no longer works".
He admitted: "I have booked the computer in for repairs and it is likely to cost £60 plus VAT to repair."
Ouch.
The DVD was not a standard product but a so-called 'EcoDisc'. This medium is 50 per cent thinner than a regular DVD, and is both recyclable and biodegradable. It has almost half the production and transport carbon footprint of a standard DVD.
One EcoDisc supplier, Breed Media, admits it only has a "98 per cent" playability, according to the company's website.
The reader claimed other users had been hit too. For its part, the Mail on Sunday told Pro that it had had only "a couple of people phoning up, but nothing major" after shipping the disc. EcoDisc devoloper, ODS, which specialises in magazine cover-mount discs, said it had had only "dozens" of complaints out of its production of "over ten million of these discs", PC Pro reports.
It's not known how many of these complaints came from other Mac users, or from owners of other machines with slot-load drives, like the PS3.
COMMENTS
Danger! Danger!
Schadenfreude levels at overload!
I couldn't wish it on a nicer readership. What are MoS readers doing with Macs, though? Don't they read the articles in their own paper about how eeevil computers are?
Solution for Apple notebook users
German mags including EcoDisks had caused similar problems for Mac users last year. The warning was very small, and honestly who reads the small print on DVDs or on DVD labels. Fortunately a number of DIY solutions exist. The best one (and safest) method seems to slap the upsidedown Mac Notebook while pressing the eject button. The article describing this solution can be found at http://qompute.wordpress.com/2007/10/13/put-the-apple-notebook-upside-down-and-slap-it/
Feedback is welcome ...
Warning Label
was not in English - or at least, not a recognisable form of English. Is that Mail on Sunday proofreader at work? At very least MoS should cover the repairs if they cant be bothered either to put the warning labels in English or to check with the purchaser at point of sale that they are not expecting a newspaper printed in English to be entirely in English? Then again, the Telegraph regularly includes a Putin fanzine with equally 'curious' English .....
Well
...you would not expect anything less from the Mail on Sunday
