but the point i am making is that u should not leave out VITAL info from your digest (like platform support!) or else u r defeating the purpose of having a specialized web site!!

not to mention the idea that u might want to consider actually curring apath through the marketcom underbrush & directly contacting the product managers yourself — so that you can create an editorial product that fills in the missing gaps … ie has some value-add, and is not just re-cycled PR!

2) as for drivers, it is news to me that XP had writeable support for dvd-ram … i was under the impression that this feature (FULL COMPATIBILITY) was new to vista –

but what do i know!?

“Windows XP can only write directly to FAT32-formatted DVD-RAM discs. For UDF-formatted discs, which are considered faster, compatible device drivers or software such as InCD or DLA are required. Windows Vista can natively access and write to UDF-formatted DVD-RAM discs.”

cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd-ram

3) anyways, could you pls make sure that you let the marketcom minions know that u expect full platform in their press releases — so that they (the vendor) not you (the media) have to do the hard work of actually reporting the facts!

anyways – my original question is about macs – so i guess i will have to go hunt down the url directly myself …. which i guess is part of the windows FUD tax mac users have to pay :-(

thanx:dlf

The specs are based on the company press-release, which I usually shorten down a bit to fit better. Full story can be found from the source link.

And I don’t know what are you referring to with drivers and DVD-RAM. DVD-RAM works fine under Windows XP just fine.

pls irclude status of osx drivers as part of your standard editorial checklist even if that means you actually have to – gasp! – contact the vendor to get all facts.

this would be a real valueable service for your readers!

also: pls take special care when regurgiting spes – some hardware features are routinely listed by vendors even though the feature is not supported at the platform level … and requires special/custom drivers that are very expensive!

eg dvd-ram has never had a microsoft (write) driver until vista – a decade after apple started shipping its original ’superdrive’ …

bizarely, apple dropped write suport for dvd-ram during the change-over from ‘classic’ to os/x!!

the result of this erratic platform-level support is that windows users gain what mac users have taken away from them :-(

readers need to which hardware features have softwae ‘gottchas’.

(another example would be the special drivers

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136133

Model
Brand LG
Type DVD Burner & Blu-ray/HD Reader
Model GGC-H20L
Performance
Cache 4MB
WRITE Speed
DVD R 16X
DVD RW 8X
DVD-R 16X
DVD-RW 6X
CD-R 40X
CD-RW 24X
DVD R DL 4X
DVD-R DL 4X
DVD-RAM 5X
READ Speed
DVD-ROM DVD-ROM: 16X
Blu-ray DVD-ROM: 6X
HD DVD-ROM: 3X
Physical Spec
LightScribe Support Yes
Form Factor 5.25″
Panel Color Black
Configuration
Load Type Tray
Interface SATA