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From: gbrown@tybalt.caltech.edu (Glenn C. Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Why aren't more hard disks like the Portable's?
Message-ID: <1990Mar1.075451.11357@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 90 07:54:51 GMT
References: <1715@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>
Sender: news@spectre.ccsf.caltech.edu
Organization: California Institute of Technology
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mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) writes:

> ... If I
>leave for classes in the morning and I don't come back for six hours, wouldn't
>it make sense for the IIx's HD to have spun down after about an hour?  Then,
>just like my screen, when I nudge the mouse, it comes back to life.

>  So, how come nobody does that?

Well, for one, It costs a little to add that feature.  And in a market where
consumers are just realizing that they want this feature, it hasn't been
a competitive feature to add.... maybe.

I really don't think that anyone's thought about it much 'til now. (Bravo,
mjkobb).  In the past, HD's were the exclusive realm of mainframes, which
were used around the clock...  No need for that feature there.  Maybe 
it took the Mac Portable to make us realize what simple improvements could
be added to all PC's.  Yeah, that's it...  Just like the Shuttle and Tang!
That's how Apple can justify the Mac Portable's price:
The Spinoff Technologies!

--Glenn