Bus-powered and featuring buffer underrun protection, the new drive can write CD-Rs at up to 24x speed. CD-RWs can be burned at 10x, and CD-ROMs can be read at up to 24x. The drive is enclosed in a chassis that measures 5.5 inches wide, 6.5 inches long, and 0.8 inches high. It weighs less than a pound.
Although the Lucid-24 ordinarily works with bus power provided on all Macs with built-in FireWire ports (as well as those add-on cards that provide FireWire bus power), it also can use an optional AC adapter when used with Cardbus-based and some PCI-based FireWire ports.
MCE said that the Lucid-24 is compatible with Apple’s own built-in burning software and iTunes, under Mac OS 9.1 or higher, including Mac OS X. It ships with Toast Lite from Roxio, a FireWire cable, and user’s guide.
The Lucid-24 carries a suggested retail price of US$299 and is available immediately.