The Mac compatible Lucid 8x8x24x Portable FireWire CD-RW Drive sports the slimmest dimensions and lightest weight of any FireWire CDRW drive on the market today, according to MCE Technologies, the manufacturers of the drive. The device also has an industrial design intended to complement Apple’s current hardware lineup, particularly the Titanium PowerBook G4.
It weights in at only a pound and measures 5.5 by 6.5 by 0.8 inches. The Lucid CD-RW is powered entirely by the FireWire bus and features JustLink buffer underrun protection — designed to prevent the creation of defective CDs due to interruptions in the flow of data. The Lucid writes recordable CDs at 8X speed, writes re-writable CDs at 8X speed and reads regular CD-ROMs at 24X speed, Arnold Ramirez, president of MCE Technologies, said.
The Lucid supports all Power Macs, iMacs, PowerBooks and iBooks with built-in FireWire ports, as well as those with PCI FireWire cards that supply power to the FireWire bus. An AC adapter is available separately and is required when using the Lucid with systems that don’t supply power to the FireWire bus, such as CardBus-based and some PCI-based FireWire ports.
The drive is also compatible with Apple’s iTunes under Mac OS 9.1 through Mac OS X (compatibility with Finder Burning under Mac OS X is in the works). The Lucid 8x8x24x Portable FireWire CD-RW Drive is bundled with Toast recording software, a FireWire cable and user guide. It has a retail price of US$299; the optional universal AC adapter is $14.99.