All4DVD Inc. is offering users an opportunity to make a unique artistic statement with their external hard disk storage through the introduction of the ArtDrive. It’s a FireWire/USB 2.0-equipped hard disk and DVD recorder series that sports a custom case designed by Swiss artist Johann Ulrich.
Ulrich has designed three unique works of art that reside on the case of each device in the ArtDrive line. Ulrich is a graphic artist, cartoonist, illustrator, art director, fashion photographer and painter.
There’s a FireWire 400-equipped portable hard drive called the Idol, available in either 40 and 80GB capacities for US$299 and $599 respectively. The drives sport Oxford 911 bridge chipsets and weigh about 8 oz. each, and draw their power from the FireWire bus itself. The mechanisms spin at 5400rpm and sport 2MB caches; they’re compatible with Mac OS 9.1 or higher, and include a power supply for PCs and Macs equipped with third-party FireWire cards that don’t provide bus power.
The Medusa, meanwhile, is a FireWire 800-based hard drive. Introduced with the new 17 inch PowerBook G4 this past January, FireWire 800 offers up to twice the speed of the original FireWire specification, found on most Macs. It’s downwardly compatible with FireWire 400 too. The Medusa uses the Oxford 922 chipset, and features 7200rpm mechanisms with 8MB cache. Capacities run from 120 – 250GB and run $369 – $599.
The ArtDrive Sphynx is a 4x DVD-R recorder compatible with Apple DVD Studio Pro. It writes DVD-Rs at 4x, DVD-RW media at 2x, CD-Rs at 16x, and CD-RWs at 8x. Available for $459, the Sphynx can also be purchased with Toast 5.2 Titanium at an additional cost.
Visit All4DVD Inc.’s Web site for details and ordering information.