Speed to Burn
OWC's Mercury Pro DVR-110 DVD burner.
I have a soft spot in my heart for
Other World
Computing. As befits their funky name, they've been supporting the
Mac community with well-designed hardware through good times and bad for
17 years--almost exactly as long as I've been a Mac user. They're both a
manufacturer and distributor, and it's been my experience that anything
bearing the OWC name has been Mac-tested and is backed by good tech
support.
One of OWC's latest offerings is the Pioneer DVR-110D
dual-layer DVD burner, either internal ($68-85, depending on
software/media bundle) or in OWC's Mercury Pro FireWire/USB 2.0 case
($138); I tested the latter. In either configuration, the drive is
Pioneer's latest/greatest (16x DVD, 8x DVD-DL, 40x CD). It's the first
on the market with 8x dual-layer burning, though it lacks some others'
DVD-RAM burning capability (so you might want to wait for the next
generation if you're into HDTV). It's also compatible with all Apple
applications--not always the case with third-party drives. The OWC case
is a nice "stackable" design in clear plastic, with a small cooling fan
(though the DVR-110D is a comparatively cool runner) that's audible but
not annoyingly so. It uses a separate power brick, but this has its own
cord and won't hog extra space on your power strip. OWC ships it with
NTI DragonBurn (a full-featured Mac burning suite) and Dantz Retrospect
Express (a highly regarded backup package), as well as both FireWire and
USB 2.0 cables, 25 CD-R's and 5 DVD-R's.
I don't have space here
for exhaustive test results (Google "DVR-110" and you'll find several
extensive reports online). Suffice to say that I exercised the drive
with a variety of CD and DVD media; it performed at expected speeds
without producing a single coaster. This included a couple of DVD+R
dual-layer discs rated at 2.4x but written at 8x. Faster-rated media are
still scarce, and all DL media remain expensive--$3-6 per disc--though
they are finally widely available now. --Ken
Henningsen
____________________
The Dock
Doctor
Addlogix's UniXpress USB port replicator.
Those of you who travel on business know the drill: After a
long trip, the very least you need to do is look through your files,
print some, transfer a few others to a thumb drive and connect to the
Internet to upload some files to colleagues. But that means
disconnecting the cables from your PC so you can hook up the notebook
to your various desktop peripherals. It gets tedious.
That's
where Addlogix's UniXpress
USB Port
Replicator comes in. The basic principle is simple. If you are a
frequent laptop user but have a desktop at the office--or use the
laptop at the office to tie in to a host of peripherals and cables
--you can simplify the connect/disconnect process down to a one-wire
deal.
I recently gave the UniXpress a test drive, seeing how it
performed on my laptop and how it would interface with my monitor and
desktop. It works on any Windows-based notebook or PC, and it can do
virtually anything a traditional docking station can do.
In
many ways, the device is the next grade up from the usual road-warrior
solutions such as docking stations or traditional USB port replicators.
Docking stations are proprietary and work with only one specific
laptop model, while USB port replicators are non-proprietary, but
don't function with a Video Graphics Array (VGA) connector.
Addlogix, however, has developed an way to accomplish the link
between USB and VGA at high quality. Thus the UniXpress bridges VGA,
USB, and non-USB peripherals to the notebook with one single USB
cable.
USB port replicators evolved as a non-proprietary
alternative to docking stations. One device could be used to connect
any laptop to office peripherals. What was missing was the VGA
connector, meaning users had to dock the laptop to the USB port
replicator and then run another cable to a monitor.
A better
alternative for mobile business users is to place a UniXpress unit in
the office, connect everything to it, and simplify all those
connection options. It represents the easiest and most effective way
to adapt a laptop to multiple environments. --Drew
Robb
