The Predator has sleek Macdonald-Douglas lines, but without an upgrade, its performance is back with Cessnas.
Iomega have released a successor to their current range of CD-RW drives, unveiling the Predator external, USB, CD-RW storage drive at Sydney's IT Expo 2001. Following Iomega's industrial design credo, the Predator's packs state of the art functionality into a sleekly designed shell that suggests you could be holding alien technology. The drive is compatible with both the Windows and Macintosh platforms.
Despite the themes of savagery and power employed by Iomega market the Predator, this is one beast whose bite has been muzzled. The Predator is the external companion to Iomega's latest release of internal CD-RW drives; there are three internal drives with speeds ranging from 4x write 4x rewrite 6x read, at the bottom of the range, to the 12x10x32 at the top. However the Predator is only available in USB-1.1 configuration and unless you upgrade it to USB-2 or buy FireWire version of the drive you won't be able to take advantage of its highest performance 8x4x32; you will have to be content with a comparatively sluggish 4x4x6.
Like its predecessors and peers the strongest appeal of the external CD-RW drive is the advantage of portable uber storage capabilities (great for storing large audio and video files) without the logistical hassles of fitting an internal drive, which, for most users, involves a trip to the local PC shop. Less appealing is the price; external drives, as a rule, come at a premium.
Partially off-setting the performance disappointments, the Predator offer with an attractive software bundle. The software package supplied varies according to drive type but the pool of applications includes Adaptec Easy CD Creator with Direct CD, MusicMatch JukeBox Plus, MGI PhotoSuite (Mac only) and a 30 day Trial version Iomega QuikSync 2.
The Predator should be available on the shelves at your local PC hardware supplier now for AU$665. Or you can contact Iomega on the number below for further details on availability.
Iomega Predator
Company:Iomega
Ph:1800 466 342
Price:AU$679
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