Follow Up--Free SmartDisk VST FW CD-RW Specs Still MIA

On Monday we posted, and then withdrew, a comparo between our external bus-powered SmartDisk VST FireWire CD-RW drive attached to our PowerBook G4 Titanium 500 (TiBook) and the CD-RW in the new iBook (Dual USB) combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive. We found them to be comparable. Based on a survey of the SmartDisk VST web site, we thought our SmartDisk VST drive (we bought it earlier rather than getting it free with our TiBook) was the same as the one Apple is giving away with new TiBook purchases since June 15th. Our drive, and the only one listed on Smart Disk VST's web site, has a 4x4x20 Ricoh mechanism. The iBook's is a 4x4x6x24 Toshiba R2002. We withdrew the article when we received numerous emails from readers and Smart Disk's Karl Fisher pointing out that we were in error. Apple is in fact giving away a newer, faster 8x8x24 Smart Disk VST CD-RW drive. We asked Karl Fisher if and where the newer drive's specs are available on Smart Disk's web site. His response:

SmartDisk is re-developing the website and has not yet completed. When it
is, you can find all the information you need at www.smartdisk.com, under
Products.

This should be very soon.

Karl Fisher
Senior Technical Support Representative
VST/SmartDisk Personal Storage System
978-635-8282
Karl.Fisher@SmartDisk.com

Thanks, Karl. The faster CD-RW drive is not yet available to buy from Smart Disk VST's web site but it looks like one will be able to very soon.

While not a speed demon, we really like our earlier model--it's small, light and works very well. Here are the burn times that we posted on Monday, now in the proper context:

Time to Burn (min:sec)

Computer/Drive	CD-R	CD-RW
iBook (Dual USB)/Toshiba R2002	7:42	7:59
TiBook 500/VST FW Portable	7:11	7:25
Power Mac G4 533DP/Sony 140E	4:25	6:57

The results were obtained with Mac OS 9.1 using iTunes 1.1 with a playlist of the four Barenaked Ladies songs (15:11, 17.5 MB) in the iTunes Sampler folder.

The performance of the external bus-powered SmartDisk VST FireWire CD-R/W drive used with our PowerBook G4 Titanium is comparable to the iBook's combo drive. However, the PowerBook is a little faster, probably because of its faster CPU. The CD-RW drive, an 8x4x24 Sony 140E we believe, in our Power Mac G4 533DP is faster as expected.

[Update: Alan Chong found a SmartDisk web page that describes the new CD-RW drive that Apple is providing with new PowerBook G4. He also says that owners have posted that it is a TEAC CD-W28E (MMC)-Firewire mechanism. Thanks Alan.]