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Dave Marsh, the longtime music critic and founding editor of Creem magazine, once wrote that he had come to regard the unignorable disco phenomenon of the late 1970s much as he felt about Reggie Jackson, the unbearably media-saturated Yankee slugger of the day: "Not exactly what I aspired to be, but pretty darn impressive when it found its groove." Loyal Mac user that I am, I gave the iMac a good hard look when it first debuted and decided it wasn't for me. Which is not to say I wasn't impressed to see Apple stripping down their systems to the minimum specs of today's Internet-crazed and bidding a brave farewell to the fossil-like 1.44MB floppy. And its quick drop to very un-Mac-like sub-$1,000 pricing turned my head as well.
And though the system's apparent anti-storage vibe seemed appropriate enough for its target audience, it just seemed so extreme. With the jarring revelation that the iMac lacked the SCSI port that's been a staple of every Mac as long as SCSI peripherals have existed, I wrote the thing off immediately. For external peripherals it offered only the USB ports that have been showing up on PCs for a while, but, to my knowledge, not used for much. Sure, USB has its advantages, most notably the plugand-play hot-swappability that SCSI has never quite guaranteed, and it fits in well with the iMac's decided no-muss, no-fuss consumer bent. And it's more than suitable for Zip drives, LS-120 floppies, and the like. But can it deliver the unerring throughput required for ever-testy CD-R? I had my doubts to say the least.
Shortly after I dismissed the issue, a flurry of USB CD-R/RW drives designed specifically for the iMac market exploded onto the scene. Most were of the conservative 2X variety (already to my ears a lofty claim for USB recording), while the most ambitious promised no less than 4X CD recording, courtesy of a company called QPS, Inc. that was previously unknown in CDR/RW circles. But they seemed determined to make their name quickly, proclaiming not just 4X CbR and 2X CD-RW, but a full spectrum of color coordination with the fruity-flavored iMac. So if you're not satisfied with the color you initially chose, or want to do...