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I don't ask for much. A good night's sleep, a hot cup of coffee, and a CD burner that makes discs quickly and reliably. As a Macintosh user, though (a 400mHz slot-loading iMac running OS 9.2, to be precise), that last one has not been so easy to find. Achieving the delicate balance of the burner, software, and system configuration can take weeks of trial-and-error, hand-wringing, and gnashing of teeth. Which means that when we Apple acolytes find a combination that works, we tend to stick with it and switch only under extreme duress. Or a review assignment that brings with it the promise of 40X burns; even Mac users have a need for speed, but that need's gone unrecognized too long.
That's what it took to get me to leave behind my trusty iTunes for the uncertainty of Charismac's Discribe, which, unlike Apple's own software, is compatible with QPS' new Que! Fire 40X/12X/48X FireWire external CD-RW drive. Funny thing is, it's a drive made with Macs in mind (and iTunes is compatible with QPS' other drives, so 40X compatibility is likely just around the corner)-with its rounded corners and semi-opaque graphite case, it belongs next to an iMac. And with Discribe, it's a natural match.
Or at least it should be. The Que! Drive comes with a FireWire 1394 interface and bundled with Discribe 5.0.15 for OS 9.x and OS X. The thing is, Discribe plain and simple doesn't work, at least not reliably and certainly not predictably. Ever a fan of the underdog-- in a world dominated by the...