Can you hear that folks? No, not the sounds of ghouls and goblins. I am referring to the chatter of millions of keyboards as people all over the world update their firmware for their Sony DRU/DRX 710 A/UL drives.

Not as soothing as kids screaming that they want to open Christmas gifts now, not later. Still, it is totally worth the minor distraction to upgrade that firmware if it lands you speeds up to 12x DVD-R and 4x DVD+R DL.

Great news for those of us which already own a Sony DRU/DRX 710 A/UL and want that the drive becomes faster in writing DVD-R and DVD+R DL. Sony published a new firmware that upgrades the drive to 12x speed for DVD-R and 4x speed for DVD+R DL writing.

Further has Sony made the drives Mac compatible, so the DRU 710A is now compatible with OS X version 10.2 or higher. According to Sharon Garner, Product Manager for Sony Optical Storage Products is this an important development for the 710 series and Sony is very pleased to be able to offer the DRX-710UL to Mac users the first time.