Something Old, Something New

It’s not often I get really excited about something in computing anymore. That is not because I’ve lost the little kid’s sense of wonder, but because I’ve usually seen it before.

Today, over at My Digital Life, there is the announcement of something that, while not totally new, is partly new, and partly something older, discontinued, and brought back, to what will hopefully be a welcoming audience.

note the Label Tag on the faceplate? Remind you of anything seen before? Read on.

The market leader of optical storage solutions, Lite-On has announced its new internal DVD writers with 24x DVD writing speeds – iHAS324, iHAP424 and iHAS624, which the company claim as the fastest in the market, incorporating Lite-On’s SmartErase technology to provide users a permanent solution for erasing discs with private and confidential data

Obviously this is for those who use RW variants of media. I’ve not bothered for years, as they did not seem to be too reliable in the past.

Remember when we were told that 16x was the fastest speed possible, as anything faster might cause explosive discs in the chambers? Though not true 24x, the manufacturers keep working on speed increases, and succeeding.

Besides SmartErase technology, select internal DVD writers will also feature Lite-On’s LabelTag that enables users to create a label ring on the data side of any standard recordable media.

“PLDS is proud to manufacture the fastest 24X writers in the market, especially with included technologies such as LabelTag,” said Christine Hsing, Marketing Manager at PLDS (Philips & Lite-On Digital Solutions). “LabelTag provides a cost-effective and flexible method for professional disc labeling, a great solution for today’s busy professional and people on-the-go.”

While Label Tag certainly seems, to me at least, like the repackaging of Yamaha’s Disc Tattoo feature, I’ll take it. I like it on my Yamaha CD burners, and I’m sure it will be nice on this unit. Many times I want to label a disc, but I don’t have a Light Scribe disc available, and I usually don’t carry a safe marker for labeling with my service bags. This should work well, and, if it is Disc Tattoo under a new name, it will be much speedier than LightScribing a disc.

• iHAS324 – 24X SATA with SmartErase; available by Mid-March
• iHAP424 – 24X PATA with SmartErase and LightScribe; available by end of  March
• iHAS624 – 24X SATA with SmartErase, LightScribe and LabelTag; available by Mid-May

No words on their prices and software compatibility yet.

Obviously Nero and Roxio will work with it; they always do update before the actual products are available to the masses. Prices shouldn’t be much higher; on the order of 2 – 5 dollars (retail).

I can’t wait until May.

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