Affiliate Disclosure
If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Read our ethics policy.

An Inside Look at Toast 4.0, CD-R For iMacs?

Toast 4.0

Sometime later this Fall Adaptec will release the next-generation of their leading CD Recording software for the Macintosh, Toast 4.0. Among the many new features of version 4.0, users are sure to find Toast's new MP3-to-CD audio burning capabilities as a dream come true. Toast will now decompress and burn MP3s to Audio CD format on the fly, while the CD is burning. And, according to sources, the process will not add any additional time to the burn process.

The new version will also boast support for the new Liquid Audio Music Format. Users can download encrypted music files from Liquid Audio's Web site, and burn music CDs to be played on their stereo CD player. Users will also have access to CDDB's unique Disc Recognition Service, where artist, album and song title information are automatically available for use, eliminating the need for users to manually type in titles.

Also new to Toast 4.0 is a CD Spin Doctor application, which allows users to take old LPs, clean up hisses and pops, add hi-fidelity back, then burn to CD. Furthermore the new version will offer expanded drive support for USB and ATAPI CD-R/RW recorders from manufacturers such as LaCie, QPS, Freecom and many others. PhotoRelay, a robust media cataloging application that is ideal for organizing and storing digital images to CD, will also ship with Toast 4.0 Deluxe.

For the fun of it, Toast 4.0 will ship with switchable, application theme files. These themes will allow the user to alter the appearance of the Toast application its self. The three themes that are currently included in prerelease versions of Toast 4.0 are Classic, Noire, Bondi. However, since the theme files are built into the application its self, it is unlikely that users will be able to create their own appearances. The release is currently in private beta testing and has recently reached beta 7 status.

Internal CD-Recorder For iMacs?

In other news, sources have recently come across prototypes of an internal CD-Recordable drive for Apple's iMac Personal computer. The drive, which was apparently developed by a Japanese manufacturer, is a 20X reader and 4x write drive with a 1meg buffer. The plastics are said to conform with the current iMac color-scheme of blue and icing white.

Rumor has it the Techworks, a well know Macintosh hardware company, has made an agreement with the manufacturer to market the drive in the United States. While no pricing information is available, sources claim that the drive is actually "user installable." Just how this is possible has yet to be seen. The drive is set to ship in September, sources said.