We’ve been refreshing Apple’s website since the calendar flipped over to December, waiting to see when the new Mac Pro is going to pop up. We’re still waiting, but in the meantime, there are new accessories to stock up on, such as NuMac’s NMBDR6x Blu-ray Drive ($149). Made to match the new design of the upcoming drive-free Mac Pro, it adds the “bag of hurt” functionality that Apple has continued to avoid.
Made of aluminum and coming in black, the drive is designed to sit underneath the Mac Pro. The slot-loading mechanism accepts full-sized discs, including CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays for reading and writing. And the whole thing is bus-powered, receiving power from the USB connection without requiring any extra cables. The downside, it would seem, is in the fine print: “Third-party software required for playback of commercial Blu-ray discs.” If you’re willing to jump into that, or just need to produce your own Blu-rays, it may still be worth considering though.