IO-DATA has announced pricing and performance data on their new internal and external Blu-Ray drives. The biggest thing that jumps out at me from looking at the specs over at ExtremeTech is the cost. How much it the thing you ask? The external USB version goes for slightly under $1000 USD and the internal version is a bit less than that price. While the drives are compatible with DVD specifications as well, speeds are not too fast. BDE and BD media is written at 2X DVD+RW is 8X, DVD-RW is 6X, DRD-RAM is 5X and plain old DVD-ROM discs are only read at a paltry 8x speed.