NOW, BLU-RAY STORAGE FOR MAC USERS
Blu-ray discs can hold 50 gigabytes of data, making a regular DVD seem cramped. They can also make life easier for digital photographers, video editors or anybody else who needs to stash big files on a recordable disc.
For those who don't want to drag around an external Blu-ray drive with their Macintosh laptops, Fastmac recently released an internal slot-loading Blu-ray drive that replaces the DVD drive.
Fastmac's Blu-ray drive works with several recent Macintosh laptop models, as well as the iMac and Mac Mini desktop systems. A list of compatible Macs and full technical specifications are at www.fastmac.com, which is also an online store.
Several third-party programs, including Roxio Toast 8 Titanium and Adobe Premiere CS3, can actually do the Blu-ray disc burning on the Mac once the drive is installed. The drive's US$800 price is steep, but that will eventually edge downward. For now, early adopters can record data not only to Blu-ray discs, but also to standard recordable DVD and CD media as well.
Sadly, the early adopters will not be able to watch Blu-ray movies on their Macs. Fastmac says several companies are working on the software to do this.
DOUBLE TROUBLE ON THE ROAD
Nothing beats a portable DVD player for a long trip — except perhaps one with two screens. Designed for those with more than one child, the Disney Dual Screen Mobile DVD Player can simultaneously display a movie or video game on two 7-inch screens.
The screens are tethered by a single 2.1m audio-video and power cord, long enough to have one screen in the front seat attached to the beverage holder, and the second on a headrest for viewers in the far back. Each screen has an independent volume control and a headphone jack. Just one has the video controls and actually plays the DVD, though there is also a remote control.
The kit, available from www.disneyshopping.com, includes two power supplies for either car or house power, two pairs of headphones and an extra video cable that could be plugged into a TV at home. Missing are rechargeable batteries, so when your car's ignition turns off at a rest area, so does your movie.
The screens are easy to move around the car, thanks to clever holding straps designed to stretch around the back of a seat, just in case one child needs some space. As anyone who travels with children knows, options are good.
NOT LIGHT, BUT WORTH A LOOK
It would be impossible to build one computer to please everyone, but Toshiba's new Satellite A205-S4617 notebook sure takes a whack at it. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.66 gigahertz and has 2 gigabytes of RAM, which is what you need to run all the features of Windows Vista's Home Premium edition.
The computer has four USB 2.0 ports and one FireWire port. Toshiba says it set the USB ports far enough apart to accommodate bulky devices that would normally block the use of the adjacent port.
For audiophiles, the S4617 has built-in Harman Kardon speakers. The 15.4-inch screen is in the 16:9 format that is favored for viewing and editing high-definition widescreen video, and it has a resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels. To help the budding filmmaker handle all that video, the unit comes with a 250-gigabyte hard drive. The five-in-one media reader can handle the most common storage cards used in digital cameras and camcorders.
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