Pimp Your Mac with Blu-Ray

Remember those old 1.4MB floppy drives? Yeah, don’t feel bad, not too many people do remember these relics. While the obsolete technology of yesterday is slowly fading into the background, it makes you wonder just how long the technology of today will be around.

It was an achievement worthy of a downtown parade when Apple introduced the first built-in CD/DVD SuperDrive in 2001. The ability to burn a 4GB DVD on the go was amazing. Now thanks to FastMac, you can upgrade to a Blu-Ray optical drive capable of storing up to 50GB of data on a single disc.

FastMac officially announced on October 5th, 2007 that they will make these new drives available within the next 30 days and you can go ahead and pre-order yours for a mere $999.95. For that chunk of change they do give you a 1-year warranty as well as a 30-day money back guarantee. Also included is a copy of Toast 8 Titanium and a 25GB disc.

The vast storage provided by Blu-Ray technology makes it the perfect medium for High Definition video and mass storage. The technology itself is designed to support up to 200GB, but currently, only 50GB is supported. You’ll need some time burning 50GB at 2x, but at least you have the option. Hopefully by the time 200GB discs are supported, faster technology will be in place.

Blu-Ray is the name given to the next generation of optical discs. Instead of using a standard red laser to read and write data, a blue laser is used. I know that sounds really technical, and you’re scratching your head right now to figure out how the color makes a difference. The difference lies in the fact that the blue laser has a 38% shorter wavelength vs the current red laser. This allows Blu-Ray to place data closer together on the disc and in turn give you more storage capacity.

Here’s the list of the Mac candidates currently eligible for the upgrade:

• iBook G4
• iMac G5
• iMac Intel
• MacBook Pro (17-inch)
• Mac mini
• PowerBook G3 Pismo
• PowerBook G4 Titanium (667 Mhz or higher)
• PowerBook G4 Aluminum

FastMac already has a tray-loading upgrade available for for your eMacs, PowerMacs, Mac Pro and iMac G4’s. So if you don’t mind doing a little installation work yourself or finding a local expert to give you a hand, check out FastMac’s Blu-Ray area here and throw those floppy disks away.

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