Add a portable Blu-ray player to your Mac (including playback software) for less than a SuperDrive

Seth Weintraub

tl;dr: Buy a $40 Portable USB Blu-ray/DVD-R drive and $30 Blu-ray player MacGo for $10 less than an Apple SuperDrive and you get to watch/rip Blu-ray movies as a bonus.

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With Apple having eliminated optical media from just about every product it makes, including the redesigned iMacs, Mac Minis, and Retina MacBook Pros, many readers will be considering whether they need to procure a separate external DVD reader for emergencies. Some folks store archives, have software installers, backups, or have vast movie collection on DVD – and then there is Blu-ray…

Apple’s remedy is the DVD SuperDrive that costs $79 (well, $70/$50 used if you know where to shop). The SuperDrive is an Apple-quality product and can be used as a boot drive for many Macs that need to be upgraded or repaired via DVD.

But perhaps we can get a little more for our $80?

Steve Jobs viewed Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt” from the “mafia,” and Apple would frankly rather you stick to the iTunes ecosystem for video watching. But there are many nice Blu-ray titles out there, and iTunes’ compressed 1080p content still doesn’t come close the video and sound quality of Blu-ray. So, for those thinking of dropping $80 on a SuperDrive, we think we have a better option:

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How to add a USB Blu-ray player to your Mac for $42

Seth Weintraub

With 1080P hitting the new iPad and Apple TV last month, some of you are perhaps now looking to send your Blu-ray collection over to iOS devices.

Here is the easy part: Buy a Toshiba Lightscribe Blu-ray Player for just $42 with free shipping (via 9to5Toys). It also burns DVDs, and Lightscribe media will even do some art on the cover. Oh, and it is USB bus-powered, so it is nice and portable.

Update: There is a white version!

Toshiba advertises it as “Mac compatible,” but we all knew that the late and great Steve Jobs viewed Blu-ray as a “bag of hurt” from the “mafia.”

So, the hard part is getting Blu-rays to your Mac….

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Last Chance for $49 MacUpdate Bundle – ends today

9to5 Staff

From 9to5Toys.com:

Affiliate partner MacUpdate today offers their new $49.99 Dec 2011 Bundle headlined by TechTool Pro, TotalFinder, Postbox 3 and FontPack Pro Master Collection and seven more quality apps for $49.99.  TechTool Pro, which retails for double the entire bundle price, includes a bootable DVD disk for disk repair and diagnostics.

8 of the 11 100% Mac OS X 10.7 compatible apps are available as demos, which can be downloaded in a single dmg from here. (TechTool Pro 6, FontPack Pro Master Collection, and Neverwinter Nights 2 do not have demos)

As a bonus, the all-new IconBox 2.5 goes to the first 15,000 buyers. $49.99 at MacUpdate

Full rundown below: Read more

PBS’s ‘One Last Thing’ Steve Jobs documentary lands on DVD

Jordan Kahn

Originally aired on November 2, PBS is making their 60-minute “Steve Jobs– One Last Thing” documentary available on DVD starting today. Available on Amazon now for $22.15, the documentary includes a never-before-broadcast interview with Jobs from 1994, as well as interviews with a number of those who knew and worked with Jobs such as Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Ross Perot, and Dean Hovey.

The video is also available to rent on Amazon Video and is free for Prime members.  It is also available (Flash) on PBS’s website, or you can grab it on iTunes here.

Here’s an excerpt from the rare Jobs interview:
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Netflix spins off by-mail group as Qwikster

Seth Weintraub

Some interesting news from Netflix this morning: They are spinning off their by mail group, which will also include video games and giving it a new name ‘Qwikster’.

While the video below and the announcement blog post set a conciliatory tone for the way the recent changes (price hikes) happened, those changes are still in place and will continue going forward.

In fact, it sounds like Netflix is set to spin off its old mailing business in the future even though in-house Qwikster now sells game rentals as well as movies and TV shows.

The future of video and gaming is clearly streaming and it appears that Netflix doesn’t want to be associated with that entity.

Apple, for what it is worth, has been shunning optical for years, refusing to put Blu-ray optical discs in its Macs or Apple TV products and instead pushing the streaming of media.

Feature

Lion USB sticks now available for $69 through AppleCare, free to some (Update: Debunk debunk)

Seth Weintraub

Our good friends in Applecare alerted us to the fact that Lion USB keys were now available and in stock through AppleCare.  While officially they will cost a lofty $69, it appears, at least from the wording above, that some customers that aren’t able to use Lion’s recovery tools may be eligible to receive the USB drive at no cost.

We’ve detailled how to make a Lion recovery key from a Snow Leopard Key (automated or on your own, cheap) so don’t put Apple though the hassle, OK?

Update: We’ve been debunked by the new AOLEngadget!  Head below for details.

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