Although I'm the veteran of about a dozen Macworld Expos, this is the first time I've attended as a member of the media instead of as "just" a showgoer. Let's face it; the level of attention that you get from companies is a lot greater when you're writing or shooting video about a company's products than when you're one of tens of thousands of people cruising past a booth.

Still, I was unprepared for the gracious reception that I received at Griffin Technology when I visited to see what new products were released from the Apple peripheral manufacturer. Griffin has been making innovative products for the Apple community since 1992, and 2009 is no exception. The company has entered the Bluetooth headset market with the SmartTalk Bluetooth (featuring human voice prompting), pointed the way towards total control of FM radio with the Navigate with iFM, and shown that you don't need power to get sound amplification with the AirCurve acoustic amplifier.

Join me on a tour of Griffin's new and recent products with Jackie Ballinger from Griffin. This video report is part of our continuing and exhaustive coverage of Macworld Expo 2009.

Kensington is well-known in the Mac and iPhone space as a provider of peripherals. At Macworld Expo 2009, they've introduced a ton of new products, many designed to help you (in the words of Jim Morrison) keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel.

I visited with Olantha Boeker of Kensington on Tuesday to see what's new from Kensington. There's the beautiful SlimBlade Trackball for those who prefer using trackballs, the new Bluetooth Hands-Free Visor Car Kit, some new wireless mice, power peripherals, and more.

Check out the video on the next page for more details, and visit the Kensington website to see what's new for '09.

When Steve Jobs announced the new MacBook Pros, Apple received a lot of criticism for excluding a FireWire 400 port, despite the addition of FireWire 800. While most people were sitting around and griping, one company actually did something to reconcile the situation.

Sonnet has created a dongle that allows you to use FireWire 400 devices in your MacBook Pro's FireWire 800 port. The Sonnet Simply Fast dongle works with standard 6-pin male FW400 cables.

This dongle can be bought from the Sonnet online store, or from other retailers (i.e. Amazon) for around $14.24US. You can visit the Sonnet website for more information about the FireWire adapter. If you are looking for solutions to this FW 400/800 mystery then you might also want to check out FireWire 800 to 400 cables which are very plentiful, and might be slightly cheaper.

Is it time to finally put your HD mountain biking documentary on Blu-ray? Apple upgrade vendor MCE Technologies announced availability of a totally Mac-compatible Blu-ray recordable drive for Mac Pro and Power Mac.

The $499 (internal) drive is compatible with Mac OS X 10.5.2 and later, requiring no special drivers for burning -- just install it in your Mac Pro or Power Mac bay, pop in blank Blu-ray media, and you're ready to roll. The drive does both single-layer (6X BD-R or 2X BD-RE) and dual-layer (4X BD-R, 2X BD-RE) burning for capacities of 25GB or 50GB respectively. That's up to 50,000 photos, 12,500 music tracks, or 4 hours of HD video.

There's a $599 version bundled with Roxio Toast 9 and the Toast BD//HD Plugin, as well as an external drive with FireWire and USB 2.0 ports for $749.

To write professional Blu-ray discs that can play on set-top Blu-ray players or Sony PS3, you'll need Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Encore along with Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 or Final Cut Pro. Basic Blu-ray movies can be burned with Roxio Toast 9 and the BD/HD Plugin.

[via The Mac Observer]

Is that plain-jane Apple Keyboard starting to feel a little lax in the feature department? Do you find yourself wanting for, say, 10 programmable hotkeys and dedicated iTunes control keys? How does a built-in iPod dock sound, with an audio line out port for the ultimate in keyboard luxury and integration?

If your keyboard juices are 'a flowin, check out the new Pro|Type™ Multimedia Keyboard from Razer Pro|Solutions, a decked-out keyboard with all the fixins, except a cup holder. No pricing or availability has been announced, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear when you'll have yet another option for keeping your iPod front and center in your life.

[via iLounge]