A portable optical drive that's light in weight....but heavy in features. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. Small notebook computers are becoming more popular with consumers and students who are looking to lighten their load. But that does come at a price. Often those ultra small notebooks don't include optical drives. And while external DVD and CD drives have been around for years....most have not been very portable. That's not the case with a new TruDirect slot loading portable drive from Samsung....where national sales manager Rich Aguilera says....

"One of the key unique features about this drive is the software that's bundled with it. The TruDirect software allows you to take an external device like a digital camera, camcorder, interconnect with your PC and your external device...and allows you to record directly to disc... DVD quality disc. Also, our Lightscribe labeling technology's embedded in the drive. It allows you to take your drive, with special Lightscribe media, flip over that disc and be able to etch in an image or picture."

It is a slim drive...bundled with Nero software for burning discs. And doesn't require an added power supply....

"You can use your internal power source, via USB cable...and it allows you to power the drive and record information to the disc."

The suggested retail price is under 110 dollars. Samsung is also out with a new internal drive designed to use the newer serial ATA ports found in PCs. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.