optical drive
An optical drive is a hardware peripheral that uses lasers or electromagnetics to read or write to various optical mediums. Optical drives include CD drives (writeable to CD-R and/or CD-RW media), DVD drives (writeable to various combinations of DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+RW DL, and DVD-RW DL formats), and Blu-Ray drives (writeable to BD-R and/or BD-RE formats). The main difference between an optical drive and an optical player is whether it is standalone or not; an optical drive is used inside a computer, whereas an optical player (like a Blu-Ray player) is standalone.
Technology news All News
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04/27/09 11:38am Computing, Imaging, Gaming, Home A/V G.E. makes holographic storage breakthrough, standard disc size could store 100 DVDs
Still only a laboratory success, the new technology nevertheless has potential to upset Blu-ray, prolong the lifespan of physical storage media. dig deeper
Around the web: nytimes.com
, The Toybox
, CrunchGear (113 comments)
, I4U News 
Profile pages: DVD, General Electric Company, Blu-ray, optical drive, Flash memory
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04/24/09 5:45pm Computing Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackelope" released to the Linux-loving masses
Three versions of the Linux operating system are available: Desktop, Server, and Netbook editions. dig deeper
Around the web: Gear Diary
, digg: Tech Popular
, eWeek
, news.cnet.com (83 comments)
, ubuntu.com
, ubuntu.com
, ubuntu.com 
Profile pages: Linux, Ubuntu Linux, Canonical Ltd., Linux, Operating system, Wi-Fi, 3G, optical drive, USB, Open source, Netbook
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12/22/08 11:30am Computing feature PC 101: An overview of the components inside your computer
Save money and empower yourself by getting familiar with your machine; let's take a look at what's under the hood of your PC. dig deeper
Profile pages: Blu-ray, DVD, USB, SATA, Power supply, RAM, LAN, IDE, processor, HD audio, optical drive, motherboard, video card, Expansion slot, PCI, Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), PCI Express, NIC, FSB (front side bus)
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