Samsung Reveals Two New Portable Optical Drives, One With Wi-Fi

Introducing a new optical drive may not be top priority these days for tech companies -- particularly with many machines going without one altogether -- but Samsung's looking out for those of us who still rely on those tried-and-true coasters. The company has just revealed a new pair of drives, with one in particularly being especially exciting.

The SE-208BW is a new hybrid product that combines an external ODD with a wireless module. It offers traditional CD/DVD playback and writing capabilities, but also features Samsung's own app to enable smartphones, tablet and PC users to wirelessly stream and play CDs/DVDs to their smart devices. Not bad!


It basically doubles as a wireless access point, and can even integrate with your existing home network to extend coverage. Furthermore, the built-in DLNA and Allshare support brings streaming to HDTVs into the mix, and it can be powered via USB or a dedicated AC adapter. It'll work with both OS X and Windows platforms, and should be available in the beginning of 2012 for a to-be-determined price.

The second piece of kit is the SE-506AB optical disk drive, a slim and portable Blu-ray writer. It can also get power from a USB port if needed, and works with both Macs and PCs (hooray, Blu-ray to the Mac!). The SE-506AB will be available at the end of August 2011 at online retail outlets with a MSRP starting at $140.00.