Pioneer rolled out what it claims to be the world's lightest portable Blu-ray disc writer, the BDR-XD05J. Tipping the scales at 230 g (or about the weight of a 6-inch smartphone), this drive comes in the clam-shell form-factor, and measures 133 mm x 133 mm x 14.8 mm (WxDxH). It takes advantage of the USB 3.0 SuperSpeed interface, and uses a single cable for both power and host connectivity. The drive can write single- and double-layer BD-R discs at speeds of up to 6X, triple- and quadruple-layer discs at up to 4X, and all kinds of BD-RE discs at speeds of up to 2X. DVDs burn at speeds of up to 8X, and CDs 24X. A suite of Cyberlink-made disc authoring/playback software comes included. The drive will be generally available later this week, beginning with Pioneer's home market of Japan.