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Archos Technology has released a CD-RW drive for your notebook, designed to accompany you on the road. The company claims that its Cesar-CDRW/MPM, about the diameter of a disc, is the smallest, most portable external CD-RW drive yet available.

The Cesar-CDRW/MPM is a small, flat cylinder only 5.3 inches in diameter (a CD is a little less than 5 inches across) and less than 1 inch thick. It weighs 14.5 ounces--less than a pound.

Wondering what it weighs with the AC adapter in place? It's still 14.5 ounces, because the Cesar-CDRW/MPM needs no AC adapter: The unit pulls all the power it needs from the computer. The drive can use a USB 2.0, FireWire, or PC Card interface, and it works with PCs and Macs. In fact, the "MPM" in the product name stands for Micro Power Management--Archos's name for its patented AC-avoiding technology (it has nothing to do with MP3 files).

The unit's suggested retail price of $250 includes Nero Ahead Burning ROM CD-RW authoring software (you may choose between the Windows and Mac version) and a USB 2.0 interface. FireWire and PC Card interfaces are available, too, or will be soon, at additional cost. Archos promises that you'll be able to switch interfaces easily.

MPM can't help the Cesar pull power from a computer reliably enough to burn CDs, however. That's why the drive comes with a pair of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that it uses when the current is fluctuating or when the computer can't properly provide it with power (more likely with an older system). And yes, the 14.5-ounce weight includes the batteries.

Small, But Slow

With its rated 8x/8x/24x performance, the Cesar is no speed demon. If you burn a lot of CDs and time is essential, you'll probably want something faster--and that means larger. Slow speed is the price you pay for portability.

Some people may doubt the wisdom of buying an external CD-RW drive rather than an internal one. After all, even a small box that's easy to carry around is more of a hassle than no box at all. Price certainly isn't the reason. For example, Dell sells an easy-to-install 8x CD-RW drive for its Inspiron notebooks for $259. And when you buy a new notebook, an optional CD-RW drive costs even less.

But external drives have some advantages. They're more versatile--you can use a drive like the Cesar on more than one system, moving it as you see fit. And notebook media bays are precious: notebooks seldom provide more than two, which means you probably can't put in the CD-RW drive without removing another drive.

Archos is no stranger to either storage or shrinkage. It markets a 6GB MiniHD hard drive that weighs about 7 ounces and is approximately 4 inches long, 2 inches wide, and 0.5 inch thick.

At the Consumer Electronics Show last January, Archos introduced a music and video player described as "paperback size" that can play MPEG-4 and DVX video as well as MP3s. The Jukebox Multi-Media Portable Entertainment Center can connect to a PC or directly to a CD player.

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