Hasta La Gadget!

Sony is announcing its first slim, portable, external Blu-ray Disc rewritable drive today, for use with notebooks, netbooks, and desktop computers. The BDX-S500U writes BD-R discs at up to 6x speeds and dual-layer BD-R discs at up to 4X speeds. That means you can record a 25GB disc in about 20 minutes. To get 6X recording speed, you’ll need to use 6X compatible BD-R media. One 25GB Sony blank BD-R disc comes in the box.

Also included with the drive is CyberLink’s Media Suite 8 for capturing, authoring, editing, backing up, and viewing high-definition content, and playing back Blu-ray Disc movies (including 3D Blu-ray movies). The drive will be available later this month, and the price hasn’t yet been given.