Slimline Toshiba DVD drive will burn labels

Toshiba will soon begin selling notebooks that can burn DVDs and CDs, and then burn a label onto the disk as well.

The company announced on Tuesday that it will begin shipping laptop computers containing the slimline 'LightScribe Burner' in the second quarter of this year. The multi-format drive, also called the SDR6572M, can etch monochrome images onto the label side of the disks which have a suitable coating. This technique uses the same laser that's used to read and write data by creating a visible chemical change in the dye.

Toshiba claims this would be useful for "highly mobile" workers, allowing them to make a copy of a corporate presentation and then burn the company logo onto the disk. Toshiba wasn't able to say how much the SDR6572M would add to the cost of a laptop.

The SDR6572M uses technology licensed from LightScribe, which developed this 'disc labelling technology'. LaCie announced an external DVD drive that incorporated this feature earlier this year but Toshiba, according to a company spokesman, has an exclusive deal allowing it to include it in a laptop.

Toshiba also suggested that consumers could use it to copy pictures, video clips or music and add an image in a "more professional-looking manner" than adhesive labels.