Yamaha's CRW-70 "Spyder" Slimline 12X CD-RW recorder is is barely 7 inches long and 5.5 inches wide with a profile (height) of about 1 inch and USB 2.0 support. Along with CD-R disc recording at 12X, Yamaha says it can rewrite a CD-RW disc at 8X, read a CD at up to 24X and rip audio CDs at a maximum speed of 24X. The CRW-70 also features Yamaha's SafeBurn Buffer Management system to prevent buffer underruns and the company's PurePhase Laser System, which is supposed to reduce glare during CD-R recording up to 25 percent below conventional levels to improve CD recording time and reduce errors. The CRW-70 has a top-opening design like a portable CD players. The Spyder also include an MP3 Playback mode with built-in hardware decoding for MP3 playback, and the software suite included with the drive performs encoding and decoding of MP3 and other condensed music formats. The CRW-70 can also be used as a stand-alone CD player. It includes all the necessary control buttons on the unit itself, allowing it to function as a CD player without being connected to a PC. It connects to computers via USB 2.0 and will ship in early October at a street price of price $299.99.