Kicking the format wars up a notch, Sony has developed the world's smallest Blu-ray laser. The module both reads and writes the Blu-ray format.

Just how small is this Blu-ray laser? 3 millimeters on its longest side. You could lose it in a haystack. What's best is that with the decrease in size comes a similar decrease in cost.

Sony remarks that the Blu-ray module may appear in 9.5 mm laptops sometime this year. Manufacturers will be able to save on production costs in mass producing the tiny laser so we should expect cheaper Blu-ray products to start appearing as well.