@Sockatume: sounds more like a "Floptical" drive than a straight MO drive.

from the Floptical wiki:

"The technology involved reading and writing data magnetically, while optically aligning the read/write head in the drive using grooves in the disc being sensed by an infra-red LED."

sounds pretty much exactly like Floptical : The Next Generation really. Floptical increased the 3.5" 1.44MB floppy size to 21MB.

unless it actually *is* using the laser to write data vs. just used for tracking the regular magnetic heads for writing.

contrary to what the Gizmodo write-up implies... i doubt the laser is doing any actual writing of data... and Electronista is even less reliable concerning technical specs... and the next option up is a poorly translated blog. so who knows what the actual completely rumored technology actually is.