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Samsung’s OneNAND flash memory has just made the move on up to a 70nM process, giving a sustained read speed that is 60% faster than the old 90nM process.

Buffalo is once more beefing up its HDD lineup, this time taking storage to the 0.5TB level with the HD-HC500U2, which offers 100Gb more than the highest-rated model in the HD-HCU2 series that we featured a little while back.

Dramurai, your days may be over, but Evergreen’s return to form continues with the Tonosama (“feudal lord”) Series CompactFlash cards, which feature depictions of three famous Japanese shogun.

Thermaltake’s giddy iFlash Mini is a 2,000rpm, 80mm fan with an LED that shows the ambient temperature in “attractive” glowing red, along with a rotating company logo, no less.

These days, Skype handsets are hitting the Japanese market faster than iPod covers, and that’s saying something. But Net Cowboy has introduced a bit of class into the proceedings with its DC-NCTEL1.

Logicool has come to grips with a way to cash in on the Final Fantasy franchise.

And now, something to rival the Thanko DC-101 CD library. Say hello/goodbye to the Landport DiscPod blank media dispenser.

Elecom’s just released a half dozen “high-definition” webcams, hilariously misusing the HD moniker for its 0.3-megapixel UCAM series of CCD-mounting cams.

Logicool’s latest laser mouse, the G-5S, is an updated, limited-edition version of the G5.

Speaking of things Skype-ish, Green House has an attractive little bus-powered USB handset for ¥2,980 called the i-Sky.

New from Planex today, we have a useful little dongle that adds temporary Skype functionality to a PC without the need to install the software.

ASK has a handy ¥4,000 charger for devices that like their juice via USB.

Logicool’s coming out with the mouse equivalent of 4WD.

If you’re having one of those weeks when you’re itching for a 10BASE-T/100BASE-TX switching hub in a choice of soothing colors, then today’s your lucky day.

Logitec’s gone environmental with its RoHS-friendly Bluetooth 2.0+EDR USB adaptor, the LBT-UA200C1.

Did we say overdrive? Thanko is also putting out a mouse that doesn’t roar.

Just a quickie to say that NTT’s Cocoa Gigastorage secure online data storage service now comes with added benefits. If you’re in Japan and fancy making use of the 1Gb of server space that can be accessed by PC, cellphone, whatever for a bargain ¥315 a month better move on it by Mar. 31.

It’s no surprise that Seiko Epson’s recent aggressive legal moves against third-party makers of ink-jet printer cartridges and refill kits aren’t too popular with everyone. Believe it or not, some of those very third parties are fuming.

Logicool’s just come up with a winner for lefties: the MX610 Left-Hand Laser Cordless Mouse, or MX610L to its friends. The mouse works at 27MHz frequency, which helps give it a range of 10m.

This one might leave you scratching your head in wonder, but it certainly won’t leave you scratching your DSC monitor.

The ever-entertaining Thanko has found a new way, proclaimed in glorious gaudy Technicolor on its retail website, to get you to pay $100 (or thereabouts at ¥10,980) for a plastic bucket to store your CDs in.

When the heat is on, avoid throwing your huffing and puffing notebook PC into a bucket of ice. Opt, instead, for the Antec NoteBook Cooler, armed with two powerful fans, that goes on sale Mar. 10 for ¥8,900.

Japan’s Mac lovers may be embracing Logicool over the coming weeks, as the company is set to release a wireless keyboard just for them. The svelte 19mm Cordless Desktop S530 Laser for Mac (their name, not ours) goes on sale here March 24 and will cost ¥12,800. The mouse is nothing to squeak at, either.

Transcend has come up with a real treat for folks in need of some handy storage on the move. The USB 2.0 On-The-Go 30Gb StoreJet OTG is itself pretty speedy, with up to 14 megabytes per second data transfer. The 1.8in HDD measures 105 x 70 x 19.5mm and tips the scales at a tad under 200g. It sells for about ¥31,400.

Evergreen has just released a 3.5in HDD case with built-in USB hub. The good-looking DN-HDU35 is 35 x 202 x 112mm, weighs 420g (sans hard disk) and costs ¥3,980.

Not to be outdone by e-let’s, Elecom is, er, breaking into the disc-smashing market with a cutting-edge unit of its own. Along with CDs and DVDs, the SCR-002 also shreds credit cards and — gasp! — even paper. The highlight of this 360 x 265 x 482mm, 7.7kg bucket of tricks is that it goes about its business quietly, at about a maximum of 70dB. On sale mid-March for ¥18,375.

HitachiSoft has developed a secure 256Mb USB memory it’s snappily calling the Hibun AE CopyGuard Light. It combines encryption technology with a good ol’ I-O Data USB memory stick to create a secure environment for working on MS Office files.

At last, a sensible product from Thanko.

Adtec has released a pair of nifty USB readers for miniSD and MS Pro Duo cards.

Green House has just adding a gripping product for sweaty palms clutching the GameBoy Micro in the shape of its Speaker Grip micro. The GBM add-on (GH-GBM-SA216 to its friends) takes three AAA batteries and pumps out a measly 1.6W from its internal speakers.

With Japan’s automakers being slow to break China, Pioneer seems determined to guide the way to a brighter future and, like many a firm advancing into the Middle Kingdom, is thinking big. The struggling company has just said that in March it’s going to start selling its DVD AVIC-D800 DVD-based system for around 19,800 yuan.

Samsung is releasing the source code for the driver software for OneNAND, one of its post popular memory types, making it easier for electronics companies to use it in portable gadgets running Linux, it announced Wednesday.

Given the enduring popularity of Gundam, it’s not surprising that all sorts of companies are still anxious to cash in on the robot anime series. I-0 Data, the releaser of many a good memory product, proves it is no exception by releasing four 256Mb USB memory chunks in mid-March for ¥5,460.

Buffalo has decided to go on the rampage with some heavy duty storage. The latest lineup of USB 2.0 compatible drives starts at 160Gb and tops out at 400Gb. The 160Gb HD-HC160U will be on sale at the beginning of March for ¥16,485.

Logitec is coming out with a series of 2.5in 5,400rpm SATA HDDs for Win PCs. The LHD−NASAK range comes in 40Gb, 60Gb, 80Gb, 100Gb and 120Gb capacity versions featuring 150 megabyte per second data transfer speeds.

Sanyo’s new Diply Talk MP3 voice recorders come in 1Gb (ICR-S340RM) and 512Mb (ICR-S270RM) versions and also support miniSD cards.

Pioneer has just announced three CD/DVD writers that’ll be out early in March. The DVR-A11-J series do just about all stripes of DVD and CDs and burn at 16x for DVD+/- and 8x for dual layer DVD-R, DVD+R. CD-R is much faster, as you’d expect at 40x, while CD-RW is 32x.

Logicool’s newest is a cheerful and, at ¥1,980, very cheap Win 98 / Me / 2000 / XP-compatible keyboard.

I-O Data, always deeply concerned about your storage demands, has announced the USB 2.0/IEEE 1394 compatible 500Gb HDH-SUEH500 external HDD. This 7,200rpm brick in your personal data warehouse is Win/Mac compatible, 49 x 193.9 x 174.9mm, 1.4kg and yours for ¥66,675.

Fujitsu just announced a 120Gb version of its HandyDrive, the FPHD1120 external HDD.