Tokyo-based package software seller SOURCENEXT is leaving disks behind for its line of consumer software titles. From September, its core postcard-printing, homepage creator, and utility software titles will ship on your choice of frumpy CD-ROMs or trendier USB drives, with 30 titles making the move to thumb drive by the end of the year. The sales strategy, dubbed "U-Memo", recognizes that mobile PCs are moving away from optical drives, and that USB drives have become a commodity storage media. Prices will stay the same as CD-ROM versions, and space not taken up by software on the 1-GB "U-Memo" drives can be used for general data storage. That means "U-Memo" offers buyers that same software as the CD-ROM versions, with a thumb drive tossed in. Together with downloads, this looks like a sure end for CD-ROMs as a software delivery method.
http://www.sourcenext.com/titles/usb/?i=img_usb (Japanese)

One feature you won't find on a Macintosh computer is a television tuner. The fairly recent Apple TV peripheral, for all its capabilities, still doesn't bring in actual television. Hence a variety of third-party peripherals for TV-loving Mac users, including the upcoming GV-MACTV from Kanazawa-based I-O DATA. An update of the earlier GV-MVP/H for Windows, the small, slim white box will connect to a Mac's USB port to pull in Hi-Vision-quality terrestrial digital TV for viewing and recording to hard drive or DVD. The unit will hold the B-CAS cards used in Japan to decode digital broadcasts, and will ship with TV management software that will work with an Apple Remote. Available by the end of the year; no price yet. (The Windows device is JPY15,700.)

Press release: http://www.iodata.jp/news/2008/08/08_pr014.htm (Japanese)
GV-MVP/H for Windows: http://www.tekronomicon.com/gadget/2008/07/io_data_tuner_s_record_multip... (English)

Tokyo-based PLANEX Communications offers a new model of USB-to-Gigabit Ethernet adapter, the GU-1000Air. Plug it into a USB 2.0 port to add an Ethernet port to those little sub-notebooks (like the MacBook Air, PLANEX suggests) that lack one. JPY4880.
http://www.planex.co.jp/company/release/pdf/20080812_gu-1000air.pdf (Japanese)

How cheap is storage these days? Price watchers in Japan report that the retail price of a 1TB internal hard drive has marched relentlessly downward, breaking JPY20,000 around March, and dropping to around JPY12,000 currently. Some retailers are blowing out name-brand 1TB drives for as little as JPY9800; check low-price shops like T-ZONE or TSUKUMO for bargains.

It won't be long before talk of "deleting stuff to make room on the hard drive" becomes a delightfully quaint thing of the past.
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20080802/etc_hdd.html (Japanese)

Okayama-based Sanwa Supply offers a wireless 10-key-pad mouse, the NT-WLMA2. A selector offers the option to make only the mouse or 10-key functions active, so you don't accidentally punch numbers while mousing around. JPY7329.
http://www.sanwa.co.jp/news/200807/nt-wlma2/index.html (Japanese)

Recently we noted Thanko's USB Cooler Mouse with a built-in fan - a gimmick unfortunately able to cool only one hand at a time. Well, the company didn't waste much time addressing that shortcoming: this week, Thanko announced the USB Cooler Keyboard, an aluminum-topped full-size keyboard with no less than three fans blowing air out of ventilation holes in the palm rests. Two sweat-free palms can be yours for JPY6980.
http://thanko.jp/coolerkeyboard/ (Japanese)

Ishikawa Prefecture-based I-O DATA has a new tuner to bring terrestrial digital TV to your laptop or other PC, the GV-MVP/HZ. (Name origin: Graphic Video Magic TV Products / model HZ.) Connected and powered by USB, the compact tuner and its bundled software can record Hi-Vision TV to your internal or external hard disk, or to DVD. It's compliant with the new "Dubbing 10" system allowing up to 10 copies of digital TV broadcasts, and has one more trick up its sleeve: if your PC's power is up to the task, you can plug in as many as eight GV-MVP/HZ tuners to record multiple channels simultaneously. JPY15,700.
http://www.iodata.jp/prod/multimedia/tv/2008/gv-mvphz/ (English)