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)

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - itself behind more than a few gadgets, like the KAGUYA lunar explorer orbiting the moon and the KIBO International Space Station module launching June 1st - announced the JAXA COSMODE PROJECT logo progam for consumer-oriented products developed with JAXA involvement. From May, products qualifying for the mark will fall under one of three categories, each tied to an existing cooperative program:

1) Collaboration: Products developed in collaboration with JAXA under its Space Open Laboratory (a JAXA program to coordinate projects with academia and industry, not a physical laboratory)
2) Spin-off: Products using JAXA patents or technology, under its Intellectual Assets Use Program
3) Space Certified: Products certified by JAXA for space mission use, under the Space Japanese Food Certification Program and a similar proposed program for non-food items. (11 food makers already produce 28 food products for ISS mission use.)

Like any good logo, the COSMODE design has some meaning behind it. It represents a total solar eclipse, revealing a letter C formed by infinite stars – that is, the infinite products that space exploration will birth. Keep an eye out for COSMODE-branded products at stores near you. (My bet: the first time you'll see the logo in the wild will be on instant ramen.)

More info: http://aerospacebiz.jaxa.jp/cosmode.html (Japanese)
Space food pictures: http://iss.jaxa.jp/spacefood/index.html