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)

Name: Epson Photo Fine Player P-7000
Category: photo viewer
Price: About JPY80,000
Release date in Japan: September 4, 2008

Here's a gadget category that isn't too well known outside professional photographers. But it's an interesting item that even hobbyist fotogs could find really handy on those longer shooting excursions.

Photo viewers are compact little combinations of hard drive and display. Their simple purpose is displaying photos, though in a photographer's work environment (as opposed to recently-popular digital photo frames that show pics as decorations). It's a tool that lets the photographer transfer shots to a hard drive to free up storage on the camera (or as a backup), and then study those shots on a larger screen than the camera's.

A good example is the new Epson P-7000 Photo Fine Player. The 433-gram device combines a 160-GB hard drive with a wide-angle 4-inch LCD. The screen displays over JPEG and RAW format images in 16.7 million colors, encompassing 94% of the Adobe RGB color space, so you can expect detailed color reproduction (advance reviewers have raved about its brightness and sharpness). Although it's a compact screen, zoom functions let you confirm details up close. Basic editing tools let you play with brightness, contrast cropping, etc., or add text; organization tools allow photo rating and creation of collections and slideshows. A new jog wheel makes it all easy too, says Epson.

There's support for audio (MP3, AAC) and video (MPEG4, Motion JPEG, H.264); video and audio outputs let you also display things on a big screen. (These additions are the reason Epson adds "Multimedia" to the product line's name overseas. Yes, you can use it as an expensive iPod if you like.)

The new model boasts data transfer (via CF or SD memory card) up to 35% faster than its predecessors: transferring 1GB of data from CF card to the hard drive takes 100 seconds. A full battery charge allows around 75 such 1GB transfers. All in all, the drive will hold about 9000 10-megapixel RAW photos (almost 4 times as many if JPEG), or 166 hours of 2Mbps MPEG4 video.

Also included is a battery charger and car adapter for travel, plus software to transfer Fine Player data to a PC.

A good photo viewer isn't an inexpensive addition to a weekend shooter's collection. (If the JPY80,000 tag is a tad more than you can afford, there's also a new P-6000 model with 80GB hard drive for JPY70,000.) But for anyone taking and reviewing lots of shots on the go, it's a more refined tool than a clumsy, expensive laptop with iffy battery life and disk space largely eaten up by data and software.

More info: http://www.epson.jp/products/colorio/photoviewer_digitalcamera/p7000_p60... (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)

Name: TASCAM GT-R1
Category: portable digital recorder
Price: about JPY35,000
Release date in Japan: August 26, 2008

Here's one for the musicians. TEAC, the Tama city-based maker of recording gear, offers the new 208-gram GT-R1 IC recorder and effects box for music makers on the go.

While aimed primarily at recording guitar and bass via direct line input, the GT-R1's stereo microphones will capture acoustic guitar - or your whole band - at better-than-CD 48kHz/24bit quality. (Or capture your sales meeting instead, should you want to request such mundane tasks of the device.) Record your riffs for later output to another device, or lay a new track on top of a saved recording. Also built in are a 55-effect multi effector, which you can add either during recording or during playback; rhythm presets to give your session a beat; and a chromatic tuner. Playback options include such niceties as speed control and interval looping.

The GT-R1 saves to WAV or MP3 format on SD/SDHC external memory. The included 1GB SD card will record about 100 minutes of audio in WAV format, or over 18 hours in MP3 format.  

Look for the device at music and electronic shops throughout Japan from late August.

More info: http://www.tascam.jp/list.php?mode=99&mm=9&c2code=01&c3code=02&scode=091... (Japanese)

Name: Solid Alliance "...of the world" series USB drive  
Category: USB memory drive
Price: JPY3200
Release date in Japan: July 25, 2008

Tokyo-based Solid Alliance, fine purveyors of USB drives shaped like ducks and sushi, now has a USB drive with your name on it - if that happens to be Satou, that is. Which, fortunately for the company, is pretty often the case in Japan.

The 19-million-strong members of clan Satou often find themselves mistaken for "that other Satou", and some have been known to wish for a more distinctive last name. But listen up, "sekai no Satou" ("Satous of the world")! It's time to display clan pride, says Solid Alliance. The company's new 1GB drive takes the shape of the two characters making up Japan's most common family name: "sa" plugs into your PC, while "tou" is the cap. Curvy Edo-era "yose" script adds to its visual impact. Solid Alliance adds a loop for a chain or strap, so you can openly display to the world your membership in this most inclusive of clubs.

(You're paying for your branding here, though, Satou-san. A generic 1GB USB drive is easy to find for less than JPY1000; even a 4GB drive should cost less than this model.)

Solid Alliance also adds a fervent wish for any and all athlete Satous to bring home gold from Beijing, along with the hope that "all of Japan's Satous win gold medals in the Olympics called life".

And if you're not a Satou? Solid Alliance is accepting votes online for the next name in the series. "Yamadas of the world"? "Fujiwaras of the world"? Perhaps one day, electronics shops will display racks of USB drives in hundreds of names, just as ready-made "hanko" name stamps are sold in stationery shops. So go ahead and vote for your lineage (though if you're not a Tanaka, Suzuki, Yamamoto, or Takahashi, you've got some waiting ahead of you).

More info: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/sastore/c/0000000336/ (Japanese)
Vote for the next name: http://www.solidalliance.com/cgi-bin/oftheworld/vote.cgi

BUFFALO and Bandai have released two models in the new "SWATTEARS" line of character-shaped USB memory: classic hero Ultraman, and Evangelion heroine Rei Ayanami. Bend the characters' legs into "sitting" position to reveal the USB memory stick for plugging into your computer. Or use the included USB cable, which has a "sofa" on the end to seat the character. (The "SWATTEARS" moniker apparently comes from "suwatte iru" or "sitting".) Don't you sit still, though, character fans: only 3000 units each will be made. JPY2980.
http://buffalo.jp/products/catalog/flash/swattears/

Spotted elsewhere in the news:

1) This is sort of a clever gadget for the PC user: Canon Marketing Japan's new "LS-100TKM" looks like a regular black or white PC mouse, but flips open like a clamshell phone to reveal a ten-key pad. The keys rest on the bottom of the opened mouse, while an LCD screen appears on the underside of the flipped-open "lid". Use it for either ten-key input, or as a calculator (with the ability to transmit the calculated result to your PC). From late June, JPY3500.
http://cweb.canon.jp/calc/lineup/mouse/index.html

2) What's new in hard disks? Bigger storage in a smaller space - same as always. From late June, BUFFALO will begin selling the "LinkStation mini", a network external hard disk unit containing two 2.5-inch disks in RAID configuration. It's fanless and quiet, fits neatly on the palm of your hand, and weighs a mere half a kilogram - great for a home server that won't take up much space or make noise. JPY37,000 for 500GB, JPY74,000 for 1TB.
http://buffalo.jp/products/catalog/storage/ls-wsgl_r1/

3) SONY announced a prototype back-illuminated CMOS image sensor with double the previous sensitivity and low noise. Additional tech specs probably won't interest many readers; what it means to you is this: significantly clearer, richer images from future cameras once the sensor makes its way into products.
http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200806/08-069E/index.html