A slim wallet doesn't necessarily mean a cheap netbook PC for the gadget lover; it could mean a cheap desktop PC plus a surprisingly big display. The last couple of weeks have seen a lot of new entrants in the low-cost display market. A noteable handful (all links to Japanese pages):

GREEN HOUSE has introduced the 26-inch, 1920x1200 GH-JEF263SHB with selectable aspect ratios of 4:3 or 16:10, 5W stereo speakers, and HDMI, HDCP-capable DVI-D, and analog connectors. JPY54,800.
http://www.green-house.co.jp/products/lcd/jef263shb/

Yokohama-based DION has rolled out the TEW260SHR that's only 25.5 inches, but otherwise shares the specs noted above. JPY52,800.
http://www.candela.co.jp/news/n20081001-1.html

I-O Data's 21.5-inch, 1920x1080 LCD-MF221X has 16:9 aspect ratio and 2.5W stereo speakers, plus the same connectors as the above displays. JPY34,800.
http://www.iodata.jp/product/lcd/wide/lcd-mf221x/

And going a bit smaller, but a lot cheaper, the Japan branch of Taiwan's BenQ has announced the 18.5-inch, 1366x768 E900HD, with 16:9 aspect ratio and 1W stereo speakers. There are HDCP-enabled DVI-D and analog connectors, but no HDMI. The selling point: a price tag of JPY19,800.
http://www.benq.co.jp/products/LCD/?product=1375

GREEN HOUSE's GH-CRHC44 USB memory card reader has six card slots that handle 44 types of card - all the common variants of SD/SDHC, Compact Flash, MemoryStick, etc. What's the point of 44, when the ELECOM MR-A47H already works with 47? Well, the GREEN HOUSE is a lot cheaper: JPY1380 vs JPY4410. On sale from mid-October.
More info (Japanese):
http://tiny.cc/aS7WF
ELECOM MR-A47H (English):
http://www.tekronomicon.com/gadget/2008/05/elecom_47

Desktop PC speakers don't have to be cheap little plastic things. Sanwa Supply's new MM-SPWD5 is a pair of 2-channel, 3-inch 14W speakers in 18-cm high wood cabinets. In front are a headphone jack, microphone jack, and separate controls for tweaking high- and low-frequency output. In back is a stereo mini plug input, letting you play sound from an external device (like audio player) while staying connected to your PC's audio output. The power unit is contained inside, so there's no huge AC adapter to litter the floor. JPY8820 from late September.
More info (Japanese):
http://www.sanwa.co.jp/news/200809/mm-spwd5/index.html

Name: GREEN HOUSE GH-JEF223SH  
Category: computer display
Price: JPY36,800
Release date in Japan: Late September, 2008

Still computing on one small screen? Once in a while the tech blogs will go a-twitter over the latest study linking screen real estate to productivity. Findings vary with the tasks and the physical setups measured, but the reported numbers are always impressive. A University of Utah study earlier this year, for example, claimed that compared to office productivity tasks performed on an 18-inch monitor, a 24-inch screen sped up those tasks by 52%, while two 20-inch monitors granted a 44% improvement. More screen space can save workers as much as two and a half hours a day, concluded the study.

(Big caveats: those findings assume eight hours of tasks that are dependent on screen real estate - and the study was funded by display manufacturer NEC.)

Even if your productivity gains don't stand to be as impressive, few people who move to big and/or multiple monitors care to switch back to small. Fortunately for upgraders, screens keep getting cheaper. Case in point: the low-cost 22-inch GH-JEF223SH display from GREEN HOUSE. It's a WSXGA (1680x1050), 24-bit (16.7 million colors) screen with a luminance of 300cd/m2, contrast ratio of 1000:1 (10,000:1 in enhanced mode), HDMI and regular mini D-sub 15-pin connectors, and built-in 2W+2W speakers.

If you're willing to spend a little more, BUFFALO will release the FTD-HD2232HSR/BK around the same time. It's also 22 inches, but sports WUXGA (1920x1200) resolution, and has a DVI-D24-pin connector for HDCP-protected content. Luminance, contrast, and speakers are similar to the GREEN HOUSE display, but there's no HDMI. JPY42,800.

More info (Japanese):
http://www.green-house.co.jp/products/lcd/jef223shc/

BUFFALO FTD-HD2232HSR/BK (Japanese):
http://buffalo.jp/products/catalog/display/ftd-hd2232hsr/index.html?p=spec

Another oddball USB gadget from Thanko: to complement its fan-equipped mouse and keyboard for cooling your hands, Thanko also has a fan-equipped seat for cooling your... er, seat. The "USB Cooler Cushion" straps onto your work chair and, taking power from a USB cable to your computer, sends cooling air upward through pores in the cushion. With a USB adapter for your car's cigarette lighter, it'll keep you comfy on the road too. Says the company's English page: "No more sweaty nasty seat for me!!" JPY4800 (JPY5280 with car USB adapter).
More info (Japanese):
http://thanko.jp/usbseatair/
(English):
http://www.raremonoshop.com/us/product-information/usb-cooler-cushion.html
USB Cooler mouse and keyboard (English):
http://www.tekronomicon.com/gadget/2008/07/usb_cooler_mouse
http://www.tekronomicon.com/gadget/2008/08/usb_cooler_keyboard

Name: Thanko USB Nandemo Charger 2
Category: battery charger
Price: JPY1480
Release date in Japan: September 5, 2008

Thanko's "USB Nandemo [Anything] Charger 2" offers to consolidate your gadget charging needs - mobile phones, digital cameras, and PDAs - into one USB-powered unit. Not via a hydra-like nest of power connectors to fit any device, but via a universal charger that morphs to fit a variety of device batteries.

It's actually pretty simple. The Charger draws power from a USB cable connected to your PC. The base is essentially a big plastic clip, with two metal contacts whose distance is adjustable. Take out your device's battery, place it on the base, adjust the contacts so they touch the battery's points of contact, and let the clip hold things in place while for a 5V recharge.

It's a nifty idea, though with drawbacks. The device has to be one with a removable battery (so no iPhones/iPods), and the battery has to have two side-by-side metal contact points (generally, that means the flat batteries in mobile phones, and some cameras, PDAs, and game machines). Removing your phone's battery for a recharge is a bit more of a hassle than using its regular recharger. Further, you need to have a PC handy to supply power, or a wall outlet-to-USB connector. All in all, unless you really have the need to power a variety of battery types, it may be easier to just make sure you take your gadgets' normal rechargers with you on travels.

Still, it can be handy at times to have an extra means of charging on hand. For those wearing down the phone battery often, the following may be even better: the USB Nandemo Charger mini. It's similar to the above but plugs itself directly into a USB port without a cable (like a USB drive), and is intended only for 3.6/3.7V batteries (generally phone batteries). The upside: it's a tiny keychain, easy to always have on hand. Cheaper, too, at JPY980.

More info (Japanese):
http://thanko.jp/usbcharger2/

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_p6000/ (Japanese)