1.8-inch portable hard disk

Not a Japanese product (we just happened to spot it on the Japanese newswires, is all), but this 1.8-inch external drive from Taiwan's Transcend looks like a useful piece of kit. The USB 2.0-compatible drive comes in 20GB and 40GB varieties, both of which measure 72 x 95 x 15 mm; weights are 118 g and 130 g, respectively. Works with all recent flavours of Windows and Mac OS 9.1 or later. Comes (at least in Japan) with backup software, a leather carrying case and a USB cable.

No info on pricing yet, as the drives don't seem to have been released yet (the company press release says they'll be out "in April"). Looks like they should be available pretty much anywhere.

[Company press release]

[Via PC Watch (Japanese)]