Like most disasters, the tsunami and earthquake have faded from the headlines and so faded from people’s thoughts. Just because it isn’t the top headline doesn’t mean those folks are just fine now. They still need aid.

Incubot, in conjunction with World Events Productions and CustomUSB, have created a line of Japan Relief custom 2G USB drives. These are limited edition, fully licensed, and in colors that honor the japanese flag. The best part is that 100% of profits go to Japanese Red Cross Society and to Safecast radiation monitoring efforts.

Today Dell Dell made the Inspiron Duo official. It’s their first tablet netbook and a clear attempt at a more direct Windows alternative to the iPad. The 10-inch display revolves vertically and turns the Duo into either a multi-touch slate or a touch-aware netbook. A custom layer on top of Windows 7 gives users access to media, the web and an e-reading app.

Some specs include a 1.5GHz dual-core Atom, 2GB of RAM and a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator that can drive 1080p video either directly or in Flash. A 250GB drive also comes standard. Users can also turn the Duo into a clock radio and media player with an optional JBL speaker dock that cradles the tablet.

Pogoplug may have been the first to make this type of gadget, but now it’s time for some less well known names to offer up similar devices for less money. Sharkoon has now developed their own USB LANPort, which effectively puts USB storage like your flash drives, external hard drives, etc. onto a local network.

Looks like it’s mainly for making multiple drives available to a different machines via customized permissions though. The USB LANPort 100 converts a single drive into a device that can be streamed from locally. The USB LANPort 400 handles up to four USB devices. Both devices support automatic and manual IP address contacts and are available now for €22.99 ($34) and €36.99 ($56).

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet has been available for just a couple of days, but now Amazon has stopped all orders for the 160GB hard drive-based Archos 5 device, placing the item “under review.”

Amazon says that “customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item”. This is not good news for Archos. However, the 32GB flash-based version is still available for pre-order. Hopefully the issues, whatever they are, can be fixed quickly.

Kingston announced today that it was increasing the speed that its DataTraveler 410 flash drive offers. The drive has been upgraded to include up to 32GB of storage and with faster read and write speeds. The drive has read and write speeds of up to 20MB/sec.

That is good performance for a flash drive, assuming it actually hits those speeds in the real world. The faster read and write speeds make the drive more suited to use as a backup device and for moving large files. The drive measures 2.58″ x 0.71″ x 0.41″.

Spring has sprung so why not celebrate the season with a new spring-themed Zune Original? Unless you are waiting on the Zune HD. Microsoft is offering a collection of custom engravings inspired by the spring season.

There will be six new pieces of art in total for this collection, all by artist duo APAK and individual artists Carolina Melis and Linn Olofsdotter. The patterns are free and apply to any of the flash or hard drive-based Zunes. The spring Originals don’t replace any existing artwork and sit alongside the Artist, Tattoo and Zodiac collections.

We like geek cakes ’round these parts, as evidenced by our not one, but two compilations of geek cakes. But if you want a custom cake from a bakery, you better be specific about what it is that you want. Otherwise you end up with cake fail.

So check out this funny incident. Some guy orders a custom cake and asked that a photo of a friend be integrated into the decoration. Simple enough right? So he delivers the photo as a .JPG on a Lexar Jumpdrive Trio flash drive. And look what ended up on the cake.

We got a chance to get our hands on Griffin’s new Simplifi desktop device recently and we feel they really got the name right on this one. The Simplifi is a small Swiss Army Knife of accessories packed into a smooth silver box that adds some convenience and maybe even a touch of sophistication to your desk.

For starters, the device is a dock and charger for your Apple iPhone and/or iPod. It has the docking port right on top and comes with little plastic adapters to custom …

Aluratek announced the other day it has a new USB flash drive like device which acts as a portable Internet radio of sorts. It is called the Internet Radio Jukebox and you’ll find it pricing around $40.

The Aluratek Internet Radio Jukebox is designed to let you have a plug-n-play experience in which you have a user interface providing access to over 13,000 Internet radio stations. This Internet Explorer interface pops up after you plug the Jukebox into a USB port, letting you search for audio programming via the top ten channels by region, by genre, by specific artists, or by songs, as well as a host of other custom search criteria.

You know, I don’t know what this says about us as a society, but for some reason this gadget truly exists. What we have here is an authentic beer-filled USB flash drive that even features 3D “optional customizable floating objects” inside. With this liquid storage device you can celebrate your love of beer by always having some with you.

And if things ever get too dry and you find yourself in need of a hit, I’m sure you could break it and get just enough booze to wet your beak. Though I wouldn’t recommend it, you don’t wanna choke on those “optional customizable floating objects”. Storage size ranges from 128 MB to 8GB. You might also want to be careful that you don’t crack it and feed your laptop beer.

Gateway recently unveiled some new desktop PCs – some of which are new models and the rest of which are revamps of existing PC line ups. These new computers are mostly available now, with prices ranging from around $550 to $3,500.

Gateway specifically updated or added new FX, GT and DX Series models. The one pictured above, for example, is the FX7026. All of these computers offer either Intel or AMD processors and at least one available at retail still has Windows XP. For more details, check out the full press release after the jump.

Pioneer over the weekend announced new additions to its line up of AVIC-F advanced in-dash navigators. These new offerings, which join the AVIC-F500BT shown off at CES, are the AVIC-F700BT, AVIC-F900BT and Premier branded AVIC-F90BT. Pricing is set at $850, $1,100 and $1,200, respectively, and all units will be available in June.

Pioneer is describing these in-dash units as going “beyond navigation” by offering “enhanced navigation and entertainment features paired with sophisticated voice control.” While you may read that however you choose there is no doubt Pioneer has packed these units with a ton of features, including “Apple iPod connectivity, Bluetooth, MSN Direct, HD radio, XM and SIRIUS Satellite Radio, single CD, DVD video playback and compressed audio and video playback through USB and SD memory devices.”

For the full details, check out the press release after the jump. These Pioneer units definitely look to be the cause of many wonderful distractions as you cruise down the open roads.

USB flash drives come in many shapes and sizes, but once in a while one comes along with a design that stands out from the crowd. The Wedisk flash drive is a little Wii remote look-a-like which isn’t touting incredible capacities or performance but it does allow its owner to further profess their love for Nintendo’s latest and greatest gaming console while at the office.

The Wedisk has a retractable USB connector that pops out with a push of one of the Wii-mote buttons but that’s the only gaming action you’ll get. It comes in capacities of 1GB, 2Gb, 4GB and 8GB and in colors of the familiar white and a black version. It also has a LED indicator for showing that is connected and utilizes USB 2.0 for PCs or Macs.

Haier America (?!) this week used CES as its platform for getting into the wireless MP3 player market. It unveiled a new line up of flash and hard drive based portable media players which make use of online services like Rhapsody to collect content wirelessly. This players are called the ibiza Rhapsody and it is available now in at least a 30GB hard drive model.

The ibiza Rhapsody players for Haier let you, in summary, have “Wi-Fi enabled access to unlimited digital entertainment possibilities. With the ibiza Rhapsody, consumers can now enjoy the Rhapsody digital music service, AOL Video and other digital content from just about anywhere there’s an available Wi-Fi hotspot.” You can also directly subscribe to a variety of podcasts from the player and enjoy an integrated FM radio.

Get the full details after the jump.

Sony, the proclaimed leader in the high-definition camcorder category, rolled into CES this week with six new HD camcorder models. They offer features like 1920 x 1080 resolution recording and face detection technology. Sony says “the SR12, SR11, SR10, UX20 and UX10 models will all ship in March for about $1,400, $1,200, $1,000, $1,000 and $800, respectively. The HDR-HC9 camcorder will ship in February for about $1,100.”

The consumer electronics giant added that all these new camcorders feature a new high-profile encoding system and, depending upon the model, offer other must haves like high resolution digital still captures and hybrid/hybrid plus movie recording.

You can get the full details of these new Sony HD camcorders after the jump.