Game fiends: Buffalo is catering to Internet gamers with its new USB dongle, the WLI-UC-GNT. The simple and small white gadget plugs into a user's PC and allows them to connect gaming devices to the Internet without wires. In particular it is designed to work with Nintendo's DS and Wii, and Sony's PSP and PS3.

As part of the package, Buffalo includes the XLing Kai global gaming network system. This enables gamers using such devices as the Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and PS3, PSP and Nintendo consoles to play games across the Internet. The dongle also includes Buffalo's own Air Station One-Touch Secure System (AOSS), which facilitates the easy setting up of a secure wireless connection. The dongle works with Windows 7, XP and Vista and with the B, G and N varieties of wireless. It measures 33 × 16 × 8 mm and weighs about 4 grams. Buffalo is putting it on the market next month priced at ¥1,980. buffalo.jp/products/new/

Shrunken picture maker: Gaming isn't the only field of popular technology that has changed. Video cameras were once bulky boxes requiring a strong shoulder to support them. JVC's latest camcorder, the Everio GZ-HD620, weighs a mere 310 grams (with the battery), possibly making it the world's lightest hard-drive disk camcorder. The dimensions are 63 × 53 ×115 mm, thus the JVC concoction is also possibly the smallest HDD camcorder. JVC has somehow shoehorned a 120-gigabayte hard drive into the compact body and equipped it with 1080p resolution, a 30× optical-zoom lens and 3.32-megapixel CMOS sensor.