Onkyo Japan rolls out their newest stereo with a hard drive, the BR-NX10. This newest release is definitely a high-end product, bringing the best of in stereo storage. Many of these Japan released gadgets never see the light of day in Europe or the U.S. Because of the NX10’s large price, this stereo most likely won’t be an exception to that rule.

Although the price is a whopping ¥94,500, the high-end quality is clear from the specs of the machine. The player can decode any type of PCM, ATRAC, ATRAC3/+, and MP3 tunes, whether it be loacated on an attached USB memory key, attached through a PC via the stereos on-board Ethernet connection, or just on the drive itself.

The high price leads us to believe that the sound quality of the NX10 is audiophile quality,. The audio output is rated at 19Wx2 and includes 2 composite I/Os. Though the coolest thing lies within its Ethernet internet connection, which automatically draws track info from Gracenote’s online database. Ok, Onkyo. You’ve impressed us. — Andrew Dobrow

BR-NX10 Product Page [Onkyo Japan, via Digital World Tokyo]

With flash memory as the leading source of memory along with the conventional RAM, it’s a wonder more companies haven’t dipped their fingers into the memory cookie jar. Along with other next-gen memory prototypes, such as MRAM, IBM has announced it’s working prototype named, phase-change memory (PCM). IBM states that PCM has the capability of being 500 times faster then the average NAND Flash (pictured), regardless of the fact that it’s smaller in size and uses close to half the energy of flash cells. The IBM version seems to be superior to Samsung’s introduction of a PCM device, the PRAM, which only claims to be 30 times faster then Flash. Very early plans are being made to have the product in production in 3-5 years, which in modern times, translates to sometime before 2015. — Andrew Dobrow

IBM announces the future Flash killer [ARS Technica]