Buffalo has made a big stride in the Blu-ray burning market with the world's first 12x speed Blu-ray burner which harnesses USB 3.0 technology.

Given there's no 12x Blu-ray media available yet and wide adoption of USB 3.0 won't be for quite a while, this product has certainly arrived well before the market calls for it. But being able to say "we're the FIRST" is enough to make a company proud and get some attention at the same time.

If you like the idea of being well and truly future-proof, the BR-X1216U3 can of course be used with USB 2.0 as well, but you'll be limited to 7x speeds.

The drive has been seen available in Japan for 39,100 yen (about $448 US).