There is much anticipation in the tech industry this week looking forward to a key note speech from Steve Jobs of Apple and announcements of the rumored possible latest and greatest gadgets from Apple.

Rumors have been running for months about a new mobile iPhone (or so it’s been called) from Apple. The actual iPhone name turned out to be owned by another company launching a VoIP line of phones which came as a disappointment for some, but the anticipation has again grown as we come closer to to the Macworld conference. Talk of a phone from Apple brings ideas of a mobile device with all the digital audio player capabilities of the popular iPod along with voice connectivity and of course the invaluable “coolness” that Apple provides along with it’s products.

Another rumor that has surfaced and adds some …

This is one for those World of Warcraft gamers who can’t be bothered by things like personal hygiene. Scientists have developed clothing with special molecules that repel water and oil and also kill bacteria.

The materials were designed for the United States Air Force for use in under garments. The t-shirts and underwear can be worn for several weeks without changing.

Before you dismiss this technology as trivial you should learn of the reasons behind the development. According to Jeff Owens, one of the researchers of the technology, “During Desert Storm, most casualties were from bacterial infections-not accidents or friendly fire. We treated underwear for soldiers who tested them for several weeks and found they remained hygienic. They also helped clear up some skin complaints.”

So the self cleaning or more aptly described dirt and germ repelling under garments can …

Today Hitachi has announced that it will be the industries first in the world to offer a 1 terabyte hard drive. The 1,000 GB drive (for those having trouble with the metric system) will be available to retail consumers in the first quarter of this year, and will come under the name ‘Deskstar 7K1000′ retailing for $399. Hitachi states that the 40 cents per gig (for those having trouble with the math) will make the larger capacity an accessible price for more customers.

This announcement comes within hours of Seagate’s announcement of also offering a 1 TB drive sometime during the first half of this year. Seagate did not have specifics as to a release time or price and since missed out on the race to be the first.

“The industry’s first one-terabyte hard drive represents a milestone that is …

Yesterday at the CES in Las Vegas, Fujifilm accounced three more digital cameras in their FinePix lineup; the FinePix A800 (pictured top), the FinePix F40fd (pictured center), and the FinePix A610 (pictured bottom). These new digital cameras will be offered in addition to the A400, A500 and A700 models and will be available in the US in March of this year.

The FinePix F40fd, an 8.3 megapixel, 3x zoom camera which is expected to retail for around $299 USD is sporting a new facial recognition technology, in which the camera can recognize up to 10 faces anywhere inside the viewing frame in a slight fraction of second, and then focus on them appropriately. The company also boasts improved picture quality and color even in low light, due …

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has released some detailed information about a literal rocket launch in a project that has been under wraps since it’s inception over 6 years ago.

Goddard, a 50 foot tall rocket, lifted off under it’s own power, flew about 285 feet into the air and then landed less than a minute later, seemingly with out a hitch. Multiple photos and a video of the rocket launch can be found at the Blue Origin web site. The video shows the full rocket launch and landing, and there are pictures of the rocket and the event of the launch on November 13, 2006.

The Blue Origin website leads off with a pitch for engineering applicants to join the Blue Origin team. “We’re working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to …

Today Sprint announced plans to offer the MOTO Q by Motorola for release later this month to Sprint business customers and online. Sprint will be offering the MOTO Q in all sales channels and in Sprint stores in February.

“Life today goes beyond the home or office. The Motorola Q operating on the Sprint Power Vision Network gives our customers the power of information that moves with them in a sleek, ultra-thin form factor,” said Danny Bowman, vice president of customer equipment for Sprint. “And with a Sprint Power Vision Access pack, available for as low as $15 per month, Sprint customers have the power do more for less each month.”

The MOTO Q is a broadband smart device that runs on the Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone platform. Although the hardware is basically the same, Sprint has some unique offerings with …

Time Warner has announced plans to introduce a new DVD format that will encode content in both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats. The format will be called Total HD.

Many experts believe that the confusion over formats has slowed the adoption of high definition DVD formats. Time Warner’s olive branch is another peace initiative by tech companies and content companies to bridge the gap between the two formats.

SlipperyBrick recently reported on the new LG player that can play both HD-DVD and Blu-ray. This development is similar to what happened in writable DVD formats for the PC. There were originally two competing formats with DVD-RW and DVD+RW. Thought the formats still exist many DVD writers can handle either format and also CD reading and writing.

Total HD will turn the tables and make sure …

Samsung’s newly developed double-sided LCD can produce independent images simultaneously on the front and back of the same mobile LCD display. Current double-sided LCDs are limited to showing only a reverse image of the same video data.

The technology will “accelerate the trend toward slimmer mobile products” by replacing two display panels with one, thus reducing overall thickness of mobile products by at least 1mm. The new double-sided LCD is 2.6mm thick and 2.22″ wide, with QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution.

The breakthrough is made possible by use of Samsung’s new double-gate, thin-film transistor (TFT) architecture. TFT gates control the necessary voltage at the pixel level. Samsung’s new double-sided LCD uses two gates which allows the front screen to display different images than the opposing screen on the back.

In addition, the new mobile display requires only one backlight – while competitive double-screen LCDs …

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have patented a possible cure for cancer that involves sugar and fat. It’s not a chocolate chip cookie, it’s a designer molecule made of sugars and fatty acids.

Researchers urged caution as the treatment has not been tested on animals or humans yet. However, researchers are optimistic for its success.

The new substance was synthesized from a combination of two molecules. The first is a short chain fatty acid known as butyrate. Butyrate, known for over two decades to restore healthy cell function, has been shown to slow the rate of cancer. However, finding a way to deliver Butyrate to cells has been a problem.

The breakthrough comes by combining butyrate with the sugar N-acetyl-D-mannosamine otherwise known as ManNAc. The hybrid molecule can infiltrate a cell with ease …

Today LG Electronics announced that it is going to provide the worlds first DVD player to support playing both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. Details are going to be announced next week at the 2007 CES in Las Vegas.

This offering is a much anticipated solution for both producers of DVD’s as well as consumers, and hopefully will end the confusion and decisions necessary on which high definition format to produce and which type of player to buy.

The Blu-ray format created by Sony is supported by Samsung, Hitachi, and JVC, while the HD DVD format that was created by Toshiba is supported by Microsoft, Intel adn NEC. Both formats provide increased data storage on the same disc dimensions to allow higher definition multimedia. Both formats are promising, and consumers and producers were left with the decision of which format to …

Molecules that have the peculiar characteristic of being extra sensitive to light could have wide ranging implications on the field of computing.

The Kuzyk Limit was first theorized by Washington State University Professor Mark Kuzyk in 1999. Kuzyk’s find showed how molecules interacted with light and showed the possibility of creating molecules that could be much more reactive than any material at that time.

A Chinese chemist Yuxia Zhao was the first to synthesize such a molecule at the Chinese academy of science. The molecules react up to fifty percent more than any previously known material.

The synthesized material is known as a chromophore. When light hits a chromophore it releases electrons that are bright enough to be seen. Common examples of such molecules include ingredients in paint and food coloring.

Practical uses for the technology include almost any …

Washington Research Firm, located in Seattle, Washington, is claiming that one of its scientists was awarded a patent for some of the technology used in Bluetooth back in 1999. The firm is claiming damages for infringement on the use of “simplified high frequency broadband tuner and tuning method.”

The firm is suing Nokia, Samsung and Panasonic claiming that these cell phone makers “have manufactured, used, imported into the United States, sold and offered for sale devices which, or the use of which, infringes at least the ’963′ patent.” This essential means the manufacturers are using Bluetooth technology in their phones without paying royalties.

It appears the suit is aimed at products manufactured by CSR, a British chip manufacturer. Broadcom, CSR’s US based competitor has a license for the patented technology.

Many suits have been filed over Bluetooth …

Solid state disks (SSD) offer a vast improvement over the spinning platters found in conventional hard disk drives. SSDs will help overcome the bottleneck caused by the latency of disk drives and will accelerate applications and lower power consumption. The net benefit of SSD is that consumers will have faster data transfer speeds when reading or writing large files.

Samsung announced today that it has begun sampling its 16Gb NAND Flash memory design with customers. Samsung’s 50nm Flash incorporates a new memory design which uses a 4KB page size, twice the conventional 2KB paging system for NAND flash. The new technology will improve both its read and write features to double the read speed, while increasing write performance 150%.

Samsung is hoping that early market introduction of higher density NAND flash memories will hasten the adoption of flash-based SSDs. Mass production of Samsung’s …

The fan favorite Battlestar Galactica is moving to Sunday nights in January. This move led many fans to wonder about the prospects of a fourth season of the show. Now Sci-Fi news site syfyportal.com is reporting that the fourth season may be green lighted even before the second half of season 3 begins.

Galactica has been widely acclaimed outside the Sci-Fi community. TV Guide named Galactica one of the 10 best shows of 2006. Entertainment Weekly said Battlestar Galactica was the third best show of 2006. The American Film Institute put Galactica on its Programs on the Year list.

If there is a fourth season for Galactica then it will not probably air until the Fall of 2007.

Battlestar Galactica airs at 10pm ET/PT on the SciFi channel.

Autonet Mobile has announced that it is going to launch a product to provide broadband internet connections through a WiFi hotspot in vehicles. Autonet is planning on unveiling the mobile WiFi product at the CES International in Las Vegas on January 8th. They are also expected to make an agreement this week with Avis Car rental to provide the WiFi system in their rental cars by March of this year for an additional $10.95 a day.

The rolling WiFi hotspot is expected to cost around $399 initially along with a $49/month service fee. Since Autonet takes the service fee, they are also acting as the internet service provider with the 3G back-end connection. This is slightly different from most hardware sales for WiFi where consumers would have to purchase the hardware and internet service plan separately. “Our goal was to deliver …