Taiwanese Foci Fiber Optic Communication said to Cnet that "it will start mass producing both the internal cables as well as Light Peak-based, USB-like cables at the start of 2010." Cnet speculates that—in a build-on-demand world—mass production generally indicates consumer product launches.

Now, once upon a time, Apple went to Intel and adopted USB for its original iMac, deprecating all previous peripheral connectivity ports—like ADB and serial buses—in favor of Intel's standard. In the process, as the iMac exploded in popularity, it made USB extremely popular. On the other side, Apple failed to make FireWire—their own high-speed standard—as popular as USB, even while it was way faster and more flexible than USB. The reason: Intel didn't put its weigh behind it. Intel's USB success, however, wouldn't have happened as fast without Apple's help and the iMac.

Now it's 2009. Reportedly, Intel came up with Light Peak and went to Apple to ask for opinions, and Apple got heavily involved in it because they have some needs. Obviously, both want Light Peak to happen. Light Peak, which uses USB-style connectors and fiberoptics cables to achieve its ultra-fast 10gbps connectivity, could route traffic from any other transport technology, from DisplayPort to FireWire to USB 3.0.

One single port to rule them all. Obviously, you can see the simplicity-obsessed Apple's interest in this.

So I'm going to take a leap of logic and faith to give you this wild, Gene Munster-style mental masturbation conclusion: Given Foci's mass-production schedule, I bet you a stack of pancakes that Apple will be the first to introduce new computers and gadgets with Light Peak as soon as early 2010. And what product, what ultra-slim, solid-state, awesome Apple product may need this awesome be all end all of all gadget connectors? What Apple product may be coming in 2010?

Yes, that's what I wanted to hear. Now, back to our regular schedule of actual news. [Cnet]

In Intel's words:

Existing electrical cable technology in mainstream computing devices is approaching practical limits for speed and length, due to electro-magnetic interference (EMI) and other issues. However, optical technology, used extensively in data centers and telecom communications, does not have these limitations since it transmits data using light instead of electricity. Light Peak brings this optical technology to mainstream computing and consumer electronic devices in a cost-effective manner.

Light Peak delivers 10Gb/s speeds right now, and could conceivably go as fast as 100Gb/s within a decade or so. Those kinds of speeds are even sustained over a 100-meter distance, which is really impressive. Intel is currently working with hardware manufacturers (computers, handhelds, etc) to try to get the optical tech onto devices sometime in 2010. [Intel]

As you can see in the video, iBluetooth will bring you just that, allowing the iPhone to transfer files to any other device using Bluetooth. In this case, the application developed by MeDevil is working with an iMac and a Sony Ericsson handset but, once it is finished and available through Cydia, it will work with any device supporting the Bluetooth file transfer protocol. [Spazio Cellulare]

After plugging in their $50 cable, the bundled Migration Assistant automatically transfers music, movies, photos, "files," and Internet preferences from your PC to your Mac. The software then informs you of everything it's moved, in case it didn't discover your super secret collection of John Mayer semi-nudes or poetry exploring how it feels to love a handsome, passionate rock star who doesn't even know you exist.

While the Switch-to-Mac looks promising, also keep in mind that Apple stores will perform this service free of charge with new purchases. You just have to ask nicely. [Belkin]

It's free for a limited time, since Microsoft didn't really target Elite at upgraders, but didn't want to piss them off either. Grab one and transfer your stuff already. – Jason Chen

Update: There's some confusion as to what the transfer process does. If you don't use this cable to transfer, yes you lose your downloaded game videos which you can download again, but you also lose access to your Arcade games, which end up as demos if you try and download them again.

Also, it doesn't render the 20GB one useless. It just wipes out the old data on there. You can still use it as a spare drive.

Migration Help [Xbox via Kotaku]

According to Ben "Bones" Kuchera at Ars Technica, Microsoft's told game distributors that data from your existing hard drive can be transferred to the new one via a cable that comes with the kit. Unless someone else comes up with another logical way to transfer data from one Xbox 360 hard drive to another, this cable seems like a sure bet. – Jason Chen

New, upgraded 360 may ship with data-retention cable [Ars Technica]

Product Page [Gizmodo]

First, you need to enable hard drive mode using the instructions we posted before. Then, rename whatever files—MP3s, movies, programs—to have the extension ".jpg" in order to fool the Zune into thinking it's an image. This hack works because Zune doesn't apply DRM to images!

Then what?

Now, take your Zune and send the folder containing these files to your buddy along with a real photo. If you only send a fake photo, an error is thrown. The last step is to have your friend sync the Zune with their computer, open the "containing folder" where the files were downloaded, and rename the files back to their correct extension.

We tried doing this before with just the Zune software, without the storage hack, and Zune threw an error because it resizes the images down in order to conserve space, and our file wasn't a real image. – Jason Chen

Zune Boards [via Zune Scene]

Brian thinks the transparent popup notification is obtrusive, and on one level I agree. But there's pretty much no way of sharing songs by asking for permission without prompting the user somehow. Just be prepared to turn off your wireless if you don't want random people sending you things. – Jason Chen

To recap, $800 for a Series 3, $200 for TiVo, and a couple more dollars for tax and shipping. I'm sorry sir, it looks like you won't be able to buy that thing you wanted this month. You know, food. – Jason Chen

Picture of the Day: My Lifetime or Yours? [Zatz not Funny]