Steve Jobs will be front and center at WWDC 2010 for keynote duties

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Just in case you were wondering if Steve Jobs would manage to show up to WWDC 2010 and totally party on the Apple faithful... yes. As you would expect, Steve will be rocking the keynote address on Monday, June 7th at 10AM Pacific. Afterwards you'll be wondering where you're going to find the money for thatnew iPhone. Full PR after the break.

DVDs Could Hold 1,000x Capacity of Blu-rays With New Japanese Research

While we're waiting for the Blu-ray Disc Association toupgrade discs to 128GB capacity, Japanese scientists have found a way to increase DVD capacity by 1,000 times—using just a slick of metal material over each disc.

According to Shin-ichy Ohkoshi, the chemistry professor at the University of Tokyo leading the project, painting a variant of titanium oxide onto a DVD will conduct electricity when put under light, but when taken away from light it turns back into black metal.

Although it's unlikely to hit the market—at least, not anytime before the BDA launches those new discs—the Japanese team's claims of the DVDs holding 1,000 more data than a Blu-ray certainly are impressive.

Blu-rays hold about five times the data of DVDs currently (25GB per single-layered disc and 50GB for dual-layered discs, compared to 4.7GB for single-layered DVDs or 8.5GB for double-layered), and despite millions each year buying a Blu-ray player, plenty more still own DVD players and have no plans to upgrade. [PhysOrg]

Seagate pairs 7200RPM HDD with 4GB of NAND in 2.5-inch Momentus XT hybrid drive

Just as we surmised, Seagate is taking the wraps off its new hybrid drive, with OEM shipments of the Momentus XT starting today. Hailed as the fastest 2.5-inch laptop drive on the planet, this here device marries a 7200RPM hard drive (250/320/500GB) with 4GB of SLC NAND flash memory and 32MB of cache, and the company's Adaptive Memory technology allows it to store frequently used information on the latter for ultra-speedy access. It can boot up to 100 percent faster than a conventional 5400RPM hard drive, and thankfully for us all, it utilizes a standard 9.5mm-high form factor that the vast majority of laptops use. Seagate also affirms that the drive "operates independently of the operating system and the motherboard chipset," but we're going to hold tight until we see the first real benchmarks (it'll soon be an option in ASUS' ROG J73Jh gaming laptop) before getting all hyped up. In related news, the outfit also announced the world's highest capacity 7200RPM drive at 750GB, with the Momentus 750GB boasting SATA 3Gbps support, an NCQ interface, 16MB of cache and "silent acoustics." No price is mentioned, but you can bet a hefty premium will placed on something this capacious. The full presser, another image and a specs sheet awaits you beyond the break.

Update: The reviews are already pouring in, and at just $155 for the 500 gigger, it's receiving a fair amount of praise.

Search warrant in Gizmodo iPhone case released to the public

Clifford Cretan, the judge who signed the search warrant in the Gizmodo iPhone case, issued a ruling on Friday that unsealed the contents of the highly controversial Jason Chen search warrant. Most of the details have already been discussed ad nauseum, but a few juciy tidbits have emerged:

• Apple, the company, not an individual employee nor any other entity, reported the missing phone.
• the case was filed, in part, as a trade secrets violation which partially explains why the search was handled by the REACT (Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team) crimes unit.
• Steve Jobs personally called Brian Lam to request the phone’s return. Lam agreed but with the condition that Apple provide a letter confirming the phone belonged to the Cupertino company.
• Brian Hogan, who reportedly found the iPhone at the bar and sold it to Gizmodo, is identified as a suspect.
• Jason Chen is being investigated for possible receipt of stolen property, theft and copying of a trade secret, and destruction of property worth more than $400.
• Hogan was turned in by his roommate, Katherine Martinson, who was afraid of being caught up in this legal mess after Hogan plugged the iPhone prototype into her computer.
• Prior to being searched by the police, Hogan and another roommate, Thomas Warner, hid Hogan’s computer, thumb drive, flash card, and the serial number stickers from the iPhone prototype. These items were found inside a local church, scattered amongst some bushes, and on the ground outside of a convenience store.
• Hogan reportedly claims that Gizmodo paid him $8500 for the phone with a bonus once it was officially unveiled as the new iPhone. Hogan is said to have shown off a box of money totaling $5000 to his roommate.
• No charges have been filed yet but they are expected in the near future. Presumably, Hogan is a focus but there is no word on whether Gizmodo or Chen will be included.

So there it is, folks, our taste of hollywood-style high tech gossip. Hope it keeps you entertained and informed as this lurid interesting story continues to unfold.

Canon produces 40 millionth EOS-series SLR, half of 'em digital

Oh, Canon -- you and your milestones. Just under two years ago, you took time out of your busy schedule to gloat about the shipment of your 100 millionth compact camera, and today you're bragging about the production of your 40 millionth EOS-series SLR camera. In all seriousness, we're pretty proud of ya. After all, it took a full decade (1987 to 1997) for you to conjure up 10 million EOS film cameras, and six more after that to hit the magical 20 million mark. Once you blew through 30 million in 2007, it took but 28 months to get where you are today. What's really wild, though, is that half of the milestone is all digital, and given the state of film today, we're guessing that the delta between the two will only grow larger in the future. You've come a long way since the introduction of the EOS-1, but we know you've got a few surprises in store yet -- how's about a sub-$1,000 DSLR that shoots native 4K video and has an ISO ceiling of 1,000,000 to celebrate the rapidly approaching 50 million mark?