Although many believe the future of the computing industry lies with building chips out of carbon nanotubes or other novel materials, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicts it won’t be easy to replace silicon. Modern-day microprocessors contain hundreds of millions of transistors, and soon will have billions, and, to break even, manufacturers have to pop out millions of these complex devices. Although researchers have been able to produce individual nanotube transistors, the ability to mass produce hasn’t been shown.

Municipal wireless is coming to Japan. Tropos Networks, a start-up that makes equipment for public Wi-Fi networks, announced on Wednesday that NTT Communications has selected its MetroMesh routers to be deployed in military bases, cities and rural areas in Japan. The first deployment will be at the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni, Japan.

C-guys, designers and developers of SD and SDIO solutions for home, SOHO and SMB applications, announced the world’s first ZigBee SDIO card. ZigBee is a set of networking, security and application software protocols based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard–a low-power and low-bandwidth mesh-networking scheme that allows devices to wirelessly communicate with each other without the need of human intervention. Zigbee’s low power consumption allows battery-powered devices such as PDAs and handheld computers to easily connect to and control a variety of electronic equipment and networks.

SimpleTech announced SimpleTransfer, a USB-based data migration solution that makes it easy to upgrade your computer and move your data from the old computer to the new. SimpleTransfer comes with SimpleMover, an application that automates migration of all data files including email files, Web bookmarks, user settings, music libraries, photo libraries and other vital user data in a simple, automated process. Additionally, SimpleTransfer’s synchronization option makes it simple to backup, migrate and synchronize data between systems.

GMPSoft has released the Pocket Oxford English Dictionary for use with the DEPReader PDA dictionary application for Palm OS and Pocket PC. The Pocket Oxford English Dictionary is the world’s longest-established and best-selling pocket English dictionary. With over 140,000 words, including phrases, derivatives and idioms in more than 30,000 definitions, it provides a comprehensive coverage of everyday English.

Many virus writers see IM as an unprotected channel that gives them access into companies and homes. As new worms wriggle through Microsoft’s MSN Messenger, an industry consortium has issued a report confirming that instant messaging (IM) threats are increasing, and the trend is likely to continue. In the past two months, over 30 new IM viruses and worms have been reported by the IMlogic Threat Center, a group consisting of vendors like Symantec, Sybari, McAfee and IMlogic, as well as IM providers AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo.

PhatWare Corporation announced the launch of PenCommander for Tablet PCs. The new stand-alone application features a new powerful scripting technology which was first introduced as a part of PhatWare’s PenOffice handwriting recognition application. PenCommander allows users to use the pen to call up commands that can control Tablet PCs in almost limitless ways, such as editing documents, inserting often-repeated text into documents, and launching applications.

SimpleTech announced an extension to its SimpleDrive product line with the addition of a 100 GB SimpleDrive Portable External hard drive with improved performance. The 5400 RPM drives increase data transfer rates by 45% and features a new, smaller ruggedized case that provides complete shock mounting of the drive for ultimate reliability.

21st Century Locks announced substantial price reductions on the entire range of ClipDrive Bio USB Fingerprint Flash Drives. Reductions range from 10 percent to more than 50 percent depending on capacity.

Flesh and bone triumphed in the first ever man-versus-machine battle of brawn–an arm wrestling contest between robots and humans in California on Monday. The champion, beating all three robotic arms each in matter of seconds, was a 17-year-old girl called Panna Felsen, a high school student from San Diego, US. The contest was set up by Yoseph Bar-Cohen at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, California, US, in an attempt to encourage the development of polymer-based artificial muscles. The aim, he says, is to improve on existing actuators–or muscles–currently used in prosthetics and robots.