Intel just announced the USB 3.0 specification a.k.a. "SuperSpeed USB" aiming to deliver 300Mbytes/sec in real throughput (that's 2.4 Gbit/sec) though in simulations has gone as high as 25Mbit/sec.  In comparison, USB 2.0 today runs about 480Mbit/sec.  Reports by  EETimes state that the new solution coming from Intel, HP, Microsoft, NEC, NXP, and TI will be available starting in  early 2009 and offer quality of service (QoS) features for applicatons such as HD video streams.  New cables will be backwards compatible and include an optical link.  This is great news for boosting throughput on HD camcorders, HD tuners and of course, Hard Drives. Engadget is noting  this could be the end of Firewire (1394) as Sony puts USB on their camcorders and Apple and Intel are working closely together.