I resisted the temptation to be the 350th person to write something like "New Shimano Alfine: this one goes to 11." Reward my discretion by buying a clearance-priced Fuji from me.

Bikeradar.com has this preview of Shimano's upcoming 11-speed Alfine upgrade. The 8-speed Alfine hub is really nice—its double-clutch mechanism makes shifts under load smoother than with the Nexus hub, and the whole package is lighter and shifts with a trigger mechanism instead of a grip-shifter. 

The new 11-speed Alfine will be upping the ante considerably . . . moving closer to Rohloff territory. It both adds range (up to 409%, compared to the 8s at 306%) and eliminates some of the biggest jumps in between gears—which was, to my knowledge, the biggest knock on the Alfine 8. It also drops 90g from the old one, if you're counting. [edit: it's also worthwhile to note that the service on the 11-speed will be significantly easier and therefore less expensive to the consumer, since lubrication is effected by oil bath instead of by cracking the unit open and manually cleaning and lubing it.]

 It should be available stateside in 2010.