Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

So there’s good news and bad news, and we’re not even giving you the option of choosing which you’d prefer to hear first (hint: it’s the good). Sprint has dropped the price of its Phone-as-Modem plan (capped at 5GB monthly) to just $15 per month. Now, the rest of the story. First off, you must own a Power Vision phone with connection capabilities to a laptop. Next — unlike the old PAM plan which ran $49.99 / month all by itself — this “attachable plan” requires you to have another data plan already on your account. For instance, the BlackBerry Personal Pack ($30 / month) or the Worldwide Data Plan ($70 / month). In the end, it looks as if tethering in and of itself got cheaper, but those newfound strings that are reportedly attached will likely cause some frustration.

[Via phonescoop]

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Filed under: Laptops

MSI told us that a 6-cell version of its briskly-moving Wind was on the way. What it failed to mention, however, was the $50 premium that would be tacked on. The units including a 6-cell battery have been popping up in a few e-tailers here recently, with prices ranging from $559 to $599. According to an MSI representative, however, the official MSRP for the 6-cell units is $549.99 (versus $499.99 for the 3-cell edition). As you can tell, it seems that some places are taking the liberty of bundling in a little profit while demand is high. Worse still, users who managed to get their orders in at Buy.com for a $499.99 6-cell unit are now receiving cancellation notices. So, is the more capacious battery worth an extra 50 bones (or more) to you?

[Via jkOnTheRun]

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Filed under: Laptops

Bad news, Atom fans. That dual-core nugget of netbook-powering goodness that you were so looking forward to seeing in Q3 won’t begin shipping until Q4. According to some data picked up by Fudzilla, the Atom 330 will only be debuting in Q3 (September 21st, to be precise), but it isn’t scheduled to get a shipping label until a few months later. Also of note, we’re told that the chip will sell (at some place in the supply chain) for $43, but don’t count on those savings being completely passed onto you.

[Thanks, sinai]

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Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

Gigabyte’s M912 has remained largely in the shadows since peeking its head out in early June, but now we’re finally getting a hint as to how much coin we’ll be forced to lay down in order to acquire one. Based on information from a Taiwanese poster over at UMPC Fever, the M912V, which arrives with Windows Vista, 1GB of RAM, WiFi and Bluetooth, should cost around $656. The WinXP-based M912X will reportedly check in at around $620, while the M912M arrives with a lower resolution display (1,024 x 600 versus 1,280 x 768 on the other two) and no Bluetooth for $556. Take all of this with a tablespoon of salt for now, but at least you’ve got a general frame of reference to work with as you plan out which netbook to squeeze into your gadget portfolio.

[Thanks, YpoCaramel]

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Filed under: Handhelds

It’s a common problem, really. You’re eager to get Windows 3.1 back into your life, but you’ve no N810 to install it on. Good news retro software aficionados — said internet tablet has just tumbled to $299.99 (at CompUSA, at least), a full $90 less than the price we cheered over in March. Yeah, that 800 x 480 resolution display, VGA camera and full QWERTY keyboard is more attainable than ever, but with the possibility of a bombastic successor just around the bend, would it pay off even more to wait? The world may never know (although that’s highly unlikely).

[Thanks, Vamsi]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Creative’s got a good thing going with the multifaceted Zen X-Fi — at least on paper — and we’re quite thrilled to see it already hitting the websites of US e-tailers. Announced earlier this week in Singapore, the well-equipped PMP should be available soon (no specific ship date is mentioned) in 8GB ($149.99), 16GB ($199.99) and 32GB ($279.99) models. Interestingly, the 8GB iteration doesn’t seem to include built-in WiFi based on the cryptic header over at Buy.com, but we suspect we’ll have to wait things out a bit longer before jumping to too many conclusions.

[Thanks, Dr. Slo]

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Filed under: Gaming

Sure, we’ve heard Sony fib about a forthcoming PS3 price drop before, but we’re inclined to believe Mr. Nobuyuki Oneda on this one. The aforesaid chief financial officer told a forum in Singapore that “this year, [Sony’s] strategy is not to sell more quantity for PS3 but to concentrate on profitability.” He outrightly added that Sony’s “plan is not to reduce the price.” Yeah, we all know the Xbox 360 will be getting a little easier on the wallet, but with the public’s newfound interest in the PlayStation 3’s Blu-ray abilities, we too see no reason for Sony to take an even bigger hit. After all, this console is still widely regarded as the best deal going for those interested in a Blu-ray deck, and we don’t see that changing in the very near term.

Update: In somewhat unrelated news, Sony will be fixing consoles bricked by firmware update 2.40 for free.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Late last month, we actually posed the question of buying a Blu-ray player now (being that the format war is over and all), or waiting things out until prices sink and Profile 2.0 players flood the market. Aside from the PlayStation 3 — which is actually priced fairly reasonably if you were in the hunt for a new console anyway — it seems as though HD DVD’s exit has actually caused Blu-ray player prices to creep back upwards. Granted, this is about as far from surprising as it gets — after all, it’s nothing short of supply and demand working its magic. Still, it wasn’t too long ago that we saw Toshiba actively putting pressure on the Blu camp to reduce prices in order to stay competitive, and now that said pressure has vanished, stickers on the whole have headed north. Ah well, it’s not like the consumer didn’t ask for this, um, right?

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

What’s that? You didn’t take the risk and upgrade your PC to some crappy Intel-based machine Microsoft may or may not have known wouldn’t run Vista as promised? Well, at least now you can get in on the latest version of Windows a little cheaper than yesterday: Ultimate full looks to be officially headed down to $320 from $400, and the upgrade is down to $220 from $260; Home Premium is now at $130 from $160. Will the dip be enough to entice plenty of new OS upgraders? Perhaps, but we think most of those that haven’t already upgraded will probably just wait until their next PC so they can get Vista “free”. But if you’re looking to buy it boxed though, give it a bit for the new prices to propagate through the retail network — not even Microsoft’s site reflects the new Vista price points.

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Filed under: Gaming

In a piece primarily focused on Blu-ray over at Business Week, a bit of scrolling led to quite the interesting tidbit: Sony has apparently been able to slash the production cost of its PlayStation 3 in half. More specifically, it was noted that the firm has been able to “shrink the PS3’s chips and tweak its design,” which aided in getting the cost per machine “to around $400 now, from above $800 just before it went on sale in November 2006.” According to Nikko Citigroup’s Kota Ezawa, the biggest culprit for such an improvement is the “reduction in the parts count.” Still, we wouldn’t get our hopes up for yet another price cut just yet, but at least things are moving in the right direction.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

A standalone HD DVD player for less than two Benjamins? From a manufacturer that we’ve heard of? We’ve been waiting for that day for some time now, and while there have certainly been wild claims by less popular foreign outfits and even price hiccups that have paired certain players with a (temporary) sub-$200 pricetag, it’s about time for entry-level units on the whole to settle beneath the barrier. If a number of reports circling the web are true, we just might see it happen in the not-too-distant future, which isn’t all that shocking considering how HD DVD player prices have been (expectedly) falling in recent months. Apparently, a $198 Toshiba HDA2-W has been noticed in Wal-Mart systems, and you won’t color us surprised if it’s joined by a few other name brand alternatives in time for the holiday rush. Of course, it remains to be seen if buyers will be willing to forgo the extras that higher-end units are blessed with in order to simply have a player that understands HD DVD, but historically speaking, money talks (the loudest).

[Via PCWorld, thanks Nigel M.]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

Right on cue, the 40GB PlayStation 3 is indeed being confirmed by Sony. Announced today in London, the system that’s been clamored over for what seems like ages now will “launch throughout the SCEE territories” on October 10th for €399 ($565), which means you don’t have too awfully long to wait (or save up, for that matter) before getting your hands on one. Of note, the new model does feature just a pair of USB 2.0 ports rather than four, it no longer boasts the multi-memory card port and it is “no longer backwards compatible with PlayStation 2 titles.” Also, the existing “60GB PS3 Starter Pack” will be reduced to €499 ($707), but only while supplies last. We’ll keep our ear to the ground in case the news eventually impacts the US. Check out the new addition in high-resolution below.

[Via PS3Fanboy]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Handhelds, Laptops

Demanding a cool two grand for the FlipStart was probably asking a bit much, but whacking 25-percent off the purchase price is probably a good way to get folks looking in that direction once again. Effectively immediately, the “FlipStart super compact PC will be available for $1,499,” and while none of the specs have changed, it’s definitely (well, somewhat) easier to stomach the pricetag. Of course, it remains to be seen if $1.5k is still a bit overpriced, but hey, it’s a start, right?

[Via The Boy Genius Report]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

Although Rock Band was available for pre-order from a number of e-tailers earlier this summer, we’re now hearing the “official word” from the suits at MTV regarding pricing. According to the MTV Multiplayer blog, both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions “will launch on November 23rd at a cost of $169.99.” Bundled in will be the game, a single guitar, a mic and a drum kit. Additionally, the PlayStation 2 version — which seemed to be on track for a 2008 release — will reportedly make it onto store shelves just before the last ditch holiday rush, as it is now scheduled to land on December 10th for $159.99. As expected, the PS2 / PS3 packages will include wireless guitars, and while an optional cordless axe will certainly be available for the Xbox 360, its bundle will (sadly) include one with a tether. Oh, and Amazon has already updated its pages to reflect the finalized figures.

[Via IGN]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!