RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
The across-the-board Xbox 360 price cuts rumoured since last month just got official from Microsoft. The standard and Elite get a solid US$50 drop, while the Arcade plummets a whole US$80, making the 360 officially cheaper than a Wii. The new pricing scheme is:
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:53 AM on August 28, 2008
From what the guys in the US were saying, the Palm Treo Pro is a handy little phone. Sure, it runs Windows Mobile, but that's not all bad, right? Right?
Anyway, in case you were wondering what kind of Palm Treo Pro love you could expect in Australia (and I know that's exactly what you were thinking), know that the new smartphone is available exclusively through Telstra, complete with customised BigPond icons and everything.
It will hit shelves late September (which means you'll probably forget all about it by the time it's released) for an RRP of $929. "Whoa!" I hear you exclaim. "That's a bit pricey!". Well, it will also be available on a range of plans, including $0 up front on an $80 monthly contract for 2 years. As you'd expect, Telstra's data charges will still apply.
[Palm]
Acer's Aspire One was already one of the most affordable 8.9" mini-notebooks on the market, but now they've gone and dropped the price further while adding a 6-cell battery version to the mix. The Windows XP version (120GB hard drive and 1GB RAM has been reduced US$50 from US$400 to US$350. Their Linux system (8GB SSD and 512MB RAM) dropped US$50 as well from US$380 to US$330. Oh, and those of you wanting the 6-cell system can pick it up for the old price of the 3-cell, US$400. So is Acer worried about the competition from a potentially US$300 Dell system? We don't know, but we sure do like seeing prices going down for once. And for the time being, the Aspire One is probably the best deal in the mini-notebook market. [Laptop]
The Xbox 360 price cut rumours we've been hearing for September look to be gathering even more steam, as this RadioShack ad shows drops to US$399 for the Elite system and US$199 for the Arcade. That's down US$50 on the Elite and US$80 on Arcade, making your choices a nice smooth progression of Benjamins--US$199/US$299/US$399. The drops are rumoured to hit early next month. UPDATE: We've also just heard from the folks at setteb.it, who have news of an official 60GB upgrade to the 20 GB Xbox 360 system at the same price, €270 in Italy. [Joystiq]
Those hoping for a PS3 price cut in the near future better not hold their breaths. A Sony spokesperson confirmed on Friday that the company had no plans right now to give you another deal on the machine, and anyone hoping for that kind of news at Leipzig will be sorely disappointed. Given that they slashed the price less than a year ago, this shouldn't be too surprising. Though PS3 sales are still trailing behind the Wii, it's relatively recent discount put it neck to neck for second place with the cheaper Xbox 360. [Reuters]
Nintendo's President Iwata, the man who wants US customers to believe that there will be a Wii shortage this Christmas not caused by Nintendo themselves, has just said that they want the Wii MotionPlus to be as cheap as possible because it doesn't cost too much to manufacture. How cheap? They're not sure yet. We did the calculations, and if the MotionPlus is is US$15, that'll bump the Wii up to in between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in terms of "total" pricing. Will you be forced to buy one?
Trying to put pressure on their competition, or feeling the pressure from increasing Samsung and LG market share, Nokia has reduced many handset prices by 10%--mostly music and media phones--but also making discounts across the whole portfolio. Analyst and Sean Connery-fan David Hallden calls the move a Crazy Ivan:
Posted by Nick Broughall at 8:20 AM on August 1, 2008
Late yesterday afternoon, Telstra tried to crash the mobile data plan cocktail party. The only problem is that instead of bringing a bottle of liqueur like Baileys or Kahlua, they brought a couple of cans of VB, a bottle of Passion Pop, and a cask of Tropicana. Then, instead of sharing their booze, they sat in the corner and got drunk by themselves.
If you believe the press release, the new Telstra data plans for the iPhone are possible thanks to the superior NextG network capacity. Yet for all that fantastic capacity, all they could manage to increase two of their mobile add-on data packs: The $10 pack goes from 20MB to 150MB, while the $29 pack goes from 80MB to 300MB. They also reduced the excess usage rates (although to what wasn't actually mentioned in the press release.) UPDATE: Gus at Lifehacker managed to discover the excess data rates from Telstra:
Excess data now costs 50 cents per MB on the $10 plan, or 25 cents per MB on the $29 plan (it was previously $1 on both plans).
Posted by Nick Broughall at 11:56 AM on July 25, 2008
Remember those Sony Vaio notebooks from last week that featured the same keyboard style as the Macbooks? They've been priced and dated for Australia.
While this generally isn't the most exciting news you're likely to come across on a Friday, it does help me cope with a fairly slow news day.
Prices start at $1,999 and reach the lofty heights of $3,399. But all the juicy bits are lying in the press release which can be found below the fold.
Of course, if you have something a little bit more exciting for us here at Giz AU, don't forget to send us a tip!
Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:14 PM on July 21, 2008
