As of August 12, the 3DS will have a new retail price of $169.99 all the time. That is a $80 discount and certainly makes the portable more appealing. If you recently purchased a 3DS at the old price you might be upset right now, but don’t be.

Nintendo is offering free games to everyone that already owns the 3DS. There will be 20 free downloadable games from the eShop existing users can get on the portable. The free games are offered to anyone that owns the 3DS prior to the price drop. The games will be free to any user that logs into the eStore at least once before August 11 at midnight. The games include ten NES Virtual Console games and ten GBA virtual games will be offered too.

The console is still around and still crappy by most counts, but it is slightly less fetid today thanks to a new price cut. The PSP Go is now $150 (USD), which is about $100 off interesting in my book. The price drop is thought to be in preparation for the thoroughly awesome sounding PSP2/NGP to hit stores this Fall.

The $150 price also puts the PSP Go at the same price as the DSi, which is a much more interesting console by most accounts. I still don’t see the Go doing well at all in the market even at this price. I haven’t even seen the Go in my local stores; I bet we see the price plummet even further for this handheld once the NGP lands.

[via Electronista]

Some pics of displays for the Xoom at Sam’s have surface with the WiFi only tablet priced at $539. That makes the Xoom only about $50 more than the entry-level iPad 2. I guess that $40 difference will certainly make a lot of tablet shoppers take pause as they consider what to buy.

The official price mentioned only a few weeks back by Motorola’s CEO was $599. If the $539 price at Sam’s isn’t short term or sale pricing, perhaps Motorola realized that pricing the Xoom $100 higher than the iPad 2 wouldn’t be a good thing for sales.

[via DroidLife]

At launch, the handheld console will come in two colors, Cosmo Black and Aqua Blue (I already pre-ordered mine and it will retail for $249.99 (USD). For those of you living under a rock, the 3DS will feature a large glasses-free 3D top display with a touch-screen bottom display, and a built-in 3D camera. It’s also got a motion sensor and gyroscope for interacting with games.

The 3DS will ship with a special adjustable stylus, a set of augmented reality tracking cards, and a few built-in applications including Face Raiders, Nintendo 3DS Sound and Mii Maker. For a preview of launch titles, check out the video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Amazon is already accepting pre-orders for both colors of the 3DS, but I’m sure they’ll sell out quickly, so you’d better get your reservation in soon if you want one on launch day. They’re only allowing one order per household, so you know quantities will be limited.

The deal right now is for a shiny new 32GB iPad with free shipping. The company has to get 50 people signed up to get the iPad with the first discount, which is $45 off MSRP. If the company can get 1000 folks signed up, the discount gets better. I would assume the $100 off Evolyte is promising comes in at the 1000 unit mark. Plus, Evolyte doesn’t charge shipping, and you won’t pay sales tax if you live outside of Illinois (until every other state reads this.)

There is a chance that the deal won’t make it, which sucks. The thing has another 4.5 days to run and already 12 out of the 50 have been sold for the first discount, so things are looking good. With the exception of yesterday’s $41 off deal for Apple’s Black Friday sale, this is one of the few places you might be able to score a significant discount on an iPad.

iSuppli has now offered up its estimate on how much it costs to build the new Nokia N8. According to the firm’s breakdown, the materials in the N8 cost about $187.47 (USD). That’s just 4 cents less than the $187.51 the firm pegs the materials cost of the 16GB iPhone 4 at.

The most expensive component is the touchscreen with the AMOLED provided by Samsung costing $39.25. The 16GB of flash storage costs $37.12, the camera adds $31.08 to the bottom line, and the chipset for the OS operations is $22.

With an unlocked N8 selling for $549.00, it seems that Nokia is making a hefty profit, but I think the smartphone still has little chance of being a real factor in a world dominated by Android and the iPhone.

[iSuppli via Bloomberg]

• Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
• 32GB (8x4GB)
• 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• 2TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
• 4x NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
• Two 18x SuperDrives
• Apple Cinema HD Display (30″ flat panel)
• Apple Cinema HD Display (30″ flat panel)
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) and User’s Guide
• AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi Card with 802.11n
• iWork preinstalled
• Aperture preinstalled
• Final Cut Express preinstalled
• Logic Express preinstalled
• FileMaker Pro 11 preinstalled
• Microsoft Office Mac 2008 – Business Edition
• MAC OS X Server (Unlimited-Client)
• Xsan 2.2
• Apple Mini DisplayPort – DVI Adapter
• Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter
• Apple Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter
• MobileMe
• 1-year One to One membership
• AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro – Auto-enroll

And the grand total…. Drumroll please….

$19,234.90 (USD). And that’s not even the brand spanking new 12-core version. So in other words, you can have a nicely-equipped new car, or a Mac Pro. Which one will you choose? Decisions, decisions.

[via Pikimal]

Is the way to save the print journalism business really to fleece the digital savvy early adopters of the iPad? Honestly, I for one will boycott your $4.99 per copy digital version of Popular Science. I can get the print version of the mag for a buck per copy if I order a subscription.

If you think you are going to charge me over four times as much for the privilege of reading your mag on the iPad, you my friend are dead wrong. In fact, I won’t even buy your print mag. It is inexcusable to me to charge four times as much for a product in digital format that has a mere fraction of the costs associated with a print magazine. I hope that all iPad owners stay far, far away from the overpriced publications trying to put themselves back in the black on the backs of digital users alone. I hope the market bears the PopSci digital publication right off the market and sends a clear signal that we expect prices to be reasonable.

The new PS3 Slim console sports a compact new form-factor, and a lower price to go with it. Priced at $299.99 (USD), €299, and ¥29,980, the PS3 Slim is $100 bucks cheaper than the previous model.

The PS3 Slim will ship with a spacious 120GB hard drive, and is 32% smaller than the previous models. As an added bonus, it consumes 34% less power too. And while the box shot below was leaked a long time ago, it looks like it was the real deal:

I’m none to thrilled with the cheaper looking case design, but if that’s what it takes to get the size and price down to size, I suppose it’s worth it. And I won’t miss the fingerprints.

In addition, Sony also announced the impending release of the their new v3.0 firmware for all PlayStation 3 models. Here’s a sneak preview of what’s new in the 3.0 firmware for those of you who care:

No word yet on a release date for the v3.0 firmware, but Sony says that it should be released “soon”.

You can now pre-order the PS3 Slim over on Amazon for $299.99 (USD).

[image credits: PlayStation Blog and GameSpot]

The subcompact AIRpod runs on compressed air instead of traditional automotive fuels. A set of carbon-fiber tanks sit underneath the passenger compartment, loaded up with 2900psi of compressed air. The tanks power a tiny engine capable of cranking out a whopping 5.4 horsepower and 11-foot-pounds of torque. Woo-hoo!

It takes 2 minutes to fill up the tanks, and a single occupant should be able to go somewhere around 90 to 125 miles on a full set of tanks. And with air costing just €1 (appx. $1.40 USD) for a fill-up, fuel costs are pretty much a non-issue. Of course, that all assumes you can find a place to fill up the tanks.

MDI says the production version will transport up to 3 adults and 1 child, with a single front-facing driver’s seat, and a rear-facing bench for the other occupants. This tiny green car looks awfully cramped – not to mention a bit dangerous for the passengers, but maybe that’s just me.

Want to know how it drives? The guys over at Edmunds Inside Line have actually gotten a chance to test drive the prototype and it through its paces.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While the current prototype car can only hit 30mph, the production model should hit 50mph when it hits at the end of 2009. The 2010 AIRpod is expected to be released by the end of 2009 in France for €6,000 (appx $8380 USD). MDI plans on offering additional compressed-air cars in the not-too-distant-future.

[via WOW-POW via Slashgear]

I’ve all but given up hope for a price cut in the near future, but of course if it comes I’ll be happy. I already have a PS3, but a price cut on Sony’s Grill just might force Microsoft to slash prices on their console as well. If that happens, I’ll definitely buy a 360.

[via Gamespy]

Even though the 3GS looks virtually the same as the iPhone 3G, the 3GS ups the ante on the prior generation by increasing application speed, battery life, camera resolution, memory and more. According to Apple’s WWDC keynote announcement today, the faster processor in the 3GS increases launch times of popular apps from 2.1x (launching messaging), to 3.6x (opening an Excel spreadsheet). Of course, performance improvements will vary from application to application.

There’s also support for OpenGL|ES, which should improve graphical performance. And processing speed isn’t the only boost – the iPhone 3GS also supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA wireless connections. In addition to the speed hikes, the 3GS adds several new features not supported on the 3G. Battery life is also improved. Here’s a handy battery comparison chart from the guys over at Gizmodo:

There’s a brand new 3-megapixel camera, complete with auto-focus, auto-exposure, auto-white balance, low light and an auto-macro mode that can capture still images as close as 10cm away.

The camera can also capture video at VGA resolution (yawn) at up to 30fps. There was no mention of digital image stabilization, but the video does take advantage of all the auto adjustment modes that the still camera supports. You can even trim your video shots using a slick on-screen timeline interface.

There’s also a new voice control mode, which lets you not only voice-dial, but select tracks to play in iTunes, open web pages, and control other applications. Hopefully, they’ll open this up to app developers to leverage in their own applications. Also along for the ride is a digital compass, which at first doesn’t sound very exciting, but the addition of a magnetometer to the hardware will enable much greater accuracy in terms of understanding your bearing when in GPS mode – especially on foot.

Of course, the iPhone 3GS takes advantage of all of the features of the iPhone 3.0 OS, including cut-copy-paste, landscape keyboard, app store microtransactions, MMS messaging, stereo Bluetooth and much more.

The iPhone 3GS will be available June 19th in North America and Europe. The 16GB version retails for $199, and the 32GB version is $299, both with a new AT&T 2-year agreement. And if you’re looking for a cheap phone, you can now buy last years iPhone 3G for just $99 bucks. All models are available for pre-order now over on the Apple Store.

The well-reviewed machine is loaded with a powerful Intel Core 2 E8400 CPU, running at 3GHz, with a 6MB cache and 1333MHz front-side bus. Graphics come courtesy of an SLi Dual nVidia GeForce 9800GT with 512MB of memory. And while 2GB of high speed RAM is de rigeur these days, you can easily upgrade as much as 8GB if you want to max things out. And there’s a speedy 7200RPM 500GB SATA hard drive to make sure your games and videos run as fast as possible. As for the pre-loaded OS, you’ll get Windows Vista Home Premium, 64-bit Edition to support all that RAM.

The deal is available over at Dell Home, and is only currently set to run for 1 day. So if you want to get your hands on a great higher-end PC without completely breaking the bank, you should check it out.

Of course if you want the smokin’ Red bezel chassis, you’ll have to pony up an extra $20 bucks – pushing the price just north of $1000.

Microsoft says it will discontinue the current 20GB 360 Premium, and has immediately dropped its price to $299 to make way for the new model. The 360 Arcade ($279/no hard drive) and the 360 Elite ($449/120GB hard drive), will continue to be produced, and there’s no word on price drops for those models.

[UPDATE: It looks like Amazon is already offering the Elite for just $399, a $50 cut].

No images of the new model have been revealed yet, but it’s thought that it will retain the familiar white design as the earlier models. (C’mon Redmond, isn’t it time for that svelte Xbox 360 Mini we’ve all been dying for?)

[Press Release]

Rumor has it that Sony will drop the price on the 80GB PS3 to $499.99 once all the 60GB models are cleared out (which has been expected for a while). But the bigger news is word of a model with 40GB of storage which will retail for just $399, putting the console withing striking distance of the Xbox 360′s pricing. Both models are also rumored to be packing in a copy of SpiderMan 3 on Blu-Ray. The other part of the rumor is that the PlayStation 2 will get dropped to just $99, as the console continues to sell well as the “bottom-of-the-line” choice.

Had Sony launched PS3 a year ago with this pricing and a blockbuster action movie instead of the abysmal Talladega Nights pack-in disc, maybe they would have been more successful. Their chances for the 2007 holiday season certainly aren’t hurt by the fact that the system is starting to get some decent exclusive games too, with Heavenly Sword coming out this week, and titles like Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction slated for release later this year.

Chances are that details on Sony’s plans will emerge at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show, which runs from September 20th through 23rd.

Well it’s not like getting $200 back in your pocket, but Apple has announced that they will provide a $100 credit to spend at the Apple Store if you purchased your iPhone prior to the price drop. This assumes you didn’t already manage to eke some sort of deal out of Apple or AT&T already.

Details are still being worked out, but this small gesture should help calm at least some of the ruffled feathers of Apple’s loyal early adopter crowd. (Myself included.)

[Read Steve Jobs' Open Letter to iPhone Customers]

All consoles in the Xbox 360 line will get the cut starting on Wednesday, August 8th, with the Premium dropping to $349.99 (was $399.99), the Elite dropping from $479.99 (was $449.99) and the Core system coming down to $279.99 (was $299.99.)

Microsoft also revealed the pricing on the Halo 3 Special Edition console, which is basically the same console as the Premium Edition, but in Spartan green and gold, for $399.99. The Halo 3 edition will also throw in a Play and Charge cable, and may include an HDMI port, but this is still unconfirmed.

There have been a number of preliminary circulars floating around the Interweb, but this one looks like the most revealing one yet.

Scanned from a proof of the August 12th Circuit City newspaper insert, it shows the new pricing as follows…

• Xbox 360 Core:
  Cut from $299.99 to $279.99 ($20 reduction)
• Xbox 360 Premium:
  Cut from $399.99 to $349.99 ($50 reduction)
• Xbox 360 Elite:
  Cut from $479.99 to $449.99 ($30 reduction)

So if you plan on picking up a 360, you might want to wait just a couple of weeks for the new prices to hit.

[via Joystiq]

There aren’t any further details on what models would be receiving a cut, nor by how much. Xbox-Scene does confirm that the individual who reported the news has provided accurate information in the past, so that could mean something. As is always the case with rumor and speculation, we’ll just have to wait and see what actually comes of it.

In the mean time, if you’re looking for a great Xbox 360 deal, Toys ‘R Us is offering a free $50 gift card when you buy a 360 Premium edition between now and July 28th (in store only.)

Come August, an 80GB model will hit shelves for $599 (including a copy of Motorstorm,) and the 60GB will be no more. That said, if you want a PlayStation 3 with hardware-based backwards compatiblity with PS2 games, this is your last chance. All indications are that the 80GB and any future models will only include limited software-based emulation of older games.

So if I’m understanding this all right, Sony is temporarily taking a loss on the current inventory to stimulate interest in the console, then they’ll release a version that’s not only just as expensive to buy as the original, it’s actually cheaper for them to produce, thanks to the elimination of the PS2 Emotion Engine chipset.

That’s not to say that Sony might not release a lower-end model, or cut the price on the 80GB model down the road. However, for the foreseeable future, your best bet is to pick up a $499 60GB model before supplies are depleted.

[via Reuters]