With one more hour to go before announcing some new players, Apple is now reported to quietly slash down iPod Touch, Nano and Classic iPod prices on Cupertino’s on-line store, as follows:  iPod Touch – Apparently, the 8GB model is now priced at $189 (instead of $229), while 16GB version now stands at $249 (instead of $299), and the 32GB flavor is merely $279 (was $399 before). iPod Nano – The 8GB model will now set you back for $129 (instead of $149), as the 16GB Nano is now offered for only $149 (instead of previous $199). iPod Classic - Gets the competitive price of $229 instead of $249.

Update1: Turns out a new whopping 64GB iPod Touch version is now up and available for $399.

Update2: Looks like the $249 iPod Classic player is now being offered in 160GB storage. That’s extra 40GB to its predecessor.

Update3: So it seems a new iPod Touch 3G is out after all, but regretfully without a camera inside. Prices remain the same but the UI looks a little snappier than previous gen. Surprisingly, the guys at iFixit have managed to find a potential spot for a video camera, that Apple has probably allocated in the top of the device. That said, Steve Jobs already made it clear that Apple won’t integrate any footage features at this point. Stay tuned.

Update4: The guys at engadget have thrown themselves all over the “new” iPod Touch 3G, moments before it goes live. Hit the jump to take a look.

[Apple]

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The new Cowon O2 will make its way to the market in early November. Meanwhile, we get a chance to look at some of the early images that popup from different directions. First impression unveils an elegant look with a nice 4.3-inch 480 x 272 touchscreen, sans buttons, and a traditional Cowon slot that contains an SD port, a TV output and a mini USB connection. Format wise, the O2 supports almost every available codec on earth, including MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, AAC, ASF, WAV, APE, WavPack, True Audio Lossless, MusePack, Monkey’s Audio, AVI, WMV, MPEG-4 SP, MKV, OGM, MPEG-2, DAT and MTV. As for storage, the flash-based PMP offers 8GB/16GB or 32GB capacities to choose from. Hit the jump to catch the video, presenting the UI.

Update: It is now available on JetMall, Amazon, NewEgg and others, priced at $219.99 (8GB), $249.99 (16GB) or $299.99 (32GB).

[via Crave]

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MacBook 2008 event at Cupertino is over, and we get 4 major announcements from Apple, as follows:

• New MacBook laptop.
• New MacBook Pro laptop.
• New boosted MacBook Air laptop.
• New 24-inch Cinema Display.

It’s not that we were totally surprised from today’s new announcements. After all, there’s always a strange commotion, preceding Apple’s events, feeding us with rumors, and anonymous tipsters who emerge from the dark with some hidden images. Luckily, this time wasn’t different from others, as we were able to catch up with all the tidbits and leaked pictures, during those recent weeks. Hit the jump to read more about Apple’s novelties in a nutshell.

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AMD is expected to announce a break up tomorrow morning, due to growing demand for independent, leading-edge foundry production capabilities and increasing R&D costs. According to sources, the giant chipmaker will be splitting up into two companies, as the first one will be responsible for chips designing and the second, for the manufacturing. Additionally, the company has issued a PR release, saying:

“AMD and Advanced Technology Investment Company of Abu Dhabi to Create New Leading-Edge Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Mubadala increases investment in financially-stronger AMD, which is simultaneously unlocking the value of its manufacturing assets”

The meaning is that Advanced Technology Investment Company will strengthen AMD’s financial position by purchasing 55.6 percent of The Foundry (manufacturing company), for $5.1 billion dollar, and both sides will cooperate together, in order to create a clear stand alone leader in global semiconductor manufacturing, that will be able to equally confront Intel. Stay tuned.

[AMD]

As promised, the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 makes an official debut right on time, with a $349 starting price, for basic Ubunutu specs, which climbs up to $449 for the XP Edition version, or dramatically drops down to an imperceptible $99 bargain if you buy a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 machine from Dell, until 6AM September 9th (neat). Although there’s a minor change with the brand’s name, switching from the rumored “Dell Mini Inspiron 910″ into the official Dell Inspiron Mini 9, the rest of the details pretty much stay the same, with an Intel Atom 1.6GHz N270 processor, an 8.9-inch WSVGA TL screen (1024 x 600), 3-in-1 card reader, 512MB/1024MB DDR2 internal memory, three USB2.0 ports, RJ-45 Ethernet connection, VGA output, a 1.3M built-in webcam, 802.11g Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity and a flash SSD drive with storage capacities, ranged from 4GB up to 8GB (at the moment). Shipping is scheduled for September 16th in black or white flavors. Meanwhile, checkout the official announcement and the video from Dell, after the break.

[Dell]

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Korean company Cowon has just introduced some of its latest products, to be officially released next week, during IFA 2008 at Berlin. Together with the sexy curved S9, we find the O2, a 4.3-inch touchscreen (480 x 272) PMP, coming up with a T-DMB tuner, a microphone, a loud built-in speaker, an SD slot, a TV output and storage capacities, range from 8GB up to 32GB. The O2 supports wide variety of formats, including MP3, WMA, AC3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, Apple Lossless, WAV, G.726, PCM, True Audio, Monkey Audio, MusePack, DivX, XviD, WMV, H.264, M-JPEG, MPEG-4 SP / ASP, and MPEG1. The battery can play 18 hours of audio and up to 8 hours of video, which is very impressive in terms of media players. Still no word on price or availability, but you will be able to get one of those in black, white or pink flavors.

Update1: The O2 is set to be released around October.

Update2: Cowon has announced O2 European pricing as follows:

• O2 iAudio 8GB White – €289.99 ($400)
• O2 iAudio 8GB Pink – €289.99 ($400)
• O2 iAudio 16GB White – €309.99 ($428)
• O2 iAudio 16GB Black – €309.99 ($428)
• O2 iAudio 32GB White – €365.99 ($505)

[Cowon]

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After the Asus Eee PC, MSI Wind and the HP 2133, there’s a new kid on the mini-laptop block, as Michael Dell has snappily revealed the new Dell Mini Inspiron at the All Things Digital conference. This sub-$500 lappy presumably features an 8.9-inch screen, a card reader, three USB ports, Ethernet connection, a VGA output, a built-in webcam and many more. We can’t be sure if it is equipped with an Atom-based processor but the Mini Inspiron is expected to run either Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux OS. Stay tuned for more details to be revealed next week at the Computex show.

Another picture after the break.

[via gizmodo]

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Microsoft has revealed a very nice demonstration, at the All Things Digital conference, showing some snippets of the next windows 7 OS (coming up in 2009) with amazing multi-touch capabilities that were shifted from the Microsoft Surface to a Dell Latitude XT tablet PC. The images undoubtedly prove that Microsoft wants to change the user interface experience by assimilating finger gestures that let you move, rotate or shrink images, navigate maps, play the piano and a lot more, with a simple touch of a finger. Checkout the video to see the future:

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

[via windowsvistablog]

iRiver was one of the stars, at the CES show, back in January. Now the company officially releases its P10 PMP, coming with a 4-inch 16M colors touchscreen (800 x 480) and 33GB storage capacity. In addition, the new sleeky whitish player features a built-in microphone, 10EQ, a dictionary, TV output, external speaker and DMB-TV tuner. It supports WMV, MPG, AVI, XVID with 720×480 HD support, MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, WAV, APE, JPEG, BMP or Microsoft Office documents and runs Windows CE 5.0. The new P10 is equipped with a 600MHZ RMI AU250 processor, sized at 108 x 73.5 x 19.2 mm 205g and available in black or white.

Update: Price ranged from $318 up to $385.

[via anythingbutipod]

Philips jumps on Apple’s board with the new Xenium X800 touchscreen phone, housing a 2.9-inch 262k colors touchscreen (240 x 400), a 2MP camera, microSD slot, Bluetooth connectivity and more. The new X800 will also include a Windows Mobile 6 OS and battery that can last up to 8 hours of talk or 850 hours of standby time, which is very impressive. No word on price or availability but we hope Philips will be smart enough to add wifi connection and a built-in browser for internet usage.

[via slashgear]

As planned, the Eee PC 900 goes live in the US right on time, coming in 2 versions: The first, running Windows XP with 12GB of storage (4GB Built-in + 8GB Flash based), priced at $600. The second, running Linux with 20GB of storage (4GB Built-in + 16GB Flash based), priced at $566. The rest pretty much stays the same, including 8.9-inch WSVGA display (1024×600), 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1.3 megapixel camera, MMC/SD/SDHC Card Reader, WLAN 802.11 B/G connectivity and more. Surprisingly, the prices are a bit higher than previous declarations but i guess early adopters always pay some extra cash. Both models are available in Buy.com and ZipZoomfly, so if you can’t hold your breath anymore, this is your time to get one.

[via engadget]

Singapore telecoms company, SingTel announces a confirmed agreement to distribute the iPhone in Asia and some other pacific countries, together with 3 more associates. The company has plans to bring the handset and sell it “later this year” in Singapore, India (via Bharti Airtel), the Philippines (via Globe Telecom) and Australia (via Optus). No clue whether this would be 3G iphone devices or regular iphone handsets, but one thing is for sure, they will officially get something, sometime this year.

Update: Orange has officially announced that it has secured rights to release the iPhone in Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, and Romania.

[via zdnet]

iPhone 3G rumors, keep floating around, as new firmware 2.0 image has just emerged, suggesting integrated 3G capabilities within the next update, coming out this June. Although it is a common feature, no one really knows if this beta release shot is real or fake, but as you can see the new firmware includes 3G radio control function, allowing users to turn it off, whenever they want to save some battery life, so i guess there is a tangible hope for an imminent release of the new iPhone 2.

[via engadget]

Zune 2.5 spring update goes live with some cool modish features, including a video store that houses 4,800 music videos and a wide vriety of TV shows (no movies yet), available to download for $2 each or 160 MS Points (from the libraries of NBC, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Cartoon Network). In addition, Microsoft has integrated the Zune Card sharing, which allows you to build a social network, present your dynamic friends’ list and automatically grab their recent playlist, albums and favorite artists, as long as you subscribe to Zune Pass (similar to last.fm). Furthermore, the new update integrates Windows Live Messenger “now playing” function, album review fields, to let you express your personal opinion on different albums and publish it to the world, Auto Playlists, meta data editing, easy syncing controls and finally, Gapless playback support. Needless to say, the new 2.5 Spring Update is free of charge and ready for your downloads. Check the video after the break.

[via engadget]

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After making a huge impact in the US and plenty of noise in countries like Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and France, the iPhone is about to arrive to 10 more places, including Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa and Turkey, as Vodafone has signed an exclusive agreement with Apple to distribute the most desired handset to its customers in the aforementioned countries, later this year – Lucky them.

[via gizmodo]

Alright, so Microsoft has officially backed off from bidding on Yahoo, after a roller coaster of ups and downs, that started with an official offer to buy the company for $44.6 Billion, price that reflected $31 per share, back in February. The generous bid has never made any impression on Yahoo’s management, as the company’s directors has officially decided to turn off Microsoft’s hostile acquisition, claiming the bid is substantially lower than its real value, and whoever wants to buy them should hit $40 per share, meaning extra $9 to Steve Ballmer’s offer. Still, Microsoft clutched to its original bid (desperately trying to stay a major internet player in the growing online advertisement and searching markets) and considered an hostile takeover, by pursuing Yahoo share holders, but at the end of the day, after taking off their threatening suit, the Redmond’s were willing to raise the bid to $33, which was rejected by Yahoo as well and lead to today’s proposal withdraw announcement.

“Despite our best efforts, including raising our bid by roughly $5 billion, Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics demanded by Yahoo! do not make sense for us, and it is in the best interests of Microsoft stockholders, employees and other stakeholders to withdraw our proposal,” said Ballmer.

Again, that wasn’t much of a squall to Sunnyvale, as Yahoo’s CEO, Jerry Yang, has apathetically responded:

…”With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users.”

End of story? I’m not so sure, Temporary cease-fire? definitely yes.

[via Microsoft]

Today, after months of speculations, Archos has finally met the expectations and released firmware update 2.0.10 that includes:

• WebTV and Radio (with optional Plug-in).
• GPS (with optional car cradle).
• Alarm Clock.
• Flash 9 support.

There’s no doubt that among the new features above, the most juicy newsworthy one is the Flash 9, which places Archos PMPs at the top of the players and the only ones to support flash 9. The new release enables Archos users to surf the internet seamlessly, without having to miss any web details or applications, as the tendency points to built-in flash 8/9 web services. The new firmware is available to download here, check out the videos after the break.

[via Archos]

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Though It’s Monday (and not super Tuesday), new things are coming from Cupertino’s direction, as Apple has updated its online store, coming up with a more powerful iMac lineup, including a 20-inch model, equipped with a mighty Penryn CPU, ranged from 2.4GHz up to 2.66GHz with 250GB or 320GB storage capacities, 1GB of RAM, and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT graphics. The 24-inch model sports the same mighty Penryn proccessor ranged from 2.8GHz up to 3.06GHz with 320GB – 500GB storage capacities, 2GB of RAM, and strong NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics. Both versions feature a built-in iSight cam, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi 802.11n connectivity and more. The rest pretty much stay the same, including the starting price that stands on $1,199 and soars up to $2,199, respectively.

[via Apple]

Big day for Archos, as the company has launched its new GPS device for the Archos 605 player, coming with maps of 22 European countries and equipped with lots of road and traffic services. In addition, Archos has launched 2 revolutionary plugins for the 605 devices, the first is the WebTV & Radio which enables wide variety of TV channels and radio stations, live via WiFi connection on the internet, thanks to a team up with TV Tuner. This plugin is available to purchase from Archos website for $19.99. The second plugin is the TV Portation which enables Archos TV+ owners to stream TV shows, directly from the living room into the Archos 605 PMP, wherever they are, on the go, which turns the TV+ device into a streaming media server, similar to the Sling box. This plugin will be available to purchase from Archos website next month for $49.99, but if you have a registered TV+ device it will be available for free.

Update 1: It will also feature full support for Flash 9 and WMV9 formats, free of charge, at the next firmware update, coming up next month.

Update 2: Check out the plugins demo videos after the break.

[via Archos]

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Archos announces the release of a new GPS navigation device for its fifth generation PMPs. Equipped with an integrated SiRF Star III chip, the new in-car GPS cradle turns your entertainment 605 player into a full-fledged navigation system, by simply snapping the Archos into the GPS In-Car Holder, which is connected to the car windshield. By doing so, you get an intuitive interface that allows you to easily pick any address, remarkable location or point of interest and find the best way to get there, with a full voice and video navigation system, presenting the sharp, precise and fast solution. The new system provides any road info you want, including traffic assistance, route planning, tunnel simulation, radar locations and even speed control assistance in some countries. The ARCHOS GPS In-Car Holder is compatible with any Archos 605 player and will cost you only $129.99. You can also buy this GPS device bundled with a 30GB Archos 605 player, for $399.99. Both packages will be available in May 2008.

Update: Check out the video preview after the break.

[via Archos]

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