Filed under: Cellphones

Ah yes, this is what we’ve been so eagerly awaiting. Enough pussyfooting around with the Palm Treo 680 and HTC Hermes / 8525 coming to Cingular — we know they’re due. We need prices, we need dates. And according to what appears to be a recent Cingular marketing presentation, we’ve got ‘em:

• Treo 680: $424.99 straight, $349.99 one year, $249.99 one year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate), $274.99 two year, $174.99 two year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate; their ad, however, shows a $200 list price, but it’s good to know we can count on around two Benjamins. Expect it November 5th (tentative).
• Cingular 8525: $559.99 straight, $484.99 one year (not including $50 rebate if included with unlimited data), $409.99 two year (also not including that same rebate); expect it October 29th.

See, now that wasn’t so bad, was it? Both came in right around where we’d expected and hoped; between the Dash, the Q, and the 680, it looks like that $200 price point is the sweet spot for ever-slimming smartphones. And the 8525 ain’t too bad either, considering what you’re getting.

[Thanks also to djnth]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Peripherals, Storage

Xbox wasn’t showing up to TGS empty-handed, nosiree. They’ve finally stepped up with a couple of interesting, albeit expected, announcements. First up: the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive finally has a price and date of launch — for Japan. The land that forgot the Xbox are first to have their HD DVD add-on announced, due to hit overseas streets on November 17th for ¥19,800. That’s about $170 US, which is not only an awesomely and unexepectedly low price for an HD DVD device (especially when bundled with a Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote), but it’s also a good indication that the US version of the device should be around the $200 range when released in the US, as we’ve been predicting. Part two: a software update this year will enable 1080p output on the friggin’ Xbox 360! Your rig will finally benefit by pushing the full 60 megapixels per second of visuals to your compatible HDTV. Sorry, no HDMI cable yet (or ever?), though, this is only over component and VGA. Users can expect 1080p upscaling immediately on current games and DVDs and native 1080p on compatible HD DVD titles, but Microsoft hasn’t yet announced future games that will rock 1080p natively. Watch out Sony, that whole 1080p song and dance isn’t such a marketing edge for you guys anymore.

P.S. -Just to sate your curiosity, we were chatting with Shane Kim about this stuff and asked specifically about 360s with an internal HD DVD. Microsoft’s answer is and continues to be a staunch no. That whole thing about paying for what you need, etc.

Update: It would appear there’s some contradictory information already — Reuters is reporting that it’ll be November 22nd for ¥20,790 (about $180 US). Our press release and conversation with Shane Kim are both pretty straight up about November 17th for ¥19,800, so we’ll see how it unfurls. Ultimately it shouldn’t matter too much to those reading this post, we’re still talking about the Japanese release of the device.

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Gaming

Well, the details are in. The Wii’s coming November 19th, and it’ll cost you $250 damn dollars. Surprised it’s not under two bills? Don’t be, it’s a lot less than a lot of people are willing to pay right now. At the Nintendo event later today in New York (we’ll be there) we’ll catch a glimpse of the 25 game announcements preparing to be made, as well as more official launch details — but in the mean time we know it’ll ship with Wii Sports (baseball, bowling, golf, and tennis — all very addictive), Super Mario Galaxy will not ship in 2006 (boo!), it’ll have a photo streaming service, news and weather channels (most likely a part of WiiConnect24, but still a bit bizarre), and Opera for browsing the web; new titles will run you $50, while Virtual Console games will cost between $10 and $50 apiece. But really this stuff is all you really needed to know, isn’t it? November 19th, $250. November 19th, $250. And yes, they’re still apparently on track to meet their four million unit goal for their 2006 launch. Still, stay tuned for more deets, they’re inevitable.

P.S. -Why are you still here? Shouldn’t you be reading Joystiq’s live coverage of the Nintendo event going on in Tokyo right now?

[Via Wii Fanboy]

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Looks like Popular Mechanics either jumped the gun or got the scoop, but either wait it’s displayed plain as day in their October issue that the price on the Series3 is, in fact, going to be $800. Um, that’s it. Didn’t sound like there was a launch date issued in this month’s book, but big ups to reader Matt for sending it in!

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Filed under: Gaming

Saywha? The Wii — yes, the Wii made by Nintendo, not to be referred to as the Nintendo Wii — is going to retail for way less than $200 clams? Well, we wouldn’t have given it a moment’s thought if it wasn’t a source so high and mighty in the industry as EA’s EVP / COO of worldwide studios, David Gardner; then again, even here we’ve got a bit of rumor and speculation going down. Apparently Gardner said, “I’ve heard in Japan that the price is about $170, but I don’t know if the price has been set in Europe yet.” We know that the device will go for less than $250, but typically when these guys say “less than x amount of dollars,” that value is a something closer to a single red penny below the bespoke price. Still, a $170 Wii? You’d really have to hand it to Nintendo for having the chutzpah to so severely undercut the competition on price you’d almost be obligated to buy their console out of sheer value alone. Then again it’s a bit hard to imagine the Wii costing only $40 more than their hottie hot DS Lite, so something tells us we might have to file this one back on the rumors-not-to-come-true shelf.

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We already knew the Zune was going to come in a triad of colors, but we didn’t have much of any idea as to the price they were going to stick you for. Common sense would dictate it would be at or slightly below what the iPod is asking for their device — but not above — and if TWiCE is correct with their information, the Zune will run for an on-par $299. They’re also reporting the Zune won’t allow for music purchases on the go, which kind of flies in the face of that whole “connected entertainment” thing, as well as the idea of putting WiFi in a portable, so we’re looking at it somewhat skeptically for the time being.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Filed under: Handsets, LG, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

It’s laid so bare at this point it’s almost kind of an open secret, but contrary to what we’d heard earlier (which was a week off), we’ve got launch dates and prices for Verizon’s LG VX8500 Chocolate phone. Starting July 31st you’ll be able to snag the phone online, and come August 7th you can get it in stores. The price? Not too terrible: $359 without contract, $249 with 1 year, and $199 for two years committed to the carrier. Might be a little more than we’d originally expected, but outside the Q you’re not likely to see a sexier EV-DO device on Verizon for a little while yet.

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Filed under: Gaming

We’re not sure this’ll manage to get all the rumor mongers to pack up their bags and go home for a couple of months, but Nintendo responded to the rampant speculation on Wii price and launch date by stating today that they’ll announce both of those little details in September. This makes a September launch increasingly unlikely, but doesn’t say much more than that. After the announcement a McNealy analyst stated: “Our position remains that the Wii could retail as low as $199 instead of $249, and October is a reasonable timeframe.” So, really, we’re still stuck with a fairly large launch window within which we’re sure to hear a few more “sure thing” dates rumored, but really, would we have it any other way?

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile, 1xRTT, EV-DO

Purportedly originating from a Verizon Wireless site, full details on Motorola Q specs and launch price have been posted to a Phone Scoop forum, and things are looking up for the much-delayed device. No mention of the A2DP support listed in the manual on the FCC, and most of the other specs we already knew, but we were interested to see the listed battery life at only about 4 hours of usage time. Luckily there’s nearly 9 days of standby time, and everything else seems pretty solid. However, we were most interested to see the prices, at a rumored $349 with a 1 year contract, $299 with a 2 year, and $419 with no contract at all. If all of this holds true, that’s not too bad for a QWERTY Smartphone, and hopefully a trend we’ll be seeing more of in the future. Now just release the dang thing!

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Filed under: Handsets, Motorola, Verizon Wireless, Windows Mobile, 1xRTT, EV-DO

Purportedly originating from a Verizon Wireless site, full details on Motorola Q specs and launch price have been posted to a Phone Scoop forum, and things are looking up for the much-delayed device. No mention of the A2DP support listed in the manual on the FCC, and most of the other specs we already knew, but we were interested to see the listed battery life at only about 4 hours of usage time. Luckily there's nearly 9 days of standby time, and everything else seems pretty solid. However, we were most interested to see the prices, at a rumored $349 with a 1 year contract, $299 with a 2 year, and $419 with no contract at all. If all of this holds true, that's not too bad for a QWERTY Smartphone, and hopefully a trend we'll be seeing more of in the future. Now just release the dang thing!

Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

So we don't actually have any new information on the U.S. pricing and release date of Nintendo's DS Lite; rather we're simply here to pass on the fact that these important details will supposedly be available on Thursday. Our hot sister blog Joystiq is reporting that a recent 1UP podcast revealed both the May 4th announcement as well as the actual pricing/launch info, but the latter deets were bleeped out in order to conform with pesky embargoes and non-disclosure agreements. You can be sure that we'll be on high alert later this week to bring you all the info as soon as it's available, and remember, the sooner you start standing in line for your new DS, the sooner we can post amusing pics of people suffering for their hobby.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Handsets, Palm, Palm OS

Last we heard from our insider in the biz, Palm was going to be launching their PalmOS-powered Treo 700p sometime around or on Monday, May 15th. Not it would seem Gadgets on the Go's got word from a source they deem reliable that the 700p's got a price: $399 for a new 2 year contract, $499 with 1 year contract.  (Oh, they also confirmed our release time frame -- mid May ideally, early June at latest.) That sounds about right if you ask us, but there's only one way to find out: wait for the launch. Ok, well, two ways: we'll keep on inquiring, ourselves. Stay tuned, Treo nuts.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Last we heard from our insider in the biz, Palm was going to be launching their PalmOS-powered Treo 700p sometime around or on Monday, May 15th. Not it would seem Gadgets on the Go's got word from a source they deem reliable that the 700p's got a price: $399 for a new 2 year contract, $499 with 1 year contract.  (Oh, they also confirmed our release time frame -- mid May ideally, early June at latest.) That sounds about right if you ask us, but there's only one way to find out: wait for the launch. Ok, well, two ways: we'll keep on inquiring, ourselves. Stay tuned, Treo nuts.

Filed under: Gaming

Far be it from Sony to actually commit to a PS3 price, so we're once again left in the dark now that Sony says Georges Fornay was mistranslated or misunderstood in his comments relating to the PS3 pricing. What he actually meant to say, was that even at 499 or 599 euros, the PS3 would a great deal because of its Blu-ray playback. Sony does confirm Fornay's statement that the PS3 would be expensive in comparison to current consoles, but that seems to be in reference to the PS2 and PSP, not the Xbox 360, so there's still hope for a "reasonable" 399 euro price. This just gets better every day, doesn't it?

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: RIM, Misc

Though it should hardly come as a shock to readers familiar with our Keepin’ it real fake series, RIM might be surprised to find a bounty of BlackBerry-alikes as they enter the mainland Chinese market, undercutting a source of otherwise significant new revenue as millions of new folks discover the addictive devices for the first time. Though unlicensed knockoff manufacturers typically don’t fly in the US or Western Europe, Reuters points out that it can cost as little as $125K to bring one online in China — a compelling proposition in one of the world’s hottest mobile markets. What’s more, they’re finding that some Chinese are buying BlackBerrys strictly for their, uh, sound quality and good looks (can ya believe it?) but are bypassing China Mobile’s email hookup entirely, citing it as overpriced. Could the BlackBerry end up a boon for customers in the world’s most populous country, yet a bust for RIM?

[Thanks, David]

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