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Sony refreshes VAIO Z series with Ivy Bridge, price now starts at $1,600 without the docking station
In case you didn't notice, Sony completely revamped its laptop lineup this morning. Unlike some of the other models on offer, the high-end Z series didn't get a redesign, but Sony at least took the opportunity to refresh it with new Ivy Bridge processors. Oh, and lower the starting price. The Z will no longer be bundled with the Power Media Dock, that external hub housing both a discrete GPU and optical drive. As such, the laptop will now start at $1,600, down from $2,000, while the dock will retail for an additional $400. Spec-wise, the Z still weighs a scant 2.6 pounds, but it's now constructed from carbon fiber and will be offered with a glossy finish. It will also be available with quad-core Ivy Bridge CPUs, though the starting model's processor is dual-core. Otherwise, it offers nearly the same specs as the model we reviewed last year, including a 1080p display and solid-state RAID drives. Look for the refresh sometime this month, and in the meantime we've included pics below to jog your memory on what this guy looks like.%Gallery-156870% %Gallery-156166%
Hasselblad cuts H4D prices by up to 23 percent, might let you afford rent
Hasselblad is typically known for everything but price cuts, and sometimes goes in the opposite direction. As such, we're more than a little caught off-guard by a round of price cuts on what's usually considered the definitive medium format camera line. The 'entry' H4D-31 has been cut down by as much as 23 percent; we're not sure we'd call it a steal at $11,995 without a lens, but it's now an option if you think even a Nikon D800's full-frame sensor is puny. Price slashes aren't reserved for the bargain models, either, as even the 200-megapixel, status symbol H4D-200MS shaves enough off the cost (now $35,995) to be a worth look for those sitting on the fence. You can get the full details at the source link, and you won't have to survive on ramen noodles for a year to shoot billboard-sized photos.
DSi drops to $100, DSi XL drops to $130 May 20
The DSi line of handhelds is about to get cheaper. Starting May 20, Nintendo is dropping the MSRP of the DSi to $99.99 (from $150), and the DSi XL to $129.99 (from $170). Finally, the DSi XL will be cheaper than the 3DS – which launches in a new color the same day!If you don't have a device that can play DSiWare, a $100 DSi opens you up to a variety of great games – especially now that the platform has had a few years to slowly build a library. Yes, there are worthwhile games on DSiWare – like Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Cave Story, Pictobits, and Antipole, to name a few.
AMD rolls out two new Bulldozer chips, cuts price of the FX-8120 to celebrate
Like Hugh Hefner (probably), AMD took a good hard look at its lineup this week and decided it was high time to add a pair of models. Two new Bulldozer-powered FX CPUs will join the pantheon of world-record beating chips in the company's constant fight against the forces of Intel. The quad-core FX-4170 has a 4.2GHz CPU with 4.3GHz Turbo mode (for more on AMD's Bulldozer architecture, see here) while the six-core FX-6200 has a 3.8GHz base clock and a 4.1GHz Turbo mode. Availability will vary by region as the company shuttles out the new silicon on a rolling timeline, but we'd start keeping our eyes peeled next time you're down the shops. To celebrate, AMD is hacking down the price of the top-end FX-8150 from $245 to $185 and you should see a similar price drop from outlets filter through shortly. After the break we've got all the stats we were able to type about these slices of silicon before our palms got sweaty.
Barnes & Noble unveils 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, slashes Color to $169
Looks like those murmurings of a lower-priced Nook Tablet with only 8GB of storage were right on, though, the reduced RAM was conveniently left out. In most ways it seems the updated Android slate is identical to its 16GB forebearer, except that by slashing the storage and memory in half Barnes & Noble has managed to meet the Kindle Fire on price -- $199. And, unlike the Fire, the Nook sports a microSD slot, so the loss of 8GB of storage isn't necessarily a huge deal. In addition to the new Nook Tablet, the Color is getting a rather significant price cut to just $169, making it cheaper than the Kindle Touch without ads. Looks like the brick-and-mortar stalwart has finally thrown down the pricing gauntlet. The lower-priced tab is available today both online and in Barnes & Noble stores, with other retailers to join the parade soon. Check out the complete PR after the break.
Resident Evil: Revelations' price lowered to $39.99 before launch
Resident Evil: Revelations was announced to have a $50 price tag last year, mostly because of its 4GB cartridge, which is 2GB larger than most 3DS games'. After "weeks of effort," Capcom has dropped that price to $40 -- standard for the 3DS -- without infringing on the cart size, Capcom's Brett Elston announced.Elston said he thinks the title is still worth $50, which is why it's so great that Nintendo's Circle Pad Pro, which we feel is necessary to properly enjoy Revelations, will be an extra $20.
Verizon to sell $200 Droid RAZR, 16GB microSD card not included this time
The question of the day: is a 16GB microSD card worth $100? Verizon Wireless said it will sell the Droid RAZR for $200 with a two-year contract -- a $100 discount off the original price, but one that forces you to give up that complimentary 16GB microSD card. Otherwise, you'll find the same 'ol spes, including a 1.2GHz TI OMAP 4430 CPU, 16GB of internal storage, a 4.3-inch AMOLED display and LTE connectivity. The microSD slot itself will be perfectly operational and accept up to 32GB in storage, provided you bring your own card. Expect this price to go into effect next week on January 23rd. Or, you know, spend $300 after all, but on that other RAZR with 32GB of storage and 21 hours of talk time.
Permanent price cuts to WoW expansions in the EU
Blizzard has just announced permanent price cuts to the Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions in the EU for 2012. What seems to be a push for easier accessibility to WoW, Wrath now costs only €19.99, down from €34.99 and Cataclysm is now €29.99, down from €34.99. Whether or not these deals are coming to the United States is not known at this time, but I can't really understand why they wouldn't. Getting your WoW account up to date has never been cheaper, and Blizzard is making sure the barrier to entry is as low as possible for new players. Permanent price cuts for WoW expansions in 2012 Great news for all Blizzard fans! From today, our latest games are available at retail and on the Blizzard Store at new, permanently low prices. You can now get Wrath of the Lich King for a mere €19.99 and Cataclysm for just €29.99. There's never been a better time to grab the games you might have missed out on before. Just click here and celebrate the New Year by taking advantage of our new reduced prices. Still don´t have World of Warcraft? Now you can get the full game and all expansions for cheaper than ever before. Want to check out StarCraft II? If you haven't yet taken advantage of our great new price for StarCraft II, you can click here to get yours right away! source Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Sony cuts Tablet S price by $100, now starts at $400 for 16GB
New year, new pricing strategy? We just got word that Sony's cut the price of its 9.4-inch Tablet S by $100, so that it now starts at $400 for the 16GB model, and $500 for the 32GB flavor. The move follows a temporary $50 price cut, which Sony announced on December 15th and said would last through the end of the year. So, the fact that the outfit has lowered the price by another fifty bucks, and permanently, can't bode well for sell-through figures. In any case, that takes the Tablet S out of Transformer Prime and iPad 2 territory, though it now finds itself in an increasingly crowded field of mid-range slates, a category populated by the likes of the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, the original ASUS Transformer and both Toshiba Thrive tablets.
DigiTimes: Acer eyes Ultrabook price drop for next year, bigger cuts coming in 2013
Having recently affirmed its commitment to the netbook, Acer is now reportedly looking to boost its Ultrabook sales, with the help of a handsome price cut. Citing company president Jim Wong, DigiTimes reports that Acer will slash the price of its Ultrabook offerings by as much as 20 percent next year, dropping them from around $1,000 to between $800 and $900. The cut, expected to go into effect during Q2 2012, will be followed by a subsequent reduction to $500 in 2013, when Acer expects more vendors to enter the market. The hope is that the manufacturer will be able to reclaim some of the ground it's lost to competitors in recent months, though it remains to be seen whether or not the strategy pays dividends.
BlackBerry Playbook gets massive, temporary $300 price cut in Canada
So, PlayBooks haven't exactly been flying off the shelves... anywhere. Not even in RIM's native Canada. But that might actually change over the nex few days as BestBuy, Walmart, Staples and Future Shop have chopped $300 off the price of the QNX-based slate. The sale lasts from November 16th to the 22nd in Quebec, and the 18th to the 24th in the rest of Canada. Now, they're probably not going to eclipse the iPad in sales anytime soon, but a $200 16GB PlayBook is a much more compelling proposition than a $500 one. The WiFi only 32GB and 64GB models are also being discounted to $300 and $400 respectively which, in case you're not mathematically inclined, means the 64GB BlackBerry tablet will actually cost less than the 16GB version normally does. Obviously, though, you'll have to be quick -- we're sure this fire sale (tundra sale?) will have stocks running pretty low. [Thanks, Shawn]
Gamecube-free Wii refresh heads to North America, competes with more versatile predecessor
Usually when a hardware refresh axes a major feature, it gets a comparable price drop. Not for Nintendo's waggle star, however -- the gamecube-free Wii refresh we've seen advertised for Europe is heading to North America for the same price as its backwards-compatible kin. $150 will get you a black console designed to lay on its side and streamlined to play only Wii software, a Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack and a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. All well and good, except that Nintendo's press release (which you'll find after the break) also promises that the existing Wii bundle will stick around, packing Mario Kart Wii, a Wii Wheel, backwards compatibility for Gamecube games and the very same $150 price tag as the downgraded redesign. Mark your Christmas wishlists carefully folks, this one's a doozy.
European blue Wii bundle takes Mario & Sonic to the Olympics, sends US gamers home without a medal
You didn't expect the Olympics to land in London without a video game tie-in snapping at its heels, did you? Of course not, but did you expect it to be bundled with a powder-blue console? Here's the skinny: Nintendo's Mario & Sonic at the 2012 Olympic Games Limited Edition Pack pairs the outfit's upcoming Gamecube-free Wii refresh with the ghetto fabulous chromatic pop of the 1970s' tackiest grooviest tuxedo craze. Like the "Family Edition" bundle that clued us in on the hardware refresh, this package has only been announced for Europe, and there's still no word on how much either set will cost. Nintendo of Europe says they will be announcing additional bundles later this year, but if you just have to have a matching console for your blue Wiimote, you can pick one up November 18th.
Amazon discounts 'original' 6-inch Kindle Keyboard: now starting at $99
Ready for another new Kindle moniker to remember? Here it comes! "Kindle Keyboard." That's the name that was bestowed upon the tried-and-true 6-incher today after Bezos unwrapped a touchscreen model and a low-cost variant that tout no physical QWERTY keys whatsoever. Now, the WiFi-only Kindle is going for as low as $99 with ads (down from $114), while the non-ads edition can be had for $139. Meanwhile, the 3G + WiFi Special Offers edition has fallen from $164 to $139, and the ad-free brother is going for $189. Naturally, all four of 'em are in stock and shipping today if the new blood just didn't do much for ya.
Nintendo on price reduction: no glasses required to see 3DS sales boost
The Big N has today confirmed our suspicions: people buy more things when they're cheaper, and in turn, the laws of economics are still sound. The longer version is after the break.
August NPD: Annual sales drop again, Deus Ex augments the top spot
We're starting to see a trend develop -- a super, super disheartening trend. According to the NPD group, total sales in the U.S. gaming industry dropped 23 percent year-over-year during the month of August; almost exactly the same amount sales declined in July. NPD's Anita Frazier explained, "the bulk of the decline can be attributed to the shift of the annual Madden release from August to September." (The NPD actually counts August 30 as part of September, which seems pretty zany.) Gaming hardware saw an increase in sales over July, largely fueled by the price cuts endured by the 3DS and PlayStation 3. According to a memo sent out by Nintendo following the NPD report, the 3DS discount moved 185,000 consoles from August 12 through the end of the month. This wave managed to increase dollar and unit sales of handheld hardware to a year-over-year increase over August 2010, which bucks the downward trend followed by the rest of the industry. Hooray for discrete electronics! Surprisingly, the top-selling game for August was Deus Ex: Human Revolution, which was only on store shelves for five days during the NPD's tracking window. The group doesn't expect the augmented title to rollover its reign into September, instead expecting Madden to reign supreme. Check out August's Top 10 software performers after the jump!
Intel adds 16 CPUs to Sandy Bridge stable, slashes prices on some older silicon
It's been a few months since AMD threw down the gauntlet on Intel with its lower-priced Llano lineup, and now Chipzilla's responded with some new bargain basement Sandy Bridge silicon. The refresh includes 11 new desktop CPUs: a Core i5 chip, three Core i3s, and a handful of dual-core Pentium and Celeron processors as well. There are also five new mobile chips, including three new quad-core Core i7s (2960XM, 2860QM, and 2760QM), and the dual-core Core i7-2640M and Celeron B840. In a separate nod to these tough economic times, Intel cut the prices on a few of its existing models, too. Granted, it's only a six-percent discount at the most, but we're sure you can put those dollars to good use elsewhere in your next DIY rig.
European Xbox boss not feeling pressured to cut 360 price
It's the question every potential buyer wants to know: Will Microsoft respond to Sony's $50 PS3 price cut with an Xbox 360 price cut of its own? After all, it didn't take long for Microsoft to match the lower price of Sony's PS3 Slim, first unveiled at Gamescom two years ago. But over a week in and there's still no sign of a price cut coming from Redmond. At $200 for the 4GB Xbox 360 and $300 for the abnormally large 250GB model, Sony's $250 160GB PS3 not only bests the 'box on hardware (hello Blu-ray!) but on price as well. So what's Microsoft going to do about it? Nothing, apparently. When asked if he was "feeling any pressure to move [price] down a little" in response to the PS3 price cut, European Xbox bigwig Chris Lewis told VG247 simply, "No." He elaborated, "We think we offer great value now," pointing to features like Xbox Live and Kinect, but insisted, "We're happy with our position." If we were in Lewis' position, tasked with beating back Sony's European sales lead, "happy" probably wouldn't be our first response to Sony's aggressive pricing.
Nintendo to release streamlined Wii in the UK, at reduced, holiday season price
It may be a while before we see the Wii U hit the market, but it looks like a refreshed version of its predecessor will be hitting the UK market just in time for the holiday shopping rush. According to the UK's Official Nintendo Magazine, the refreshed console will sport a streamlined look and adjusted configuration, designed for horizontal orientation, rather than vertical. It will also be included in a "Family Edition" bundle scheduled for a holiday release, alongside a Wii Remote Plus, Nunchuk controller, and editions of Wii Party and Wii Sports. The downside, however, is that the slimmed-down Wii won't be compatible with GameCube games or controllers, though it will reportedly be sold at a reduced, unspecified price. No word yet on whether Nintendo has a similar update in store for markets outside of the UK, but we'll let you know as soon as we find out.
PS3 price cut to $250, 320 GB model goes to $300 [update]
Well, this is certainly surprising. Sony closed out its Gamescom 2011 keynote with the startling announcement that the PlayStation 3 (presumably the standard, 160GB model) has had its price cut across the globe: It's now $249.99 in the U.S., €249.99 in Europe and ¥24,980 in Japan. According to Sony's Andrew House, this new price point is available immediately. As in, right now. This hot second. The $50 trimming of the system's MSRP comes nearly two years to the day after its original reduction to $299.99. We suppose that goes to show you: If you're planning on purchasing a Sony console, you should probably do so after the Ides of August. [Update: Sony is rolling our another deal today, according to its official blog: A new Infamous 2 PS3 bundle is now available that includes the game and the 320 GB PS3 for $300.]
