Apple just ripped $500 off the price tag of their Solid State Drive-based MacBook Airs, which are now $2598, down from $3098. AppleInsider states the cuts came from two components, the 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, which got a $100 cut, and the 64GB SSD, which got a $400 cut. The sub-$3000 bill should be slightly more appetizing to fans of light laptops. And fans of money. [Apple Store via Apple Insider]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

The BlackBerry Kickstart is by far not RIM’s ideal looking phone. But it is a real live BlackBerry and it will run a mere 50 bucks when it launches on T-Mobile in September.

The Centro has proven that a cheap smartphone can sell like hotcakes. Allowed the Centro is cute, the Kickstart is not. But $50 (with a two-year contract, natch) puts it in the same mass market as the crappier LGs and Sammys. It’s a crazy way to hook the kids, but it might just work. (It’d work superior if the phone wasn’t so ugly.) [Crackberry via Silicon Alley Insider]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

The Gadget: The Moto E8 ROKR is a candybar music phone that makes use of a touch-sensitive, haptic feedback panel on the bottom half of the phone. It’s almost buttonless, save for a few on the side.

The Price: $199 (after 2-year contract)

The Verdict: Long story short, the hardware is great, the music interface is decent, the T-Mobile interface sucks. But let’s start with the good. Not only do I like build quality, and how the button layout changes according to the phone’s function, I also like that the haptic feedback really feels like the phone has buttons (Herrman is still convinced there aren’t haptics). As a music player, the capacitive ring and menu system give it an iPod sort of feel, which is nice. It’s pretty simple to use, and doesn’t suffer from much lag. Syncing with Windows Media Player is a relatively painless process, but that means it’s also Windows only (Mac Users have to transfer files via MicroSD, ugh).

The thing that makes me never want to touch the phone again is T-Mobile’s UI skin, which takes competent phone software and turns it into a laggy, unresponsive pile of crap. Seeing as this phone is a T-Mo exclusive, I think it’s important to highlight how much I dislike it. Frequently I try to enter into a menu for the camera, or text messages, only to be thrown back to the MyFaves home screen. After hitting another button in response, the phone decides it wants to go to the app I was originally trying to use, and then respond to my subsequent button pushing. The dialog boxes also like to clash with the menus, which allow for frequent input errors. I liken the process to playing voicemail tag with someone, which is to say it’s totally annoying.

Other than that, it’s just slow, the capacitive ring is no good for navigating the main menu, and trying D-pad feels cramped. So while I think the phone is an above average candybar, I’d hold out for a version running different software.

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

As you already know, today was the launch of the limited-edition Marty McFly-inspired Nike Hyperdunk sneakers. 350 pairs were sold nearly instantly (some are now for sale on eBay for as much as $2,000), a hundred of them at the UNDFTD shop in Santa Monica, where L.A. Lakers’ megastar Kobe Bryant arrived in a DeLorean time machine to be greeted by hundred of fans, some of them camping outside for more than 24 hours. Seriously, I’m a Back to the Future fan too, but what kind of obsessed fanboy can wait for more than 24 hours for a stupid piece of merchandise? Ah… hrmmm. OK, never mind. [Hypebeast]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This

Remember Viacom suing YouTube and Google for one BILLION dollars eons ago? That’s still going on! And while a judge ruled yesterday that while Google doesn’t have to reveal its secret search sauce to the multimedia giantface, he did grant Viacom’s request for YouTube to turn over records of “every video watch by YouTube users,” and that includes their username and IP address. Yeah that’s right, Viacom will know each time you watch “Pork n Beans” or need to refuel your day with Powerthirst. (Or watch Viacom’s The Daily Show, you bastard.) And like that, the illusion of YouTube privacy was gone. [YouTube]

Via [Gizmodo]

Share This

Share This