pricing

Super Talent to release budget solid-state drives

Two weeks after announcing two new high-speed solid-state drives (SSD), Super Talent Technology on Tuesday announced it will release the MasterDrive LX as a budget solid-state drive later this week.

The MasterDrive LX comes in 64GB and 128GB versions and will cost about $179 and $300, respectively. Both drives are SATA-II and use NAND flash technology. They will be compatible with computers that support the ever-popular 2.5-inch SATA hard drive.

The low prices do come with a shortcoming: the throughput speed. The new MasterDrive LX drives are significantly slower than other SSDs; it's even slower than some regular … Read more

Blockbuster discounts old 40GB PS3--still a ripoff

A leaked internal memo shows that Blockbuster will be lowering the price of the entry-level 40GB model PlayStation 3 this weekend. Kotaku was able to get a screenshot of the memo, which clearly shows a new price of $360. Also, the store-exclusive Spider-Man 3 Blu-ray/Transformers video game and HDMI cable bundle will drop to $460.

This may seem like a decent bargain, but remember that $40 more will double your hard drive capacity to 80GB. (Confusingly, the "old" 80GB model, which had four USB ports and flash media slots, has mostly disappeared from store shelves. The new … Read more

How bad is your tech stock doing?

If you are long in individual stocks these days, you are likely part of a large and miserable fraternity.

But how bad are your stocks doing in relation to other stocks that you may not own or even follow? Since misery loves company, Eric Savitz of Barron's has complied a list of prominent stocks in six different tech sectors to get a feel for how big of a loser each stock was at Wednesday's close of trading. As Savitz points out while "assessing the carnage," the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 4 percent and the … Read more

Reading the Apple tea leaves: Cheaper MacBooks coming?

In the wake of Tuesday's Let's Rock Apple event, our own Tom Krazit posited a round of possible MacBook updates in October. More circumstantial evidence today, in the form of revised estimates by AmTech Research analyst Shaw Wu.

Silicon Alley Insider reports that Wu is cutting his Apple revenue estimates for the remainder of 2008 and for fiscal 2009, citing a belief that even affluent consumers are feeling the financial crunch, and that Apple may respond with lower prices.

"We continue to believe that MacBook Pro and MacBook are due for refreshes with more radical redesigns, likely … Read more

Apple refutes NBC's pricing-policy claims

Apple has taken issue with NBC's claims that the media conglomerate was able to change pricing policy at Apple.

NBC Universal executives have suggested that they agreed to start selling downloads of TV shows on iTunes only after being allowed more flexibility to set prices for its wares on iTunes. That's just not correct, Eddy Cue, the vice president in charge of Apple's iTunes Store, told CNET News on Wednesday evening.

On Tuesday Apple announced at the company's "Let's Rock" press gathering that NBC shows were returning to iTunes. A year ago, NBC … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 806: Battlestar Monk

On today's show, we reveal a huge spoiler: Monk is the 12th Cylon. (Apologies to any of you who don't watch that show.) This is vaguely related to the news that NBC's return to iTunes comes shackled with variable pricing. In other news, RIM releases its first ever flip phone, and amazing space-based solar power arrives (bad news for birds). Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 806

CERN’s big collider now in action http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-10037565-76.html

Flipping out: RIM BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 debuts http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-10036487-7.html

Congress questions … Read more

Apple yields to NBC Universal on price, packaging

To get TV shows from NBC Universal back on iTunes, Apple yielded to some demands on pricing and packaging made by the media conglomerate, NBC executives said Tuesday.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced at the company's "Let's Rock" press event on Tuesday that NBC shows such as 30 Rock and The Office would return to iTunes a year after the entertainment company pulled out of iTunes.

Examples of how NBC can set its own prices on some shows came after the event. NBC announced that it would offer some catalog titles for 99 cents rather than … Read more

Broadband price war brews

Verizon Communications and AT&T have thrown the first blows in an impending broadband pricing war.

Last week, Verizon Communications said it will offer six months of free DSL service to new customers who sign up for a one-year contract and also use the company's traditional landline voice service. The promotion is available until the end of October.

Verizon's DSL service typically costs between $19.99 per month for 768Kbps downloads and $42.99 a month for 7.1Mbps downloads. Add traditional telephone service, and subscribers can get high-speed DSL and phone service for as little as $… Read more

Intel lists new low-cost processors

Intel updated its processor pricing list with low-cost quad-core and Core 2 Duo desktop processors. A new Celeron D model was also listed.

Intel lists the Q8200 at $224, one of the least expensive quad-core chips that the company now offers. The venerable Q6600 is the only Core 2 Quad that is less expensive.

The 45-nanometer processor has a core clock speed of 2.33GHz and 4MB of cache memory. This is a relatively small amount of cache memory as most Intel desktop quads offered now come with 6MB, 8MB, or 12MB of cache memory. Generally, the more cache memory … Read more