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shrinkage

Boost Mobile hiking Android data charge by $5

Just a day before Boost Mobile puts the Android-powered Samsung Transform Ultra on the market, it's bumping up the price of its all-in-one data plan for Android phones by $5 a month, from $50 to $55 per month.

While nobody likes rate hikes, Boost will continue to sweeten the deal with its Shrinkage Plan, which lowers customers' monthly plans by $5 for every six on-time payments (not necessarily consecutive), down to a minimum of $40 per month.

As of October 6, Boost's existing Android owners will get their $50 monthly rate grandfathered in until they upgrade to a new handset, after which they'll see the $5 rate hike but won't lose their Shrinkage standing.

Rate hikes are a fact of life with carriers, especially as market pressures to maintain and expand their data networks strain their own bottom line. Timing the rate increase with the Samsung Transform Ultra release hints at Boost Mobile's sales expectations for the device. The more new Android users it has, the more all-you-can-eat data its customers will use.… Read more

The shrinking game console: A history

Sony's announcement of the PlayStation 3 Slim on Tuesday was no surprise for most gamers and industry experts. Parts that once cost a small fortune, such as hard drives, processors, and special disc-reading lenses, continue to fall in price and take up less space. It's only natural the machines that use them would shrink as well.

The PlayStation 3 was physically the largest of the three current-generation home consoles, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii. With never-ending lust by consumers for smaller gadgets, the current configuration was just not cutting it.

What's surprising about the Slim, though, is that Sony was the second-most recent of the three companies to have released its console, yet it's the first to offer a completely new form factor. Microsoft was the first out of the gate with a North America release of the Xbox 360 in late November 2005. Sony and Nintendo followed suit with the PlayStation 3 and Wii, respectively, which were released a week apart from each other in mid-November 2006.

The closest either Nintendo or Microsoft has come to a redesign since is Microsoft, which began including an HDMI port and increasing the included storage, alongside a major revision to the system software which allowed games to be played off the hard drive.

In the case of the PS3 Slim, it's actually the fourth generation of the device. During that three-year period, things like the included storage space jumped from 20GB to 120GB. And a recently unearthed patent at the FCC filing shows that a 250GB model is just around the corner.

So is it normal to release a heavily revised version of a gaming system within three years of the initial release? It depends on who you are. Let's take a look at some notable shrinkage from the last three generations of consoles. I think that you'll notice a trend.… Read more

A little friend for your Shuffle

It's not often that an attachment is nearly as big as the product it supports. But when the main device is the diminutive iPod Shuffle, size becomes something of a challenge.

The IncipioBud will still save some space, though, by allowing you to forego the iPod's docking station and plug it directly into any USB port in a Mac or a PC. As Ubergizmo points out, it would come in handy on the road--and, at $6, there's not much to lose.