Which console will win Fall 2010?
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Price Cut Won’t Save the Kindle DX
Amazon had no choice but to slash the price of the Kindle DX, the bookseller’s oversized e-reader, to 9–a substantial 0 drop. The device is facing competitive pressure at both ends of the e-book spectrum, and it increasingly looks like an oddity among Apple iPad-style tablets and smaller, more conventional e-readers.
Read more on PC World via Yahoo! News

Amazon Punches Up Kindle DX
Amazon.com has let loose the latest salvo in the rapidly escalating e-book reader war. The online book retailer will ship the latest version of its high-end Kindle, the DX, on July 7. The new units will sport a range of new features and a substantially lowered price: 9. Amazon already has lowered the price of its more popular, standard version of the Kindle to 9.
Read more on TechNewsWorld.com

Put two and two together people, and get WTF. Dell is laying off 700 of its 4,500 employees by June 2010 and now, for some odd reason, the Dell website is featuring laser mice for $4,000 and a Xeon E3110 machine for $16.99.

Dailytech noticed the confluence of oddity when Slickdeals started posting machines like a 3.2GHz monster for $10.99.

The hilarious thing is that most of these errors are still present, which means you can pay as low as $120 a month for one of the chintziest mice I’ve seen in years.

Either someone is blowing a big raspberry on the way out the door or Dell is in dire straits. Either way, this doesn’t bode well.

There’s hardly a spokesasshole in the world of tech who doesn’t throw around some kind of tagline. And that’s fine because it’s his job, but there’s no reason for you to repeat those taglines. Especially any of these seven.

Droid Does

Verizon’s Droid commercials haven’t been around very long, but I already keep seeing various combination of “iDon’t” and “Droid does” being incorporated into everything from tweets to articles. (Hell, even we couldn’t resist it once or twice.)

I can sort of forgive occurrences of the tagline slipping into reviews or posts about the actual gadget, but several days ago I found myself overhearing a fellow practically reciting the first Droid commercial to mock his buddy’s iPhone preference. I seriously hope that I was in some sort of bizarro coffee shop or that maybe this guy was just an oddity. Please just skip this tagline, because I assure you: That guy sounded like a complete asshole.

There’s an App for That

C’mon. Be honest. How often have you slipped this gem of a tagline into a comment? And how often have you groaned or rolled your eyes because you saw someone else remark that there is in fact an app for that? It was barely funny the first few times, but at this point even your grandma is using it and that oughta tell you something.

And no, changing a word doesn’t make you sound like less of an asshole.

Think Different

Once upon a time, Apple’s “Think Different” commercial made me smile at its cleverness. Then I saw the commercial a second time and I cringed. It’s actually kinda cheesy and the tagline isn’t much better. No matter what the concept behind it is, it basically feels like it’s a nicely cut down version of the trite and overused “think outside of the box” and hearing it used feels just as irritating.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Unless you’re genuinely wondering if the person you’re talking to can hear you, there’s no way to not sound like an asshole when using the “Can you hear me now?” tagline. Not even in an ironic look-at-me-I’m-so-cool-that-I-can-say-this-to-mock-it way.

Besides, while I’m certain that he’s a nice fellow, do you really want to associate yourself with the slightly dorky-looking Verizon Guy?

It Keeps Going, and Going, and Going…

Last weekend I asked a friend how her date went. She remarked that he was like an Energizer bunny. And, as she thought I was confused by the expression, she continued to explain that he “kept going, and going, and going…” and it took me quite some willpower to not break down in tears on the spot. Someone so clever and lovely insisted on using a reference and a tagline so incredibly cliched that I’d initially thought I’d heard wrong. Please. Think of a better description for these things. (Especially since it’s probably inaccurate in that scenario since hardly gentlemen really manage to keep up with that darned bunny rabbit.)

Where Do You Want to Go Today?

Oh, as much as Microsoft’s good old “where do you want to go today?” annoys me, I actually crave to hear it sometimes. Such as in place of that grunt and nod I get from cab drivers. As with the “can you hear me now?” tagline, this one should only be used when you mean it literally and aren’t attempting to make an allusion to the commercial.

Intel Inside

I’ve seen “baby inside,” “beauty inside,” “goddess inside,” “whiskey inside,” and who-knows-what-else inside tshirts, bumper stickers, and undies. Unless I’m seriously mistaken, those are spin-offs to the ancient “Intel inside” and they’re not exactly funny anymore. I doubt that anyone can show me a single example of play on that tagline that won’t make me roll my eyes (but feel free to try). In the meantime: Let’s just not add to the ridiculousness.

(Atom Netbooks not included)

(Credit: Microsoft)

Now here’s an oddity: Microsoft’s “Windows 7 compatible” sticker that will be affixed to nearly all Windows computers around Windows 7 launch doesn’t seem to include current Atom Netbooks.

The reasoning, according to Microsoft’s page and an Engadget report, is

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I’m holding Apple’s fifth-generation iPod Nano, and it’s feeling like deja vu. Here we are again with an 8GB and 16GB iPod Nano that bear the exact same shape and dimensions as last year’s models, priced at $149 and a slightly more wallet-friendly $179, respectively. Sure, the aluminum is a little more glossy, and the screen now stretches out to 2.2 inches (up from 2 inches), but most people would really need to have an Apple fanboy’s eagle-eye to discern last year’s model from today’s.

But don’t let looks fool you. Under the hood, Apple really juiced the 5th-gen iPod Nano with a ton of tricks that only serve to make the Nano better. I’m not convinced all of the Nano’s new features were executed perfectly, but at least nothing about the 5th-gen Nano is a step backwards for Apple (unlike the 3rd-gen Nano’s awkward shape, or the button-less iPod Shuffle). For the sake of mentioning it, just know that everything found in last year’s model is here as well, located in exactly the same place, same font, same everything. Music, photos, videos, podcasts, battery life, sound quality… same, same, same. Well, technically, rated battery life is up a little for video playback, clocking in a 5 hours instead of 4.

iPod Nano oddity #1: I can record video, but I can't snap a photo no matter how hard Antuan poses.

(Credit: CNET)

So what’s new? Well, for starters, the iPod Nano now has a video camera. On the back of the Nano there’s an eensy-teensy fixed-lens camera that runs flush with the body, capable of capturing 640×480 standard definition video at 30 frames per second. Files are recorded as iTunes-friendly .MP4 videos with h.264 formatted video with AAC audio. Video quality looks, well… decent. We’ll have a better sense after more testing, but I think it’s safe to say that it won’t be crushing the Flip Mino HD anytime soon.

Part of the problem isn’t so much the camera technology as it is the placement of the camera–located right behind the clickwheel where you can’t help but rub your nasty hands across the lens each time you pick it up. After just a few minutes out of the box, video recordings became increasingly cloudy with screen grime.

Maybe I’m just filthy, but I have to think Apple would have done better to move the lens closer to the top and out of harm’s ways.

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