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Filed under: Business, News

According to Tech Analyst Tim Bajarin (with Creative Strategies), people set a price ceiling of $399 for new electronic items and anything above that ceiling will not only get infested with rats (damned crawlspaces), but won’t be able to sell in volume. They cite the iPhone as a suffrant of this concept as well as the PlayStation 3. No, suffrant isn’t a word, but it should be. It’s a new way of saying “one afflicted by suffering” or something. This price ceiling isn’t end-all, that is, televisions and computers are exempt from the ceiling because those are “worth” the extra cash.

What we thought was interesting was the coupling of the $399 price ceiling and the rumored price drop of the PS3 to that sweet $399 mark. If that’s what it takes to sell volumes, there might be more behind this analysis than meets the eye. Still, most people reading this site are exceptions to the rule — we nabbed the PS3 before this price ceiling, but then again, we don’t exactly constitute “volume” sales. Do you guys think PlayStation 3 sales will skyrocket if the price hits $399?

[via Joystiq]

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I found this image the other day, and have been struggling for a funny enough caption to make bring out the maximum amount of comedy:

Look at that. It’s just so…full of potential. So, I’m going to try a caption contest! Anita’s were always such fun, I thought I’d try one myself! See if you can come up with the best caption. Just submit your caption as a comment.

Happy captions!

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It has become the most talked about film of Mr. Bachchan after Black! Rituparno Gosh’s “the Last Lear” has been doing its rounds in 2007 Toronto Film Festival and the film has already received rave reviews about it. The film is based on Utpal Dutt’s play and has an impressive starcast which includes Amitabh Bachchan, […]

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Filed under: Launches, Industry, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), Sony Corp ADR (SNE), Japan

The Japanese government is concerned about Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) dominance in the global search business. Senior officials in the country believe that they have lost their consumer electronics advantage to companies in Korea, Taiwan, and China. And now, the Asian country may end up with no edge in the fast-growing search software business.

The battle for market share has already been won by Google on the PC platform. The Japanese government is building a partnership of several major consumer electronics companies to create search software for handsets and other devices.

According to the FT: “Tokyo hopes to use Japan’s strength in developing devices, such as mobile phones and car navigation systems, to create proprietary search and information retrieval functions”

The government has matched NTT Data with Toyota InfoTechnology Center and Toyota (NYSE: TM) Mapmaster to create an interactive, personalized car navigation system. Other partnerships involve NEC, Hitachi and Sony (NYSE: SNE) Computer Science Laboratories.

To start, Japan will put about €90 million into the ventures.

Of course, Google and GPS navigation companies are already moving their software to devices other than the PC, so the Japanese may be a Little late.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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It’s not on the B&O website yet, but this audio player is the new addition to the BeoSound line. It can work with iTunes with the help of a plug-in to the BeoPlayer music organizer and the manufacturer claims 40 hours of battery life. As usual with B&O, the price is (very) steep ($700+), but we bet that the manufacturing quality and the audio quality are impeccable.

Specs:

• 4GB of storage
• 1.8” display
• Format supported: MP3, WMA, OGG
• 3.5” tall, 0.5” thick and 2.3oz (65g)

Permalink | Comment | Uberbargain | Uberphones

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Deals, Scripts & Screenwriting, Remakes and Sequels, Games and Game Movies

Jean-Claude Van Damme’s blue beret-wearing ways did not appeal to the masses, but this doesn’t mean that Capcom won’t try again. Over the past year, a new foray into the video game world of Street Fighter has been in the works. The last news came in July, when a script review was out. This time around, the focus will be on tough girl fighter Chun Li and her quest for justice — she seeks revenge for the murder of her father. Now screenwriter Justin Marks is doing “a polish,” and Variety is reporting that the production has tapped its director — Andrzej Bartkowiak.

The director has some martial arts under his belt with Romeo Must Die, as well as some experience with video game adaptations — he’s the name behind Doom. Bartkowiak is also an experienced cinematographer — having a hand in everything from Terms of Endearment and Twins to Dante’s Peak and Lethal Weapon 4. So he’s got the experience, but considering the fact that Doom actually grossed less than the first Street Fighter, which was about a decade earlier, what’s the point? Usually when franchises or flicks are freshened, there’s some sort of hope behind it. Christopher Nolan made many giddy with excitement when he took over Batman, and he delivered. What on earth can we expect, or hope for, with this project?

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve got it fresh from the people who engineered this piece, people; hacker Zappaz and his crew have released an early, dirty, uncompiled version of their proof of concept iPhone SIM unlock source code. Hit the link and check it out — we just suggest that unless you’re a serious hacker you not use it yourself (yet) until the kinks are worked out.

Update: iPhone Dev Wiki is reporting that another compiled unlock solution has appeared, called iUnlock, developed by the iPhone Dev Team with credit to Zappaz. We’ve yet to verify that either solution works, but the iUnlock software appears to be in a more complete state. More up here.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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