Tech Update

It's turning into kind of tech-y week.  There were two fairly big announcements yesterday by two of the major video game companies.

First, Nintendo announced that on Sep. 12th, they're going to drop the price on the  DSi and DSi XL by $20 each.  The DSi will go from $169.99 to $149.99 and the DSi XL will go from $189.99 to $169.99.  I've never owned a DS.  By the time I thought I really might want one, I had a PSP and an iPod Touch and they off plenty of game options for the road.  True, there are a couple of Mario and Zelda gamest that it would be nice to get to play, but I don't have time to play the games I have for the xbox, but less for a DS.  Still, the way Nintendo has sold these things in the past, dropping the price is sure to have an immediate effect on sales.  At least until they announce the release date and price of the 3DS at the end of September.

As Nintendo was dropping the price of one of its products, Microsoft decided it was a good time to raise the price of one of theirs.  They're increasing the price of an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription by $10.  It's going from $49.99 to $59.99.  For the next couple of weeks, you can get a card from Amazon for $38.54.  If you have a LIVE subscription, now would probably be the time to get a card to have on hand the next time you need to renew.  I don't think I've ever actually paid full price for a year of LIVE before.  Someone usually has the cards on sale for $30 or so at some point in the year and I usually try to get one of those.  It still bothers me that they're raising the price though.  I don't know that what they offer is really worth $60.  Of course, if I want to be able to watch Netflix or play online with my friends, I don't really have much of a choice in the matter short of selling the Xbox and getting a PS3.

The last bit of tech news for the week happens tomorrow.  Apple is holding their now annual iPod press release event tomorrow afternoon.  Most of the rumors agree that they're finally going to add a camera to the iPod Touch.  It also looks like there's going to be a new Nano that includes a small touch screen.  They should also be showing off iOS 4 for the iPad and there may even be a new iPad model announced.  Then there are rumors that Apple is going to revamp the Apple TV box and that they've worked out a deal with TV studios to allow for $.99 TV show rentals.  Whatever they actually do announce, I'm sure it will get me worked into a geek frenzy and I'll be talking about it on Thursday, so just prepare yourself.

--Paul