Apple TV gets a price drop

Comments? At what price would you consider getting an Apple TV unit? Is 160GB for $229 good enough?

We're not sure what it will take to for Apple TV to really take off, but a $100 price cut certainly can't hurt. On Sunday night, the company dropped the price of the 160GB Apple TV to $229 and killed the 40GB model, which had previously been priced at $229.

Considering Apple had already dropped prices for its Time Capsule wireless networked drives, an Apple TV price drop doesn't come as much of a surprise. On top of that, Microsoft is on the verge of updating the XBox 360 to stream "instant-on" 1080p movies using Zune video technology, so Apple needs to do something to invigorate its little white video box in the face of increasing competition from plenty of players, including Roku.

Of course, after recently hearing Apple executive Phil Schiller talk about how $199 is a "magic price point" for the iPod Touch, you have to wonder why Apple just didn't hit $199 with Apple TV (I routinely beg Apple reps to drop the price to $199 in meetings).

Alas, in due time. However, before we see that price point, we expect to see a higher capacity, more expensive model in the not so distant future.



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Asustek Eee Keyboard Coming in October

A unique product announced by Asustek Computer early this year, the Eee Keyboard, will hit markets in Europe and North America starting in October, a top executive at the company said Monday.

The Eee Keyboard is a standard-sized computer keyboard with a built-in computer and 5-inch touchscreen on the right-hand side of the board. The device is designed to connect via wires or wirelessly to any device with a display screen, such as monitor, an LCD TV or a digital projector.

Asustek is promoting the device for household use. "We want to make the product useful for many things in the house, the home PC and LCD TV, for example," said Jerry Shen, CEO of Asustek, at a news conference in Taipei.

The company envisions people carrying the Eee Keyboard around the house and using it to access the Internet or play games on their LCD TV or as a wireless keyboard at their computer desk. The Eee Keyboard carries a host of wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.0 and Ultra Wideband HDMI (UWB high definition multimedia interface), in addition to ports for a number of connections, including USB 2.0, a VGA port, HDMI ports, and connections for headphones and microphones.

The device has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor inside, 1GB of DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM and an onboard 16GB or 32GB SSD (solid state drive) to store data.

An Asustek representative said a final price has not yet been announced for the Eee Keyboard.

Asustek unveiled the Eee Keyboard at a news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

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Asustek Shows off New Thin, Light UL Laptop Family

Asustek took the wraps off a new family of thin, light laptop PCs designed for long battery life on Monday, the UnLimited family, or UL notebook PCs.

The laptops update an earlier line of U-series devices designed around CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) microprocessors from Intel. Both series were designed with Apple's MacBook Air in mind, thin and light for portability. Some laptops in the Asustek UL family have features the MacBook Air lacks, such as lower prices, larger screens and DVD drives, but the MacBook Air beats the entire UL series on processing power.

Every laptop in the new UL series from Asustek is less than 1 inch (25.4 millimeters) thick. They each have a brushed aluminum chassis and components designed to squeeze the maximum battery life out of the system.

"We hope to make this the new standard in notebook computers, thin and light with long battery life," said Jerry Shen, CEO of Asustek, at a news conference in Taipei.

Asustek also may have made some breakthroughs in battery performance. The company claims the laptops offer up to 12 hours of power, depending on the configuration and usage. Third party assessments of the devices were not immediately available. Some of the UL series laptops can hold 8-cell batteries, which will give far longer battery life, but also add considerable weight to a laptop.

All of Asus's UL series laptops come with the latest 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processors and Intel GS45 chipsets inside as well as 0.3-megapixel Web cams and Microsoft Windows Vista Premium OSs. They are upgradeable to Windows 7, according to information from Asustek.

Of the devices shown on Monday, the UL50Vg laptop boasts the largest screen at 15.6 inches, and price, at NT$35,900 (US$1,105). The laptop also includes Nvidia GeForce G 210M graphics, a 500GB hard disk drive (HDD) and a DVD Super Multi drive, and can hold up to 4GB of 800MHz DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM. The price is a suggested retail price from Asustek and does not say how much DRAM is included in that price.

The suggested retail prices are for Taiwan. A company representative declined to name prices for other markets because tariffs and other factors mean prices vary.

The UL80VT with a 14-inch screen, Nvidia GeForce G 210M graphics, a 500GB hard disk drive, DVD Super Multi drive and up to 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 (double data rate, third generation) DRAM carries a suggested retail price of NT$34,900 (US$1,074). Again, the company did not say how much DRAM was included in that price.

The UL30A, with a 13.3-inch screen, a 500GB HDD and up to 4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 was priced at NT$33,900 (US$1,043).

The only sub-US$1000 laptop in the series was the UL20A, which has a 12.1-inch screen, 320GB HDD, up to 4GB of 800MHz DDR2, and a suggested retail price of NT$31,900 (US$980).

The devices will be in stores starting Sep. 22.


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SanDisk Launches Speedy Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card

Not all flash memory cards are created alike. Nowhere is this more evident than with the new SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card. Available in 16GB to 64GB capacities, this card promises, and delivers, on extreme: Armed with SanDisk's rearchitected controller, this card can achieve up to 90 megabytes per second read/write performance in a digital SLR that supports UDMA (mode 6).

I took this card out for several shoots, and have to say I've been impressed with how it handles. I didn't gauge its "performance" with regard to its rated write speed as compared with other, more lowly and less pricey cards; rather, the proof of this card's worth lies in how the card handles in the field.

As a photographer, I never want to miss the shot. You know the one -- whether it's an athlete's elation at a successfully completed routine, a gymnast's gravity-defying midair flip, or a couple's first kiss at a wedding -- those are the shots that burst-modes were made for. Unfortunately, even with SLRs that boast fast frames-per-second, well, those superfast ratings have been for shooting JPEG, not RAW.

Personally, I vascillate on the JPEG vs. RAW subject, and I'd prefer to shoot RAW, simply because I know I'm sacrificing potential image quality by not allowing myself to capture the most possible information for a shot, which a camera's large, unprocessed RAW file provides. But I don't have the time to do the necessary post-processing for every image that shooting RAW requires; plus, whenever I've tried shooting RAW only, or RAW plus JPEG, I've found myself quickly disappointed by missing a key backflip or sudden moment I thought I could capture, but couldn't because my camera's buffer had filled and I had sacrificed shooting speed.

Between my trigger-happy shutter finger and my desire to capture "the moment," I can fill a camera's buffer in heartbeat using just JPEG (and even using CompactFlash cards rated at 300X, the previous top-tier card). (An aside: Some manufacturers list ratings in so-called x-ratings, much like DVD drives have "X" speed rating; other manufacturers, like SanDisk, use names instead to describe speed, although it does note the Extreme Pro as equivalent to a "600X" card.) The more sluggish write speeds for shooting the large RAW files was, for me, too much of a sacrifice.

Until now. With the SanDisk Extreme Pro card, I didn't feel constrained because I was shooting RAW. Nor did I feel constrained when I shot using the camera's RAW + JPEG Fine modes -- which captured both file types for me. (I consider that the holy grail of shooting -- this way, I have the high-quality JPEGs for quick sharing, and immediate use, and the high-quality RAW file for editing, cropping, and finessing image worthy of the extra effort.

Using an SLR rated at 7 frames-per-second for JPEGs (and 5 frames-per-second RAW), I shot a parade. I shot a wedding. I shot daily happenings, sights passing by out of a car window, and more -- and I captured every moment I intended to. I have yet to try and capture a multirelease sequence on men's high bar, but my early hands-on with the card leaves me hopeful that I'll be able to do so.

More importantly, this card makes it clear that there are real and tangible differences among flash memory cards. Just because a card is on sale with a deep rebate doesn't mean that card will take full advantage of your camera's capabilities. If you have a newer digital SLR that supports the fast UDMA (mode 6) interface -- cameras like the Nikon D3, Nikon D300 and D300S, Nikon D700, Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon EOS 50D, and the forthcoming Canon EOS 7D -- a card like the SanDisk Extreme Pro can be well worth its high price of admission. Yes, $300 is costly for a 16GB card, but in the end it's a small price if it means capturing the moments you're missing in the best quality possible.



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MTV awards: West disrupts Swift's speech; tribute to MJ

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Even by the standards of the anything-goes MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West's hijacking of country-pop sweetheart Taylor Swift's speech at the Sunday night ceremony was particularly brutal.

The pre-show buzz had focused on the highly anticipated tribute to the late Michael Jackson, but West's disruption stole the spotlight.

A giddy Swift was in the midst of her acceptance speech for Best Female Video when the often-mercurial West rushed onstage, grabbed her microphone and let loose an outburst on behalf of singer Beyonce Knowles, who had lost out in that category.

But audiences who stayed tuned until the end of the broadcast were treated to a touching bookend: Knowles, the night's top winner, invited Swift onstage and gave the teen singer her moment in the spotlight. Watch Kanye interrupt Swift, Beyonce react »

"I remember being 17 years old, up for my first MTV award with Destiny's Child, and it was one of the most exciting moments of my life," Knowles said, referring to the girl group with which she had her start. "So I would like for Taylor to come out and have her moment."

Speaking to reporters later, Swift was understated about her take on the disruption.

"I was excited to be onstage because I just won the award. And then I was excited that Kanye West was onstage. Then, I wasn't excited anymore," she said. Watch Swift's reaction after disruption »

Award winners
Best Video of the Year: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," Beyonce

Best New Artist: Lady Gaga

Best Male Video: "Live Your Life," T.I. featuring Rihanna

Best Female Video: "You Belong With Me," Taylor Swift

Best Pop Video: "Womanizer," Britney Spears

Best Hip-Hop Video: "We Made You," Eminem

Best Rock Video: "21 Guns," Green Day

Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman): "Sabotage," Beastie Boys

Best Breakthrough Video: "Lessons Learned," Matt and Kim MTV told journalists the West-Swift incident was not planned -- a point it had to stress after a walkout by singer Eminem at last year's event turned out to be staged.

Hip-hop superstar West, who was pictured before the ceremony swigging a bottle of Cognac, was escorted from the building after the rant, the network said.

Soon after, an apology to Swift appeared on his blog:

"I'm sooooo sorry to Taylor Swift and her fans and her mom," the message said in all caps. "I spoke to her mother right after and she said the same thing my mother would've said. She is very talented! ... I'm in the wrong for going on stage and taking away from her moment!"

So went the 2009 edition of the awards, a show that is historically less remembered for its winners than for its antics.

And as usual, the Sunday night spectacle, hosted by a not-particularly funny Russell Brand, delivered:

• Pink dangled upside down from the rafters as she belted out "Sober" -- upping the ante from last year, when she shimmied down a bed sheet from a second-story fire escape.

• Lady Gaga, apparently pressing home her feelings about celebrity photographers, dabbed at fake blood that dripped from her ribcage and smeared it on her face as she sang "Paparazzi."

• And Swift took the subway, from the 42nd Street station to a stage outside the show venue Radio City Music Hall, all the while singing "You Belong With Me." See guests arrive to awards show »

The ceremony was as much an awards show as a reverential tribute to Michael Jackson, who died on June 25.

Madonna got the evening off to a bittersweet beginning as she recounted how she forged a friendship with the singer and how they gradually grew distant.

"When Michael Jackson was 6, he became a superstar and was perhaps the world's most beloved child. When I was 6, my mother died," she began. "I think he got the shorter end of the stick. I never had a mother, but he never had a childhood."

After Madonna's tribute, an army of dancers re-created dance moves from several of Jackson's music videos. Watch highlights from the show »

As his single "Scream" beamed from a large overhead screen, Jackson's sister Janet came out and sang along to the only duet the siblings recorded.

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Gallery: Top moments from previous shows in NYC
The show also gave fans their first look at "This Is It," a behind-the-scenes documentary of Jackson's final three months. The two-and-a-half-minute trailer made clear the elaborate comeback show the singer was planning before he died.

But the much-publicized sneak peek was overshadowed by Kanye West's tantrum.

"Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time," he said, snatching the microphone from Swift after she had won her award.

Swift stood onstage, speechless, clutching her award. The cameras panned to a shocked Beyonce, while the audience booed and later chanted "Taylor."

Though Beyonce later afforded the teen singer another opportunity to finish her speech, the West backlash had begun.

"F--- u Kanye," said a tweet on Katy Perry's Twitter feed. "It's like you stepped on a kitten."

Pink's Twitter feed made several references to the incident. "Kanye west is the biggest piece of s--- on earth. Quote me," one tweet said.

Of course, West is no stranger to award show outbursts.

He made a similar uninvited appearance onstage at the 2006 MTV Europe Music Awards when he was snubbed for his single "Touch the Sky."

He leaped onstage, saying his video deserved to win because it "cost a million dollars and Pamela Anderson was in it."



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