CNN chatted with our good friends at DLS about the news network's iPhone app (scheduled to hit an App Store near you very soon), and it actually sounds pretty premium: in-app video, breaking news live video streaming, a Coverflow-style way to browse news information, the ability to store news to read later, and social sharing through Facebook, Twitter, and the usual suspects. CNN even says they want to add more to the app in the future, including some iReport-style news delivery functions, so people with iPhones out in the world can send news in as quickly as possible.

Ok, CNN, we get it -- you care about this one. It does sound like they're making a major push in terms of making their content interactive on the iPhone, but on the other hand, maybe they're just trying to sell you on the "premium" price: $1.99, with (we're told) non-intrusive advertising included. Obviously, $2 is cheap, but on the other hand, especially with advertising both from the network itself and outside clients, the crankiest of App Store browsers will probably flinch at it a little bit. If you are interested, however, CNN would love to take your money: their app should be available in the App Store as soon as Apple lets it through.

We've just started receiving tips that Apple is quietly cutting the price of existing iPods ahead of its planned event later today. Thus far, we've seen the following price cuts. All prices given are in USD:

• iPod nano is now $129 for 8GB and $149 for 16GB.
• iPod classic is now $229.
• iPod touch is now $189 for 8GB, $249 for 16GB and $279 for 32GB.

There is no change to the price of the iPod shuffle.

These changes haven't completely gone through the site yet. As seen in the screen capture, some parts of the site still list the iPods at their old price.

Thanks to Scott and Max for the tip!

Even if it's not explicitly stated with every post about an app or discussion of a peripheral, there's one basic criterion for reviews that I try to stick to as much as I can: "Would I spend my own money on this thing?" Sometimes an otherwise-excellent product gets priced out of the value equation, or there are competitors and free offerings that deliver most of the functionality for a fraction of the cost. When you can get the same chore done with the built-in capabilities of your Mac, the decision about spending additional money on a gadget to do the same thing "but better" can get even harder.

When the IPEVO TR-10i speakerphone for iChat first shipped last year, I was eager to give it a try, and it didn't disappoint. Having a USB microphone sensitive enough to pick up voice chatter from a roomful of people is a definite advantage -- the MacBook Pro's built-in mic doesn't usually work well with more than one or two. Likewise, a built-in speaker with volume, recording and call answer controls proved to be a big plus, especially for those times where I didn't remember I needed to start recording until after the start of the call.

The unit works perfectly with iChat (including support for all the on-device controls), but also delivers good results with Skype and other softphone apps like EyeBeam and Zoiper; the microphone and speaker work with any Mac app, in fact, so you could use it as a voice mic for GarageBand if you wanted to. Call quality was very good, once I got the input volume settings sorted out via the IPEVO device FAQ. Like any good speakerphone, it's got a hardware mute button to take a brief break from your call.

Still, I think the killer feature of the TR-10i (as long as you don't mind looking a little ridiculous) is that you can easily switch it from speakerphone to handset mode and use it like you would a conventional phone. For private conversations before or after a conference call, it's very handy, and to tell the truth it doesn't look any goofier than a USB or Bluetooth headset.

With all this in mind, I would have loved to write a glowing review of the TR-10i a while ago. The only problem was the price: for quite a bit less than the $79.90US cost of the TR-10i, you could get a pretty nice USB mic and just use your Mac's speakers for conference calling. I couldn't fault the product, but I couldn't stomach the price... so I stalled and stalled on reviewing it, trying to figure out if I truly would lay down the better part of a C-note for this particular gadget.

Fortunately, I think someone at IPEVO had the same sense about the TR-10i that I did: even though Mac users don't mind paying extra for quality, they still can tell when a product's features and its price don't match up. The TR-10i is now available direct from IPEVO for a more reasonable $49.99, and at that price point I can say without reservation that I would buy one myself. The company also has a free shipping deal in force through this Wednesday (9/9), so the timing is right. The difference between the original price and the new price may be only one Snow Leopard's worth, but it makes the TR-10i much more attractive.

After years of being thrown table scraps in the way of a few bucks off the price of Windows for the "upgrade" versions, I happily paid the $49 for my Family Pack of Snow Leopard earlier this week.

Sure, there are a few people that say things like "Why should I have to pay Apple to fix the mistakes they made in Leopard?" On some level, that might be a valid argument, but let's set that aside because there's a better point to be made.

The handful of new features in Snow Leopard are well worth the price Apple is asking. Included are most of the QuickTime Pro features, text substitution, more expansive Spotlight integration, Expose in the Dock (sounds like a band name... hehe), and a host of other little improvements. Some of these can be added today via third-party apps, but those apps (*gasp*) cost money. Bundle all of those up, and $30 for the whole slew of apps would be a sweet deal in and of itself. I know I would spend half that just to get the new slider in Finder windows that changes the size of thumbnail previews!

Heck, the reported speed improvements make the shipped price of $29 per machine price (which, remember, drops to below $10 with a Family Pack) a bargain. Even if the overall increase turns out to be low, say 5% or so, the price of the OS upgrade turns out to be a good deal. Where else are you going to spend so little money for such a similar boost in speed and snappiness?

And remember, that $49 lets me upgrade five Macs, not just the one PC I can update to Windows 7 for over two and half times the price! (Microsoft is asking $129 for the Windows Home Premium Upgrade.) A friend of mine was excited to find out that he only needed to spend $150 to upgrade his three Vista machines to Windows 7, using Microsoft's family pack. I understand his enthusiasm: I'd gladly pay $150 to get rid of Vista, too!

Seriously, Apple did a very smart thing when it priced Snow Leopard below the cost of a typical family visit to the movies. If it would have asked the normal going rate of $129, I would probably have still upgraded, but I, along with millions of other users, would not have been happy about it.

Keeping the iPhone 3G around at $99, lowering the prices on new Macs, and now the awesome deal on Snow Leopard... I think Apple may, just may, be "getting it" when it comes to pricing lately.

Apple's quarterly earnings aren't the only bits of good news going around: according to Betanews, the market research firm NPD has found that Apple's revenue market share in the premium price segment (computers costing $1000 or more) is 91 percent, up from 88 percent in May.

Not only is this good news for Apple, it is a continuation of a positive trend: their premium revenue share is way up from the first quarter of 2008, when their cut was about 66 percent. However, most original equipment manufacturers and Microsoft prefer to measure success by unit market share, or how many individual computers were moved regardless of price. Gartner and IDC place the unit market share of PCs running some version of Microsoft Windows at 90 percent, while Macs have 8.7 percent.

Breaking down the numbers, this news isn't too surprising. According to NPD, the average selling price of a computer sold at retail in June was $701. Splitting this figure into Macs and PCs gives an ASP of $515 for any Windows PC sold. A Mac, on the other hand, has an ASP of a whopping $1400.

Considering that Apple chooses not to wage the netbook price war and that the bulk of PCs purchased cost less than $1000, it makes sense that Apple would control the premium segment. They were also able to boost their sales figures in this bracket by lowering the high-end prices $100 or more on each model while keeping all but one computer in the $1000+ segment. But hey, we'll take good news however we have to slice it, right?

[via The Loop]

It was inevitable. One day the iPhone was going to turn into an impulse purchase. In two short years we've gone from the iPhone as a serious $500 commitment to a grab no more expensive than dinner and a movie. The AT&T store now has a refurbished 8GB iPhone 3G for $79, with free two-day shipping, a $20 savings over the cost of a factory-new iPhone 3G. (You'll have to enter your zip code on that landing page to click through and see the refurbished unit's price.)

Of course, your dinner doesn't make you return every month for two years, for a total outlay well over $2000. However, most people now consider cell phone plans -- even their associated data plans -- to be as utilitarian as the electric bill. So scoring a small hand held computer with a phone function on a whim just seems... as benignly impulsive as going out to dinner and a movie.

Ahh, the good ol' days. When people stood in lines to spend $499 (or, in my case, $599) just for the chance, nay, privilege of owning one of these. And back then it didn't even have iFart applications on it.

Everyone's favorite battling invertebrates are coming to the iPhone and iPod touch very soon -- the game was actually announced a little while ago, but Team 17 now says the game has been sent off to be examined by Apple's eyes, and so, as long as it doesn't have any objectionable content (you can't object to exploding sheep, right?), we'll see it up for download very soon.

Exciting. Unfortunately, I'm coming off of a Worms 2 purchase on Xbox Live, so I'll probably be passing on this one, but if you haven't had a Worms fix in a while, the video on the next page shows what Team 17 is saying over on their Facebook page: it's "a full console-style experience," with extra options, including probably the ability to play your own music as you play. Multiplayer will only be pass-to-play to start with (bummer!), but they're hoping to add in both Internet and Bluetooth local multiplay at a later date. And there's no official word on price yet, but we should know it soon: look for Worms on an iPhone near you.

Unless you're a fan of their website, you probably don't need the Giant Bomb iPhone app. It's a pretty limited use piece of software. While it does offer easy access to everything on their site, including videos, reviews, previews, and so on, it actually costs $1.99, and we can't really justify a purchase like that. Isn't browsing sites what Safari is for?

But we are thankful that they made the app, because, at the very least, it encouraged them to make the commercial above. It features a few spot-on parodies (the first one overstays its welcome, but stick with it), and even has some nice iPhone-related humor. I don't know about you folks, but I winced when Apple's device went in the drink during the ShamWow parody. The app itself might not be worth the price, but the commercial is definitely worth every penny.

One of France's providers, Orange, plans to charge €229 ($318US) for the 32GB version and €149 ($206US) for the 16GB with a one-year minimum contract. The least expensive contract will cost €39 and last two years. Orange plans to open its Champs-Elysées store one minute past midnight on the day of release, which means the French will have their iPhones in hand a full 14 hours before the U.S.

Orange is also releasing a new data plan that has four hours of calling and unlimited e-mail and text messages, 60 TV channels and Internet access through 3G and WiFi at €52 per month, an imporvement over previous plans with fewer TV channels and unlimited texting only at certain times of day. Tethering will also be available at €9.90 per month for 200MB of traffic, or €29.90 for "unlimited service" that will be throttled once the user exceeds 1GB of data.

Germany's T-Mobile, in a similar approach to O2 in the UK, is pricing the iPhone 3G S at €1 for both models, but to get that price the customer must agree to a two year contract at €119.95 per month. The most expensive configuration at the outset is the 32GB phone at €249.95, but it will allow for cheaper contracts.

Orange's competitors, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, have not yet released pricing information. SFR plans to release the 3G S on June 24th, and Bouygues has not yet announced a date.

Update: Italy's provider, TIM, has also released their pricing scheme for prepaid plans: €719 for the 32GB phone and €619 for the 16GB. Thanks, antiorario!

[Via Macworld]

Sure, the reduced price on the iPhone 3G 8GB model is swell, but is there something magical about 99 dollars? The AP story on yesterday's product announcements gets a quote from analyst Michael Gartenberg where he seems to think there may be some retail psychology at work:

"Every $100 you move down in consumer electronics brings in a lot more customers," [Gartenberg] said. "Ninety-nine dollars is a psychological price point, so that's a real barrier to move through. It becomes something people can afford - it becomes an affordable luxury.

In my experience, a $99US item is right at the point where I can at least consider buying it on impulse without consulting my spouse; this was the case with Palm's Zire handheld when it debuted, and it includes the iPod shuffle now. Anything that could be a 'checkout line' purchase should hit at that price point or below, so it's all well and good to include the 8GB 3G in the mix for new or over-contract purchasers... but knowing that the real cost of the phone is in the two years of voice and data, will consumers bite in large numbers? The Wall Street Journal cites Sanford Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi's guess that the price cut could increase iPhone demand as much as 50%, even with the presence of the 3G S at the top of the food chain.

Is iPhone demand that price-elastic? I have my doubts... but it's worth noting that the numbers from the first quarter, where RIM had to give away a free Curve with every purchase to catch up with Apple in handset sales, indicate that the smartphone market can definitely get a big boost from price cuts.

[via MacDailyNews]

Remember in 2007 when Apple started selling "iTunes Plus" tracks as DRM-free and 256 kbps AAC files? Much later you were able to upgrade your songs on a per-track basis, if you were so inclined. Well, get ready for more pricing changes. The LA Times reports a date has been set for the kickoff of the variable pricing model Apple announced at Macworld this year: April 7. While I doubt most people care about a slightly better listening experience (seriously, have you used an FM transmitter to play music in your car?), I think simply paying more because a song is popular won't go over so well.

I'm not alone in thinking there will be backlash against the policy of selling more popular songs at a higher price. Jim Guerinot, who manages Nine Inch Nails, a pretty vocal opponent to the labels' stranglehold on the industry, feels the increase in prices will only ramp up piracy -- again. I'm inclined to agree.

Yes, we knew this was coming. But the average consumer embraced the iTunes Store not only because it was Apple, or the iPod, or iTunes itself, but also because the one-price-fits-all model is easy to understand. People don't pay taxes with Zune Points or Disney Dollars, they prefer to think "Hey, it's just a buck." The psychological impact of having a price point at $0.99US for everything makes impulse shopping a no-brainer. Just ask all those fart app devs.

The only upside is that less popular songs will be priced lower. Essentially, it's the bargain bin of the iTunes store, featuring one-hit wonders and college radio flops and a random assortment of attic-dwelling musical pieces as low as $0.69. I only hope it doesn't play into the theory of perceived value, which Joel Spolsky noted when iTunes Plus tracks debuted. Apple also said at Macworld "many more songs" will be available at 69 cents versus the $1.29 price point. It'll be interesting to see what develops and if sales suffer as a result of the changes. The labels certainly love variable pricing, and they've been right about this new digital era all along, haven't they? In the meanwhile, get your Top 40 Radio fix while you can; it'll soon be a premium experience to join the "in" crowd.

I'm not exactly sure why there's so much excitement centered around the upcoming Greensboro Apple Store (my guess is it's because our friend Ged of the Iconfactory can't wait for it to open), but the excitement is there, and Ed Cone has some insight into how the store's deal got put together. Apparently Greensboro won't see the story by December 25th, as there's apparently some argument with the property's owners over whether Apple is "just another computer store" or deserves a better place in the location. You know our answer on that one.

An anonymous reader also tells Ed that the store's construction cost a pretty penny -- $1.7 million for 5,873 square feet, according to the building permit. Unfortunately, we're not sure if that's more expensive than usual or not: most retail places seem to cost a little less according to this, but then again, $1.6 million per store for Apple is about right, according to past numbers.

Either way, hopefully the wrap will be taken off the store soon -- we don't think Ged can wait that much longer.

Inquisitr.com is reporting that an Apple retailer sent them a copy of a new price sheet that includes a MacBook at the $800 price point.

The sheet, which is apparently sent to retailers about 10 days in advance of launch, lists 12 price points (including options for MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air) between $800 and $3,100. Older price lists only have eight trim levels. Specifications were not included on the sheet.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said yesterday that if Apple chose to exclude a sub-$1,000 notebook, their stock would suffer more than from any margin impact such a device would have.

If true, this would be Apple's first foray into the sub-$1,000 laptop market since the $999 iBook.

I'm here at E3 in Los Angeles all this week (come say hi at the Joystiq meetup tonight if you're in town!). Yesterday, I got to sit down with Brad Pitser, the Director of Global Production for THQ Wireless, a company that makes games for mobile platforms like the iPhone. Pitser has helped oversee two iPhone games so far: De Blob (now on the App Store) and Star Wars' Force Unleashed (coming out later this year -- Joystiq has my impressions of both). He said that developing for the iPhone so far has been "a dream." They've partnered with Apple to publish on the iPhone and iPod touch as much as they can. "Apple was interested in our brands," Pitser said, "and we were interested in their platform."

One concern he does have about the App Store so far is the pricing -- "everyone thinks $9.99 is too much," he told me. THQ released De Blob at the $6.99 price point. He says THQ has a lot of licensing fees and costs to pay for every game they make, and when those games compete with software that sells for 99 cents, they don't necessarily have a money-making proposition. But at the same time, he'd rather let the market figure things out -- the App Store has a lot of settling down to do, and Pitser is sure that companies will find their place in the price plan soon enough.

I asked him what he thought of what he'd seen in the software that wasn't his, and he said he really enjoyed the iPint visual gag, the UrbanSpoon restaurant finder, and Aurora Feint (all very nice choices). It's great to have a bigger company like THQ interested in getting some good licenses on the iPhone, and hopefully we'll see more come out of Pitser and the division he oversees.

Roughly Drafted has a nice, long analysis of the iPhone as a gaming device, and they hit on a lot of great reasons why the iPhone seems destined to be a great gaming platform. Not only will it have the hardware chops to play games (including a few input devices that no other handheld gaming consoles have ever had), but Apple's SDK implementation, when it finally gets off the ground in June anyway, seems poised to let almost anyone develop any game ideas they have for the device.

Throw in a great distribution platform and a relative lack of competition on the handheld platform (Nintendo is undoubtedly working on a successor to the DS, but other than that, there are no real next-generation contenders so far), and Apple apparently has the potential to do very well in the gaming market.

In fact, the only problem that Apple might bump up against in building up in the iPhone as a gaming device is the cost -- at $400, it'll be the most expensive gaming handheld out there. But given that it's actually a smartphone, and thus actually benefits from an already installed user base (people who have the iPhone may very well be people who will have never purchased or used a handheld gaming platform before), the price may not be that big an obstacle to ownership.

And if they can build up a respectable library of game titles, they could even brand an iPod touch/phoneless iPhone as a gaming unit, and sell that at a price that would compete with Sony's PSP and Nintendo's DS. Apple has never historically pushed for the forefont of anything in gaming, but if their showing at the SDK event is any indication, they may be lining up to make the iPhone the place to play handheld videogames in the future.

[Via IMG]