The device was pretty much a sellout as soon as the company started taking orders, so expect to see some in your workplace and in the hands of your employees.

But the iPad Mini isn’t the only tablet that’s making its debut. Recently, new tablets have hit the market — including Google’s Nexus 7 and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD — that many observers have labelled relatively low-cost alternatives to Apple’s ultra-popular iPad.

However, rumors had been swirling that Apple would attempt to undercut those competitors by releasing a smaller, lower priced tablet of its own. Now that’s official, as Apple announced the launch of the iPad Mini.

Here are some key facts Apple unveiled about the new tablet:

• Screen size – The iPad Mini will feature a 7.9-inch screen, smaller than the 9.7 inches in previous versions of the iPad, and larger than the 7-inch Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire tablets.
• Hardware specs – Inside, the iPad Mini will use the same dual-core processor and 512 MB of RAM as the iPad 2, and it’ll be available with 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of storage. In comparison, the Nexus has 8 GB or 16 GB of storage, 1 GB of RAM, and a quad-core processor, while the Kindle Fire HD has 16 GB and 32 GB options, along with a dual-core processor and 1 GB of RAM.
• Connectivity – The iPad Mini will be available with Wi-Fi only, or with 4G LTE connectivity. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD and the Nexus 7 are Wi-Fi only, though there is an 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with LTE, and a 3G-enabled version of the Nexus 7 has been rumored to be in the works.
• Price – The base model of the iPad Mini — Wi-Fi only with 16 GB of storage — will cost $329. That’s less than the cheapest regular-sized iPad (the $399 iPad 2) and more than the $199 base-model tablets from Amazon and Google. The 32 GB and 64 GB versions of the iPad Mini will cost $429 and $529, respectively, while models with cellular data capability will run $459, $559 and $659 for the different storage options.

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The answer, it seems, is a resounding yes.

And that’s despite the fact that most of the details on the new version of the ground-breaking smartphone had been leaked to the world well in advance of this week’s official announcement.

Apple exceeded expectations for the iPhone 5, says a J.P. Morgan analyst, and it should put the company on top of the smartphone food chain.

The company’s rocket-like stock price reflected the enthusiastic reception the phone got. It climbed nearly 15 points the day after the unveiling and is nearing the much-anticipated 700 mark by week’s end.

Update: Early buyers of Apple’s latest iPhone once again slammed online stores, and the first batch of iPhone 5 models sold within an hour, pushing delivery times back as long as three weeks.

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Consumers pay big bucks every month to be sold low-end merchandise, cubic zirconia and useless kitchen gadgets via infomercials or shopping channels like QVC or HSN.

Yes, they actually pay to be sold stuff.

So it’s no wonder that the folks at Amazon have been noticing this willingness to be targeted by ads among consumers. The company’s electronic readers have long been full of ads that help keep the price of the devices low and income from them high.

But now, the company’s taking its ad dependency to a new level. It’ll sell you one of its Kindle Fire units and let you pay $15 to ensure that you never have to see an ad.

So let’s get this straight: You pay Amazon for a device that comes loaded with advertising that you probably don’t want. And then you pay them more money to get rid of the ads you never wanted in the first place.

Makes perfect sense. In the world of technology, this is the new normal.

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Early this week, Microsoft announced it will let users of these three versions of Windows upgrade to Windows 8 for a mere $39.99. (New PC owners who bought their systems with Windows 7 installed get the upgrade for $14.99.)

The pricing is an indication that Microsoft is feeling some heat from the competition and they’re concerned that Windows 8 may be a big leap for many users. This version’s radically different user interface (UI), dubbed “Metro,” will cause many to hesitate or even switch to another OS, like Apple’s OSX or Linux.

Is it the learning curve with Metro that’s got Microsoft worried? Many are saying it’s the biggest change to Windows since, well, Windows. It will also likely require significant hardware upgrades, since Windows 8 includes a number of gesture and touch features.

Be aware: The pricing is for an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro and will apply to downloaded versions of the software, not a DVD in a box.

There’s no official launch date yet for Windows 8, but industry watchers are predicting that if the software is released to PC makers later this month, it’ll be available for purchase sometime in October. We’ll keep you posted.

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With iPads priced at $500-$700 (depending on memory and connection capabilities) and the plethora of Android units running anywhere from $250 to $600, will tablet fans be tempted by Amazon’s Kindle?

Many iPad fans seems to be firm in their commitment to the platform. A recent CNET poll found that 44% insist they’ll stick with the iPad.

Our guess is that Android will likely take the big hit. With the iPad’s lead in both market share and cache, it’s unlikely that fans of the tablet care very much about the price. And a down-market gadget carries a tremendous stigma among tech fans.

There’s also the impression that the Kindle Fire is little more than a shopping basket for Amazon products and services — kind of like buying cable TV so you can get the Home Shopping Network or QVC.

The post Which tablet’s threatened by Kindle Fire? appeared first on Finance Tech News.

That’s because the company’s established a version of their phone for customers who have no money for one.

They’ve also got a model for consumers who are willing to pay $300 for the privilege.

Covering all the price points in these days of want and woe seems to be job one at the company that just lost Steve Jobs and is currently in a pitched battle for smartphone supremacy in the uber-competitive tech market.

Not that Apple’s doing badly in the game. But they’ve been attempting to win the war with a single weapon: the iPhone.

Now, there are wider range of models with escalating capabilities and price tags. The secret to Apple’s formula: The range is easy to understand and the prices are low for the value of what’s being offered.

Just so you know, here’s the rundown of iPhones:

iPhone 3GS (16GB) — Free

iPhone 4 (8GB) — $99

iPhone 4S (16GB) — $199

iPhone 4S (32GB) –$299

Update: In case any of the nay sayers who called last week’s iPhone announcement lackluster haven’t noticed yet, pre-orders of the new model have already sold out. And the phone’s not due to be available until Oct. 14.

AT&T, which has been in the iPhone business longest, says this is the most successful iPhone launch yet.

Looks like the pricing strategy’s working okay.

The post iPhone: It’s all about the money, boys appeared first on Finance Tech News.

$2,250.

The case, brought by Capitol Records against a Minnesota woman (U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. Capitol Records v. Thomas-Rassett, No. 0:06-cv-01497-MJD-LIB. July 22, 2011 ) has been tried and re-tried for several years now.

Initially, the record company won a nearly $2 million verdict against the woman it accused of illegally downloading 24 songs and distributing the recordings via an online peer-to-peer file sharing application. At that time, the songs were valued at $222,000 each, give for take a few dollars.

But subsequent re-trials changed the award and finally, the judge stepped in and settled the matter. The previous awards, the court concluded, were over the top.

The woman involved hadn’t profited from sharing the songs and was of limited means. The judge decided that the fair price was $2,250 per song, or three times the minimum statutory damages available under the Copyright Act.

We’re not even guessing at what the lawyers fees for this case might have been. And the damage to the recording industry’s relationship with its customers? Well, to quote those immortal MasterCard commercials, priceless.

Repairing that relationship won’t be a cheap fix.

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Amazon, a big provider of Web services, announced recently that it’s dropping inbound data transfer fees for customers of its Amazon Web Services.

No doubt the online retail powerhouse was influenced to eliminate those fees because competing provider, Microsoft, had done the same with its Cloud service, Azure.

The moves could encourage some companies that may have hesitated about the costs involved in Cloud services. Many organizations have been hesitating to make the initial Cloud investment because of worries about the cost of transferring large amounts of data — either initially or on an ongoing basis — to move to the cloud.

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1. Japan produces 15% of the world’s DRAM chip set supply and if manufacturing is hit as hard as many seem to believe it will be for the near term, that means both supply and price will change (supply being lower and price being higher), and
2. The damage to Japan will likely produce higher demand as computer owners have to replace lost or damaged systems. This will mean higher demand from that part of the world and more pressure on prices of DRAM to rise.

Both these factors could mean that DRAM prices will head upwards soon. Check with IT about upcoming projects involving DRAM and see if they’ve made their purchases yet. If not, it might be a good idea to cut that purchase order fast.

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The $100 refund is part of the Apple Price Protection guarantee and it comes as the company drops the price of all its first gen iPad models by $100. The company’s also selling a refurbished first generation model at a $150 discount.

This price cutting has fueled even more talk among experts about the company’s key moves to keep the tablet price low, a distinct departure from past Apple pricing strategies which have emphasized the quality of the company’s products by keeping the price of them higher than those of competitors.

Along with this general agreement that Apple’s got the tablet market locked up because it’s been able to keep prices down comes the new rumor floating around that the also-popular Kindle Reader may soon be a freebie — if not so low priced its cost is a non issue.

While the Kindle isn’t considered to be an actual iPad competitor (it’s a single use device that’s only for reading books) it too seems to be feeling the downward price pressure that the iPad has forced. With eb00ks now outselling both paperbacks and hardback books on Amazon, it makes sense that the company would make it’s popular reader free to good homes.

That would likely drive the market for ebooks through the proverbial roof — something that would benefit Amazon, which also has plenty of customers among iPad users, who can download a free Kindle app for their tablet.

The most interesting fact about the Kindle vs. iPad competition seems to be that there isn’t a contest. Sales of both the Kindle Reader and the iPad have soared in the past year. The markets for the two devices seem to be complimentary rather than competitive.

Good news for both companies.

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