Like last year, Apple has again started iPhone 3GS availability website that gives up-to-date availability information for the new iPhone. Apple launched the website to help customers after it was reported last week that iPhone 3GS stocks were dwindling throughout the country. Apple says that shipments of iPhone 3GS arrive most days and availability is updated hourly. 

As of Monday afternoon about 76 percent Apple Stores (159 out of 208) didn’t have at least one iPhone model. And around 60 percent of Apple Stores were out of more than one iPhone 3GS model. More than 30 Apple Stores were out of all four iPhone 3GS models and that number is rising. AT&T has also reported iPhone 3GS storage and its online store is showing more than a week wait for order shipment.

One interesting thing to note on iPhone 3GS availability website is that iPhone 3GS shortage is more on west coast than on east coast.  More than 90 percent of Apple Stores on west coast are out of at least one iPhone 3GS model, while that number falls to about 55 percent on east coast. Overall, it looks like iPhone 3GS is selling like hot cakes, which is very good news for Apple.

Reuters is reporting that Sony Ericsson is planning to develop a cellphone game gear hybrid in a bid to better compete with Apple’s highly popular iPod and iPhone. Apple’s devices have taken the portable gaming market by storm since last year. Though both Sony and Nintendo have maintained that increase in iPhone sales has not affected them negatively. But it is clearly evident that both the companies are worried by sudden rise of iPhone and iPod touch in portable gaming market.

Reports are that Sony plans to set up a project team as early as July to develop the new device that will bring functionality for PSP to a cellphone. If Sony were still in planning stage then it would at least take another year to bring the device to the market. Sony is already late by a year and adding another year would only make it that much difficult for the Sony to break iPhone’s hold on mobile phone gaming market.

Amazon.com today announced that the Amazon Software Store is now offering Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system Home Premium Upgrade and Professional Upgrade packages for $49.99 and $99.99, which represent a savings of 50 percent and 58 percent from the suggested retail price. Amazon.com customers can pre-order Windows 7 at these prices now through July 11, while supplies last. Customers who pre-order Windows 7 from Amazon.com can take advantage of the additional convenience of receiving the product when it is released on October 22, which means they can order from their PC or mobile device and receive Windows 7 on the same day it’s released in physical stores.

You can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional for $99.99 on Amazon today. The offer is only available till July 11th, after which the price will go back to $119 and $199 respectively.

Though Palm Pre launch was nowhere as big as iPhone 3GS launch, but the Palm Pre app store is going very strong. Palm announced that customers have downloaded more than one million applications from the app store for Pre. It took Palm about 3 weeks to reach one million mark, which doesn’t look that impressive when compared to less than three days Apple’s App Store required to reach one million download after launch last year. However, when considered with the small number of Palm Pre’s (estimated 150,000) in the market, the number is really impressive.

On average, Pre users are downloading more than six apps on their device, which is almost similar too what iPhone users were doing after three weeks of App Store launch. Presently, on average iPhone users download more than 20 apps on their phone. It is likely that Palm Pre will also follow similar application download pattern, as the number of applications available on Palm Pre app store increases.

Sony Ericsson has introduced a new entry-level handset T715 that offers 3G connectivity. The slider handset features 2.2-inch 240 x 320 LCD screen, 3.2-megapixel camera, quad band GSM, tri band UMTS, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 90MB of internal storage and microSD card slot. The phone will support Exchange Active Sync, IM, MMS, SMS and Google Maps. It measures 3.6” x 1.88” x 0.58” and weighs 3.4 ounces.

Along with T715, Sony also announced the more interesting VH310 Bluetooth headset that offers excellent 11 hours talk time and 500 hours standby. The headset ships with three different ear tip and two different ear hooks for perfect fit. The VH310 weighs just 0.35 ounces and will ship in black and silver colors.  Most of the Bluetooth headset we have seen hardly last three or four hours, a headset rated at 11 hours battery life should at least last for around 8 hours in real life, which would be excellent. Sony Ericsson hasn’t announced shipping dates or pricing for both the devices.

Microsoft today announced release details and pricing for the upcoming Windows 7 after unveiling the packaging for the software yesterday. In the video above, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Consumer Marketing, Brad Brooks talks about Windows upgrade options, international availability, pricing and the special offer.

Microsoft has set October 22nd as the General Availability (GA) date for Windows 7. The company will ship Windows 7 in the following 14 languages on October 22nd: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

On October 31st, Microsoft will ship Windows 7 in 21 more languages: Turkish, Czech, Portuguese, Hungarian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Ukrainian, Romanian, Arabic, Lithuanian, Bulgarian, Estonian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Thai, Croatian, Serbian Latin, and Latvian. This means that Windows 7 will be available globally before the holiday season begins in November.

Windows 7’s pricing will differ depending on various regions; however, Microsoft promises that pricing will be lower than Vista by at least 10 percent around the world. The Windows 7 upgrade package pricing in US will be $119.99 for Home Premium, $199.99 for Professional and $219.99 for ultimate version. The full version of Windows 7 will be priced $199.99 for Home Premium, $299.99 for Professional and $319.99 for Ultimate. The price of Windows 7 Home Premium full retail is $40.00 less that Windows Vista Home Premium available today.

European customers will not have a separate upgrade SKU option. But Microsoft will ship the full version for upgrade pricing in Europe, giving European customers who want to upgrade the pricing option available to the rest of the world. Microsoft says that it is doing this to comply with European competition regulations.

Microsoft also announced a special offer for loyal Windows Customers, the company will offer people in select markets the opportunity to pre-order Windows 7 at more than 50 percent discount. In US you can pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 or Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. The special offer will be available via online retail partners like Best Buy, Amazon and Microsoft Store. The offer will be available in US, Canada, Japan, UK, France and Germany. In US and Canada the offer will start tomorrow and end on July 11th. In Japan the offer will start tomorrow and end on July 5th. In UK, France and Germany offer will start on July 15th and run until August 14th. 

We believe that Microsoft’s special offer for Windows 7 is in direct response to the positive press received by Apple for announcing $29 price for upcoming Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard. This price war is definitely good for customers.
[Via Windows Blog]

HP today unveiled two very similar looking portable devices, however, one of the devices is a full size notebook and the other is a netbook. Lets first talk about the notebook – HP ProBook 4310s is a 13.3 inch notebook with up to 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo processor (base model comes with 1.9GHz Celeron), up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, DVD burner with option of Blu-ray drive and 500GB 5,400rpm hard drive or 500GB 7,200rpm hard drive.

For communications the laptop features gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth and optional WWAN mobile broadband. Graphics on the laptop is handled by either Intel GMA 4500MHD chip or optional 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4330 card. Other features on the ProBook 4310s include three USB ports, HDMI, multi card reader, ExpressCard slot and 2-megapixel webcam. The HP ProBook 4310s will ship on July 20th for starting price of $799.

The HP Mini 5101 is a 10.1-inch netbook with anodized aluminum and magnesium alloy casing for premium looks. The netbook comes with 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, up to 2GB RAM, Intel GMA 950 graphics chipset, up to 320GB hard drive (optional SSD), 2-megapixel webcam, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, multi card reader and optional WWAN mobile broadband. The Mini 5101 measures 10.3” x 7.09” x 0.91” and weighs 2.64 pounds. The netbook will come standard with 4-cell battery and you will have option of selecting a 6-cell battery. HP will start shipping Mini 5101 in July for starting price of $449.
[Via HP]

Microsoft today revealed the new packaging for upcoming Windows 7 release. The company calls the new packaging “Simple, Clean and Easy to Open” and say that they approached the packaging for Windows 7 the same way they approached the design of Windows 7. Overall, the packaging looks simpler because of reduction in graphics on the labels, but the shape of the box is almost identical to Windows Vista’s packaging.

Microsoft says that the new packaging is more environment friendly, as the plastic case protecting the Windows 7 disk is lighter and recyclable. The packaging itself has a 37 percent weight reduction and the econometrics score has improved by 50 percent over its predecessor. Microsoft is planning to release Windows 7 this fall and hopes that the new packaging will help customers learn more about Windows 7.
[Via Windows Blog]

Lenovo today announced the thin, light and powerful ThinkPad T400s laptop aimed at business users. The 14-inch laptop is just 0.83-inch thick and weighs just under four pounds. Lenovo adopted the second generation Top Cover Roll Cage from X300 laptop to bring down the overall thickness of the laptop, while keeping the laptop extremely sturdy.

The T400s will come with up to 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor, integrated Intel graphics, up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, up to 250GB hard drive or 128GB SSD, DVD burner and Express Card slot or 5-in-1 multimedia card reader. For communications the laptop will come standard with Ethernet port and WiFi, along with optional WiMAX, WWAN, Bluetooth and ultrawideband support. The battery life on the laptop will be up to six hours, however you can replace DVD drive with additional battery to add up to three more hours of battery life.

The ThinkPad T400s is available now for a starting price of $1,599. The only negative thing about this laptop is that for such high price you can only get Intel GMA 4500MHD integrated graphics. We wish Lenovo had at least given an option of selecting a better graphics card. You can get more information about T400s on Lenovo’s website.

Many websites have posted videos and speed test results showing how fast the new iPhone 3GS is. Even developers are impressed by the speed and frame rates iPhone 3GS is able to achieve. CNET was one of the first website that posted speed test video of iPhone 3GS vs. iPhone 3G and Palm Pre. However, CNET’s tests were done unscientifically and their results depended more on AT&T’s 3G network in the given area than the performance of the new iPhone.

AnandTech has also done some benchmarking on the iPhone 3GS and compared it with other smartphones like Palm Pre, T-mobile G1 and iPhone 3G. In almost all the tests iPhone 3GS came on top. For web surfing iPhone 3GS was 21 percent faster than Palm Pre, 122 percent faster than iPhone 3G and about 150 percent faster than T-Mobile G1. In various application launch tests also iPhone 3GS was faster than all three devices. In fact, in application launch test iPhone 3G was the second fastest device followed by Palm Pre and T-Mobile G1. Showing that software-wise even the old iPhone 3G is faster than Palm Pre.

On the developer side John Casasanta of Tap Tap Tap has posted a video (added below) showing that iPhone 3GS is close to four times faster than the 3G. In the video he shows the frame rates (iPhone 3GS 30fps vs. iPhone 3G 7fps on average) achieved by both the devices for the new Plasma game, which will be released soon for iPhone.  Most of the developers are reporting this kind of performance improvement on the new iPhone 3GS.

There is no 3D graphics comparison available between iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre, as Pre has very limited application library available yet. But it is very likely that Pre will fall behind in 3G graphics performance also, as the iPhone 3.0 OS is more optimized and it supports OpenGL ES 2.0 standard.

There are many other websites that have posted various iPhone 3GS benchmarks. However, we can clearly see that iPhone 3GS is significantly faster than not only iPhone 3G and T-Mobile G1, but also its newest competitor Palm Pre.