A sub-$200 player will definitely be a plus in the on going format war between the two High-Def formats. Venturer upcoming HD DVD player is the first sub-$200 High-Def player and is almost half the price of cheapest available Blu-ray player. This Chinese made HD DVD player has 1080i support, Dolby TrueHD and HDMI output. Even though Blu-ray is out selling HD DVD right now, but a Sub-$200 player can change the equation very soon (wake-up blu-ray).

Sony has stopped the production of 60GB PS3’s and only retail supply of the machine remains. Sony’s representative said “we no longer have any inventory in SCEA warehouses. All inventory has been purchased and shipped to retailers. We won’t be making any further announcements regarding our PS3 model hardware strategy in North America until the 60Gb model is exhausted and market conditions are evaluated.” Previously Sony had speculated that they may also reduce the price of 80GB PS3 from $599 to $499. But by confirming end of supply of 60GB PS3, Sony has almost confirmed that as soon as 60GB model is exhausted, there will be a definite price drop for 80GB PS3 model.

Nokia’s Music store is part of its Ovi initiative of online mobile services. Ovi initiative includes Nokia Music Store, N-Gage, Nokia Maps and all future Nokia Internet services, which it will announce. The Nokia Music Store service will go live in selected European countries by end of this year. The Music Store will offer 192Kbps WMA (DRM protected) tracks from a catalog that Nokia claims will contain millions of songs when the music store is launched. Music shopping can be done both on a desktop computer as well as on compatible Nokia phones like N81 and N95. For other Nokia handsets you can sync the phone by connecting to the computer. The cost of single song will be 1EUR ($1.37) and the cost of complete albums will be 10EUR ($13.70). You can have subscription service for 10EUR/month that will offer unlimited streaming playback to complete music catalog.

LG’s new touchscreen smart phone based on Windows mobile 6 will be launched in Europe by end of this year. The phone has a 2” touchscreen, HSDPA (European version), 2-megapixel camera, MP3 player and video calling. The phone is just 12.8mm thick and looks really sexy. The cost is yet not known.

According to Nokia N95 is the world’s greatest multimedia computer. The new N95i has a 5-megapixel camera, 8GB onboard memory, 2.8” QVGA display, A-GPS, WLAN, HSDPA and Xenon flash. The phone has 30% better battery life then previous N95. The phone will be available in fourth quarter for Euro 560 ($750). The phone won’t support US HSDPA band. But don’t worry Nokia is releasing US N95 version also which will work on AT&T’s HSDPA. Main problem with the phone is it looks exactly like the old phone without lens cap for camera (not as sexy as the new black European version). The phone has better battery life, better cellular reception, double RAM and A-GPS.

Nokia N-81 is a gaming phone based on N-Gage platform. Gaming and Music are the main focus of this phone and that why it has 8GB onboard memory. The phone has HSDPA (European band) support for online gaming and D-pad navigation. The phone comes with 2-megapixel camera and 3.5mm headphone jack. The 8GB internal memory version will cost you $599 and you can get 2GB removable microSD version for $499. The phone will be available in fourth quarter.

Nokia 5310 is a 9.9mm thick candy bar phone. The battery life for music playback is 18 hours. Other features on the phone are microSD slot (up to 4GB), QVGA screen and 3.5mm headphone jack. The phone will be available in fourth quarter for Euro 225 ($300). The second model 5610 is a slider phone with 2.2” QVGA screen, microSD slot (up to 4GB), 3.2-megapixel camera and up to 24 hours of battery life. The phone will cost Euro 300 ($400) when it available in fourth quarter.
Via Engadget

You know holiday season is coming when major electronic companies like Sony announces new products in bulk. Sony today announced 18 new LCD TV including three for J3000 series. The J3000 series comes in 20”, 26” and 30”. The Bravia has models ranging from 40” up to 70”. All models in Bravia series are full HD and have 10-bit LCD. The full Bravia line-up:

Samsung today updated their Q1 Ultra UMPC line with three new models. All the three models are based on Windows XP Tablet Edition and have 7” wide screen with split QWERTY keypad on both side of the screen. Samsung has increased the battery life to 4.5 hours and has used faster processors. The Q1U-ELXP is powered by 600MHz Intel A100 Ultra mobile processor and has 40 GB hard drive and will cost $999. The Q1UXP UMPC is powered by 800MHZ Intel A110 processor and has 60GB hard drive and will be priced at $1149. The Q1U-SSDXP has a 32GB Flash SSD drive and 800MHZ A110 processor and will cost $1649. All three models have 1GB DDR2 RAM, 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR.

Creative has rolled out it new ZEN player which has 2.5” screen (320 X 240), FM tuner, Voice recorder and SD Expansion Slot. The ZEN will be available in 4GB, 8GB and 16GB capacity and will cost $149, $199 and $299 respectively.  The audio formats supported by the player are MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM, AAC and Audible. The video formats supported are WMV, Divx, Xvid, MJPEG, and TIVO to GO (no H.264). The battery life is 25 hours for audio and 5 hours for video. I would like to advise everyone to wait till 5th September before they buy new MP3 player, that’s when the king of MP3 player market Apple will announce their new iPod line.