Evidence of Xbox 360 price cuts in the form of catalog and point of sale inventory screenshots from various retail outlets have been circulating the Internet for weeks now. What the Internet brain trust has long known has now become official, with Xbox 360 prices across all models officially dropping on September 5th.

The Arcade edition of the 360 drops to a US$199 price point, with the Pro dropping to US$299 and the Elite dropping to US$399. This is an extremely aggressive and savvy move by Microsoft both in putting the Arcade price point US$50 cheaper than the Wii and all systems significantly less expensive than the PS3.

This pressures Sony far more than Nintendo given the current market share of both companies, and leads to speculation on whether Sony will back off its position to not drop the PS3 price until next year.

Read more at Shacknews.

If you're a fan of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, it makes perfect sense to get a cross-compatible peripheral that is the ezJam Combo Guitar - after all, you certainly can't be playing both games simultaneously, and it makes much more sense to have just one device that can work with both games instead of splurging more money on two individual gaming guitars. The ezJam Combo Guitar comes with a port that plugs into the Wiimote whenever you're rocking with Guitar Hero III on your Wii, while you get a built-in wireless transmitter that works just great with Rock Band. It will retail for $70 a pop, making it slightly more expensive compared to other third party solutions, but at least it works with two different yet similar games.

Ron Arad has thought up of a truly unique design that will help save space for folks living in cramped spaces, as the Rotator bathtub can be turned into a shower at your whim and fancy, simply by rotating along the wall in one swift motion. The fatter end of the Rotator at the bottom is when it is a tub, while turning it upside down will make it a shower - just make sure you've cleared up all the hair at the drainage hole before doing that lest your head gets clogged with more than just hair from your head.

After hearing about Nokia’s E71 smartphone and then reading our review, I was very much impressed with its feature set. Being the current owner of their flagship phone, the E90 Communicator, I saw many features in the E71 that were quite worthy of noting. The one I will attempt to cover and document here is the ability to use the E71 as a SIP VOIP client on my Asterisk PBX at home for the best in unified communications. Unified communications you might ask? Put simply, unified communications is the concept that one communications device is capable of meeting all and any possible personal communications needs. The E71 certainly does it; email, web, voice, IM, txt, MMS, and now VOIP.

Getting the E71 connected to Asterisk was a bit trying at first, since the included VOIP client seems to be tailored to a Nokia VOIP solution. With some trial and error, I was able to get it working, and now my E71 is not only a cellphone with uber connectivity options, but also doubles as an extension of my home landline PBX! What is most impressive about this setup is that the phone “knows” when it is home and automatically switches on the VOIP client and allows the phone to call or receive calls through the PBX, thereby saving valuable minutes while at home. Likewise, when a call comes in on our landline, the nearest phone is just in my pocket.

Here’s how I got the NOKIA E71 to act as a VOIP client on my home PBX.

First, open the settings menu and go into the connection settings. In there, you will see an item that says “SIP Settings”, as shown below:

Once in the SIP settings, you’ll be able to enter the configuration options for your SIP extension on your PBX. First, create a SIP Profile and then enter the SIP account info in the new SIP profile. See the following picture for assistance:

The options one can enter here are:

• Profile Name (specify whatever you wish)
• Service Profile (should be IETF)
• Default Access Point (I used the wifi access point in my home SSID wizworks.net)
• Public User Name (Here specify as ext@pbx.hostname) ie. 212@pbx.hostname if 212 is your SIP extension account
• Use Compression (set this to NO)
• Registration (set to Always On)
• Use Security (I selected NO)

The last 2 items are for entering the proxy and registrar servers (basically the account info and address of your PBX for both incoming and outgoing channels).

For the Proxy server submenu please enter the following information:

• Proxy Server Address (this should be the FQDN or IP address of your PBX) in my example, it was pbx.wizworks.net
• Realm (If you are using Asterisk as your PBX set this to the word asterisk, if you are using any other IPPBX system, consult your documentation)
• User Name (set this to JUST your extension number, I used 212)
• Password (this is case sensitive, enter exactly as it is in the Asterisk GUI manager for the SIP account)
• Allow Loose Routing (Set this to YES)
• Transport Type (set this to AUTO)
• Port (make sure this says 5060)

Ok, now go back to the previous menu level and now select Registrar Server. Please enter your info similar to the folowing:

• Registrar Server Address (again, this should be the FQDN or IP of your PBX) I used pbx.wizworks.net
• Realm (again, just set this to “asterisk” no quotes)
• User Name (ONLY your extension number)
• Password (you know what this is by now….)
• Transport Type (AUTO)
• Port (5060)

Now back out of the menu to the previous level, then hit BACK again. If all went right, you should see something like this:

You’re almost done, just a couple more steps to complete your E71 VOIP configuration. Now go back to the Connection setup menu in the Settings menu. Look for an item called “Internet Tel.” and click on that to create a new Internet Telephone profile. It is here that you will select your default SIP profile and specify how it will connect. To begin, just select Options, then New Profile. Refer to the following photo and adjust as necessary for your environment:

Once done, back out and go to the “Communication” menu and then select Options, Settings…

For default Call type select “Internet Call”. Now exit all the menus. If your phone sees your wireless network and your SIP extension account is active on the PBX, you should see this on your screen (note arrows) to indicate that your VOIP client is now ready to receive or make a call using your PBX instead of cellular minutes. Also, when you leave your wifi zone, the phone will automatically turn off and deactivate the VOIP client until you return within your wifi’s coverage zone. How sweet is that?!

Below is a screenshot showing the VOIP client activated via the phone’s wifi radio:

Congratulations, if you see these two additional marks on your screen, you now have a working VOIP extension on your phone! Enjoy and please comment below.

The French web site of Canon has already lifted its skirt to tease the masses who are clamoring for a brand new EOS digital camera. Which model do you think this is? The EOS 7D? Do you prefer companies to release teasers such as these before a full product announcement, or do you like it straight and hard without beating around the bush a week before?

One seriously affected company was Sony, and it seems the company’s woes aren’t over yet. It’s just recalled 73,000 Vaio TZ-Series laptops sold in the US because of the potential risk of a short-circuit of wires near the hinge that could lead to users being burnt.

The telltale sign of a problem is if there’s a loose screw in the hinge. Loose, possibly, because it’s been touching up electric cables.
[Source]

UK operator 3 will be celebrating its first year of mobile broadband by offering a new data rate of just £2.50 for folks who are interested in unlimited email use, but this price doubles when you are jumping at Exchange or Notes access instead. Regardless, both tariffs will come with :-

• A data bundle (10MB and 1GB respectively)
• Unlimited email including attachments
• Unlimited POP3 and IMAP
• Uncapped access to Exchange/Notes servers

You know those large CD players back in the day that came with a multi-disc changing engine? Well, Sony hasn't forgotten either, although they've updated that vision to include Blu-ray discs. This time round, Sony's model will hit the market circa 2009, boasting BD-Live capability, RS-232C controls and enough space to hold 400 Blu-ray discs. Now that's more than half the available Blu-ray movie catalogue at press time, but I don't think you'd actually get every single title, will you? No idea on pricing, other than expensive.

Compact, rugged, and with a price tag that won’t break the bank, the newest model of outdoor ready compact cameras by Olympus has a clever little feature that they invite users to tap into. Yeah, ok...so I’m sure by now you’ve figured out it has something to do with tapping, right? Well, correct you are.

Usually, one does NOT want to bump, bang, or ever tap their camera any more than necessary. In the case of the Stylus 1050 SW however, Olympus invites their users to “tap into worry-free fun”.  It means just what is sounds like. The camera uses an innovative tap interface where it registers taps on not only the screen area like some other touch screen cameras do; but also anywhere on the camera body. It uses an accelerometer so that it can read taps on different surfaces to control different functions just by tapping the appropriate area. Certain taps on the right side of the camera do one thing...taps on the left another. You can even calibrate the tap sensitivity to your liking. According to Olympus, it offers benefits in adverse conditions as well.

“In adverse climates, where the Stylus 1050 SW thrives, the new Tap Control ensures fast results – so you get the shot – even if you are adjusting settings while fighting frostbite with large gloves that would make traditional buttons nearly impossible to maneuver.”

This 10.1 megapixel model with a 3x zoom doesn’t break Stylus tradition of being able to withstand just about anything you can throw at it. With it’s body sealed against the elements, it is designed to be able to take on and absorb impacts. It offers low-light illumination with a front-mounted LED which expands underwater shooting capability (it can be safely submerged in water up to 10 feet without a separate waterproof housing). The 2.7 inch HyperCrystal II LCD is ruggedized, providing 5 levels of brightness adjustment so you can shoot in a range of lighting conditions.

Some other more standard features are a face detection technology that recognizes up to 16 faces at a time. The Stylus 1050 SW also has the Smile Shot feature, which tracks a subject’s face, and fires the shutter when it detects a smile. There are also in-camera editing tools in Perfect Shot Preview and Perfect Fix.

The latest SW will be offered in four of the “in” colors...blue, champagne, silver, and black.  It will be hitting stores in October with a price tag of about $300.

Product Page [Olympus] Via [digital camera Review]

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