Hasta La Gadget!

BlackBerry just confirmed to us the target pricing of its upcoming QWERTY smartphone in the US, and the quick takeaway is that keyboards don’t come cheap. According to company representatives, the Q10 is intended to be sold for $249 on a two-year contract, which positions it as more expensive than the Galaxy S 4, iPhone 5, One and Z10. Now, the one hiccup in this equation is that carriers may turn around and do whatever pricing shenanigans they please, but outside of special promotions, you can rightfully expect the Q10 to be one of the most expensive on-contract smartphones of the day. With so few compelling QWERTY handsets on the market, however, it seems that BlackBerry is hoping you’ll value a keyboard more than your hard-earned dollar. If it the company’s correct, that’ll mean a lot more profit. If not, well… you know the rest.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Source: Bloomberg

For those opting to “replace” instead of “clean” this spring, Vizio‘s got a bit of news for you — the outfit’s latest line of touch-friendly laptops and desktops now have firm pricing details to pore over. Starting with the portables, the 14-inch Touch Thin + Light (CT14T-B0) will ship soon with an AMD A10 APU and a base price of $1,089.99; the Core i7-equipped CT14T-B1, however, will start at $1,419.99. For those needing a bit more screen to stare at, the 15.6-inch versions of these guys will go for $1,189.99 (AMD A10) / $1,469.99 (Intel Core i7). Sliding over to desktops, the 24-inch Touch All-in-One (CA24T-B0) will ship momentarily for $1,279.99 with an AMD A10 APU, while the Core i7-infused CA24T-B1 will start at $1,439.99 and the 27-inch CA27T-B1 will get going at $1,549.99. As you’d expect, Windows 8 will find itself on home across the entire range, and those looking to buy in immediately can do so at the source links below.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablets

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Source: Vizio, Microsoft Store

A big part of T-Mobile’s UnCarrier plan revolves around the iPhone 5, and it turns out that T-Mo’s offering the Apple flagship at a previously unheard-of price: $579. As CEO John Legere announced today, his company will be offering its AWS-equipped version of the iPhone 5 for $99, plus 24 monthly payments of $20. That’s contract-free, but the device is locked until it’s fully paid for, and the cheapest monthly plan to go with it is $50 for 500MB of data and unlimited voice and texting a month. By contrast, the same 16GB phone unlocked direct from Apple costs $649, while AT&T offers a locked model for $199 — if you sign a 24-month contract — and the cheapest possible plan to go with it provides a mere 300MB of data, 450 minutes and no texting at a cost of $60 a month. So, T-Mo seems to be winning the iPhone price war, and doing so handily.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple, T-Mobile

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Google seems to be looking to bring its ambitious Google Glass wearable computer to market much faster than many likely anticipated, according to the Verge. Google told the site that it hopes to have a “fully-polished” version of Glass available for sale to ordinary consumers by the end of 2013. The cost will be under the $1,500 Google was asking for developer-targeted editions of the headsets put up for pre-order first at Google I/O, and then again earlier this week.

This is the most clear Google has been yet about its public release schedule for the headset-mounted computing device. The company had previously been reported to be targeting a year-end 2013 consumer release, with a price point around that of current smartphones, according to a report from last February by the New York Times’ Nick Bilton. Then in June 2012, Google co-founder Sergey Brin suggested that a rough timeline for developer and consumer availability would put the device in the hands of the general public in 2014.

This time, a Google official has said directly that the company is targeting an end-of-year release date, so there’s little room for different interpretations there, and the credibility of the source isn’t up for debate. Google’s recent release to a broader audience beyond just developers via an application process indicates things might be moving quicker than the company previously expected.

The Verge also got some extended hands-on time with Glass, and notes that it is compatible with iPhone devices as well as Android handsets. They also came away convinced that this is something that Google will eventually be able to turn into a device with mass-market appeal, whether or not it’s quite at that stage by the time it hopefully hits shelves later this year.

Adobe may be trying its best to skirt the issue of crazy high prices in Australia, but it’s going to be hard as long as news outlets keep pointing out that it is actually cheaper to fly to the US and pick up a copy of Adobe CS6 than it is to stay in Australia and buy it there. More »