PlayBook price slashed to compete with Kindle Fire
Culture
It's Thursday, September 29th, 2011.
I'm Wilson Tang on cnet.com and it's time to get loaded.
Amazon's new low-priced tablet has lit a fire under the competition.
Prices of the Blackberry PlayBook which the Kindle Fire is supposedly based on have already dropped by $200 at Best Buy with the 16 gig model starting at just $299.
The Kindle Fire has shook up the tablet industry with its $199
price tag.
But, analyst say the low price means Amazon is likely losing $50 per device.
Keep in mind though Amazon is counting on making money for media and other services it sells.
The next discounted tablet just might be something you buy off Groupon.
To stay competitive, the company is trying out the e-commerce game offering online deals for things such as electronics or kitchenwares.
It's not easy to find them in the site but some Groupon customers were notified of the deals by e-mail.
A few of the first products include an iPhone and iPod speaker dock,
an HDTV, and a hair dryer.
Earlier this week, Facebook was in the news because its cookies can track users even after they sign off.
While two U.S. congressmen have requested the Federal Trade Commission investigate Facebook's tracking practices saying users should not be tracked without their permission.
For their part, Facebook says they have corrected three data collection cookies and do not save or use any of the data that was garnered from logged out users.
But, Facebook reportedly still has the ability to track browsers after logout for safety and performance reasons.
You know how
Twitter has advertisements that chill up in your feet called "promoted tweets" and last week, the site started showing paid political ads.
Well, e-marketers is projecting that Twitter will make $139.5 million this year in global ad revenue.
Expect that number to grow as the company plans to launch self-service ad tools the same way Facebook does.
It's a grimace day for Nokia.
The finish company has announced it will be cutting 3,500 jobs and that's on top of the 4,000 it already cut in April layoffs.
The mobile phone makers are hoping to find success in the U.S.
by introducing a Windows phone later this year instead of its legacy Symbian phones which are more popular outside of the U.S. If that kind of news put you in the mode for blues, then we got just the guitar for you.
Launching tomorrow is the Gibson Limited Edition Firebird X, a guitar packed with computing power.
For example, it has RoboHead tuners and onboard multiprocessor that generates sounds and effects and it connects the pedals via Bluetooth.
Oh, and the best part, Gibson has opened it up to third party apps.
Yes, this guitar
will have its own app store.
You just have to dish out more than $5,000 to jam on this collectible.
Those are your headlines for today.
I'm Wilson Tang for cnet.com and you've just been loaded.
