>> [Background music] Apple releases the new iPod Shuffle that speaks to you, NBC brings shows and movies to the Playstation 3 and Google doesn't want to pay for your text messages anymore. It's Wednesday, March 11th. I'm Natalie Del Conte and it's time to get loaded.
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>> [Background music] Apple released a new iPod Shuffle that talks to you. The new MP3 player is half the size of the previous model and it has something called voice over that let's the device speak the names of the songs, artists and play lists in your library. [Inaudible]. It also comes with a player control on the ear bud cord like the iPhone ear buds. It comes in silver or black and holds four gigs of music. It costs 79 dollars and is available today.
>> [Background music] Here's another perk of owning a Playstation 3; 30 Rock. The PSP will now carry NBC Universal shows like 30 Rock in addition to The Office and Heroes and NBC movies like Milk and The 30 Year Old Virgin. The shows are free but the movies are available for rental or purchase and pricing is comparable with their competitors. It's between 299 and 599 for standard and high definition rentals and between 999 and 1499 for standard and high definition purchases. This is very cool and I'm happy to report that my favorite gamer, Mark Lesay [assumed spelling], is very excited about it.
>> [Background music] Sports fans can look forward to a new kind of trading card, the three D baseball card. Tops, the company that makes traditional cards has created a card that utilizes a webcam. When you hold your card in front of a webcam using Tops Town website, you'll see an overlay three D projection of the player plus their stats and some imagining of their plays. Tops is calling this augmented reality. I sent this story to some fantasy baseball buffs that I know and they seem pretty excited about it. The secret will be letting it work with old trading cards which may be possible with an RFID chip and a reader or something like that. I doubt that will actually happen for old cards but I like this idea for all cards moving forward.
>> [Background music] Microsoft is launching a cooling base for laptops. This is something I expect out of QVC not Microsoft but okay. The base will come equipped with a cooling fan and rubber grips. One neat feature is that its USB powered which may or may not drain the heck out of your laptop battery. The base will cost 29 95 and should be available sometime in July.
>> [Background music] Metro PCS is trying to shed its reputation for cheap phones. The company will soon sell the Blackberry Curve 8330. They'll only sell it in select markets such as Atlanta, Dallas, LA, San Francisco, and Sacramento but the plans will cost between 30 and 60 dollars which is cheap for a Smartphone plan. Metro PCS is a prepaid carrier that usually caters to the lower income market. The company's COO, Tom Keys, said that he expects to have blackberries in stores by the second or third quarter of this year.
>> [Background music] Apparently U2 has ditched Apple for research in motion for their sponsor for their upcoming tour. The band's relationship with Apple was made very public in iPod commercials years' back and U2 even performed at an Apple event in 2004 but the honeymoon seems to be over and REM has taken Apple's place. The band's manager says that the shared vision between REM and U2 will lead to new and innovative ways to enhance mobile music on the blackberry for U2 fans which probably just means that they forked over more money.
>> [Background music] Google has decided it can no longer foot the bill for third party acts that lets users send free text messages from its network. Previously iPhone apps like infinite SMS allowed users to send an unlimited number of text messages but routing messages through a portion of Google Talks API instead of through your carrier. However, this left Google paying for the sending fee. Given the current economic climate, even Google isn't immune and simply decided that they don't want to pay for someone else's text messages.
>> [Background music] Verizon se Habla Espanol - - the company launched a new website in Spanish which you can find at Verizon.com/espanol or by clicking Espanol on the English site. The site features information about files, TV and internet, DIRECTV, wireless phone service and more. They're saying this is going to augment their customer service but from my experience with Verizon's customer service, they've got a long way to go with that.
>> [Background music] Those are your headlines for today but I will see you tomorrow. Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Del Conte with CNET TV and you've just been loaded.
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