Rumor Hint Sony PSP 2/NGP

Rumors Hint Sony PSP 2/NGP Will Cost $299 to $349 When Launched

Consulting firm EEDAR has "predicted" that the next generation Sony PSP 2 AKA NGP, will come in two different versions. One will be WiFi only and the other will be WiFI + 3G. Prices have also been provided which hint that the WiFi only model will carry a price tag of $299 while the 3G model will be $349.

Although we suggest WiFi + 3G here, it could be a different model which perhaps has more storage space for example although we are guessing the more expensive will be a 3G model.

Although the $349 price tag was given for the upper end model, they also report that in the US this could creep up to $399.

As well as predicting prices, the company also expects that sales of the PSP 2 will exceed the sales of the former PSP model.

The team also suggest that not all regions will get a 3G model of the PSP 2 and that it could depend on sales of other 3G devices in the area, such as in the US the iPad 3G accounts for just 30%. As far as how all these numbers were put together, they seem to be based around speculation rather than fact, so a lot could change by the end of the year when the PSP 2 is set for launch.

Low-Cost Cherrypad Android Tablet

gadget today | Low-Cost Cherrypad Android Tablet Not So Low-Cost Anymore

You may remember the Cherrypad, a sub-$200 Android tablet that, while receiving less-than-stellar reviews, still sold a few units out of sheer cheapness. The latest version of this budget device, however, isn’t so budget. The specs have gone up, and with them, the price.

Mobile Magazine has gotten hold of the specs for the new Cherrypad (unconfirmed at the moment), and the improvements actually put it in the running… well, not with the Xoom or iPad, but certainly with the Galaxy Tab. It’s getting a higher-res 7″ screen (1024×600) and a capacitive touchscreen, replacing the lower-res resistive screen of the old version. It’s also getting dual cameras with flash and 8-16GB of onboard memory (plus MicroSD slot). Android 2.2 is what it’ll probably ship with.

Most importantly, perhaps, there’s a new 1GHz Cortex A8 CPU with 512MB of RAM, HDMI out, and a GSM antenna. That makes it a relatively modern, all-purpose tablet. The price, please? Apparently “in the $300-$400 range” — unfortunately for them, that doesn’t undercut the far more well-known Nook Color, and may even get direct competition from the iPad, depending on what happens over the next month.

At any rate, it should get an official announcement in a few weeks, and we’ll keep you posted.

Cisco sinks funding into WiMAX-supporting Grid Net, looks to ride the 'smart energy' wave

Here's an interesting one. Just days after Cisco admitted that it was killing its own internal development of WiMAX kit, the networking mainstay has sunk an undisclosed amount of cheddar into a company that holds WiMAX in the highest regard: Grid Net. Said outfit has close ties to GE, Intel, Motorola and Clearwire, all of which have also voiced support (and invested real dollars) for the next-generation wireless protocol in years past. Last we heard, Cisco was doing its best to remain "radio-agnostic," and while some may view this as flip-flopping, we view it as brilliant; it's costly to develop internally, but buying stake in a company that's already well versed in a given technology allows Cisco to keep WiMAX at arm's reach without incurring the risk associated with building within. Beyond all that, we think that Cisco's just trying to get in early on the energy management biz, particularly after the US government announced that it would be funding the distribution of loads of in-home energy monitors in the coming years. According to Grid Net, it intends to "use the proceeds from this investment to promote its real-time, all-IP, secure, reliable, extensible, end-to-end Smart Grid network infrastructure solutions," though specifics beyond that were few and far between. Verizon mentioned that it would soon be using its LTE network for all sorts of unorthodox things -- we suppose WiMAX backers are planning to allow the same.

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