Gearfuse

I wrote a little commentary on my other site, The Veneziani Journal, regarding Mac OS X Snow Leopard and its pricing. At $29, this is a huge issue which could significantly affect both Microsoft and Apple. My tale of the take:

Apple is pulling out its big guns this year. The thing in particular I’m referring to started at the WWDC keynote and will conclude in September of this year. I am talking about OS X Snow Leopard. Apple decided to price this OS at $29. While it’s really just an upgrade (albeit a major one, complete with lots of doo-dads) to Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Snow Leopard’s pricing scheme allows it to easily penetrate Microsoft’s OS market share. Think about it: Would you pay $29 or $199 for an OS? Sure, Snow Leopard is tied to Apple hardware, but it’ll drive even more people to go out and purchase used equipment, essentially setting the tone for a Mac revolution.

If you’d like to read the whole shebang, head on over.

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Oh shit! If you’re one of the suckers consumers that pays for tracks on iTunes, your world is about to get flipped upside down. Starting April 7th, Apple will charge more than $.99 for songs with popular tracks shooting up to $1.29. This, according to the LA Times, has been in the works for awhile and Apple has apparently let record labels know when the change goes into effect.

Everyone is predicting it’ll be a fiasco and a half if Apple follows through with the change in pricing. As for me, I’ll stick to Bit Torrent thank you very much.

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EDIT: I also failed to notice that this is A COMPLETE HOAX.

Twitter is gaining in popularity, that cannot be denied. I still just don’t understand why people like to lifecast this much though, but hey, who am I to judge?

The Twitterati will today be pleased to find out they can now pay Twitter a good chunk of money for extra features. Four tiers of payment will be available: Sparrow, Dove, Owl and Eagle. Here’s what’s included with each fowl:

Sparrow ($5/month) – Users get 145 character limit, 5 extra random followers.

Dove ($15/month) – Users get 160 character limit, 25 extra random followers, 1 random celebrity follower, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” T-shirt.

Owl ($50/month) – Users get 250 character limit, 100 extra random followers, 2 random celebrity followers, 30 minutes on recommended list, auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” hoodie.

Eagle ($250/month) – Users get 500 character limit, 1000 extra random followers, 3 celebrity followers of their choice, 5 hours on recommended list each month, Twitter Concierge for Tweeting while user is asleep or busy (and more), auto-spell check, “Fail Whale” tuxedo, custom “Fail Whale” page when service is down.

I can’t help but notice that the top three packages all come with clothing. A Twitter Tuxedo? Really? I’m curious to see how this works out. No doubts that quite a few people will hop on this right away, but I’m curious to see if the majority of Twitter users are ready to shell out money for the service. Time and tweets will tell.

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Over on Howard Forums, a cellphone forum I stopped going to years ago, some kind stranger was nice enough to leak a screenshot of some placeholder pages on Verizon Wireless‘ website. The Blackberry 9530 Storm is going to cost $219 with a two-year contract and a killer $519 if you decide to pay month-to-month. A one-year contract upgrade will net you the Storm for $289. If you want the Storm, I’d say this is your best bet.

Don’t get me wrong. These screens could very well be doctored or ’shopped, but for now, it’s nice to have a little more information on Verizon’s upcoming iPhone killer.
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