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Why the Wii needs a price cut right now

With both Sony and Microsoft dropping the price of the PS3 and the Xbox 360 Elite, the Wii is beginning to look like an overpriced console. There a few reasons why Nintendo needs to drop at least $50 off the company's best-selling home console and fast.

The shortage is over Anyone who wants a Wii has one by now. Consumers in the market for a console will no longer look to the Wii for its affordability over the competition. In fact, an Xbox 360 Arcade can be had for less than the price of a Wii already.

The competition … Read more

The 404 406: Where we're finally getting a price drop

The Sony PlayStation is finally getting a price drop, but some dummy retailers in Europe are actually increasing the price of the Xbox Arcade console set. In other news, a Twitter user is offering his followers a line to God, Starbucks says OK to freeloaders, and we also debate the most prolific technology of our time! You'll never guess what Wilson has up his sleeve...

In case you haven't heard, our economy is in a little bit of hot water right now, and while most companies like Sony are slashing prices to keep up with the competition, the geniuses at Microsoft EU are actually increasing the price of the Xbox Arcade from ?129.99 to ?159.99. Furthermore, the five Xbox Live Arcade games will no longer be included in the bundle. The company's excuse is that it is to "counteract the poor pound-to-euro currency exchange rate." Who allowed this to happen at Microsoft? At least fix the failure rate before you increase the price!

In other news, Starbucks is opening its doors to Wi-Fi freeloaders. We reported in the past that several cafes in New York are banning cell phones and laptops, cutting off Wi-Fi access to discourage freeloaders from just hanging out and surfing the Web for free. Starbucks has always been an easy place to gain paid access to the Internet, and it will continue to provide a welcoming environment for customers to enjoy their $68 cups of flavored coffee.

Many more stories to get to today, including a Twitter account that gives followers a direct line to God and a hilarious poem from our buddy CHRISTOPHER WALKEN!

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The 404 405: Where really?! No more Saturday mail!?

We couldn't get enough of the Bonch on our 404th episode, so we invite her on today to hang out out with us and chat about the death of Saturday mail, Amy Winehouse, "District 9," and "Paper Heart." And stay tuned till the end for Bonnie's very special announcement! You heard it on The 404 first!

The CNET offices in New York just got a little more exciting, because Bonnie Cha is in The 404 studio to brighten up an otherwise sobering Monday morning! She's only here for one more day, but make sure you listen to the end of the show, because she has a very important announcement!

Our rundowneth overfloweth today with quick little news bytes. The first one is about the U.S. Post Office no longer delivering mail on Saturdays! Calm down, the proposition is still in the infancy stage, but we're wondering if this is a real concern for anyone, or if this could just be another point on the board for THE INTERNET. Nevertheless, we're still going to miss our friendly neighborhood mailpeople who face dogs, weather, fatigue, and a million other things to bring us our daily book of ValuePak coupons.

Next up is a little rumor we've heard from TechRadar about Sony releasing an emotion sensor at tomorrow's GamesCon media conference. We're not sure if this technology will ever actually materialize, but we do know Sony has already patented plans for a gaming console that can be controlled by touch, movement, and even emotions including laughter, boredom, sadness, excitement, and anger. Personally, I can do without a box reading my emotions and affecting my gameplay, but what do you think? Could you get into something like that?

We also talk about "District 9" cleaning up the weekend box office, cocaine content of U.S. currency, and watch as Amy Winehouse has a complete mental breakdown, all on today's snapshot episode!

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Xbox 360 saying goodbye to its Pro console?

Video game console SKUs seem to be dropping like flies these days. Just 24 hours after hearing about how Japan may lose the 80GB PlayStation 3, rumors are starting to swirl about the Xbox 360 saying goodbye to its "Pro" model. The claim is only strengthened by the above image, which shows an Arcade box comparing only two consoles instead of the older box art (to the left), which looks at three.

Keeping track of console SKUs has become quite the task, but it seems that Microsoft will narrow the Xbox 360 line to the bare-bones Arcade modelRead more

Good news: Dell Adamo $500 cheaper. Bad news: It's $1,499

For those tempted to give in to Dell's vision of thin-and-sort-of-light luxury, the Dell Adamo laptop has been lowered in price by half a thousand dollars; $1,499 gets you the 1.2GHz Core 2 Duo version of the 13.4-inch aluminum laptop with a 128GB solid-state drive, while $2,299 gets you a 1.4GHz processor, 2 extra gigabytes of RAM, and mobile broadband connectivity. You can still have your choice of pearl or onyx.

Suddenly the MacBook Air seems like a pretty good deal at $1,499 with a 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo and 120GB hard … Read more

Advanced file search

This free program offers search capabilities that surpass Windows built-in search functions. It took a visit to the Help menu to learn how to properly search for specific files, but it was worth the extra time.

Super Finder's user interface isn't extraordinary, but it's easy enough to understand. Tabs let you navigate between date and time configurations and general setup options. You can search by file or folder name, and choose the file extensions that you want to exclude in the search. To narrow down or expand the search, you can select the drives that you want … Read more

Side-by-side file management

Q-Dir gives you the ability to view the properties of up to four files all at once for side-by-side comparisons. We were unimpressed by its tiny, unintuitive command buttons but, overall, it did its job well.

The user interface opens as four panels, each with the same commands, and each with the ability to browse for a specific file. At the top of the window reside tiny, almost microscopic buttons that let you choose your view. We had to hover our mouse over each one to learn its function. Still, we were able to quickly search for, and pull up, … Read more

Webware 100 winner: DropBox

Site: GetDropbox.com Category: Infrastructure & Storage

Dropbox is a file storage service that syncs up files between multiple machines. Once installed, you gain access to a virtual folder that will stay synced up and pass along any new additions, deletions, or changes. All the while, the service keeps snapshots of every version of a file that's been changed, which means you can go back and retrieve older iterations.

Dropbox also lets users create shared versions of these folders, so multiple users can contribute or make changes to a collection of group files and make sure everyone is using … Read more

The 404 332: Where we're trapped in a glass case of emotion

After yesterday's downer show, we're back and cheerier than ever. Even Jeff is in good spirits after the New Jersey Devils got stomped all over their home ice. We discover today that Wal-Mart really does rock, and not in a good way.

The lesson of today's show is DO NOT BUY ELECTRONICS FROM WAL-MART, unless you're a rock collector, in which case you'll be thrilled, because apparently the company is literally selling Nintendo DS boxes filled with sediment.

We need to get THE BONCH, aka Bonnie Cha back on our show to talk about the Palm Pre. Actually, Palm is offering preproduction review units to Average Joes (and Josephines) in hopes of receiving "true life" feedback on the smartphone. Wilson seems to think that most consumers will frown on the smaller screen size, but we all have high hopes for the brand since this is definitely a last ditch effort in the smartphone market.

In exciting movie news, Jeff is superstoked to hear about a "Drop Dead Fred" remake starring Russel Brand, that quirky English dude that played the hippy beauhunk in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." His brand of piratey humor should do well as a young girl's imaginary friend, right? Oh! We also reveal another popular movie sequel in the works, but you'll have to listen to the show to get the full scoop.

Finally, we touch on the bloated cost of higher education and how NYU students are getting questionable phone calls about their financial aid. Apparently NYU financial advisers are individually calling students receiving significant amounts of financial aid and questioning their decisions to accept the money and attend the university. If I were still in school and someone called me about this, I'd probably just tell them to put the check in the mail and stop telling me what to do all the time.

Today's CFTP is rather heartfelt. Thanks to everyone who called in, and we'd like to personally welcome James Christopher Maximus to the world! You were born today, dude! Hopefully you're reading this in the year 2021, when you're old enough to fully grasp our jokes. We love your dad for breeding future listeners of The 404!

Per usual, don't forget to check out our live VIDEOcast (man it feels good to write that) every morning at 11 a.m. ET. We have a ton of fun in the preshow and you get the inside scoop on how we prepare for the show. And please please please call and leave us a voicemail at 1-866-404-CNET (2638)!

EPISODE 332 Download today's podcast Subscribe in iTunes Subscribe in RSSRead more

Unique search tool

This unique Firefox add-on takes the place of your context menu while you browse, but getting used to it might take a little time.

Drag & DropZone Searching's settings can be accessed through your add-ons menu. To activate the program, you'll need to drag and drop the shortcut icon to your toolbar. The Settings menu is the place to customize your zones. From there, you can add which search engines you'd like to include, as well as any Context menu items. You can select their position on your screen, background color, and opacity. While browsing, all you … Read more