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It comes as no surprise that Netflix was going to start charging a premium for their Blu-ray renting customers, however early reports were calling for it to take effect “later this year.”

Sadly it seems, that at least for some “later this year” actually means now. Reports of customers who are just signing up for a new account with Blu-ray access are being told that they will be billed either an extra $1 or $2 per month.

Netflix has not officially stated just how much each customer will be increased should they choose the Blu-ray option, but it looks like the extra charge is dependent on which rate plan you currently have.

Via [EngadgetHD]

While we have heard the rumors, it now looks like it will soon be official. During a recent conference call, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings announced that because Blu-ray discs cost more money to purchase, that they need to charge a higher rental rate for them. He also went on to state that “consumers are used to paying more for high-definition.”

Personally I think consumers are used to paying more to own high-definition, I am not so sure how eager they will be to pay more to rent it. Currently Netflix has a small amount of subscribers who choose Blu-ray over standard DVD’s and with a price increase it seems that small percentage will remain small.

While the statements from Hastings seemed pretty clear that the price increase was going to happen, there has not been any official statement as to just how much the increase will be. As for when it will take effect, customers can expect to see it “later this year.”

Via [Crave]

In a move that can only be described as shocking, Microsoft has announced price cuts on Windows Vista. The price cuts affect the higher versions and will lower price for the full version of Vista Ultimate from $399 to $319, with the upgrade price dropping from $259 to $219. Vista Home Premium will drop from $159 down to $129. In addition to those lower prices, Microsoft will also remove the difference between the full and upgrade version on Home Basic and Home Premium, which will put the full version at the previous upgrade prices.

The real question here is whether or not this will convince more people to upgrade to Vista. While some of the versions were a little pricey to begin with, it seems a lot of the complaints about Vista were due to usability and not pricing.

Read [Reuters]

The German site, Xbox-Archiv, has reason to believe Microsoft will be making a few changes to the Xbox 360 line according to “good sources”. According the sources, the first item on the list of events is the tossing of the Core System, second is a price drop on the premium system (down to 299 Euros, or the price of a Core System), and a new model being pushed into the lineup.

The new model, codenamed Zephyr, will include a 120gb hard drive and HDMI port (as well as the possibility of being painted black). Zephyr is said to cost around 399 euros and is said to be released sometime in May. We think May is a little too early for Microsoft to unveil a large Xbox 360 upgrade, we believe a late 2007/early 2008 release is a lot more probable.

Well whether this rumor will hold up or not will only be determined with time, I can say assured that I will definitely be getting myself a Premium Xbox 360 in the near future, a price drop wouldn’t hurt.

Read [Xbox-Archiv] via [Xboxic] via [Gizmodo]

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