Starting today, EBGames and Gamestop are taking Playstation 3 pre-orders. Anyone who is signed up for either the EBGames or Gamestop newsletters received an email last night with the details:

Limited PlayStation 3 Pre-order
GameStop and EB Games will begin accepting limited pre-orders for the PlayStation 3 console on Tuesday, October 10, on a first come, first served basis. Due to extremely limited supply, we expect to deplete this allocation very quickly, most likely in minutes. We will not accept additional pre-orders at this time. To avoid an unnecessary trip we strongly recommend you call your local store to determine availability. A $100 reservation deposit is required, which can be funded with cash, credit or trade. As we cannot control production and shipping issues by the manufacturer, a reservation deposit does not guarantee receipt of a system available to purchase at launch. Reservations/Purchases are limited to 1 per household.

Our limited online pre-order program will be announced at a later date, after software and accessory availability dates are confirmed. Online product pricing and availability will vary and will be fulfilled independent of store reservations.

The reservation requires a $100 deposit.

What does this mean for freebie sites who offer the Playstation 3 pre-order as an option? Will the smaller sites be able to ship these soon, or will it be a long time before people start getting these.

The release date is almost here.

Apple Computer has scheduled an event for Tuesday, September 12th. The invites that went out said ‘It’s Showtime’. Many rumors have been floating around discussing what could be released on the 12th.

Many suggest that a new iPod is well overdue. The iPod Nano is over a year old and is due for an update. The Video iPod has been on the market since October 12th, 2005. Some have suggested that a ‘true’ video iPod will be released with wide-screen support. Others have hinted at an entirely new device just for movies.

Apple is also rumored to be launching a new online Video store. This would either be a part of the iTunes store or closely mimic it. The price of movie listings have ranged from $9.99 to $14.99/movie.

There are also rumors of an Apple iPod-like cell phone. These rumors have been floating around for a long time. The title of the invitation suggests that a cell phone is not on the list of items to be released.

No one is sure (outside of Apple) what will be released next Tuesday. We can only guess that it will be movie related because of the invitation title.

We all look forward to seeing how freebie sites react to the new toys coming out of Cupertino.

Today is Maddenoliday. It’s the day which the latest version of Madden NFL is released for various game consoles.

You can get yours free from any of these sites:

• Gaming.Free4Me.net
• YourFree360Games.com
• OrderIt4Free.com
• AnyGift4Points.com
• Games.Traxio.net (Update: Removed due to scam rating)

These are not the only sites that you can get Madden (or many other console games). Most sites have cash options which can be used for Madden 07, or many other things.

Merry Maddenoliday!!

Apple release the MacBook this morning. Here is the article from MacNN:

Apple today unveiled the newly designed MacBook, its new consumer notebook featuring the Intel Core Duo processor and a new 13-inch glossy widescreen display. Apple says the new sleek design is up to five times faster than the iBook and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook. Together with the 15-and 17-inch MacBook Pros, the new MacBook, which starts at $1,099, completes Apple’s Intel-based portables lineup and replaces both the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook. Apple’s entire portables lineup now offers Intel Core Duo processors; a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go; Front Row media experience with Apple Remote; and several advanced features including DVI with dual display support, optical digital audio input and output, Gigabit Ethernet, Sudden Motion Sensor, Scrolling TrackPad and MagSafe Power Adapter. Three models are available–two white models for $1,099 (60GB/Combo) and $1,299 (60GB/SuperDrive) and a black model for $1,499 (80GB/SuperDrive).

“Apple began the transition to Intel Core Duo-based notebooks in February with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, and now just 90 days later we have completed the transition with the release of the all new MacBook,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “The complete MacBook lineup leads the industry with Apple’s trademark innovative design and advanced mobile features — from top to bottom it is the best notebook line that we have ever offered.”

With prices starting at just $1,099, the MacBook lineup includes three models: a 1.83 GHz and 2.0 GHz MacBook in a newly designed, sleek white enclosure and a 2.0 GHz MacBook in a stunning new black enclosure. The new MacBook offers performance up to five times faster than the iBook and up to four times faster than the 12-inch PowerBook with a completely new system architecture including a 667 MHz front-side bus and 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory expandable to 2GB. At about one-inch thin, the new MacBook is 20 percent thinner than the iBook and features a gorgeous new 13-inch glossy widescreen display. With a display that is 79 percent brighter than the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook, the MacBook provides incredibly crisp images with richer colors, deeper blacks and significantly greater contrast. At a resolution of 1280 x 800, the MacBook display provides 30 percent more viewing area than the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook.

Every new MacBook comes with a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing on-the-go using Apple’s iChat AV, or recording a video Podcast or iMovie using iLife ‘06. MacBook also includes Photo Booth, Apple’s fun-to-use application that lets users take quick snapshots with the built-in iSight video camera, add entertaining visual effects and share their pictures with the touch of a button. The new MacBook gives customers a simple way to enjoy their digital lifestyle content wherever they go — including music, photos and videos from across the room using the Apple Remote. With Front Row, users can effortlessly access shared iTunes playlists, iPhoto libraries and video throughout their home via Bonjour, Apple’s zero configuration wireless networking built into Mac OS X.

Source: MacNN

While no new MacBooks are now expected to launch tomorrow, there is a new rumor regarding the possible release of an updated iPod in the month of May. The full story is below, thanks to AppleInsider.com.

Apple Computer’s highly anticipated line of Intel-based MacBook consumer notebooks may not turn up on Tuesday as several online reports and analysts have suggested, AppleInsider has learned.

Although Apple reportedly began manufacturing the notebooks over a week ago, sources say the Mac maker is unlikely to unveil the computers until the following week at the earliest.

The 13-inch widescreen notebooks will reportedly arrive in tandem with changes to the company’s iPod line. However, precisely which versions of Apple’s iPod will see such changes is unclear at this time.

Supply and demand data recently seen by AppleInsider suggests that all of the company’s iPod models have either reached, or will soon reach, an overall supply and demand balance.

Based on data from the company’s US-based distribution partners, demand for iPods has softened considerably over the last few weeks, with the exception of a small uptick in demand for the 30GB fifth-generation iPod and the iPod shuffle.

However, evidence that suggests an increase in iPod shuffle demand could be a result of some channel refill, as noted by Wedbush Morgan Securities analysts last week.

While some reports have suggested that Apple’s MacBook was due to arrive at times much earlier in the year, those reports are incorrect, sources have told AppleInsider. At no time did Apple ever anticipate launching an Intel version of its consumer notebook line before the month of April, those sources have said.

On Monday, the first of the company’s 17-inch MacBook Pro professional notebooks began arriving US customer’s hands. The notebooks went into production last week, shipping out of Shanghai, China this past friday.

ThinkSecret has reported yet another update on the true video iPod, confirming rumors that Apple will soon release an update to it’s 30/60GB video iPod version.

The roll-out of Apple’s forthcoming video iPod has been delayed substantially after the company encountered problems with the display and touch-screen interface, Think Secret has learned. As late as early February plans were in motion for Apple to deliver the most innovative iPod to date in April, possibly a tie-in with its 30th birthday, sources said. Instead, Apple’s birthday came and went without fanfare.

Think Secret disclosed in early February Apple’s true video iPod intentions, which include a wide-screen display spanning the entire front of the iPod with a touch screen interface that is being billed by Apple as a “virtual track wheel.” At that time Think Secret had been tracking a late March or April release.

Sources speaking on condition of anonymity say issues emerged with the technology that have sent Apple and the display’s manufacturer back to the drawing board to find a solution. As such, a more definitive release date is unknown at this time, but sources say Apple expects the new iPod to be ready by calendar Q4, in enough time for the holiday buying season.

It remains unclear whether Apple is planning a smaller update to the current iPod, which was introduced six months ago, in the interim.

Source: ThinkSecret

For more than a year, Nintendo’s forthcoming next-generation video game console has been known by its code name, Revolution. But on Thursday, the company unveiled the machine’s real name, “Wii.”

The name–which is pronounced “we”–is meant to invoke the feeling of cooperation that comes when people play games together. Further, Nintendo said, the written name is meant to visually conjure up the image of two people standing together.

“The goal is we are a highly innovative company and we want the name to speak to that innovation and uniqueness,” said Perrin Kaplan, Nintendo’s vice president of marketing and corporate affairs. “If you were to look at (the name of the controller) visually, the point isn’t just how you pronounce it, but it symbolizes the controllers, which are one of the most innovative and unique parts of the system.

The Wii, which is expected to launch in the fourth quarter, is Nintendo’s answer to Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which launched last fall, and Sony’s forthcoming PlayStation 3. Nintendo has, so far, been differentiating what has been known as the Revolution by promoting its controller, which players will hold in a single hand like a remote control.

In any case, Kaplan admitted that some people won’t know how to pronounce “Wii” but said Nintendo will embark on an ambitious campaign to ensure that’s not a problem come the console’s expected fourth-quarter launch.

That push will include disseminating a Web video–currently available at Nintendo.com–as well as television ads that will begin airing later this year.

“We think that after some time,” Kaplan said, “people will become comfortable with it. But it will strike people as different, and that’s what we’re after.”

Source: C|NET News

Only a couple hundred of outsiders will be provided seating at Apple Computer’s special media event next Tuesday, which is expected to yield the first Intel-based Mac mini desktop computer amongst other products, AppleInsider has learned.

Earlier this week, Apple invited select analysts and members of the media to the event, scheduled to take place on the morning of Feb. 28 at the Town Hall Auditorium, located at 4 Infinite Loop on the company’s Cupertino, Calif.-based campus.

Unlike recent Apple media events — which have taken place in large venues located in both San Jose and San Francisco — the upcoming event will feature a more exclusive audience of several hundred, rather than several thousand, due to the smaller size of the Town Hall Auditorium.

One of the more memorable events that have taken place in the same building was the launch of Apple’s first 5GB iPod digital music player and iTunes 2.0 on Oct. 23, 2001. Apple also used the venue to roll out its 500MHz G3 iBooks in May of the same year, and its Xserve rack-mount servers the following year.

While Apple’s precise agenda for the event is being kept closely under wraps, sources have grown extremely confident that the company will unveil a new line of Mac mini desktop computers based on Intel’s Core processor architecture.

Source predictions aside, several other aspects support an imminent release of the Intel-based Mac mini, including Apple’s recent refusal to fill large orders of the miniature computers, a scant supply of PowerPC-based Mac minis at Apple’s two largest US-based distributors, and recent word from extremely reliable sources that the Intel Mac mini would soon be transitioned to manufacturing.

An Intel Mac mini is not the only product Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is expected to unveil at the event, though confirmation of other product introductions is still somewhat lacking at this time.

Two additional Apple products believed to be close to an introduction are a 13-inch widescreen Intel iBook consumer laptop and an iPod Boombox audio system, which is expected to provide plug-and-play music for the living room.

The Apple Town Hall Auditorium

Reports have indicated that the former has been under development alongside the Mac mini, while the latter was originally slated for an introduction in January but was pulled last minute when Apple received word there would not be enough supply of the device to meet expected demand.

The company has also reportedly been prepping several other iPod and music consumer electronics devices of unknown nature, as well as an update to its iTunes digital jukebox software.

Source: AppleInsider

NEW YORK (Reuters) — The ever-popular earbuds used with many iPods and other MP3 players may be more stylish than the bigger and bulkier earmuff-type headphones, but they may also be more damaging to one’s hearing, according to a Northwestern professor.

“No one really knows for sure” the levels at which iPod users listen to music, but “what we do know is that young people like their music loud and seldom worry about any decline in hearing ability,” Dean Garstecki, chairman of Northwestern’s communication sciences and disorders department, told Reuters.

The earbuds commonly used by iPod listeners are placed directly into the ear and can boost the audio signal by as many as nine decibels — comparable to the difference in sound intensity between an alarm clock and a lawn mower, Garstecki said.

Yet, the earbuds do not always fit snugly in the ear, but often allow background noise to seep in, which causes listeners to crank up the volume.

In turning up the volume to drown out background noise, however, people “don’t realize they may be causing some damage” to their hearing, Garstecki said.

So what’s the difference between iPods and previous devices? The answer lies in the extended battery life and duration of the iPod. iPods, and other MP3 Players that have ear buds are in the ears for a prolonged period of time. Perhaps we should all think a little more before we crank the volume to max on our new video iPods.

Source: CNN News

Today at the Apple Keynote Conference, Steve Jobs announced the release of the brand new MacBook Pro. The MacBook Pro is dubbed to be the fastest laptop ever, with anew dual core processor powering this beast of a computer. The question is, will free sites soon offer this powerhouse? 

The answer is most likely no, as the expense for the MacBook is high, close to $2,000. The 1.67 Core Duo version of the MacBook retails for $1999, while the 1.83 Core Duo version retails for $2499. Both versions include the Apple Remote, Frontrow software for playing movies and music from your couch, and a new magnetic power plug. If you have ever been concerned about tripping over your power cable and having your laptop going flying off the table, never fear, as this new Apple plug cleanly released when pulled on, protecting both the plug and your laptop.

The other device released at the conference is an Intel based iMac. There were no changes to the design or software, however the new iMac is two times faster then the previous model. We may be more likely to see the new iMac on a free site, given it’s lower price then the MacBook.

While there were rumors of a brand new Apple based media device, or an update of the iPod shuffles, no such devices were released at the conference. For now, we can only wait and see what happens, but I’m sure many Anything4Free users would like nothing better then a chance to earn one of these new Intel based Macs!

In case you haven’t seen the stats for the new models, we  have included them below for you to browse

1.67 Core Duo - $1999
Ships: February
15.4-inch TFT display with 1440×900 resolution
1.67GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 Cache
667MHz frontside bus
512MB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 128MB GDDR3 memory
iLife 06

1.83 Core Duo - $2499
Ships: February
15.4-inch TFT display with 1440×900 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo processor with 2MB shared L2 Cache
667MHz frontside bus
1GB (single SO-DIMM) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)
100GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Slot-load SuperDrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 with 256MB GDDR3 memory
iLife 06

Source: MacRumors.com