It just keeps getting better for consumers looking for on-demand set top boxes. In response to the new firmware upgrade and price drop announced by Jobs for the Apple TV, Vudu has given its own demand box a 25 percent discount. This brings the price of the Vudu system down to $295 from $399.

Apple recently discounted the Apple TV with prices as low as $229 for the 40GB model and they’ve also are scheduled to move into a space where Vudu had an upper hand - movie downloads without a PC. Apple TV not only is going to match that point of service but can also bring in YouTube videos AND content from your computer into your living room, which Vudu cannot.

Netflix online movie rental service is showing that they are not going to be left behind as online digital video content continues to evolve with an announcement on Monday that they are offering unlimited streaming videos to their unlimited rental customers. Subscribers with a minimum $8.99 per month account can take advantage of more than 90,000 DVD titles streamed to their PC for no additional cost and no limit.

Netflix shook up the video rental industry when it launched back in 1998 as the first internet store to offer DVD rentals which had a flat monthly fee and only limited by the number of videos a customer could possess at a time. This new offer extends the unlimited video content to customer’s PCs, which was previously limited to an hour of content per month for each dollar spent on a monthly subscription through the Watch Now program. Lower, $4.99 per month subscribers can get still get two hours of streaming video per month with the new offer.

VIZIO, that upstart HDTV brand you see for sale at Costco-like places, is dropping the LCD hammer big time at CES as it reveals lots of new HDTVs. One new line up of flat panel displays is the “Black Tie” series.

The VIZIO “Black Tie” series includes 42 and 47-inch displays. It is noted by VIZIO for having “120Hz processing with MEMC (Motion Estimation, Motion Compensation), a side access HD game port and full 1080p resolution.”

Get the whole story on these new VIZIO displays after the jump.

Netflix is set to launch their set-top box with the help of LG electronics. The union will allow subscribers to watch movies directly from the Internet to their TV’s. Netflix presently has upwards of 7 million subscribers, many of which have been waiting for this service. They are hoping to launch the set-top box by mid 2008. The price will range between $4.99 to about $16.99 a month, all inclusive of rates. Apparently, LG would embed the receiver into its $799 dual-DVD player, which supports the competing Blu-ray and HD-DVD high-definition DVD formats.

Vudu Inc, which already offers a set-top box for $399 lets consumers buy or rent movies from a selection of about 5,000 titles. Netflix on the other hand has about 90,000 titles available through their online mail order service. Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings sees it as a huge opportunity and said the LG partnership was the first of many such deals for the company.

Verizon went ahead and unleashed four new phones all at once targeted at the fall shopping season trying to get a share of AT&T’s iPhone dollars. The new lineup includes the Voyager and Venus from LG along with the narrow Samsung Juke and the Blackberry Pearl sporting EV-DO.

The headliner of this Verizon release party is the LG Voyager looking very similar to the iPhone from the outside with a large touchscreen on the face. Once you get your hands on the Voyager you’ll see that it’s a little bulkier than the iPhone and that touchscreen face actually hinges open to expose another display inside that faces a large QWERTY keyboard, hence the thickness. The Voyager also has V CAST Mobile TV, a microSD slot and a modest 2 megapixel camera.

Available Oct 19th, the new addition to the Gigabeat line is based on the Windows Mobile operating system and comes in three color styles: navy, gold and black. Toshiba is treading water with the functionality included in this 11.5×75×14.2mm / 168g package though.

The V41 boasts 4GB of internal memory and is expandable with SD or SDHC cards (up to 8GB) for storing up to 99 shows or 20 hours of streaming 1Seg TV. Based on Windows Mobile, the unit’s video playback is limited to WMV and JPEG images but plays MP3, WAV, and WMA/WMA-9 audio formats.

This week BenQ announces an upgraded version of their C740i camera with the C840. The new model features a 2.5 inch LTPS screen with an 8MP resolution and 3X optical zoom. The camera allows for full control over the outcome of the image with its P/Av/Tv/M feature.

The C840 is equipped with a Pentax lens facilitating 99.8% light penetration making it the most light sensitive camera in its class. An emphasis on widescreen shooting and an optional 16:9 resolution ratio for HDTV display shows that BenQ is forward thinking with this camera. MJPEG videos are shot at a near DVD quality 720×400 resolution at 30 frames per second and are optionally stored in its 4GB internal storage or SDHC card, support for which is an upgrade from the C740i counterpart.

If you’ve ever been working away at home on your computer and found yourself to jump up and exclaim “Oh, my muffins” and run to the kitchen; this is a good indicator that you will want to look further into the PC EZ-Bake Oven from ThinkGeek.

The nostalgic oven fits into the 5.25″ drive bay of your PC and bakes with a light bulb (extra bulb included) to make your own personal confections right at your desk. It comes with some packs of mixes and …

Today HP launched a retro-styled calculator in commemoration of the companies 35th anniversaryo of selling handheld calculators. The new HP 35s has an old-school design that looks similar to the original HP 35 handheld calculator but functionality is actually the companies most advanced scientific programmable calculator. The original HP 35 was launched in 1972 and was the first consumer product launched from HP, basically putting the slide rule to rest for good.

The new HP 35s handheld calculator is actually full of functionality with over 800 storage registers, multiple built-in functions, large …

You can re-live the old days of carrying big boomboxes on your shoulder with this nostalgic handbag that’s designed to look like a boombox, without all the weight. This Boombox Red iBag actually has real working speakers and an FM tuner built into it, so you can carry your things in the bag to the beach and still have your tunes available for everyone to hear.

Not only do the speakers on the front of the bag actually work, but the controls for the radio tuner and power on …

For those of you that absolutely, positively need to see just how far you can scroll your mouse across your screen, the Zenview Powerscape Ultra HD monitor system is for you.

Consisting of a central 30-inch primary LCD screen (2560×1600, contrast ratio 700:1) surrounded by two 20.1-inch LCD screens (1200×1600, contrast ratio 800:1) on either side (all manufactured by LG Philips), this is the best way we found to be browsing SlipperyBrick, doing your banking, answering email, checking your stocks and playing WoW all at the same time. You will need to …

A preliminary analysis from iSuppli states that they estimate the iPhone from Apple has over a 50 percent gross margin which all comes back to Apple since they do not allow carriers to subsidize or discount the phones.

“With a 50 percent gross margin, Apple is setting itself up for aggressive price declines going forward,” said Jagdish Rebello with iSuppli.

According to iSuppli, the total expense to manufacture the 8GB iPhone is estimated to be about $280, leaving $319 in profit $599 price tag. The firm did not …