The Nokia N85 just dropped with a crazy price. At $556 this is one expensive phone, but Amazon is claiming that’s already been steeply discounted from an out of this world $1,200 “list price.” The phone is available to “buy” right now at Amazon.com, but there’s a 3 to 5 week ship time quoted, so we’re not sure yet if this is the first place where you’ll actually get the hotly-anticipated handset in the States, but if you like, you can give them your money right now. They don’t mind.

Amazon is having some trouble. Maybe they didn’t count on Oprah selling so many units. Maybe they just are really bad at stock management. Whatever the case, shipping on the Kindle ebook reader is currently listed as 11 to 13 weeks time, completely overshooting Christmas and making deliveries at some point in Q1 2009. This will be the second year in a row that the retailer could not meet demand. Last year, with the device being new, Amazon could at least use the excuse that they were ramping up production.

It was back in October that Oprah Winfrey endorsed the Kindle. Amazon is also rumored to be preparing the Kindle’s replacement, which was once expected to be on the market this holiday season, but now it is expected to be delayed until Q1 2009.

If you’re looking for an environmentally-friendly laptop that will match your wood floors, the ASUS U6V-B1-Bamboo laptop is for you. It’s actually fairly nice looking and this 12.1-inch ultraportable laptop is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. It features a Moso bamboo cover and a palm rest that is “artisan grade,” ooo la la.

Even the touch pad has bamboo fiber patterns on it, making it feel as though you’re scrolling and pointing on a real bamboo surface. Specs include a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 processor, a 320GB hard drive, a NVIDIA GeForce 9300M GS 256MB graphics card and more. The display is LED backlit and features a 1280 x 800 resolution. An optical drive is included as well as Windows Vista Business. Go ahead and pre-order it on Amazon now for $1,999.

This is news to our ears,fingers and teeth. Amazon is questioning the necessity of those rage inducing hard plastic containers that can presumably stand up to bombs and the jaws of life. They’re actually doing something about it. Starting today, consumers who are tired of fighting with this evil packaging can opt for products in Amazon’s “Frustration-Free Packaging,” which offers streamlined packaging that often includes recyclable cardboard.

19 products are currently available in friendly containers from companies like Fisher-Price, Mattel, Microsoft and Transcend. They have hopes of offering their “entire catalog of products in Frustration-Free Packaging” within a few years. Hopefully others in the gadget world will join in on this.

Boy Genius has some pics of what is in all likelihood the Kindle 2. You’ll notice that this follow-up to the original reader is more rounded, more iPod-esqe, but still in boring white with the same screen. The LCD status bar is nowhere to be seen and a joystick replaces the clickwheel, and so you can avoid accidental page turns, it sports smaller buttons. The SD slot is gone too, since there’s 1.5 gigs on-board, along with grills on back that may mean stereo speakers.

Basically, it’s a lot less ugly. Current Kindle owners can probably skip the upgrade unless the ugliness of the original is really bugging you. No word on the availability yet. Hit the link for more pictures.

Good news PS3 fans, the wireless keypad we told you about the other day is available for pre-order now at Amazon for $49.99. Where it states “This item will be released on November 30, 2008.”

The wireless keyboard even comes with a touchpad mode that allows for mouse input, which may be used in future game development. The QWERTY keypad snaps over the center of DualShock 3 and SIXAXIS controllers and aparently has it’s own Bluetooth connection and power source.

Amazon today announced plans for an international rollout of the Amazon MP3 music download service to take place sometime yet this year. This announcement is probably the biggest threat to Apple’s mammoth iTunes to date as it likely to cause the reining media download leader to make some changes in coming months to keep up with the competition.

Once Sony BMG came onboard Amazon became the only online retailer to offer downloadable MP3′s from all of the four most major music labels that are all also DRM-free. Amazon MP3 now boasts over 3.3 million songs available with no restrictions on what player or computer the songs can run on, and no restrictions of how many places users can copy it to.

Amazon.com went full steam into downloadable MP3s today, unveiling a beta version of Amazon MP3, its new digital music download store. Most songs will range in price from 89 to 99 cents, while albums will run you $5.99 to $9.99.

Amazon MP3 features over 2 million songs from more than 180,000 artists represented by over 20,000 major and independent labels. All downloads will be MP3s which are DRM-free, meaning there’s no restrictions on what device or music management software is used to play them. Songs can even be burned to CD.