First half of September brings a whirlwind of cool, new gadgets

And no matter what anyone says, it's just a coincidence that my birthday is Sept. 9. And I won't even mention that none of you bought me anything last year.

So, without further ado, here's what's going to drain your wallet and stimulate the economy from Sept. 1 through Sept. 15.:

• First, we have the new, slimmed-down PS3 coming from Sony on Sept. 1. The older, chunkier 120-gigabyte PS3 is getting a price drop from $399 to $299 right away, but any gamer with an ounce of patience will wait for the $299 slim model.

• Then, Apple is rumored to be holding its annual iPod keynote/unveiling/media love-in on Sept. 9. Contrary to original thought/rumor, it is now believed that Apple will NOT unveil its tablet at this event, and will focus on iPod upgrades and/or price cuts.

• Also on Sept. 9, Microsoft will be releasing the LifeCam Cinema Web camera. While a Web cam might sound boring, apparently it's "the first consumer webcam to support 720p video at 30fps."

• And as if the 9th wasn't already busy enough, "The Beatles: Rock Band" is hitting shelves that day for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. The New York Times Magazine recently ran an interesting -- although very, very long -- story on the game. Although, really, the title of the article was the most ingenious thing about the entire package. I won't spoil it if you haven't already read it (www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/magazine/16beatles-t.html)

• On Sept. 15, Microsoft will release its Zune HD media player. Microsoft is including some pretty spectacular hardware in the Zune HD, and the new interface looks snazzy, too.

• Also on the 15th, the Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera will be hitting shelves. Wired says the Zi8 easily outclasses the popular Flip cameras and dubs the new Kodak the "Best Pocket Cam We've Seen This Year."

Of course, every Fall sees a surge of new tech products ahead of the Christmas shopping period. But it seems like this two-week period in September this year will be particularly intense.

And I didn't even include the launch of Snow Leopard, the new Mac operating system, since Apple is still only saying it will come out sometime in September.

Too bad Windows 7 isn't coming out until Oct. 22. If Microsoft could bump that sucker to early September, things would get really fun.

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