They have surprized us before but it can still go either way 

Wow. Imagine if this is true.

get it now i think GS also has a deal for trade ins for the PS3 i dont know what they'll do with you since yours is broke but its worth a ask

i wouldnt wait b/c its says no wireless N so theres no real reason to acquire the 3000 sku

i hope it gets a 100 cut it would make better sense since all there price cuts where 100 and it would have a better effect atleast in JP and NA

Yeah it's $15 a year for the Platinum membership, but not all Premium members were getting this offer; the users getting it were mostly those with no PS3 purchases registered in their system

yeah, I'm gunna talk to this girl I know who manages GS and see if I can get one.

Sounds like it's gonna be a good time for me to get a slim, my non BC 80 GB phat consumes a lot of energy and it gets hot easily during the afternoon (the temp is like 97°F or 37° in my country :P ), So this might be a nice change :D

I'd think next year would the true PS3 slim release,  I'm not totally sure what this model has that differentiates itself from the other PS3's, but its probably just got a bigger hard drive, I don't see Sony adding anythng special

but people on IGN have suggested it could have added RAM (like how to PSP got more RAM) or how some conponents could just have changed manufacturer

When they change the hard drive they just change the letter or last number like cech-Z00XY, changing either x or y. The same exact hardware with differing drives usually changes the Y and has the same X.

This one has a new Z, which is exactly what changed from phat to slim.

I don't know what it will have, but in order for them to cut the price to $200 they will have either stripped out some features or be taking a ~$50 loss per machine.

Production cost might have become cheaper.