Dell has slashed the price of the Adamo 13 ultraportable this week, also adding more powerful specs.

The aluminum 0.65-inch thick notebook is now selling for $900, giving it a strong price advantage over the new 13-inch MacBook Air, which sells for $1300.

Your $900 now gets you an Adamo 13 with a 2.13GHz Core 2 Duo SL9600 Intel processor, 4GB RAM, a 128GB SSD and 64-bit Windows 7.

A 3G modem is optional as is a larger battery than the 6-cell.

An Adamo 13 has USB, USB/e-SATA and Ethernet ports.

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Jerome Taylor, of Connecticut, walked into the Northern Indian restaurant on State Street earlier this week, put on a mask and pulled an item from his pocket while demanding money.

The cooks each pulled out a knife and told Taylor they were not giving him anything.

Taylor then apologized, said he needed the money to feed his kid and proceeded to leave.

When police officers eventually caught him, he confessed but showed them that he had used an Apple iPhone and not a gun, or any other deadly weapon.

The restaurant cooks told the police afterwards that they felt sorry for Taylor and would not pursue charges, but the police have charged the would-be criminal with attempted robbery anyways.

Taylor added that his child was staying with a relative.

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A Game Stop employee on Neogaf has posted that the giant retailer is taking pre-orders for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS handheld, but only in brick-and-mortar locations.

Says the post:

Ok well I got the OK to tell people about this from my work, but we officially got word in that all US based Game Stop stores will be taking reserves on the 3DS starting on the 26th. Depending on the place holder price you will be required to drop a minimum of $25 on a reserve.

If your GS can't find it in their system the SKU is 020132

Nintendo has still not priced the device, but most believe a company event in mid-January will reveal the price for North American and European devices.

The 3DS will hit Japanese stores on February 26th, 2011, and then the US/European markets one month later.

In Japan the handheld will retail for ¥25,000 (about $300 USD).

The first 10 launch games for the system are: Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings Resort, Pro Baseball Spirits, Professor Layton and the Mask of Miracle, Ridge Racer 3D, Samurai Warriors Chronicle, Steel Diver, Super Monkey Ball, and Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition.

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Rovi has announced its acquisition of Sonic Solutions this week, taking over the company known for its DVD editing and burning software, digital movie downloads and for DivX, the digital video software and codec.

The company will pay $720 million in cash and stock just six months after Sonic purchased DivX for $323 million.

Rovi says the merger will help "Hollywood studio clients sell content in a fast-growing digital entertainment market."

Because the content will be more centralized, consumers may be willing to pay a premium for it, adds the company.

The deal should close in the first half of 2011 and consolidation should help save them $15 million in expenses per year.

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Social gaming company Zynga's latest hit "CityVille" is now the most popular social game in the world, with 67.4 million active users.

That figure far surpasses FarmVille, also by Zynga, which was formerly in the top spot at 57 million.

Stat-tracker AppData has been following the launch of CityVille, which Zynga released in early December.

The company says the game had 300,000 users in just its first 24 hours.

Overall, including FrontierVille, MafiaWars, FarmVille and others, Zynga now has 269 million active users playing their games on Facebook.

Zynga has 6 of the top 10 most used apps on Facebook.

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Amazon has said this weekend that Microsoft will end sales of the 3-license Windows 7 'Family Packs' at the end of the year.

Microsoft began offering the packs in October, saying it was for a "limited-time only."

Amazon's Family Pack page now says: "Available to purchase until December 31, or while supplies last."

Microsoft priced the 3-license pack at $150, but Amazon is selling it for $125.

In 2009, after the launch of Windows 7, Microsoft offered the Family Pack for 6 weeks before taking it off the market. Because it was pulled just before the holidays, angry potential buyers began calling the software giant "Scrooge."

Consumers buying a Family Pack save $235 off Microsoft's list price for three individual Windows 7 Home Premium licenses.

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