Microsoft cuts price of Xbox

Microsoft Corp. plans to cut prices on its entry-level Xbox 360 video game machine to $50 below Nintendo Co.’s top-selling Wii. That will make the Xbox 360 the first game machine of this generation of consoles to sell for less than $200. The lower price puts pressure on Nintendo and Sony to cut the prices of their machines ahead of the crucial holiday shopping season. Microsoft will cut prices for the Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes without a hard drive, to $199 from $279 and lower the prices of its mid-range and high-end Xbox 360 consoles by $50 each.

United drops plan to sell $9 meals

United Airlines has dropped a plan to charge as much as $9 for meals in the coach cabin of some overseas flights, citing “candid feedback” from customers. United, the second-largest U.S. carrier and the third-largest at T.F. Green airport in Warwick, had intended to offer food for sale aboard trips to Europe from the Washington area’s Dulles International Airport starting Oct. 1. The Chicago-based carrier would have been the first in the United States to end free meals on such flights. Airlines are halting many complimentary services because of jet-fuel prices that are up 46 percent in the past year. United had planned to charge $6 for snack boxes and $9 for salads and sandwiches in the coach cabins. The carrier will continue with plans to replace free hot meals for business-class customers on some domestic flights with snack boxes, sandwiches or salads, depending on the length of the flight and time of departure. The new food choices, effective Oct. 1, will still be free.

Museum offers free admission

For the seventh consecutive year, the Museum of Work & Culture, in Woonsocket, will participate in the Bank of America Museums program. Visitors to the museum will receive free admission every first weekend of the month throughout the year by presenting their Bank of America card. Participants will also receive 10 percent off their purchases in the museum store. For more information, visit www.bankofamerica.com/museums.

Lipitor ads return to television

Television ads for the world’s top-selling drug, cholesterol fighter Lipitor, are back, six months after Pfizer Inc. pulled them amid charges that its use of a celebrity doctor endorser who has never practiced medicine misled the public. In the new ads, the endorser is a talent agent from the San Francisco Bay area who tells viewers he started taking Pfizer’s Lipitor after surviving a heart attack last year. The ads will be part of a national campaign that also includes print ads in newspapers and magazines. Lipitor generates more than $12 billion a year in revenue for New York-based Pfizer. Its patent expires in 2011, yet ads for the pill have been off the air since February.

Campbell soups beef up labeling

The Campbell Soup Co. is adding asterisks and footnotes to the labels on the cans of some types of Select Harvest soups aimed at making the growing number of careful label-readers among grocery shoppers more comfortable. Campbell’s says the 44 new soups have no MSG, artificial flavors or high-fructose corn syrup, along with lower sodium content. For instance, most preservatives have been dropped in favor of new techniques, such as infusing chicken chunks in some soups with onion juice to keep them plump and moist, says Colin Watts, general manager of the Campbell Soup Co.