Sorry about the delay guys, we've been out of stock on the R4 for a week or so now. It looks like manufacturing has been stopped, or slowed down, due to unknown reasons.
The 2 best guesses are that they either got busted for piracy (doubtful, since we'd have heard about it) or they are slowing manufacturing to artificially increase the price (more likely, and if this were a legit business they'd be in big shit for it.. but it's China, so...)
Anyway, I can get the R4 now, but for an increased price. My new prices (including shipping) are:
1GB combo: $75 (was $60)
2GB combo: $90 (would have been $75)
If there are stores in Vancouver still selling old stock for the original price, my recommendation is to grab some now. I expect the price to go back down eventually. No idea when, however.
The retail stores in HK are selling the R4 by itself for $500 now ($68 CAD). Also be careful, because fake R4's are sure to show up more now (they've always been around, but if you see one that is still the old price, either the store is selling their old stock, and don't know about the price increase, or it could be a fake)
The
official R4DS site is down too, so who knows wtf is going on.