Posted 02/28/10 at 09:55:26 PM by Justin Kerr

Apple has a reputation for being rather controlling when it comes to its hardware and software designs, but a new story coming out of Gizmodo really pushes this perception to a new level. Ex Apple employee Mark Burstiner is in legal hot water with Apple over allegations of theft, but his story isn't as clear-cut as it might sound.

Over a year and a half ago Mark was coming off a shift at the Fifth Avenue New York Apple store, while construction workers were hauling away pieces of a broken step that needed to be replaced near the entrance. Mark was dressed in civilian clothing, and for some unknown reason, asked if he could keep the cracked 250lb glass step that was presumably being hauled away to the dump. The construction crews helped him load up his price, and if this were a normal story, it would end here.

Fast forward to eight days ago when Mark was preparing to move, and decided to list his prize on Ebay. Rather than being mocked and ridiculed for attempting to sell a broken piece of trash, he received several bids, and was eventually contacted and harassed by Apple legal representatives who requested he return the broken step. You could argue the legality of this case on behalf of Apple, or squatter's rights, but either way it is a bizarre story.

Feel free to read his entire testimony for yourself, but can anyone come up with a plausible theory for why Apple would care? It certainly adds evidence to the theory that some people will buy anything from Apple, even trash. The current bid was $6,300 at the time of this posting, go figure.

Read More

Posted 02/12/10 at 04:00:00 PM by David Murphy

Don't burn your credit cards or start sending recruit-a-friend notices to everyone in your address book: World of Warcraft is not going open-source. You will still have to pay a monthly fee of $14.99 for the privilege of stomping your virtual friends and NPCs into corpse dust, and you will not be permitted to split WoW off into a side project that grants anyone with your name a free pass to level 80 (and/or a fixed "I win!" button). Blizzard isn't stupid.

WoW might not be going open-source, but the company behind it is using the 1-2-3 trick of the open-source world to encourage increased adoption and interest in its core piece of software. In what I believe is a first for the genre, you'll soon be able to access in-game mechanics from a separate Web or mobile app. You might not be able to run your daily quests off of your iPhone, but for WoW enthusiasts looking to make a tidy profit throughout their adventures in Azeroth, Blizzard's mobile access should give you up-to-the-minute information for your business profiteering.

So how does this exactly work?

Read More

Posted 12/30/09 at 07:03:39 AM by Paul Lilly

Citing "sources close to the situation," PC World says India's auction of 3G spectrum and licenses to the private sector probably isn't going to take place on January 14, 2010, as originally scheduled.

Disagreements between government ministries over the minimum pricing of licenses have proved problematic in giving the auction the green light. Also at issue are delays by the defense ministry in releasing spectrum in its possession to the communications ministry.

As recently as last week, India's Minister for Communications, A. Raja, said the auction was on schedule for Jan. 14, with allocation of spectrum to winning bidders mostly likely to follow in August. But according to local reports, the 3G auction likely won't happen until at least the end of February.

Read More

Posted 12/04/09 at 01:30:29 PM by Paul Lilly

It will be awhile before Intel releases its upcoming 6-core Core i9 chip, codenamed Gulftown, to the general public, but that doesn't mean you can't get your hands on one sooner. The question is, should you even try?

Engineering samples -- which are pre-release chips primarily intended for reviewers and may or may not sport the same features as the final product -- have already started shipping, and at least one of those chips has made it onto eBay. The chip sold for $1,200, but the cost to the seller be even higher.

All Gulftown chips are bound a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), and technically speaking, ES chips aren't supposed to be sold or traded. In reality, it happens all the time, but selling a pre-release part this early in the game is sure to burn a bridge with Intel, especially since the seller didn't bother to blur out any identification marks, making it super easy for Intel to track the chip.

Our advice? Wait for the official release.

Read More

Posted 11/24/09 at 11:12:27 AM by Paul Lilly

Auction site eBay went down for several hours on Saturday, causing sellers to lose sales, as well as potentially selling items for a lower bid than they might have otherwise received had the site remained running. Oops!

eBay says it has since fixed the software SNAFU that caused all the ruckus and promises this was a one-time deal, but that doesn't rectify the situation for sellers who were affected by the outage. To make things right, eBay said it plans on compensating vendors in several different ways.

"To minimize the impact, we'e working to ensure that sellers and buyers whose transactions were affected by the disruptions will be made as whole as possible," said president Lorrie Norrington. "This includes listing fee refunds and protection against negative or neutral buyer feedback as well as detailed seller ratings (DSRs) lower than five starts for impacted sellers, and coupons for buyers of items that were impacted by the disruption."

According to eBay, the surge of holiday shoppers caught the site off guard, which led to the crash.

Read More

Posted 10/16/09 at 08:04:31 AM by Paul Lilly

Windows 7 party hosts looking to make a quick buck on eBay by selling their "Signature Edition" copy of the OS may want to pay attention to three little words: Not For Resale. It's pretty clear what that means, and likely at the request of Microsoft, eBay has begun shutting down auctions of the OS.

"While we cannot confirm why eBay has removed these specific auctions, Microsoft routinely works with online auction sites such as Ebay to remove infringing auctions," the Redmond company said in a statement. "The Signature Edition of Ultimate that was includied in the Party Packs is clearly marked on the outer wrap Not For Resale."

That doesn't necessarily mean you're out of luck if you didn't host a party but are itching to get your hands on a Signature Edition copy. While Microsoft hasn't said anything, they wouldn't be breaking new ground by making the OS available through select e-tailers. When Vista launched, Microsoft sold a Bill Gates signature copy version through Amazon. And in the meantime, there's still plenty of auctions that have managed to slip under the radar, such as the one offered by 'pcsalemaster,' who's only asking $1,249. o_0

Read More

Posted 09/30/09 at 08:37:03 AM by Paul Lilly

You'll have to kick it old-school and visit a dealership the next time you plan to buy a vehicle from General Motors. That's because the auto maker is puling the plug on its seven-week experiment of selling new cars in California through eBay, the online auction site.

As reported by The New York Times back in August, the eBay venture was considered a "crucial part of GM's effort to return to profitability after five years of heavy losses." Mark LaNeve, GM's vice president for U.S. sales, said the auctions would be attractive to a customers who wish to skip the whole negotiating process, but GM quickly found the opposite to be true. Vehicles were given a 'Buy-it-Now' price equal to GM's supplier price and potential customers could submit a lower offer. Not surprisingly (except to GM), dealers reported receiving low-ball offers. Welcome to eBay.

Had the program succeeded, eBay said it would try to expand it nationally and was open to working with other auto makers. But with GM dealers saying the online marketplace didn't boost sales, eBay may have a tough time drumming up interest from others.

Read More

Posted 06/18/09 at 06:43:41 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Yahoo’s financial woes have not been hidden from anybody. The blighted internet giant is ready to do anything to raise funds. It does not even mind small amounts of cash dribbling into its famishing coffers. It has now stooped to abject levels associated with cybersquatters.

Yahoo is busy putting premium domain names on the block just to breathe easy every once in a while. Last night, Yahoo managed to auction off Contests.com for $380,000.

It isn’t a princely sum by any drug-induced stretch of imagination. A premium domain like that should have fetched in the millions of dollars. That actually explains Yahoo’s dismal state. Yahoo should trade premium domains for some business acumen and not greenbacks in the future. Wonder what Yahoo.com will fetch?

Read More