Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) arrested four engineers for allegedly selling Intel processors designated as Engineer Samples (ES) on eBay for personal profit. Intel ES chips are the property of Intel and are often sent off to reviewers and OEM manufacturers prior to commercial release in order to test for compatibility. In theory, they're supposed to be returned to Intel.
We know what you’re thinking: Ebay? Really? Obviously readers of this site are familiar with the auction mega-site, even if you don’t use it on principal. Ebay’s selection as App of the Week has a lot to do with their use of new capabilities offered by the Mango update for Windows Phone. For those that are fans of both Windows Phone and Ebay (yes, all three of you), the Ebay app is a thing of beauty.
Screw the Emmys! The best gift bags of the past week came at Microsoft’s BUILD conference. The Redmond crew put their money where their mouths were and provided 5,000 developers with a tablet based off of the Samsung Series 7 Slate and packing a version of the Metro-tized Windows 8 Developer Preview. Theoretically, the gift was supposed to spur on app development for the upcoming operating system; instead, some not-so-gracious recipients have turned the tablets into quick cash on eBay.
While you can always put Windows 8 through its paces by downloading the Developer Preview, there is nothing quite like an absolutely free Windows 8 tablet with decent innards. Microsoft gave away 5,000 such Samsung Windows 8 tablets to developers at last week’s BUILD conference. A few of those developers are apparently so unimpressed that they are now desperately trying to get rid of these gratis tablets for whatever amount people are willing to pay. It turns out that people are willing to pay thousands of dollars.
According to a subpoena obtained by Reuters, US prosecutors are preparing a criminal case against eBay employees. At issue is the accusation that eBay abused its position on the Craigslist board to steal confidential trade secrets. Company spokespeople have indicated they will cooperate with any investigation, but they believe Craigslist’s allegations to be false.
A North Carolina man is in the hot seat as Apple legal representatives are asking him to return a MacBook prototype he purchased on Craigslist several months ago. Carl Frega purchased the laptop for parts to use in his computer repair business, but realized soon after that it was no ordinary MacBook. This device was a riff on the 2007 version of the notebook, but had a 3G radio and magnetic antenna.
What's the most you ever paid for a videogame? We're willing to gamble it's considerably less than what eBay user "shinsnk" is asking for an ultra rare copy of Tetris for the Sega Mega Drive (Japan's equivalent to the Sega Genesis console). If you read the title, you know this guy's asking for cool $1 million, but how exactly can he justify such an exorbitant price tag?
Sandy Bridge was a huge leap forward for Intel, but in the never ending core count race, they still have some catching up to do with AMD. Rumors were circulating about a new possible eight-core variant, but now we have proof. An overzealous third party is looking to 
Intel isn't planning to launch its Sandy Bridge-E series of processors until later this year, but if you absolutely, positively, really want to get your hands on one, come hell or high water, there's a chance you can grab one. That is, if you're willing to part with around $1,400 (with shipping) in exchange for a CPU that won't fit in any of your motherboards.
Not long after T-Mobile officially announced its soon-to-be-released G2x smartphone built by LG, which will be available online starting April 15 and in stores April 20 for $200 (after $50 mail-in-rebate and with an obligatory two-year service agreement), someone listed a purportedly fully functioning model on Ebay. The seller tagged the G2x with a Buy-It-Now price of $1,000, and though it didn't quite go for that much, he did manage to find a buyer willing to overpay.Connect with MaximumPC
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