A MOS Kim-1 single-board computer, originally released 36 years ago in kit form for $245, recently sold on eBay for $1,550. Following the acquisition of MOS by Commodore International, the historic computer became the basis of the Commodore PET.
eBay has released an overhauled iPad app, bringing it to v2.0.0. The app now supports the Retina display on the third-generation iPad, but also has a new interface, for instance featuring a customizable homescreen. Several user-requested features have been added, such as better search, a Back button, and the ability to revise listings.
In February, PayPal provided new details on how it planned to roll out its in-store payment services. The subsidiary of eBay plans to demonstrate at the SXSW conference in Austin how it hopes to distinguish its consumer-side digital wallet service from the competition, including Google Wallet and Isis. PayPal hopes to expand its attractiveness by offering more payment flexibility, generating wish lists, and providing greater account control.
Following the iPad keynote on Wednesday, SquareTrade has announced that it will be offering an $89 Accident Protection Plan for the latest generation iPad. The 2-year iPad service, which provides coverage against iPad drops, spills and general accidents, includes free express shipping to and from SquareTrade's depots, with most repairs taking less than 48 hours. Users also have the choice of taking their device to a local Apple Genius Bar, with SquareTrade reimbursing the repair costs.
Eolas' attempt to patent the "interactive web" may have been dealt a permanent blow after a jury in the normally patent lawsuit-friendly town of Tyler, Texas ruled that the patent was invalid. The decision negated both any attempts at claiming damages and also negated three future trials. The rejection came in part after testimony from the spiritual creator of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, as well as individual creators whose work predated that of Eolas owner Michael Doyle.
Despite the abrupt leaving of its CEO in January, PayPal is unfazed in its mission to make money off in-store payments, AllThingsD learned. Owned by eBay, the outfit had a number of demonstration set-ups of a grocery store, hardware store, and clothing store. In the San Jose area, PayPal has working registers set up in numerous Home Depot locations as part of a pilot program.
Motorola has started up a return program after a minor but still significant privacy gaffe during a Woot auction. About 100 of 6,200 refurbished Xoom Wi-Fi tablets sold during auctions between October and December are believed to have still had some private data stored inside. These could have included anything from account logins through to personal files, Motorola said.
Despite being discontinued, HP's TouchPad tablet is up for sale again, at Woot. It's a refurbished 32GB model, priced at $220, or about $70 more than the last refurbished 32GB TouchPads sold on eBay. Shipping is a much more manageable $5 for the new sale, however.
Apple CEO Tim Cook may be about to vastly increase his personal wealth, notes an executive compensation tracking firm, Equilar. Parts of two separate restricted stock unit grants belonging to Cook are vesting in the current quarter. Based on Apple's closing stock price on December 30th, the shares are estimated to be worth about $96.2 million.
Yahoo confirmed rumors Wednesday and picked PayPal president Scott Thompson as its new CEO. The nomination of the eBay division head followed months of uncertainty at the company following the firing of Carol Bartz in September. Thompson takes the position January 9.
A modder who calls himself Slipstream has breathed new life into the 10-year old GameCube home console from Nintendo through a portable hack. He calls his creation the Sly Cube, and it includes a seven-inch LCD flip screen. The integrated 7.2V, 600mAH battery is said to provide between three and four hours of play time.
Early holiday shopping helped push Apple past some of the largest stores online for visitors, comScore said Thursday. Apple's website and iTunes combined got over 79.2 million unique visitors in November, large enough to push it past eBay (72.1 million) and even retail giant Walmart (58.5 million). Other major shopping sites it eclipsed included Best Buy (36.5 million) and Sears (31 million).
When Google and Mozilla renewed their search royalty deal earlier this week, they didn't reveal that Google will pay $300 million per year, AllThingsD learned. For this amount of money, Google will be the default search engine in Mozilla's Firefox browser. The numbers are a sharp increase from the previous arrangement because of the new competition from Yahoo and Microsoft.
This weekend's eBay TouchPad sale saw 7,850 of the refurbished devices find buyers, which is all the stock HP had on hand. The 16GB eBay listing saw 2,316 sales, priced at $99, while the 32GB model sold 5,534 units at $149. All were sold in less than 25 minutes, making eBay and PayPal work much slower and return a number of errors and unsuccessful transactions.
HP's unreleased TouchPad Go has surfaced in a very rare eBay auction. The 32GB, 3G model is being sold from China and may have been one of the few if any devices that was fully completed but didn't reach stores. Apart from cosmetic wear, it's fully functional and is running a version of webOS optimized for the seven-inch screen.
eBay has purchased Hunch, a data analysis firm, in an attempt to improve recommendations for its web-based store. Hunch founders Chris Dixon, Tom Pinckney, and Matt Gattis will stay at eBay in New York, said a Thursday report. Financial details weren't revealed.
Some vendors have begun special trade-in promotions in the wake of yesterday's iPhone 4S announcement. Chief among these is eBay, which has launched an Instant Sale promotion that ends at 11:59PM Pacific time on Wednesday. The auction site is offering up to $357.50 for a 32GB AT&T iPhone 4, or $318.50 for an equivalent Verizon model. 16GB capacities can fetch as much as $325.50 or $297.75, respectively.
PayPal will open a popup store in the trendy Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan to showcase its point-of-sale features. PayPal will invite local merchants to visit the store, located at 174 Hudson, to see real-time demos of the company's payment processing technology for bricks and mortar stores. The store also features a QR code on the storefront window so pedestrians can learn more about the new payment options. In addition to handling payments, PayPal's new system is expected to allow consumers to check inventory in real-time, and provide location-aware and in-store offers from stores.
Apple and Dropbox took rare political stances Thursday by joining Digital Due Process. The coalition, which includes technology firms like Comcast and eBay as well as the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation, is primarily interested in toughening laws barring law enforcement from snooping on computers and mobile devices without a warrant. Recent campaigns have focused on modernizing the ECPA (Electronic Communications Privacy Act), a 1986 bill that doesn't account for many modern Internet components.
HP confirmed rumors and fired CEO Leo Apotheker after just 11 months on the job. The exit is absolute and sees him exit both the CEO and president spots as well as resign as a board member. Former eBay head and HP board member Meg Whitman in turn has been chosen as a permanent CEO and president replacement, effective immediately.
HP may be ready to fire Leo Apotheker as soon as Thursday, more than one source claimed at mid day. The tip to AllThingsD had the 11-month CEO out and replaced by former eBay head Meg Whitman after the stock market closes, between 4PM and 4:30PM Eastern. Whitman would be a permanent replacement and not the interim hire some had expected.
HP's board of directors is near holding a meeting that could fire its CEO Leo Apotheker less than a year into his stint, a pair of sources said Wednesday. The group is said by Bloomberg to be unhappy both with nine months of consecutive forecast drops and plans to drop mobile hardware and PCs. Under one proposal, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman would take over, at least temporarily.
A few of the more than 5,000 Samsung Windows 8 developer tablets given out to the attendees of last week's Build conference have now shown up for sale on eBay. The prices on the auction site have reached as high as $2,700. Based on the Slate PC 7, the device gets some detailed changes.
Prosecutors are reportedly investigating a number of eBay employees to determine if the online auction company broke any laws as it built a classifieds system to compete with Craigslist. The move is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between both companies, which centers around eBay's actions after it bought a stake in Craigslist.
Nearly 15 years ago, Apple released the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh, known ever since as the TAM. It was the first major project at Apple of a promising young designer named Jonathan Ive, but despite offering many of the design ideas and technologies that would define Macs for years to come, it didn't do well as only sold around 11,600 units. A rare "new in box" TAM has now appeared on Ebay, the machine and accessories having never been used.
A modified MacBook Pro with a built-in SIM card slot and a raisable 3G antenna that showed up on Ebay three weeks ago will soon be back in Apple's hands, CNet is reporting. A North Carolina man, who originally bought the item for parts from a listing on Craigslist for parts, had his Ebay attempt to sell off the machine stopped by Apple, who are now in touch with him to arrange its return, despite bids as high as $70,000 before the auction was pulled.
Mojang, the developer of Minecraft, is selling a limited edition Xperia Play smartphone on eBay, with the 50th bid up to $1,250 at time of writing. More versions of the device are expected to be given away to winners at the upcoming GamesCom show in Germany. The handset differs from run-of-the-mill devices only with its Minecraft-themed paintjob.
A still-ongoing eBay auction has validated suspicions that Apple has been testing 3G-capable Macs for years. The 2007-era MacBook Pro prototype, originally bought off of Craigslist for parts, has a built-in Dynastream ANT2USB modem modified to fit in the aluminum chassis. It includes not just the necessary SIM card slot for the HSPA 3G access but a retractable antenna that would sit flush with one corner of the display.
PayPal at the the Mobile Beat 2011 conference in San Francisco Wednesday showed off its first Near Field Communications (NFC) widget for Android-powered devices. During a demonstration, funds were transferred simply by running the widget and tapping two Nexus S phones together. The new PayPal NFC widget lets users send or receive money. Holding phones together until they buzz, then entering a PayPal password or mobile PIN is all that's required to complete the transfer.
Auction website eBay on Thursday revealed it bought mobile payment provider Zong for $240 million. It did so to reach four billion cell phone users as it already has PayPal for browser-based auction payments. Zong allows users to pay for their eBay purchases through their monthly cell phone bill.
Google in a statement Friday afternoon planned to fight back against the eBay and PayPal lawsuit accusing it of stealing employees and trade secrets for Google Wallet. The company insisted that it would "respect trade secrets." It went on to argue that the staffers, Osama Bedier and Stephanie Tilenius, had the right to leave for another company since experience was vital to moving up in the technology industry.
eBay and its payment wing PayPal immediately followed up the launch of Google Wallet by suing Google and two executives for allegedly stealing trade secrets to help create the mobile payment technology. The online auction house accused Google's Wallet project lead Osama Bedier of feeding confidential PayPal information to Google to help it create the NFC mobile payment system and of making former eBay executive Stephanie Tilenius break a contract by having her join Google as its VP of commerce in February 2010, a month before she finished a consulting contract with eBay that had followed her exit from full-time work. Bedier also supposedly tried to poach PayPal employees while he was at Google.
The French government said Friday that it will hold a summit where big presences on the Internet such as Amazon, Facebook and Google will debate how countries can bring innovation to the web. The forum will be held on May 24 and 25 in Paris and is a part of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's plans. In attendance will be Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.
The US Supreme Court at a session on Monday will hear Microsoft call to change patent law in a way that could help both the Windows developer and many other technology firms fend off patent troll lawsuits. The motion will attempt to change a rule that requires a defending company provide absolute, definitive evidence that a patent is invalid in order to avoid a guilty verdict. Under Microsoft's proposal, courts could invalidate patents only by requiring that the majority of evidence supports rejecting the patent.
Just about 12,000 iPad 2s were auctioned on eBay in the span between the tablet's March 11th US launch and an international launch on March 25th, according to data published by the website. Particularly significant is that about 65 percent of units sold -- almost 8,000 -- went to buyers in the US. The ratio is well above that of 35 percent for the iPad 1 in 2010.
A firm called H-W Technology has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against 32 different high-tech companies, reports say. Targeted corporations include the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia and RIM. H-W's complaint specifically revolves around a single patent awarded in April 2009, dubbed Internet Protocol Phone with Search and Advertising Capability.
Tickets for WWDC 2011 are already appearing on eBay, accounts say. One ticket on auction is currently priced at about $3,150, nearly double the $1,599 originally asked by Apple. Another is valued at $2,500 after 12 bids, despite there being over nine days left before the auction closes.
Amazon.com has been sued for allegedly infringing on a patent in its instant search suggestions. The plaintiff is MasterObjects, which offers Ajax and Flash-based software that automatically posts search suggestions before users even finish typing their queries. Amazon uses such a function in its browser, add-ons and toolbars, as well as mobile apps.
For a fourth year in a row, Fortune has once again identified Apple as its Most Admired company in the world. Apple has an overall score of 8.16. "The company's blistering pace of new product releases has continued to set the bar high for tech companies across the board," Fortune writes.
Barnes & Noble has began selling the Nook Color e-book reader on its eBay store. The device is priced at just $199 after a $50 coupon is applied that's freely available on the listing. This is $50 less than the device trades for on Barnes & Noble's own website and in its stores.
Interval Licensing took a second shot at its dismissed lawsuit with an updated filing. The Paul Allen-owned company's new complaint still accuses Apple, Facebook, Google, Netflix and others of infringing on e-commerce patents but now includes specific, claimed examples of how the companies allegedly copied Interval's technology. In Apple's case, Interval cited the iTunes Store's album purchasing view (pictured) as a primary example.
eBay on Tuesday released its annual Top Shopped report that reveals which products were the most popular on its Marketplace web pages in 2010. The top of the list was taken up by the iPhone 4, followed by all things related to Barbie, with military jackets rounding out the top three. Last year, no single electronic device made the top ten.
Judge Marsha Pechman on Friday dismissed Interval Licensing's patent lawsuit against major online providers. The official tossed the complaint for being too "spartan," as it didn't identify what devices or services actually infringed the patents with "any specificity." The case, filed in a Western District of Washington court, accused Apple, AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google's YouTube, Netflix, Office Depot, Staples and Yahoo of copying technology Interval owned patents for Internet commerce.
A union of companies led by Google, as well as Apple on its own, have filed motions to dismiss a sweeping patent lawsuit launched against them by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's Interval Licensing. The alliance, which includes AOL, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Office Depot, Office Max and Yahoo, called the lawsuit "scattershot" in its motion this week since it not only targeted many varied companies but couldn't identify the specific services that were allegedly infringing on its browsing and notification system patents. Without enough details, it wasn't possible for Google to even mount a defense, the Seattle court motion read.
Interval Licensing today hoped to profit off the back of technology and retail companies today as it sued several top firms. for alleged patent infringement. It claimed that AOL, Apple, eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, OfficeMax, Staples, Yahoo and YouTube specifically for purportedly infringing on four patents for "fundamental" web technology used for online commerce and search. The patents touch on a form of browsing as well as means of generating attention through design or through a notification system.
Iwascoding has launched a new version of its eBay listing utility, GarageSale 6.0. The software allows users to create eBay auctions from their desktop, with over 140 free listing designs to choose from. The latest version has been completely rewritten to utilize Apple’s CoreData technology, while supporting 64-bit operation on Macs. Synchronization has been improved, along with batch editing features that enable controls in the inspector window to be simultaneously applied to all selected templates.
A Democrat from Massachusetts, Rep. Bill Delahunt, has proposed new legislation that would remove the protections online retailers have enjoyed in terms of state sales taxes. At present, people buying from an out-of-state website are not required to pay the sales taxes that would normally be owed at a retail shop. The US Supreme Court has ruled that without new law, out-of-state retailers cannot be made to collect sales tax.
A unit of Palm’s Foleo smartphone companion, since cancelled by the company, has showed up for sale on eBay. The Buy It Now auction has ended, but the device was being sold for $750 by Ixle, who used the Foleo to blog. It's not clear whether the device sold or Ixle took it down and kept it, as he was uncertain about getting rid of it.
eBay has announced the acquisition of RedLaser, the barcode scanning app for the iPhone. The company plans to integrate the technology into its own apps, including eBay Marketplace, eBay Selling, StubHub and Shopping.com. Users will be able to quickly create eBay listings by accessing pricing trends and product details for items in the company's catalog. An independent version of RedLaser should remain in the App Store as a free download.
Bloom Energy today held the formal launch of its first technology, the Energy Server. A new approach to energy, it uses stacks of solid oxide fuel cells to convert air and most any other fuel source, including things as dirty as fossil fuels or as clean as biogas, into usable electricity. The process almost always produces less CO2 than traditional methods and, unlike solar power or similar methods, can run 24 hours a day without dependence on light or wind.
