Goodwill

Facebook tests a new ad strategy

CNET Update is watching where you click:

Update highlights Facebook's Plan B for advertising in the News Feed. Instead of just showing you sponsored stories based on your profile, Facebook is tracking your Web browsing habits to serve targeted ads in the News Feed. If not done right, this can turn away users who are already uneasy over privacy.

Also in the tech news roundup:

- Spring cleaning could earn you a couple bucks -- that is, if you live in an area participating in eBay's "Sell it Forward" program. eBay is working with Goodwill to … Read more

eBay tests new program to sell your items to Goodwill

Have a used item you don't think will sell on eBay? A new program could still fill your pockets with half the proceeds.

Recently launched on a test basis, "Sell it Forward" lets you send your used items to eBay in a free, postage-paid bag. From there, eBay hands them over to the San Francisco Bay Area branch of Goodwill Industries. If Goodwill can unload the items within 14 days, you score a 50 percent cut of the sales price, which is sent to your PayPal account. If not, you get a receipt for a donation that … Read more

Goodwill sells a 32GB iPad 2 for $65

In what many will surely take as a "no way!" story, a lucky guy strolls into a Goodwill and finds a brand-new, in the box, fully functioning iPad 2 with a price tag of merely $65.

Let us review. iPad 2. Brand new. $65. There are no typos in that price.

The find of a lifetime was discovered by Reddit user djrjr in Robinson Township, Pa. I guess his link karma really paid off:

I am a constant shopper at Goodwill, they get a fair amount of money from me for everyday things. The thing is if I … Read more

The 404 986: Where it's hard to stop midstream (podcast)

There are no chat room viewers to keep us on topic now that we've stopped live streaming.

So fair warning: we spend most of the first half explaining the concept of Goodwill stores to Jeff, whose ignorance I still suspect is a veiled attempt at live trolling.… Read more

Microsoft joins Goodwill recycling program

Microsoft announced Wednesday its joining Dell and Goodwill Industries International in their ongoing recycling program.

Goodwill, in addition to being a used clothing and furniture repository and store, is also a place where people can drop off their old electronics.

Through a program started in partnership with Dell in 2004 called Reconnect, participating Goodwill centers allow people to drop off their used computers and related peripherals to be recycled for free.

You can now add Microsoft products like Zunes and Xboxes to the list of electronic items Goodwill accepts.

The program is not completely convenient as there are many states … Read more

AMD expects sizable write-down for declining value of ATI purchase

Advanced Micro Devices said Wednesday it expects in the fourth quarter to take a sizable write-down for the declining value of intangible assets related to its $5.4 billion acquisition of graphics chipmaker ATI Technologies.

AMD, in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said it doesn't yet know the exact size of the write-down but expects it to be "material"--or in other words, substantial--when it concludes its review.

The chipmaker said it's planning to write off the value it assigned to the ATI acquisition that was above the actual value of ATI's assets, otherwise … Read more

For the holidays, a black box

There's one thing that brings people together every holiday season, and we're not talking about the mall: It's car accidents. Bad weather, bad drivers, bad last-minute-shopping attitudes make for a deadly combination. So Crave is doing our part to spread cheery thoughts by passing along the "RoadBox."

This "vehicle accident camera system" from South Korea, according to Red Ferret, "incorporates a speed and acceleration monitor to give you some all round information about the circumstances leading up to the crash, 14 seconds before and 6 seconds after." It just goes to … Read more