half.com

eBay launches bar-code-scanning app for Half.com

Earlier this summer, eBay acquired a mobile app company called RedLaser, which performed price comparison and product search functions through photos that the user would snap of product bar codes. Now, the first eBay-created product of the RedLaser technology is here: an iPhone app for eBay's reselling site Half.com.

iPhone owners can use the free app, released in Apple's App Store Monday, to take a picture of a bar code on a product and then scan Half.com's inventory to find price points on new and used items there. Then they can actually buy them through … Read more

E-textbooks vs. Kindle DX: What will college kids pick?

Amazon announced its most recent Kindle device this week: the Kindle DX. Though it's almost identical to the original Kindle, this newer model is marketed for use with textbooks and for reading periodicals. While this seems to give the impression that Amazon has presented a more practical solution for college students, it's likely that the everyday pupil will reject this new device.

Currently, most students purchase their books on campus, where new and used copies are available, while the more frugal of us order online from Web sites like Amazon.com or eBay's Half.com. At the end of the semester, students can sell their books back to the school or to online buyback services where they receive a check for about 15 percent of the original price. For decades, this has been the routine.

More recently, however, the words "e-textbook" and "Netbook" have created a buzz around campus.

E-textbooks have been available for some time now, and are currently purchased for use on a laptop or desktop for about half the price of the print book version. Electronic textbooks are an excellent alternative to print books since with them, a student can search for a specific word or topic, copy/paste text into their coursework, comment within the textbook, and enjoy a lighter backpack. … Read more

'First Dot-com City' auctions off sign of the times

It's nowhere near Silicon Valley and it's likely that the residents who use "Google" as a verb are in the minority. But there's a town in Eastern Oregon that was once known as "America's First Dot-com City."

Halfway, Ore., a little town southwest of Hells Canyon, gained fame in 1999 when it agreed to publicly change its name for a year to Half.com in exchange for cold hard cash (said to be $100,000) and school computers. In an auction that ended Sunday on eBay, the town was able to squeeze … Read more