RIM's BlackBerry App World is slowly but surely gaining ground as a storefront for distributing BlackBerry applications. eBay is the latest major company to forge a presence in the storefront, in the form of an eBay app for BlackBerry auctioneers in the U.S. and Canada.
The official eBay for BlackBerry application, which was co-developed by eBay and RIM, includes features to search for, track, and buy an item from the smartphone. Unsurprisingly, the eBay app accepts PayPal payments--PayPal has not only been an eBay company since 2002, it is also currently the only payment system for purchasing BlackBerry apps through the App World.
(Credit:
RIM/BlackBerry)
In addition to letting users search and buy, the eBay app will notify you of your bidding status, including when you've won or lost a bid. It can also schedule auction-related reminders in the BlackBerry calendar.
eBay's app isn't the first of its kind for the BlackBerry platform. Earlier this year, Bonfire Media released U.S. and international versions of its app, Pocket Auctions for eBay. Since Pocket Auctions doesn't include hooks into the phone's native calendar, and costs $10, we're guessing that most eBay fans will easily pick the free, official app over Bonfire Media's third-party offering.
We got a brief demo of the then-under-wraps eBay app at the BlackBerry Developer Conference earlier this month. We liked the ease of the PayPal integration, but we won't really know how well the app works until we've spent some time with it. Tune back for our first impressions.
Matt's turntable, amp, and speakers.
(Credit: Matt Calderone)What's the definition of a great hi-fi? It's the one you're listening to. Not just for background "listening," but actual, focused listening.
Investing a lot of money on a hi-fi isn't the only way to get there. In fact, spending as little as possible on decent gear is the best way to get acquainted with good sound. Who knows, you might become an audiophile.
My friend Matt Calderone might be on his way. He was given a used Denon DP-7F turntable, and recently bought a Kenwood KA-701 integrated stereo amplifier on eBay and a pair of Klipsch speakers through Craigslist. All told, he spent less than $200.
Calderone is 26 years old so I was curious about how and why he wound up with a hi-fi. He says he's always been interested in LPs, and he likes listening to them over a decent stereo, not computer speakers. Calderone thinks good speakers make a big difference.
It's not just that the sound is better, music engages on a different level when heard over a hi-fi. Calderone frequently winds up just sitting on the couch and get this, he listens to entire records! The music is the main focus; vinyl has that effect on some people. Calderone is going to add a CD player soon, but for now his system is analog only.
The hardest part of buying a used hi-fi is picking the right gear. If you're new to hi-fi ask an older relative who knows audio about which brands are worthy, but for starters I'd recommend steering clear of Sony and Bose products. I like Creek, Denon, NAD, Onkyo, Pioneer, and Yamaha amplifiers and receivers; look for used Advent, AR, Boston Acoustics, DCM, Epos, Infinity, Klipsch, Magnepan, Mirage, Monitor Audio, NHT, Polk, Snell, or Vandersteen speakers. For a few hundred bucks you can put together a very listenable used system.
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In the place where they struck oil, they might, on hearing this news, be struck dumb.
You see, as I wandered through the pages of eBay in search of some fine and modern cooking utensils, I came across something that forced my digestive system to ask questions of my cerebellum.
(Credit:
eBay)
For there (here, indeed) was what seemed to be a brand new Xbox 360 for sale at the most reasonable sum of $1.1 million.
This, as your own cerebellum might be whispering to you, is no ordinary Xbox. For this pristine machine was signed by former governor of Alaska and current literary figure Sarah Palin.
The enervatingly enterprising vendor of this quite frankly priceless technological specimen is David Morrill (that's Morrill, not Imorrill) who claims he resides in Alberta, Canada.
He says he took a trip to Alaska and made sure it coincided with the then-governor's picnic on July 24.
He claims he pushed his way through the crowd to get within sniffing distance of the great Alaskan's hem, told her he had traveled three days just to see her, and asked her to sign his Xbox.
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An old iMac shell seems to make a suitable habitat for a hamster. Who knew? And the good news is you can buy it now on eBay. The bad news, of course, is the creator wants a ridiculous $350 for this thing--and it doesn't even boot up on hamster power.
The most suitable rodent inhabitant for the iMac cage, says its creator, would be a hamster, since hamsters tend not to chew as voraciously as mice, gerbils, and rats.
(Credit: eBay)
"Everything is safe. I put my own hamster in there for a while just to get a good laugh and sense of accomplishment," says the cage's maker.
(Credit: eBay)This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.
This is the last time we let Wilson choose the show title. Good news--The 404 Wikipedia page is BACK! Edit away, but please don't redirect the page. Today we talk about a fake bus stop in Germany, a "green" iPhone app, the iPhone 4G prototype, the "World of Warcraft" movie, and Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia.
That's right folks, our Wikipedia page is back up, and we're praying it's permanent this time! Big ups to our buddy Darth Paxton for helping us out, so go ahead and edit it all you like (we can't edit it ourselves) with inside jokes, characters, guests, etc., but please don't edit the redirections, those need to stay in place. Whoo! We're notable!!!
Also, do not attempt to adjust your monitor, the photo to the left is indeed our first look at Jake Gyllenhaal as the Prince of Persia. With those two swords in his hands and that red sash around his waist, he looks more like a chef at a Chinese restaurant than the video game hero.
Speaking of bad video game movies, we're afraid to see what Sam Raimi has in store for the "World of Warcraft" movie adaptation, although it'd be pretty funny to just have a half an hour of peons mining and chopping wood.
A quick disclaimer: there are two stories in today's rundown that some might deem offensive, but although they're both a little dark, the beauty of The 404 is being able to find a lighthearted (and sometimes tasteless) joke in everything! For example, here's a funny story about a fake bus stop in a clinic that's designed to keep its Alzheimer's patients from escaping. Sounds awful, right? I agree--maybe all the money they spent on building this "net" could have been used to pay more nurses and doctors to determine the reason why the patients are trying desperately to escape in the first place!
Anyway, that's the first story. You'll have to listen to the full episode, which also includes news about an eBay auction for an original Sony PlayStation signed by Michael Jackson and a very "green friendly" iPhone app
EPISODE 387
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(Credit:
Rob Cockerham)
Talk about expensive firewood. Winning a whopping $103.50, a wireless (and featureless) pure wood Kindle recently sold to the highest of 19 bidders on eBay.
Sacramento, Calif.-based Rob Cockerham of Cockeyed.com designed this wooden reading device, which holds one page from "The Count of Monte Cristo." He advertised the Kindling as "thinner than most quesadillas," holding "900 bytes of information (about 120 words)," and having a "complete lack of functional buttons."
After tracing a photo of the Amazon Kindle using a graphics-editing program, Cockerham handed the project over to a friend who laser-cut a piece of wood to exactly resemble the Kindle.
One bidder worried that "reading the same page over and over again, I fear I might grow board." But Cockerham assuredly responded that he "nailed the look of the original Kindle with this beauty and I guarantee you will knot get tired of reading it."
Past spoof projects by Cockerham have included Devo hats, a Dwight Shrute Bobblehead doll, and a "HypnoDisk," a giant black and white swirling wheel used to distract opposing shooters at basketball games.
(Credit:
Rob Cockerham)
That's a spicy meatball.
(Credit: Jeantastic/eBay)As a reformed sneakerhead, I understand the mentality behind getting the latest gear, but my mind was officially blown after seeing a pair of custom Xbox Nike Dunks sell for $4,000 on eBay this weekend.
Glow in the dark sneakers: toddler tested, fully-grown-man-approved.
(Credit: Jeantastic/eBay)It should be noted that this isn't an official collaboration between the two companies, but rather a special one-off pair made by Sole Junkie, an online company specializing in custom sneakers.
The sneaker is a hi-top version of the popular Nike Dunk basketball shoe, but Sole Junkie snuck fiber optic wiring into the patent leather in the shape of the popular Xbox logo that glows or strobes, powered by a battery sewn into the tongue. The toecap is also custom painted with "Tiger Camouflage" with lime green sneakers to match the laces and accents across the shoe.
The auction for this one-time-only, super collectors edition Dunk officially closed at 6:13 p.m. PDT on Friday, May 15, for an unbelievable $4,000.99. Four-thousand dollars and ninety-nine cents. Although they strike me as a glorified LA Lights, the shoes are certainly well done, but four grand? For that money, I think I'd rather buy an Xbox 360, an HDTV, a set of model paint, and a full semester of art classes instead.
Think they're worth it? Would you pay this much for a set of foot covers? Or are you going to wait for the Nikes sewn together with Dodo bird feathers instead? Check out the slideshow and let me know in the comments.
The Kindle DX is geared, among other things, toward textbooks, a potentially huge target market.
(Credit: Amazon )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 moreDan the Mantern makes his triumphant return to The 404 to talk about his exploits as a newly single man. Yes, ladies, he is available. You can find him on J-Date. Today, we expound on weekend movies "I Love You, Man", "300," and "Revenge of the Nerds" and find out why Jeff Bakalar is going to prison.
Dan T. Allen: 22-year-old male seeking female.
(Credit: Wilson G. Tang/CNET)Apparently, EA sent out packages of brass knuckles for the release of its video game version of "The Godfather II." Unbeknownst to them, it is a crime in most states to send brass knuckles, as they are in the same category of weapons as switchblades and gas guns. Also on today's show, we cover Vermont legalizing "sexting," a special eBay auction just in case you need to tell someone off, and Disney releasing a controversial animated movie featuring a black princess.
We've got a special treat for you today, as well. If you check your RSS or iTunes feed, you'll discover that we've officially pushed to you The 404 ringtones, including our main theme courtesy of Mr. Jamie Lewis and a Tom Merritt-inspired "Calls from the Public" ringtone. Also, if you have an iPhone, we've got special instructions on how to use our ringtones on your Jesus Phone. But wait, there's more! Yes, because of popular demand, we're pushing out acoustic versions of Jonathan Coulton's performances of "Codemonkey" and "Re: Your Brains" performed in our very own podcast studios. Don't you just love us?!?!
Remember to mark Thursday, April 16, as the day your life changes when Bore Out Loud and the Snore Oh Four battle to the death in a dance off (bring your tap shoes). Be sure to RSVP. We'll be partying hard at the whole upstairs floor of The Delancey in New York City at 7:30 p.m.
EPISODE 319
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(Credit:
eBay Motors)
It's no Ferrari, but an original 1956 Aerocar--the first flying car to be deemed street-legal in the U.S.--is listed for sale on eBay. And it's only $3.5 million--if you use "buy it now."
It's presumably in good shape, with the auction stating that its engine was inspected a couple of years ago, but if you plan on flying this car anywhere I'd recommend a tune-up first--the engine hasn't been officially inspected since 1976.
Of course, for that money you could buy a top-of-the-line personal jet as well as a rare super car, but that wouldn't be nearly as neat as this thing. I want it.
