With most stores sold out, iPhones selling for $1,000 on eBay
In the evolving manner of online ticket scalpers, people are snapping up dozens of Apple 3G iPhones -- now sold out in most states -- and selling them on the Web for prices hovering in the low four-figure range.
While some eBay auctions had reached pricetags above $1,000, most iPhone 3Gs listed early Wednesday were going for between $800 and $900 -- far above the $200 and $300 retail price for the 8GB and 16GB model, respectively.
User-developed games to be sold on Xbox Live for between $2.50 to $10
Microsoft announced today that user-created games will be sold on Xbox Live through a new Community Games section starting this fall, with developers taking 70 percent of the revenue.
Almost two years ago, Microsoft first announced its plans to open Xbox 360 development to the public with the unveiling of its XP-compatible XNA Game Studio Express, and fully-featured XNA Game Studio.
MySpace support bolsters OpenID, but the logins won't be portable
Popular social networking site MySpace said Tuesday it will join the open source authentication platform OpenID, further bolstering the idea of a unified system to carry online identities between Web sites. But for now, MySpace's OpenID accounts cannot be used elsewhere.
OpenID has already been embraced by nearly 8,000 sites, including Yahoo (the largest supporter in terms of users), Plaxo, Wetpaint, Technorati, and LiveJournal. But MySpace is the second largest site to join the network to date, and will nearly double the amount of OpenID accounts to a half-billion. Although, because MySpace doesn't require e-mail verification, many of its accounts may not be legitimate.
Details on DNS flaw inadvertently leaked; researcher says patch now
The cat is out of the bag before Black Hat. That isn't a passage from a Dr. Seuss children's book, but a description of what happened on Monday when a Web site accidentally posted details about a DNS flaw uncovered by security researcher Dan Kaminsky earlier this month.
Kaminsky, who plans to discuss the flaw at the forthcoming Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas next month, had wanted to keep the details private until then, in hopes of preventing the flaw from being used for malicously redirecting Internet traffic to phony Web sites for large-scale phishing exploits.
Comcast to provide Web video services to rival cable operators
A division of cable provider Comcast has struck deals with three other rival cable operators to help them serve online video to their customers.
thePlatform is a Seattle-based digital media company that was acquired by Comcast in 2006 for about $100 million. The folding of its operations under the cable operator's umbrella has allowed thePlatform to invest further in its technologies.
Power companies, GM, team in electric car research
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has announced a collaboration with General Motors and 34 North American power companies to speed the integration of electric cars into the grid.
By 2010, there are expected to be a handful of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) available on the United States market, and for them to be properly deployed, a blueprint for an electric fuel infrastructure must be laid out.
Windows Vista hurting SSD development, claims SanDisk CEO
Microsoft's Windows Vista is to blame for slowing down the progress -- and, in turn, adoption-- of solid state drives (SSDs), according to Sandisk Chairman and CEO Eli Harari.
"As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," Harari said, during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings call on Monday.
AOL bulks up Health site with new content partnerships
Faced with an uncertain future and struggling ad business, AOL is bulking up its AOL Health Web site, adding Caring.com, Health.com and HealthCare.com as three new partners.
HealthCare.com offers a list of more than 1 million medical doctors across the United States, depending on location, medical specialty, and health insurance plan; Caring.com features articles and guides on how to care for elderly patients; and Health.com offers articles, tips, images, videos and health tips for patients.
After relaunch, AOL's Propeller not so Digg-like anymore
AOL's social news property Propeller, which began as a part of Netscape.com revamp headed by Internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, has been re-designed and re-launched under the same name.
Besides the nuclear-age design ethic upgrade, the service has scrapped its old ranking system entirely. Formerly, it worked like Digg and Yahoo Buzz, where a story's ranking was determined strictly by the number of votes it had.
Slydial helps avoid conversation with direct-to-voicemail messages
Ever have one of those moments where you wanted to leave someone a message without actually talking to them? Understanding this feeling, MobileSphere recently introduced Slydial, a free service that allows users to leave a voicemail for a person without risking that they answer the phone.
Those wanting to avoid an actual conversation simply need to dial 267-SLYDIAL (267-759-3425), sit through a brief history about Slydial and why it should be used, an advertisement that will last a couple of seconds, and then enter the person's phone number. Once all that is completed, the Slydial service connects to the person's voicemail just like a regular phone call.
Watch out Cisco: Brocade buys Foundry for $3 billion
In a move seen as posing stronger competition to industry giant Cisco Systems in storage networking, fiber channel (FC) specialist Brocade Communications has acquired Ethernet switch maker Foundry Networks for $3 billion.
With the merger, Brocade will now join Cisco in owning toeholds in both areas. Beyond giving Brocade new expansion opportunities into general networking, the deal looks likely to offer a more solid second alternative to business customers interested in combining fiber channel (FC) storage networking technology, Brocade's traditional forte, with Ethernet, some analysts say.
Adobe refreshes media player, adds free Sony, CBS movies
Adobe on Tuesday said it had begun to roll out the first update to its desktop media player, complete with a new interface and content deal with Sony.
Signing Sony onto the service means Adobe Media Player users will soon be able to watch full-length feature films from Sony Pictures. Among the first titles to debut will be Men in Black and The Fifth Element among others, according to reports.
Sony Ericsson unveils 'most affordable' Walkman phone, but price a secret
Sony Ericsson today announced the upcoming availability of its newest Walkman-branded handsets, adding a new top and bottom to the now three-year-old line of phones.
The W302 will be the "most affordable Walkman phone to date," when it premieres in the fourth quarter of this year, according to Sony Ericsson. Offering a 2-megapixel camera, FM radio, and 512MB memory stick storage, the W302 is a quad-band GSM/EDGE/GPRS device -- the only model of this new crop that doesn't offer 3G connectivity.
QVC 2.0: TiVo users can buy products on their TV through Amazon
In an attempt to further monetize its DVR offering, TiVo has partnered with online retailer Amazon to allow advertisers to sell products to TiVo users directly through their TV.
The new service is most easily described with this example: an author appears on The Oprah Winfrey Show to promote his or her new book. At the end of the show, TiVo pops up a window with an option to purchase the book. TiVo currently embeds advertisements at the bottom of certain windows, which is likely where this offer would appear.
Microsoft prepares to auto-deliver Windows Search 4.0 to Vista users
If you notice your hard drive crunching later this month while performing a menial task, fear not: it's just the new Windows Search software creating an index of your files. Microsoft plans to automatically deliver version 4.0 of the software, formerly Windows Desktop Search, to Vista users.
Windows Search 4.0 was released in June and Microsoft says it has "seen a good number of downloads, and a number of positive responses from customers." The advantage over Vista's built-in search function is one of performance, the company claims. The structure of the search index was completely redesigned to speed up locating items on the hard drive and networked PCs.
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