Chris Martin and Bono played a duet on a $1.6 million piano, Jenna and Barbara Bush worked the room, and a computer was sold for $977,000. Though Vanity Fair contends that Jony Ive and Marc Newson’s Sotheby’s auction on Saturday was “unlike the typical Sotheby’s auction,” it still sounds like pretty typical rich people stuff to us.
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For as much as Richard Branson would like to convince us otherwise, regular folks like us have precious little chance of ever leaving the comfort of Earth’s atmosphere and venturing into space. But that doesn’t mean you can’t own an item that already has.
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Architecture-with-a-capital-A isn’t always regarded as one of the more playful creative fields, but give the pros a good cause and they just might surprise you. London-based developers Cathedral Group enlisted the star-studded talents of 20 top UK architects and firms to make a custom dollhouse for an upcoming auction benefiting Kids, a charity dedicated to disabled kids and their families.
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Upset that Breaking Bad is about to end? Feel like you’re losing an abusive, meth-hocking friend? Everything’s going to be ok—thanks to auction website ScreenBid, you can soon fill that empty space in your heart with "the most iconic tighty-whities in television." That’s right, Walter White’s underwear—along with a whole slew of other props from the show—will soon be up for sale.
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Ever wanted to take pictures like an astronaut? Now’s your chance. There’s an original Hasselblad 500EL Electric Camera
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Sometimes photographers amaze us with their ability to uniquely reflect the world around us and get a look at it from a different angle. Other times, they depict images so disgusting or banal that it’s impossible to understand why so many consider their photographs masterpieces. The art market is inscrutable, especially when it comes to photography. The following ten photos, ranked by worth, sold for millions of dollars at auctions over the past few years.
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Government entities need to get rid of excess junk too, and they often do it through a site called GovDeals.com. It’s like Ebay for the federally-funded set. For the next hour, there’s an auction going on for a lot of 40 Gerber knives. The current price is $276—a mere $7 a knife. More »
In 1960, engineers set out to develop the technology that would convert our society into debt-crippled shopaholics. But before we all started wielding plastic, it was made out of cardboard—and now you can buy the original IBM prototype. More »
FCC meetings can be momentous occasions under the right circumstances, although it’s seldom the case that we see the agency pass two potentially far-reaching measures in one sitting, like we just saw on Friday. To start, regulators have voted in favor of a proposal that will review spectrum sale rules and might drop the case-by-case determinations in favor of a more consistent screening mechanism. The reexamination will also consider a change to the ownership rules surrounding wireless frequencies that treats bands below 1GHz differently than those above — the better to address a chorus of smaller carriers that don’t like all the prime spectrum going to the companies with the most existing clout, namely AT&T and Verizon. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski argues that reform could spur innovation through more competition, although dissenting Commissioner Robert McDowell is worried that consistent rules will somehow create “uncertainty.”
Side-by-side with the review, the FCC is proposing an incentive-based reverse auction strategy to have TV broadcasters voluntarily give up their spectrum for cellular and data use. The multi-phase approach would have TV providers set the price at which they’re willing to sell their spectrum to the FCC; those that just can’t bear to part with their airwaves would be corralled into a tighter band range to make for larger available frequency blocks in the auction that follows. As with other FCC proposals, there’s likely to be a long interval between the auction vote, the review and any definitive rulemaking, let alone an impact — auctions by themselves can take years to play out. Still, any success with the measures could head off spectrum crunches while simultaneously preventing any solutions from consolidating too much power and creating their own problems.
[Tower photo via Shutterstock]
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile
FCC votes in favor of rethinking spectrum holding rules, goading broadcasters into wireless selloffs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Sep 2012 21:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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