Hasta La Gadget!

Amazon recently announced a rather ambitious project that its R&D division has been working on. Called Amazon Prime Air, the company plans to employ drones to deliver packages of up to five pounds in 30 minutes. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that the company hopes to make this project a reality by 2015, despite the fact that there are several challenges and hurdles in the way that Amazon Prime Air will have to clear first before it takes off. Speaking with Bloomberg TV, eBay CEO John Donahue said that his company isn’t focused on “long-term fantasies” such as Amazon’s drone project, instead he said that eBay is focusing on things “that will change consumers’ experience today.”

In select markets, eBay already offers a service called eBay Now. These markets include New York City, Dallas, Chicago and the San Francisco Peninsula region, eBay Now will also be launched in London soon. Users can opt for this service if they want items delivered within an hour after they have placed the order. The company’s personal shoppers handle the pickup from retail partners and delivery, all within 60 minutes. Despite the fact that its roll out has been rather slow, eBay Now is only expected to cover 25 markets by the end of next year, the fact remains that its already being offered to consumers. Amazon Prime Air, no matter how ambitious, still exists only on paper. However, Donahue agress that “bold innovation is important,” and that’s what Amazon’s delivery drones are at this moment, bold innovation. The CEO says that eBay’s bold innovation is focused around commerce.

eBay CEO Believes Amazon’s Delivery Drones Are A ‘Long-Term Fantasy’ original content from Ubergizmo.

It goes without saying that one must be cautious when buying things online, particularly from websites such as Craigslist and eBay. It is very easy to get scammed, or worse, even killed. 19 year old Peter Clatworthy, based in Nottingham, UK, searched eBay for the Xbox One Day One edition that he wanted to purchase as a gift for his four year old son. Clatworthy had been saving up his pounds to purchase Microsoft’s latest gaming console, however he didn’t end up with the console he wanted so badly. After paying £450 or roughly $730 and expecting to receive the console, he ended up with a photo of the Xbox One.

The eBay listing clearly stated that the product was a photo of an Xbox One, however Clatworthy decided to go ahead with the purchase as the listing was in the video games and consoles category. He thought that since the listing was in this particular category, it just might be a legitimate Xbox One Day One edition console. Furthermore, he looked at the seller’s feedback and didn’t find any negative reviews, which gave him all the more reasons to continue with the purchase. He did, but when the package arrive, it was a lot smaller and flatter than he would have imagined. Inside, there was a badly printed picture of an Xbox One with the words “Thank you for your purchase” on the back. A spokesman for eBay tells the Nottingham post that they will take action against the seller as they “don’t allow listings which mislead.” Clatworthy is covered by eBay’s money back guarantee and since he paid via PayPal, he can expect a full refund. The seller has until Monday to refund the full payment.

UK Teen Pays £450 For Xbox One Day One Edition On eBay, Receives Photo Instead original content from Ubergizmo.

We had caught wind of a limited edition white Xbox One console that would be an exclusive to developers who worked on the Xbox One at Microsoft. Unsurprisingly some units have made their way onto eBay, with one going for as high as $11,300! Well the good news is that if you have the cash to splash and wouldn’t mind getting the limited edition Xbox One, you’re in luck because it looks like another white Xbox One has made its way onto eBay. At this time of writing, the console is going for $2,125 and with about 6 days to go, we wouldn’t be surprised if it managed to come close to $11,300, if not higher.

We’re not sure if the seller is an Xbox employee or if he/she is simply selling on the behalf of one, but either way the console appears to be brand new and will come with the usual, such as the Kinect sensor, a black and white controller, four Xbox One video games, and since this is also considered to be a “Day One” Xbox unit, it will also come with the achievement, which according to our earlier post, is actually something people are paying money to buy. So, any takers?

Another Limited Edition White Xbox One Console Spotted On eBay original content from Ubergizmo.

Now here is a rather interesting proposition – Microsoft, a corporate giant in its own right, already has their very own retail website, not to mention have over 75 Microsoft Store brick-and-mortar locations which dot the landscape in the U.S. as well as Canada. The thing is, the company still has plans to expand their retail presence, and their latest effort in doing so would be through the announcement of their very own store on eBay.

According to the Microsoft blog,” By working with eBay, a top global shopping destination with more than 124 million active users globally, even more customers can now purchase their favorite Microsoft first-party products including Surface and Xbox, as well as accessories. Our customers can expect the same safe online shopping experience, return policy and free shipping from the Microsoft Store on eBay that they’ve come to expect on microsoftstore.com.”

Right now, the eBay page for Microsoft does seem to arrive with a limited supply of products in comparison to the main Microsoft Store site. It is still selling the previous generation Surface and Surface Pro tablets at a discount, instead of having the most recent Surface products on sale. While everyone is looking forward to the Xbox One this weekend, the eBay page is still pushing the aged Xbox 360 console. We wish Microsoft the very best in this endeavor! [Press Release]

Microsoft Store Now On eBay original content from Ubergizmo.

The latest in company poaching comes by way of eBay, which has nabbed Apple executive R. J. Pittman who will now reported to the retail company’s president as eBay’s Chief Product Officer. The move comes after what is said to be a couple months of talks going on behind the scene, and is unrelated to […]