Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on April 02, 2008 by CyberNet.

TechCrunch is reporting that “Something big is brewing between Google and eBay’s Skype.” Whatever is brewing, whether it’s a full-blown acquisition or a partnership, this could be pretty big. Michael Arrington says that for several weeks now, there have been rumors that the two companies were chatting and trying to work out details, and that an announcement regarding what they intend to do will be made in the “near future.” So what could this mean for eBay and for Google should a deal be worked-out?

For eBay this could mean that they are finally able to ‘rid’ themselves of a company that hasn’t done a whole lot of good for them.  You may recall that eBay acquired Skype back in September of 2005 for 2.6 billion. At the time, one of their intentions was to use Skype to help buyers and sellers communicate on eBay, which they tried but it didn’t  go over so well. Not much good has come from the acquisition and eBay even took a $1.4 billion dollar asset-impairment last year during the 4th quarter to help with the promised Skype  shareholder payouts that totaled 530 million. At that point, people were suggesting that eBay should ditch Skype all-together.

What does this mean for Google? Well, we already know that they have big plans for voice communication. They already offer GOOG-411 for free which we know is used for their speech-to-text model, and then they acquired GrandCentral back in June last year. Clearly Google is interested in voice and Skype could help them do big things. Our other thought was that they could integrate Skype into Google Talk.  We’ve already seen a screenshot from a Google presentation which showed a screenshot of Google Talk with a “show dial-pad” link, so that tells us Google wants to help users dial-out and place phone calls right from Google Talk. Skype could help them do just this.

A Google acquisition of Skype makes a lot of sense and we’re thinking Skype would love to be under new leadership with a company who could devote the time and resources to make them profitable. And as for Google, Arrington says, “Skype is the glue that can pull all the nascent Google products together.” This could be interesting…

Source: Thanks for the tip Omar!

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

The Spanish had first dibs on ZTE’s Open smartphone, but earlier this month we were told Americans and Brits would eventually be able to buy the Firefox OS device through ZTE’s local eBay storefronts. Well, the pages are now live, so in exchange for $80 or £60 (delivery is free), you can get yourself an unlocked Open in the eBay-exclusive orange hue; and, if the stock figures represent all ZTE has to hawk, it appears this initial batch will sell out before too long. We wouldn’t say the handset’s performance is good enough to disguise its miserly specs, but having a new mobile OS to poke around in for well under a Benjamin? Let’s just say that we’re having a hard time suppressing the impulse-buy urge.

[Thanks, Steve]

Filed under: Announcements, Cellphones, Mobile

Comments

Source: ZTE UK eBay store, ZTE US eBay store

eBay finally officially announced the launch of My Gadgets, a new little wrinkle to eBay that lets you organize and track the value of the gadgets you have accumulated over your years of buying stuff you probably don’t need. It’s like an online portfolio of your stuff, add the gadgets you own and see what the average selling price of it is on eBay.

Read more…

Do you think that the world is too serious these days, or does it lack that kind of sense of humor which helps people get along with their lives from day to day? Of course, there are some things which should never be posted online, but in the world of online transactions, you can never quite tell just when something crazy is going to appear – be it a scam or a joke. What you see above is of the latter category, where a wedding cake that was made for an event on July 27th this year went up for sale recently.

Needless to say, the wedding cake has been categorized as “Used”, with the description by the seller read as follows, “A few defects due to maker being unskilled. Uncut, along with large amount of awful cupcakes for free. No topper or decoration. Unusual design. Very heavy.” Of course, at least someone has commented on it, citing the dangers of selling a cake on eBay due to health and safety reasons. The seller has alleviated the commenter’s fears though, where it was mentioned that the cake has been “advertised purely as a joke” with no expectations of anyone purchasing it. The whole point of posting this up is to prevent future couples from getting ripped off from the same cake maker down the road.

Botched Tire Wedding Cake Sold On eBay As A Prank original content from Ubergizmo.

Searching for that ultra-fashionable onesie on eBay requires the patience of a saint, or at least it did. The UK arm of the auction giant has teamed up with startup Dressipi to offer a personalized shopping service for style-conscious women. Users are required to create a dress recipe Fashion Fingerprint comprising their vital statistics and clothing preferences, and then Dressipi’s service will scour eBay looking for appropriate apparel. At some point part-way through the six month trial, the service will also gain like and dislike buttons to further hone the recommendation engine, putting it one step ahead of Facebook in that regard.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Comments