Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Klausner Technologies has finally received what it wants from Apple, Ebay and AT&T following a lawsuit which they filed against the three companies requiring them to license its patent for its voicemail technology.

If you would recall, Klausner sued thse companies for $360 million in damages and future royalties over their unlicensed used of the company’s visual alert technology that alerts computers or mobile phones when a user received a voice message. Likewise the technology can also selectively retrieve messages.

Although the financial details of the settlements were not disclosed, it must be too good an offer that Klausner is also reportedly negotiating with Comcast and Cablevision for the use of their technology.

“The patent litigation with Apple has been settled. The patents have been licensed to Apple,” said its founder Judah Klausner.

The licensing deal adds up to Klausner’s other licensees which include Vonage and Sprint Nextel.

Read [Reuters]

So you’ve just developed this killer web-application and you’re looking to cash in and make it to the big-time… what next?  Just bring it to the most famous web-market of them all: eBay.

As a web-auction company, eBay has pioneered the web-market culture, bringing together seasoned entrepreneurs, first-time sellers, hobbyists, rare item collectors, and those just wanting to grab a bargain. It again opens the market further, this time to software application designers and add-on creators.

eBay has just announced at the eBay Developers Conference that it will be launching a program that will allow application developers to access all the data that eBay’s existing online app for medium- and large-scale retailers, Selling Manager, already has. This new initiative – nicknamed Project Echo – will make sure that the developers will be able pitch their apps to just the exact customer profile they are looking for; so other sellers won’t be bothered with it.

Caveats include all developers meeting certain standards of “trustworthiness” and that all programs should have a 30-day trial period. One huge benefit from all this is that qualified developers will have access to “special APIs that are only available to people who integrate in Project Echo” – this according to Max Mancini, senior director of Mobile Platform and Disruptive Innovation.
The project goes into testing Q4 of this year and is programmed to launch Q1 of 2009.

Read [WebWare]

A Sanford C. Bernstein analyst predicted that with the ongoing US economic downturn, the Internet will continue to shrink and most of its major players will suffer but at least two of the current major internet players will remain strong. Guess who? Google and Amazon.

The report entitled “U.S. Internet: The End of the Beginning” written by Jeffrey Lindsay predicted that given their current market performances, both Google and Amazon are most likely to sustain their current standing despite the present US economic recession. In fact these two major internet players continue to post 30-40 percent growth while everybody else seems to be suffering financially.

Interestingly the report has confirmed current happenings in the web industry. For one, it claimed that Yahoo will be eventually sold to Microsoft, while IAC will push through with its plan of splitting up its conglomerate. The report also noted that eBay and Amazon may soon be forced to impose sales taxes on their transactions.

The report also suggest that Yahoo may still recuperate from its slumping performance, possibly by turning over some of its search advertising to Google, or if Microsoft finally takes over the company.

Read [Reuters]

A woman who earlier tried to sell her baby on eBay was reunited with the infant after being investigated by German authorities. The police were alerted after several people called to complain about the eBay auction offering the 8 month old because he “cries too much,” the opening bid was for just 1 Euro. eBay, as expected, removed the auction as soon as they were made aware of it, and there were no bidders. The ad read “near new, rather loud, portable using pram or sash.”

The mother was quoted in Bild newspaper after her arrest saying: “It was only a joke. I just wanted to see if someone would make an offer. They’ve taken my son to hospital and I’ve got to take psychiatric tests next week.”

Mom and child were reunited on Saturday after she completed a week of psychiatric testing. She and her partner are now taking parenting classes and remain under the supervision of a social worker. The still unidentified mom now says she wishes she’d never even thought about the “joke.”

Via [Earthtimes.org]

A truly one of a kind XO Laptop is currently up for auction with all the proceeds going back to OLPC. The XO Laptop was signed by a collection of geeks and internet celebrities as they wandered around the recent ROFLCon event. The XO has been dubbed the “One ROFLaptop Per Child.” Some of the highlights include Kyle the One Red Paperclip guy, the Tron Guy, Firefox, the JibJab guys, iJustine, the Average Homeboy, Scott Beale from Laughing Squid and many, many more. As of this writing the XO currently has just about 2 days left and is sitting at just over $500. Keep reading to check out another image along with a video showing off some of the signatures.

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While we certainly cannot argue that the $3,200 price tag is worth the money, I am sure the hard work along with the necessary parts would justify the cost, we cannot help to think that its just an Eee PC. Sure its a great little notebook, but that is where it stops, part of the glory about the Eee, is that it is not only fully functional (for most people) out of the box, but it is also very affordable.

The latest highly modded Eee PC to land on eBay has just about everything you could want. Feature wise it is packed and includes a 32GB Patriot XT drive in addition to the standard drive, 2GB of RAM, upgraded Intel Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, an Air Play FM radio transmitter, GPS, Bluetooth, two USB hubs and a custom copper heatsink to help the overclocked processor. The Eee PC also has a touchscreen display, that while is still the original 7-inch size it has a 1024 x 768 resolution and is running Windows XP Professional SP3. Best of all its all crammed in without any addition to the external case and it still weighs just under 3.5-pounds. The auction with about a week still left, currently has no bids with a starting bid of $2,800 and a Buy-It-Now of $3,200. Keep reading for the complete specs…

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A Seattle native, Steve Shellhorn, recently purchased a few coins off eBay and little did he know that those few coins would turn into a $10,000 lawsuit. Yes, $10,000 all because of a few measly coins. He was sued because he left “neutral” feedback, and the seller didn’t like that, and promptly sued him for 10,000 big ones.

Basically, Shellhorn wanted to get some old, probably rare coins off eBay. The price was fair, but they came loose in an envelope and the overall packaging did not meet his expectations, he expected better considering what they were. Doing what most people would do when upset at the situation, he left a neutral feedback, saying that the price was fine, just that he wasn’t happy with the packaging. He even said, “The coins were hanging out of the envelope, loose, with no packing whatsoever around them.” Then the seller decided to sue, and Shellhorn was forced to hire an attorney, good news is that he eventually won the case and didn’t have to pay the money, however, he did have to pay $500 for the attorney. 

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eBay will be shutting down its live auction service by the end of 2008. The move is part of eBay’s latest move to try and recreate its own business model. For those who are not familiar with eBay Live Auctions, the service is similar to your traditional auctions but the Live Auctions last until there are no longer any people bidding for the item. Unlike eBay’s regular online auction which has a set time frame before the auction expires. Winning bidders also paid a premium of 12.5 or 15-percent based on the final bid. The decision to shut down Live Auctions was announced amidst the cry of several hundreds of eBay sellers who participate in the Live Auctions. Well, at least they can always go back to putting their items up for bid at eBay’s regular online auction service.

Via [The Register]

eBay has given Skype one more year to prove its viability and relevance to eBay’s online auction service. Skype was acquired by eBay with the hopes of the VoIP company helping boosts its online commerce business. However, since its acquisition, Skype failed to live up to eBay’s expectation of bringing more tie-ins between Skype and eBay’s online payment system through call-billing arrangement.

Citing an interview with the Financial Times, News.com reports that eBay CEO John Donahue said that eBay is giving Skype until the end of this year to test its synergies and if the synergies are strong, eBay will keep Skype in its portfolio. For eBay, its not a question of whether Skype is generating revenue for the company but more on the question of whether Skype blends well with eBay and its other web products and services.

In fact, Skype has managed to generate around $126 million in revenues during the first quarter of this year, which is a 61-percent increase from previous year’s first quarter revenue. Profit wise, it is expected to generate $500 million and still manage to post a profit. But this seems to be not enough for eBay to keep Skype. It wants something more from the PC-to-PC calling service. And whether Skype can give what eBay wants remains to be seen. Skype has a few more months to shape up, before it finds itself lost in limbo or still with eBay’s care and comfort.

Read [CNET]

The Government Accountability Office recently sent out a report that there are stolen US military items currently being sold on Craigslist and eBay. However, there is no clue as to where these items came from or who is selling them. This comes after government investigators posed as buyers who successfully purchased prohibited items such as night vision goggles, army combat uniforms, special enhanced body armor vests and two F-14 fighter jet components. Investigators fear that these items, if sold to non-military personnel or civilians, could be used directly against the US troops and their allies.

Important discussions have arisen since such items were posted for sale. At present, eBay and Craigslist do not follow any official state rules as to selling prohibited items but are still trying to keep such off the site. Jim Buckmaster, CEO of Craiglist even told the House National Security and Foreign Affairs subcommittee that the rules on what cannot and can be sold on the website are somewhat confusing. 

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