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Auction for a laptop full of malware closes at $1.3 million (updated)
Today, bidding on a laptop packed with some of the world's most dangerous malware closed at $1.345 million. Dubbed "The Persistence of Chaos," the Samsung NC10 contains six viruses that have caused an estimated $95 billion in damages. Despite what you might think, it's not meant to be a tool for any world domination scheme. It's intended strictly as an art piece -- though it could be used for academic purposes -- and it's currently isolated and air-gapped to prevent foul play.
Verizon is reportedly close to buying Yahoo for $5 billion (updated)
Remember when Verizon bought out AOL (Engadget's parent brand) last year? Then get ready for deja vu: the communications giant is reportedly in closing talks to purchase Yahoo later this year. Sources familiar with the deal have told Bloomberg and Recode that Verizon is offering almost $5 billion to take over Yahoo's core business and real estate holdings. The deal still isn't finalized, but sources say it's close. That's good news for Tim Armstrong, who's been hoping to use the buyout to expand the AOL userbase from 700 million to almost two billion.
Amazon now lets you name your price on fine art
If you don't like the price on an Amazon Collectible & Fine Art item, you can now dicker for it instead. A new "make an offer" feature cropped up on the third-party marketplace site today, giving another option to paying the preset price. Amazon launched a failed auction site 15 years ago to compete with eBay, but the new system only allows private bids. Venders can accept, reject or counter an offer within 72 hours, and buyers can reply to any counter-offer within another three days. Amazon's upscale marketplace features over 15 million items valued up to three million dollars, though only about 175,000 carry the new option. It plans to expand it next year, however, so maybe you can clear space on your mantle for that $450,000 "Bat" Masterson manuscript after all.
Report: Yahoo becomes the latest company to place a bid on Hulu
The rumors on the potential sale of Hulu started circulating again a couple of months back. Now, according to AllThingsD, Yahoo is joining other big-name companies (such as Time Warner Cable and DirecTV) in the race to try and acquire the streaming service. Per the always-insightful sources "familiar with the process," Marissa Mayer & Co. submitted a bid for Hulu just this morning, though there are no details on how much the company is willing to spend on the video site. Something tells us we'll know more soon enough, but we can say with confidence that Yahoo is starting its holiday shopping really early.
One of those rumored Sega Pluto systems is up for auction
It's rumored that there are just two Sega Pluto systems on this planet – variants of the Sega Saturn featuring a built-in NetLink modem – and now, one of them is for sale. The owner of last week's second revealed Sega Pluto, username kidvid666, has a unit up for auction on Game Gavel, with bids starting at $1 and set in $100 increments. Three people have thrown in so far, with the top bid at $7,600. Remember, kidvid666 says he bought this thing for $1 at a garage sale five years ago.Kidvid666 says he's done his research on this thing's potential value and he has a hidden high reserve, but he started at $1 to get a feel for demand. At $7,600, the reserve price has not been met. Bidding closes at midnight the morning of April 26.This is the Sega Pluto with a faulty flip top; it doesn't stay closed without weight on top of it, but once it is closed the system appears to work just fine. Maybe put that tax refund to good use and check out the Sega Pluto auction on Game Gavel.
Crowdfunders fail to win Homeworld IP in THQ auction, issue refunds
When THQ went bankrupt and saw several of its IPs heading to the auction block, indie developer teamPixel began crowdfunding bidding money to win the Homeworld property for use in its upcoming space RTS game. Even after garnering $58,644 through a successful Kickstarter campaign and $13,675 on Indiegogo, teamPixel recently announced that it failed to win the Homeworld IP during the auction process."We hope you will join us in supporting Homeworld's new owners in building a future for the franchise," the developer said in a Kickstarter update. "We anticipate an announcement of the new owner to be made within a couple weeks and for the sale to be finalized around mid-May."Well into development on its own Homeworld-inspired strategy game, teamPixel will refund all money earned during its crowdfunding efforts while also offering donors a "special credit" in the game. The developer's "Save Homeworld" site has since transformed to a landing page for tracking donor refunds.The final THQ auction is expected to earn $6 million to $7 million. First details of the bidding results are expected to be revealed Monday.
Netflix nabs a million UK subscribers, promises to 'invest heavily' to outbid Sky for movie rights
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has threatened a bidding war with UK Broadcaster BSkyB for premium movie rights, and he could have the war chest to back it up -- the company also hit the million subscriber mark in the UK only seven months after launching there. Netflix UK boasted that it even got there faster than Twitter or Facebook did globally, and chalked up the success to most British households having at least one household streaming device. Meanwhile, Hastings said the US company intends to pry premium Hollywood movie rights away from BSkyB, promising to be "really aggressive in our bidding." The streaming service will have to overcome more than money, however -- the UK's Competition Commission granted BSkyB a rights extension to protect it from the very likes of Netflix.
FCC to dole out up to $300 million to help carriers expand service in rural areas
It seems like almost every day that we receive a press release announcing Verizon or AT&T is planning to expand its LTE coverage to three, five, eleven new markets. But in some remote pockets of the country, you'd be lucky to latch onto even a solid 3G signal. In a bid to make sure those folks in the boonies get their due, the Federal Communications Commission is establishing a fund to encourage carriers to roll out 3G and 4G service in sparser areas. All told, the agency plans to award up to $300 million to mobile operators, with funds going to the providers offering the lowest rates. The winners will be decided in a sealed, single-round auction, which opens June 27th and is set to close July 11th. As a condition for receiving the funds, carriers must agree to cover at least 75 percent of the road miles within a given census tract. While it's unclear at this early stage which mobile players will take the bait, the FCC's already signaled which parts of the country will be first in line for upgraded service -- namely, Rocky Mountain states like Utah and Idaho, along with Maine, Appalachia and upstate New York.
Huawei blocked from first responder network contract, US cites 'national security concerns'
The inability to win US government approval isn't exactly an unfamiliar issue for Huawei, which by now must be conditioned not to expect a nod from major US telecom companies. But now, The Daily Beast reports that the U.S. Commerce Department has made it very clear that the Chinese company won't have a role in building the country's new dedicated first responder wireless network. A spokesman wasn't shy about the reason, either, explaining that Huawei "will not be taking part in the building of America's interoperable wireless emergency network for first responders due to U.S. government national security concerns." And what about those national security concerns? Well, Huawei president Ren Zhengfei's former role as a People's Liberation Army technologist may have something to do with it, considering it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect that he still has some fairly close ties to Chinese government officials. We haven't heard a peep from the feds regarding Huawei's invitation for US officials to investigate the company earlier this year, but it's safe to assume that the investigation either didn't go very well, or more likely that it hasn't happened at all. We imagine that whole corporate espionage debacle probably didn't help the company, either.
Apple may be putting in a bid to buy Hulu
According to Bloomberg, the online video service Hulu is up for sale, and Apple is reportedly considering bidding on it. Apple certainly has enough cash on hand to buy Hulu (about 35 times over), and if successful in its bid Apple would gain a huge foothold in video media services. Put together with iTunes, an Apple-Hulu deal would be a serious competitor for Netflix. Other entities interested in buying Hulu include Google, Yahoo, and AT&T (shudder). Microsoft has dropped out of the bidding, and Bloomberg's sources say Amazon is unlikely to bid unless it gets guaranteed access to shows. Several of the media companies associated with Hulu are offering a five-year extension of program rights that includes a two-year exclusive deal, so it's a very lucrative target for all interested. Hulu went up for sale last month, and Yahoo reportedly made a US$2 billion bid for it already. Whoever buys Hulu, I have just two requests: Make the service available to the roughly six billion humans who don't live in the United States. Like John Gruber says, get rid of the Flash-centric interface.
Apple and Google may be in a bidding war over InterDigital patents
Thanks to the patent system, the tech market is looking more like Parker Brothers' "Monopoly" game every day. According to Bloomberg, Apple and Google are two of the companies reportedly interested in purchasing mobile tech designer InterDigital for its 1,300 patents related to information transfer. Google recently lost a bid for Nortel's patent portfolio, a bid that Apple, Microsoft, and other companies won. InterDigital's patents are supposedly "deeper and stronger" than Nortel's, however, which makes it a keen target for the major players in the mobile industry. It's kind of sad that we've reached the point where every time a tech company passes "Go" in Silicon Valley, they have to sweat over landing on someone's patented hotel space and cough up billions of dollars if they want to keep playing. Since that's apparently how the game is played these days, though, it'll be interesting to see who winds up with InterDigital's US$3.1 billion portfolio after the bidding is over.
Google bids pi for Nortel's wireless patent stash, brings comedy to places you never thought possible
Enabling surfers to play Pac-Man instead of actually initiating the search they showed up to complete? Taking a stroll through an episode of Burn Notice? Throwing internet on a magical Indian bus? All relatively normal things from one Google, Inc., but it seems that Larry Page's deadpan demeanor is actually covering up quite the character. During the outfit's recent attempt to outbid the likes of Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM and Sony for a sliver of Nortel's coveted wireless patent portfolio, Reuters is reporting that Google's plays were... less than conventional. Reportedly, the company bid $1,902,160,540 and $2,614,972,128, better known by mathematicians as Brun's constant and Meissel-Mertens constant, respectively. Funnier still, Google decided to offer $3.14159 billion (you know, pi) when the bidding reached $3 billion. One of the unnamed sources summed up the bizarreness quite well: "Google was bidding with numbers that were not even numbers. It became clear that they were bidding with the distance between the earth and the sun. One was the sum of a famous mathematical constant, and then when it got to $3 billion, they bid pi. Either they were supremely confident or they were bored." Or, perhaps they're just supremely awesome?
Huawei bids high, loses hard on two major US assets
Huawei has been kicking for well over two decades, and while a great deal of its business revolves around the enterprise, the company still has a presence in the consumer arena (most recently with its S7 tablet). But for whatever reason, it's having one bear of a time breaking into the US acquisition game. According to a pair of people sourced by Bloomberg, Huawei wasn't selected as the winning bidder of two large US assets in recent months despite having offers of "at least $100 million more in each case." Ouch. As the story goes, the sellers (2Wire and Motorola) "doubted Huawei's ability to win US government approval," possibly because of the founder's prior role as an official of the People Liberation's Army. It's also not the first time that Hauwei has been deterred in the US; the outfit dropped a bid in 2008 for 3Com after America began "investigating whether a deal would give China access to anti-hacking technology used by the Defense Department." 'Course, given the existing legal trouble between Huawei and Motorola right now, we're not sure a +$200 million bid would've sealed the deal on its recently hawked wireless equipment unit. Hit the source link if you're down for a serious read. Mystery, drama, deceit -- it's all there.
Rumor: AT&T outbid Verizon for the iPad data plan
Fox News writer Clayton Morris was also wondering just why Apple went with AT&T yet again for the iPad data plan, but it turns out things between the two companies weren't quite so cut and dry as Jobs made us believe on stage. He says that inside sources at Verizon still insist that they've been talking with Apple about handling some of the data service, and he even says that they've mentioned not only an iPhone set up to work with Verizon later this year, but an iPad as well. Rumor also has it that AT&T simply outbid the other cellphone providers for becoming the official iPad data service, and that makes sense: that $29.99 unlimited plan is a heck of a deal for consumers, but then again, it'll bring in a heck of a lot of business for AT&T (who should have already been in hot water for their service outages, and will probably end up in more, despite their promises that their network can handle the data). Of course, Verizon is really the only source saying they're still in the game at the moment -- most analysts believe Verizon won't see Apple hardware until they bring out their next-generation LTE service, and even then having a bunch of different plans to choose from doesn't really sound like Apple's kind of thing. But it is interesting to hear that AT&T is willing to take a dive in price to keep Apple's business. Wonder what might happen if their network dives as well. [via Apple Insider]
One day left on Children's Week Child's Play auction
Time is running out on our friend Brigwyn's Children's Week auction to benefit the Child's Play charity. Most of the auctions have about a day left on them, and while Brigwyn has already met a few goals, and some of the auction pieces have reached some very nice bids (Cadistra's WoW Eh? print is bringing in some great money for the kids, and our own guest host spot on the podcast is doing better than I ever expected), there's still a ton of great stuff to bid on. You can still pick up an official BRK t-shirt for pretty cheap, and the infamous autographed Hooter's shirt still hasn't been bid on yet. Surely someone wants that, right? Tell you what -- if you buy the Hooter's shirt and wear it to BlizzCon, we'll have everyone there from the WoW Insider staff sign it for you as well. Now that is a prize you can't pass up!Huge thanks to everyone who's bid so far, and of course to Brigwyn for putting all of this together (if you haven't read why he's personally involved in this yet, please do). There's just over a day left, so make sure to get your bids in ASAP, and help get some kids in hospitals some videogames of their own to play while there.
Starting out in Vana'diel: The auction house
Hello adventurers! It's been a while, hasn't it? We've been put off track thanks to an anime convention and a certain holiday, but we're back and better than ever! Last time I said we were going to talk about the auction gouse, and that's exactly what we're going to learn about today!Final Fantasy XI's auction house isn't your standard ebay-esque system. While there is bidding, there is no such thing as a buyout, and you can't actually buy from a specific person. Items are put into the auction house, you can see if there are any of a certain item in-stock, and you can choose to place an amount of gil for that item. This type of auction is a variant on the silent auction, where there is no auctioneer and rising bidding price. Interested? Keep on reading and we'll get into the specifics of how this system works -- it's a little tricky at first.
Grandson sneaks on eBay, uses Grandpa's account to buy Wii
Archie Lovett is one sneaky kid. Not only is he adept enough at using those computer things, but apparently he's got a good memory, too. See, he used his Grandpa's account, UK resident Ray Atkinson, on eBay, remembering the username and password, to place a £197,654 bid on a Wii. The best part? The kid already has one.Thankfully, the eBay seller was cool about the whole thing and ended up selling it to another individual, although for a lot less than Archie's bid. We've featured various eBay goodies in the past. Have you seen Miyamoto's first console? Or how about the very sweet Super Mario Galaxy mod? Be sure to also check out this nice pair of Chuck Taylors with Nintendo mascots painted all over them.
Air Force planning multi-billion dollar GPS upgrade
A long line of tenacious competitors is forming to bid on the US Air Force's multibillion-dollar upgrade plan for the current Global Positioning System, with major players Lockheed Martin and Boeing squaring off for the next generation of GPS satellites. The lucky winning bidder will be responsible for construction of eight new GPS III satellites, which will be deployed for use in 2013. Additionally, the Air Force has opened the door for bidders on its ground-based GPS system (GPS OCX, which will utilize existing satellites) and is expected to choose two of three interested parties for the $160 million development contracts. Apparently, the industry is sweet on the Air Force for splitting the space and ground contracts, and instating a relatively new practice which allows companies to bid directly with the government (as opposed to subcontractors). Way to "aim high," everyone.
FCC approves rules for 700MHz frequency auction
The FCC has just approved rules on the highly-sought after, Google-attracting 700MHz wireless frequency band auction which will take place sometime next year. The agency has decided that one-third of the soon-to-be-empty band will be available to consumers under FCC chairman Kevin Martin's "open access" plan, which forces the winning bidder to keep the band accessible to any wireless device or application regardless of the maker, opening up options heretofore unseen on established networks. The 700MHz range -- which is being vacated by television broadcasters going digital -- is desirable because of its ability to travel long distances and easily penetrate walls, and Martin feels it could provide a "third pipe" to US homes, circumventing the established stranglehold cable and telephone companies have on bandwidth. A total of 60 megahertz will be auctioned off, with twenty-two of them "open," and another 10 set aside for a "national public safety" network. The auctioning off of the frequency is expected to raise as much as $15 billion for the federal treasury.
Ask WoW Insider: When is it fair to upgrade an epic?
Welcome back to Ask WoW Insider, where each week we publish one of your questions. Last week we had some fun imagineering new battlegrounds, and this week we turn our attention once again to an issue near and dear to our hearts: loot. This week's question comes from Chris, who wants to know about etiquette regarding rolling or bidding for an epic drop to replace an item in a slot that is already an epic: All DKP ideas aside, when is it fair to upgrade an epic over an epic? Here is the situation: We are running Karazhan and the Staff of Infinite Mysteries drops. I, being a mage, have the epic spell blade form Thrallmar and epic off hand I got from turning in badges of justice. In addition to my weapons I have dropped all money making professions to take up tailoring and enchanting and power leveled them up to get the best gear and enchants possible to make raiding easier. Everyone else has just started doing the same thing finally and are a bit slow in the progress. Now, every DPS squishy wants the staff because it's an obvious upgrade to their blue weapon and I want it because it's an upgrade for boss fights because of the +hit and secondary stats. Would it be fair to roll for the staff seeing as how I have worked hard to get where I am at and still consider the staff to be an upgrade? Or should I just let the people that haven't worked as hard to get geared out take it in hopes it helps out the raid progression a bit faster. My opinion is that passing on loot to help those less geared out is like taxing the smart to help the dumb. Perhaps you have a better theory. What say you, readers? What factors should you consider when bidding or rolling on an epic drop that will replace a piece of gear on your character that is already shiny purple? Should you gear up those in blues first to help your guild, or is your dkp yours to spend on whatever you like with a free conscience? How much of an upgrade does it need to be to justify taking it over the lesser-geared? Join us next week for another Friday edition of Ask WoW Insider, and don't forget that we need your questions to make it happen! Send us what you want to know at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.
