Future Shop offers trade-in credit for HD DVD players, will donate old decks to charity
[Thanks, Josh]
Posts with tag trade
[Thanks, Josh]
European Commission issues antitrust charges against Intel
Well they've been sniffing around the chip giant for quite some time now, but the European Commission has finally issued "formal charges against Intel for allegedly using illegal tactics against smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices," and according to a spokesperson for the EC, "the statement of objections has been sent." Supposedly, the EU's top antitrust regulator "has spent years investigating Intel's tactics to determine whether it acted unfairly to preserve its dominance over AMD," and now the time has finally come for the hammer to drop. Sadly, further details about the grievances have yet to be divulged, but we doubt Intel, who declined to comment on the situation, will be brushing this off its shoulders anytime soon.Feds impose "partial ban" on Qualcomm-powered phones
by Chris Ziegler, posted Jun 7th 2007 at 5:26PM 
Stock up on those 3G handsets, folks -- they could become very valuable commodities here in the next few weeks. As part of an ongoing series of spats between wireless giants Qualcomm and Broadcom, the US International Trade Commission has ruled that handsets containing Qualcomm 3G chipsets (and that's a whole heck of a lot of handsets) that are manufactured starting today may not be imported into the US. By all accounts, this appears to be much more than legal posturing on Broadcomm's part -- a ban is a ban -- and we've gotta believe this'll resolve itself right quick. But if for whatever reason it doesn't, get ready for an eBay free-for-all in a gloomy, scorched-earth future where the only high speed handsets are pawned for thousands of New Dollars on the black market. [Warning: subscription required]Mexican government swapping Xbox / PC for gang's weaponry
Here's an interesting one. It appears that a newly-elected mayor is trying desperately to restore order to the "notorious inner-city barrio of Tepito," but rather than raiding gang hangouts and throwing 'em all in the slammer, the Mexican government is looking to reward them. In a presumably last ditch effort to curb gunfighting, officials are offering up computers ( reportedly worth $769) to gunslingers who give up a "high-caliber weapon such as a machine gun," while folks coughing up smaller artillery will be blessed with an Xbox console. Notably, the effort is already seeing minor "success," as some 17 guns were turned in on the program's launch day alone. Look, we know it's a hard choice between gaming and booze (and hair, for that matter), but we seriously doubt that turning citywide bullies into hackers and couch potatoes is the ideal solution here.
Men prefer hair over gadgets
While all of us at Engadget are mostly dreaming of a digital Chrismahanukwanzakah, apparently a good number of our male readers are looking for something a little closer to home that will boost their self-esteem and sex appeal. (We know, we were surprised too.) Indeed, according to a study sponsored by Merck and conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery, over half of more than 2,000 balding men surveyed said that they would trade something from their collection of consumer electronics for more hair on their head. Of those surveyed, 26 percent said they'd trade a stereo system for a more beefy coiffure -- ok, that seems pretty fair. However, 17 percent said they'd trade their laptop (huh?), while another 17 percent said they'd give up an "expensive car" (wha?) for more follicles on the ol' chrome dome. But what we were most surprised about is that 13 percent of men surveyed said they'd trade their prized plasma TVs (have you guys seen the stuff on Engadget HD lately?), and a final six percent would trade a boat (are you guys nuts?) for some of the hairy stuff. Assuming these numbers are accurate, if we had Rumpelstiltskin-style machine -- that is, one that could turn silicon into hair -- we'd quit this whole blogging thing in a second.
