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Senators ask the FCC to limit 5G auction to protect weather forecasts
In March, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) began auctioning blocks of the 24 GHz spectrum, which could be used to implement future 5G networks. Shortly afterward, the US Navy released a memo warning that 5G in the 24 GHz band could interfere with weather satellites. Now, Senators Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) are urging the FCC not to allow wireless companies to operate 5G in that spectrum until weather forecasting operations are protected. The Senators wrote a letter to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai yesterday, citing the Navy's memo and accusing the FCC of ignoring "the serious alarms the scientific community is raising."
A pristine 'Super Mario Bros.' cartridge sold for over $100,000
Despite classic video games now being readily available online and on throwback mini consoles, rare physical copies are still fetching big bucks. The latest record-breaking collector's item is a sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. that just sold for $100,150, according to Kotaku, which experts claim is the highest-price ever paid for a single game.
FCC starts its first high-band 5G auction
The FCC just took an important step toward fulfilling some of the hype surrounding 5G. The regulator has started its first ever auction for high-band 5G wireless spectrum, giving carriers a crack at frequencies that could deliver gigabit-class speeds. This initial auction will hand out use of the 28GHz band with two 425MHz blocks available in a given county.
Sears hopes to sell its home improvement business to Service.com
Bankrupt retailer Sears announced that it's seeking permission to sell its home improvement division to a key rival partly responsible for its downfall. Pending trustee approval, it will sell the business to Service.com, an Airbnb-like service that helps home owners find contractors, for $60 million. Sears Home Services is considered to be one of the retailer's more valuable assets, so the asking price shows how far the company -- which employed 302,000 people just a decade ago -- has fallen.
AI-generated painting sells for $432,000 at auction
A painting created by artificial intelligence sold for $432,000 at the Christie's Prints and Multiples art auction in New York. The piece, called "Portrait of Edmond Belamy," is the first artwork made entirely by AI to go up for sale at a major art auction. It was expected to fetch between $7,000 and $10,000, making the $432,000 haul quite the shocker.
Banksy's 'Girl with Balloon' was meant to be shredded completely
Banksy's latest performance piece -- which saw him remotely shred his $1.1 million Girl with Balloon canvas seconds after it sold at auction -- captivated the world. What was he trying to say? What did it all mean? Was this a comment on capitalism? On the fickle nature of the art world? The essential meaninglessness of life as we know it? Hard to say, although we do know that the half-shredded canvas is now worth considerably more as a result of the stunt. However, it seems that the trick went wrong –- the canvas was supposed to be destroyed entirely.
Banksy painting uses hidden shredder to destroy itself after auction
Banksy just delivered a masterclass in using technology to both create and comment on art. The mysterious artist hid a shredder in the frame for his 2006 painting Girl With Red Balloon, and when it was sold at auction for £1,042,000 (about $1.4 million)... you can probably guess what happened next. The moment the gavel came down to close bidding, the painting largely destroyed itself. Banksy didn't say much about the tech involved in a brief clip, but he clearly had a remote trigger to cut his work into ribbons.
Christie’s will auction AI-generated art for the first time
In October, Christie's Prints and Multiples art auction will include a portrait of a man named Edmond De Belamy, one of 11 portraits of the Belamy family. The man is depicted in a dark coat with a white collar, his facial features indistinct. Blank areas around the work's edges suggest it was unfinished. To many, the work may appear right at home at an auction house such as Christie's. But Edmond isn't real. In fact the entire Belamy family is a work of fiction. And the portraits weren't painted by a human, but by AI.
FCC loosens utility pole rules to accelerate 5G rollouts
The FCC really, really wants to grease the wheels for 5G, and its latest changes do more to that end. To start, it just voted in favor of a new rule that could streamline the addition of new wireless and broadband services to utility poles. Instead of asking multiple companies to cooperate on readying a pole for new services, the rule enables a "One Touch Make Ready" approach where the newcomer can prepare the pole all by itself. The move could theoretically speed up deployments while lowering costs.
Ada Lovelace manuscript and algorithm fetch $125,000 at auction
A manuscript written by Ada Lovelace, who's considered by many to be the first computer programmer, was just sold at auction for more than $125,000, the Guardian reports. A first edition and just one of six known copies of the book, it contains Lovelace's translation of a paper written by Italian mathematician Luigi Menabrea that describes Charles Babbage's plans for his "Analytical Engine" computing machine. The manuscript also contains copious explanatory notes and observations from Lovelace as well as a formula for calculating Bernoulli numbers that has been called the world's first computer program.
Neil Armstrong's collection of space artifacts goes up for auction
The first man to walk on the moon, Neil Armstrong, took several items with him on that historic trip, including a US flag, a United Nations flag, state flags and several medallions that were only available to NASA astronauts. He also apparently kept the original camera that recorded his moonwalk in a closet. Now, Armstrong's personal collection will be offered for sale in a series of auctions starting November 1st and 2nd in his home state of Ohio. Bids can be offered online, by phone or in person.
eBay app uses barcode scanning to list your items in seconds
It's usually a pain to list your goods on an auction or marketplace site, especially if it's your first time. You have to describe them, choose photos and (worst of all) choose a price that will reel in potential bidders. eBay, however, thinks it can cut the process down to a few taps. It's updating its Android and iOS apps with a simplified selling process that it claims can list a product in a matter of seconds. If you have the box for an item, you just have to scan its barcode (or, if that fails, search by name) and choose the item's condition. After that, the app can fill in a basic description, photos and even the starting price -- as elsewhere, eBay can use a mix of structured data and predictive analytics to choose a price based on what's likely to get a response.
Martin Shkreli is selling his $2 million Wu-Tang album on eBay
Martin Shkreli, for lack of a better/more accurate word, is a gigantic tool. The priapic "pharma bro" gained notoriety after he jacked up the price of an anti-toxoplamosis drug by 5,000 percent in 2015. Later that year, it was revealed that he was the guy who spent $2 million on Wu-Tang Clan's one-off Once Upon a Time in Shaolin as a kind of middle finger to music fans everywhere. Now Shkreli has listed the ultra-rare album on eBay. Here's the item description, verbatim. Emphasis ours:
Vertu’s fire sale phones are still too expensive
Last month, we reported that British luxury phone maker Vertu was closing up shop due to financial difficulties. Now, the company is auctioning off pretty much everything in its warehouses. If you ever wanted to snag a Vertu phone on the cheap, this is your chance.
Sotheby's is auctioning off artifacts from the US space program
Nothing celebrates an anniversary like getting people to cough up extraordinary amounts of money, which is why Sotheby's has something special planned for the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing. On July 20, the auction house will be holding a space exploration-themed auction with one-of-a-kind items up for sale.
The FCC just sold a chunk of the wireless spectrum to T-Mobile
The results are in. After a year-long process, the Federal Communications Commission today announced the conclusion of its first-ever broadcast incentive auction, naming T-Mobile, Dish, Comcast and US Cellular as the biggest winners.
Isaac Newton text is the most expensive science book sold
Science texts aren't normally top earners at auctions, but Christie's just proved that there are major exceptions to this rule. The auction house has sold a first edition of Isaac Newton's 1687 masterpiece, Principia Mathematica, for just over $3.7 million -- the most expensive science book sold to date. It was originally estimated to sell for no more than $1.5 million, but its rarity likely helped drive the price up. This is a rare continental Europe edition, with only 80 copies published versus the 400 for Britain.
Ofcom bans BT/EE from bidding on new 4G spectrum
In a bid to bring balance to the UK's mobile industry, communications watchdog Ofcom has confirmed it will limit BT and EE's role in upcoming 4G auctions. Next year, Ofcom will sell off 190 MHz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 3.4 GHz bands, upping Britain's overall 4G footprint by almost a third, but BT and its newly-purchased subsidiary will be excluded from bidding on the entire 2.3 GHz band. Ofcom is worried their involvement "could harm competition in the next few years" if they were allowed to own nearly half of the usable spectrum in the market.
Nike's power-laced Mags net millions for Parkinson's research
All the nostalgia around Nike's self-lacing shoe, the 2016 Mag, came together in a major way for a great cause. Today, the sportswear titan revealed it raised $6.75 million through its online raffle and two auctions, with all proceeds going to The Michael J. Fox Foundation. The money, as a refresher, will help the organization try to find a cure for Parkinson's disease. Michael J. Fox, who starred in the Back to the Future II film that made the sneakers popular, suffers from Parkinson's himself.
Tesla Roadster prototype up for auction starting at $1 million
Tesla's Roadster is a seminal electric car, but it's not exactly a vintage model -- it first went on sale in 2008. So how does user "Jester944" justify the $1 million minimum bid for a Roadster prototype in his eBay auction? "A million dollar Tesla may be crazy today but ... imagine what the first Ferrari prototype models would go for. Take that 30 years into the future when most cars are electric and they'll be able to trace their history back to Tesla," he says.
