listing
Latest
OnePlus might be resurrecting its smartwatch ambitions
The smartwatch plans OnePlus shelved years ago could be back on the table.
DJI’s Mavic Mini is so small it doesn’t require FAA registration
DJI's new drone, the Mavic Mini, is a palm-sized device that's so light it doesn't require FAA registration. DJI hasn't officially announced Mavic Mini, but it hasn't done a great job of keeping it a secret, either. Today, a listing on the online retailer Newegg's Canadian site confirmed rumors about the tiny drone and leaked photos.
EU aims to curb big tech's dominance in business listings
The European Union is going to impose new rules on big tech to stop them playing dirty with each other across the continent. Companies that sell products online, or index retail listings, will have to be transparent about how they deal with rivals and work to avoid conflicts.
Airbnb cuts half of San Francisco listings as new laws kick in
San Francisco's strict short-term home rental laws just kicked in on Wednesday, and are already having a big effect on SF-based Airbnb. Listing plunged from over 10,000 to around 5,500, dropping around 4,760 listings, the site told the San Francisco Chronicle. Wednesday midnight was the deadline for hosts to register homes with the city for a $250 fee, or face fines as high as $1,000 a day.
AU ratings board classifies BioWare's 'Green Cloud'
An entry for a new game from Mass Effect and Dragon Age series developer BioWare appeared on the Australian Classifications Board website this week. Listed under "Green Cloud," presumably as a code-name, the game earned a MA 15+ rating from the board due to its "strong fantasy violence and sexual references" as well as online interactivity. Nothing else is known about Green Cloud, though it is listed as a multiplatform game on the ratings website. No listing for Green Cloud appears when searching ESRB and PEGI's directories. BioWare did reveal its 4-on-1 action RPG at Gamescom in August, Shadow Realms. The next game from the studio is Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was delayed to November 18 as of July. [Image: Australian Classifications Board]
eBay attempts to lure back UK users with 20 free listings a month
Amazon might now be the defacto marketplace to buy and sell goods online in the UK, but eBay believes its "good surprise" might just lure customers back into the world of online auctions. In a bid to make things things a little easier for users to understand, eBay says that from May 13th it'll allow UK users to list up to 20 items every month completely free of charge. Listings can include any item, as long as it's not a car, and eBay continues to retain its 10 percent selling and postage fee. The company offers a similar system in the US, allowing sellers to make 50 free listings every month. With consumers now turning to Amazon to get their electrical goods, online media and groceries, eBay may be forced to expand its incentives if it wants more "A++++ seller, would buy again" reviews on its site.
Amazon gently hints this might not be the best time to buy an Apple TV (update)
When we were kids, our mom told us never to take Amazon listings as evidence for anything. That retailer, she'd say, is so big and complex that its stock decisions can't be used to learn about new products. Still, the fact that Amazon's French and German outlets have marked the Apple TV as out of stock has got our heads a-scratching. After all, the company is saying that the product won't be available until October 23rd -- one day after Apple's forthcoming launch event. So maybe we'd hold off on buying one of those hockey pucks until the middle of next week, just in case. Update: Well, Amazon France is now offering the hardware again, but with orders fulfilled by a third-party retailer rather than from its own, presumably empty, stocks.
BlackBerry Z30 listed as supporting Qi wireless charging
Just before a smartphone turns up at the debutante ball, the internet comes alive with frenzied claims about what the new hardware will offer. While most of 'em turn out to be wishful thinking on behalf of whoever entered the data, we imagine that standards are a little stricter over at the Wireless Power Consortium. It's there that a listing has popped up claiming that BlackBerry's as-yet unannounced Z30 will support Qi wireless charging. The listing goes on to say that the smartphone will pack a medium power receiver, capable of pulling 120 watts from a charger, which should be enough to juice that (rumored) 2,800mAh battery in short order.
Xiaomi M2S with Snapdragon 600 revealed in curtailed China Telecom listing
China Telecom looks to be getting a supercharged flavor of the small-ish but powerful Xiaomi Phone 2, if an inadvertent listing for a Xiaomi M2s proves accurate. MyDrivers.com grabbed some screenshots before it was pulled, revealing the same 4.3-inch, 720p resolution screen and other specs but with a 1.7GHz quad-core APQ8064 CPU -- likely a Snapdragon 600, a nice jump from the already powerful S4 Pro in other Xiaomi Phone 2 variants. The carrier may have jumped the gun ahead of an April 9th Xiaomi event, but the $370 or so phone looks to be good news for users there who don't want downmarket specs with a downsized screen -- as seems to be the trend lately.
British property search engine Rightmove will soon list broadband speeds alongside standard home info
The internet, it's kind of a big deal. So much of a big deal, in fact, that UK property search site Rightmove is said to be planning to list broadband speeds as part of its standard information package for homes up for rent or sale. This would be done in partnership with BT, reports the Daily Telegraph, though neither company is yet ready to make the deal official. BT would have little trouble providing the data in question since most of the UK is connected to its ADSL lines -- every ISP in the country outside of Virgin Media just resells BT's copper wire -- or newfangled Infinity fiber optic services. Part of this new agreement will involve Rightmove displaying whether or not homes are capable of connecting to the newer, faster Infinity network -- which mirrors Virgin's efforts at informing people whether they're covered by its cable internet through deals with independent estate agents. Soon there should be no excuses for Brits getting stuck in a picturesque home with a grotesquely slow web connection.
Apple looking to hire iBookstore marketing manager
Apple has posted a new job listing looking for a marketing manager specifically for the iBookstore. The listing seeks an experienced business marketer "to drive awareness and sales of iBooks through co-marketing programs with publishers and authors, strategic partnerships, and via online and direct marketing tactics." It seems like a lot of the position will be self-driven, as whoever's chosen will be asked to come up with some interesting schemes to push iBook sales, both with publishers, and even across the other divisions of iTunes (buy an iBook, get an iTunes download free?). But the bottom line is of course sales -- Apple wants someone to push iBooks, specifically in the US. More power to them, we say. Apple has some staunch competitors in terms of book sales -- while I'd consider the iPad a much better e-reader than Amazon's Kindle, I've actually purchased more books from the Kindle store just because I feel it's a better experience. Maybe with someone in charge of getting readers into the iBookstore, we'll see more reasons to stick with Apple's digital editions rather than going elsewhere. [via Macsimum News]
TV Guide spins its own Android app
Having already taken on the iPhone last year, TV Guide has turned its attention to Android with a new mobile app developed in cooperation with software house Roundbox. By all accounts, it's your run-of-the-mill TV listing grid, though TV Guide injects some "breaking entertainment news, scoops, episode recaps and daily TV hot lists" just to spice things up a bit. We tried to put it through its paces on a Froyo-equipped Nexus One here but it just kept crashing once we selected our provider, so your mileage may vary. Follow the break for TV Guide's full press release.
iTunes now segregates apps that are optimized for iPad and iPhone
We posted a short while ago that iPad apps are now in the App Store. An interesting feature we just discovered is that iTunes now splits your downloaded apps in the Apps library in the iTunes source list. Any iPhone app specifically optimized for the iPad is now segregated into its own category. In your iTunes App library you'll now see two headings: the top heading is "iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad Apps" with all the non-iPad optimized apps relegated to an "iPhone and iPod touch Apps" category. An iPad-optimized app is an iPhone app that supports both the iPhone's and iPad's native resolution and thus doesn't need to use the iPad's 2x zoom feature to display the app full screen on the iPad. And while we haven't gotten a chance to sync up an iPad yet, we'll presume that iPad-only apps will have their own section as well. Update: Apple is now featuring iPad apps on the App Store homepage in iTunes. Looks like the iPad App Store is officially live. Get those iPad apps while they're hot.
Macmillan trying to sell readers 'hardcover' ebooks
John Siracusa drew my attention to an article by Macmillan CEO John Sargent on the agency model, availability and price, in which he says that the company actually plans to keep their hardcover/paperback separation even while selling ebooks. While new hardcover ebooks will sell for $14.99 and $12.99 ("a tremendous discount from the price of the printed hardcover books"), the company will aim to sell "ebook editions of paperback new releases" for as low as $6.99. As Siracusa goes on to say, "now let us all sit back and ponder the concept of 'paperback' and 'hardcover' ebooks." Macmillan is sticking with an old pricing scheme even in a brand new marketplace. Just what exactly makes the difference between a "hardcover ebook" and a "paperback ebook"? Read on to find out.
Forza 3 game guide gets the green flag from Amazon.de
Amazon.de (Germany) may have jumped the gun by listing a Forza Motorsport 3 strategy guide and becoming the latest entry in a laundry list of development-related rumors for the racing sequel.According to the listing, the 192-page guide is produced by Prima Games (the same company behind guides for the first two Forza titles) and will ship on September 30, 2009. The listing isn't confirmation that Microsoft is developing a new title in the Forza series, but if the long rumored title does exist, we'd expect Microsoft to wave the green flag during its E3 media briefing on June 1.[Via VG247]
HD channel expansion roundup
Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say! Read - DISH Network Lights Up More National HD Channels Read - Cox Expands Baseball Coverage with MLB Extra Innings and MASN HD Read - DISH Network iTV Platform Launches HISTORY Interactive Read - Bright House launches Primetime on Demand Read - AT&T U-verse Arrives in Midland and Odessa DISH brings HD locals to Indianapolis, Indiana [Thanks, Drew] TWC Adding MLB Network HD in Milwaukee March 17th [Thanks, Paul]
Gamestop makes another funny
Whoever writes the descriptions for Gamestop and EB Games is quite the joker -- we already reported on their hidden little note for the early preview, but now that we're getting closer and closer to the Wrath of the Lich King release, they've posted another funny on the preview page.This time, they're making fun of the starting zones -- apparently the "Borean Tundra" is where the Packers play (chuckle), and a "Howling Fjord" is what you get when the windows of your Tauren Taurus are cracked open (guffaw). Cute. Just don't quit that day job of writing descriptions for Gamestop's sales pages.Thanks, djtyrant!
Guild alliances in the UI
Violet_helix asks a good question over on WoW Ladies LJ -- is there a way in the official UI to form up guild alliances. And unfortunately, as the commenters answer her, there is not. Guilds who want to raid together just have to kind of do it.The only little workaround that is available, of course, is the chat channels -- those can be created and even moderated in an ad-hoc way (though I believe that they can't be given permanent moderators, which means that if someone leaves the channel, they could lose moderation privledges). But even if a guild alliance is able to keep up a chat channel and keep it moderated, they can't do things like leave a message of the day, or store ingame information on guilds or members as regular guilds can. There is an addon called Guild Alliance that will do lots of that stuff, but there's nothing official.Should there be an ingame UI for creating alliances? We've been promised more backend guild-based content (like guild battlegrounds and even guild housing), and if Blizzard does choose to heavily update the guild system, there could be a lot of benefit to guilds aligning. Not to mention with the 10/25 main raiding split in the expansion, it's not unexpected that we'll have smaller guilds who join up with each other for the big raids rather than huge guilds with big raiding teams. On the other hand, the practice isn't so widespread at this point -- there may not be enough alliances out there to start officially recognizing them within the game world anyway.
Poll: With over 100 HD channels, are you switching to satellite?
Phew. Talk about a whirlwind of high-def announcements this week. No sooner did DirecTV trumpet its march to 130 HD channels did DISH Network hit back with a nice round 150 figure. Cablevision tried its best to garner some attention with a boastful press release to celebrate the big six-o, but it's clear who the two HD leaders in America are now (with Verizon breathing down their necks in a few 'hoods). That being said, are you finally getting the itch to throw caution to the wind and toss a dish upside your house? Are you really ready to say goodbye to those cable company bundle discounts? And if 130 / 150 isn't enough, what milestone will the satcasters have to reach before you cave?[Image courtesy of WikiMedia] %Poll-17598%
Apple makes a nice jump on the Fortune 500
Apple's headed straight to the top with a bullet -- they went from 159 to 121 in last year's Fortune 500 ranking, and this year, they've pushed their way up to 103. On the list of the "20 most profitable tech companies," they are solidly at number eight -- Fortune says that the introduction of the iPhone and "record sales of Mac computers" have Apple on a rocket trajectory.Of course, Google's sitting upstairs at number 7, and you-know-who (not the Harry Potter villain, but close) is up at number one.But yes, there's no question that Apple has really been hitting it out of the park lately, and considering the future (the fruits of the SDK, another possible iPhone iteration, and whatever else they're brewing up in Cupertino), the trends will continue.
