I’m cross-platform in my smartphone use and… later today… I will be cross-platform in my notebook use too.

Here’s why…

I do a good deal of writing using voice recognition, in fact the ability to use Jott and Vlingo to respond to individual emails by voice was a big reason I began using a Blackberry. I find it fast and convenient. In addition, I struggle with Rheumatoid Arthritis, and on bad days the pain in my hands and wrists can become a big problem. Using voice recognition to write a first draft of something and then manually clean it up saves a lot of wear and tear on already aching/painful joints.

As much as MacSpeech 1.5 is an improvement over the original version, thanks to the decision to begin using the Dragon NaturallySpeaking’s voice recognition engine, it still falls far behind Dragon’s Version 10 Windows software. This has been a particularly rough few weeks, and I have been relying more on speech recognition than usual; MacSpeech just wasn’t cutting it.

That got me looking for a small, light, portable Windows machine that would, primarily, be used for writing and for responding to email by voice. So began my search. Little did I know it would bring me back to the current version of one of my favorite Tablet PCs. Continue Reading

I bought myself a new (to me) toy on eBay: a Samsung Propel Pro. It was very exciting to come home from work today and find the small FedEx box on my front steps. I ran inside, booted the phone up and started fiddling, only to notice the previous owner did not fully wipe their contacts from the device. Bad!

I googled around, figured out how to hard reset it, and now, freshly reset, I am up and running on my new toy.

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Something tells me we’ll see more and more of this… developers creating an application, releasing it, and then some time later, trying to sell the app itself.

That’s the case with the app “Top-Tens”. Its developer is headed for a six month sabbatical and thought it better to sell the app than let it wither away.

Top-Tens-

gives the user the ability to easily keep tabs on the Top 10s of their favorite hobbies, interests or pastimes – from the top 10 books and movies to the top 10 computer viruses, top 10 email spam and phishing scams, to even the top 10 online deals and coupons, product recalls, or websites. The Top-Tens Library contains all these with more being added all the time.

The $1.99 app only requires an hour or so of maintenance per week. If you want to check out the app, you can do so HERE. Feel like bidding on it? The eBay listing can be found HERE.

General Motors announced on Friday that they are in discussions with eBay to introduce a new “Buy it now” option where consumers can purchase new GM cars on eBay. eBay Motors have already sold used vehicles for the last several years. This introduction of new vehicle sales marks a first for GM and if successful could conceivably create a new distribution channel for GM where new vehicles are sold online and serviced locally. According to the reports:

A deal between eBay and GM hasn’t been completed yet, however, and both sides say they have been in discussions.

GM spokesman John McDonald said the company sees the sales of new cars on eBay as an experiment that builds upon the existing partnership in used vehicles. Certified preowned vehicles from GM, along with other carmakers, are currently offered for sale on eBay Motors, eBay’s online auto marketplace.

McDonald said GM is trying to get a deal done to start testing the new car sales on eBay in the “next couple of weeks.” His remarks lacked the certainty Henderson used in a statement earlier Friday, where he said the company will start the sales and other ideas with car dealers in the next few weeks.

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The New York Times first reported that the founders of Skype, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, were meeting with potential investors in the hopes to buy back Skype from online auctioning behempoth eBay.  Now, it looks like eBay may be planning their own public offering for Skype.

Zennstrom and Friis sold Skype to eBay in 2005 for $2.6 Billion.  Since the purhase, Skype has registered over 405 million users who can conduct free calls with other Skype users — and pay pennies per minute to call non-Skype users.  Selling off Skype could be very beneficial for eBay, who could use the cash generated from a sale to fund it’s U.S. operations.

Remember Rikki Rockett? He’s the drummer for the 1980s hair band Poison. He’s apparently not broke (and he still seems to have all his hair). Unfortunately you just missed out on an auction where he tried to sell his Rolex Oyster Perpetual Datejust Turn-O-Graph over eBay for at least $2,050. Seems like the auction failed to meet reserves (or the press found out about it first). Now there are all these nasty rumors about him possibly needing the money. Who can blame a guy for needing a little extra cash during a recession? What might be next? Rikki answering machine personal messages? Continue Reading

I remember a few years ago selling my first item on eBay. It was a Jornada 680e and it was a very smooth experience. Since that time I have sold a lot of stuff on eBay, but over the last few months and years I’ve been very disappointed in eBay and the experience it now offers.

For starters there’s the dodgy sellers selling items with silly low prices, but outrageously inflated postage costs to sidestep the fees associated with selling. As a seller, I have never done that since it’s against the rules, but the enforcement of the policy seems to be very lax, and it’s simply unfair to those of us playing by the rules.

I can somewhat understand why sellers do this: eBay’s fees are out of control. They realise they have a hold on the market, and therefore continue to put up the costs of listing. Not only that, they introduced a new policy a few months ago requiring all auctions to offer PayPal as an option for payment. That really put me off. I’ve had poor experiences with PayPal before, as has Judie, and for it to be forced on us sellers because eBay claim it’s a safer way to pay is outrageous. I’ve bought stuff on PayPal that was faulty, seller would not do anything about it. PayPal took a ridiculously long time to reject the claim with no reasoning given.

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Despite efforts by Apple and AT&T, scalpers are still getting their mitts on the new iPhone…

I saw this over at BetaNews, one of my favorite sites; and I just had to comment… The iPhone 3G is nearly sold out. If you don’t have one by now, it could be weeks, or months, before new Direct Fulfillment orders are fulfilled. In the mean time, desperate customers are turning to a tried and true alternative source – eBay.

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Were you able to get your bid in on the prototype McFly Nike shoes (as seen in the movie Back To The Future) that just sold on eBay? These were not the actual shoes worn in the movie though. They were a prototype around which seven different pair of production shoes were designed. The seller claims to have worked in the Nike design department and has the prototype shoe in his possession “because nobody else wanted it at the time”.

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Holy mother of all unpaid auction bids batman – it’s a $650 winning bid for ….. an iPhone 3G box and instructions. Most likely the “winning” bidder didn’t read the auction details – or maybe they’re collectors adding to their iPhone box collection. Amazingly the auction attracted 34 bids – starting at a reasonable .99 and progressing over the course of three days to the unbelievable price of $ 650.

iPhone Box – $650 via eBay

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a city up for auction on eBay. These things are always so tough to judge. Should you bid early. Bid late. If you’re like me and are a lazy eBayer – maybe you use the Buy It Now option. If you’re in the market for a city in New Mexico – you’re ship has come in! You can have this 11 parcel , 366.25 acre city for one easy payment of $5,000,000. eBay Mastercard will even let you defer it until January 2009!

The Entire City is up for auction.

You get two motels, gas station, gifts shops, restaurants,
RV-Park, opera house, post office, all dwellings.
You own the ENTIRE CITY!!!

Located at the entrance of Carlsbad Caverns National Park
which boasts more than 500,000 visitors per year.
Great opportunity to own a piece of old west history

Included in the auction are all the assets of the city, which include its water rights for 460 acre-feet of daily potable water usage. This amounts to 150,000,000 gallons per year from its three Artisan wells. As the only source of potable water for nearly 20 miles, this asset is truly significant as it is the life’s blood of the community. Previews are being held July 12 and 13th. More pictures and a link to the auction after the jump.

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UPDATE 6-18-08: This deal appears to have dropped from 35% to 10%. eBay currently has a promotion that offers up to 35% back on items purchased through the “Buy it Now” link for eBay auctions displayed on Microsoft Live Search and paid for via Paypal. The trick is you must go in via a special Microsoft Live Search link to be eligible. There are a bunch of terms and conditions and the maximum you can save on any one purchase is $250 – and you’re limited to using the discount a total of three times. To participate you need to locate one of the cash back ads on a Windows Live search – like this one (click on the eBay auction at the top of the page with the “Live Search cashback” icon). Tempted? Take a minute to read through this discussion thread on the deal web site Fatwallet.com for more details.

Link: eBay Cash Back Terms & Conditions
Link: Deal discussion via Fatwallet

Have you ever had to take pictures of something you were selling on eBay, but you kept getting a horrible glare from the flash  I have had this happen many a time, and I have even had to struggle with this when taking pictures of things I review.  Well, I will struggle no more now that I have the Digital Concepts Lighting Studio, sent to me from Sakar International.

As you can see by the picture, this is the smaller version of the studio suitable for taking pictures of smaller things like iPods, LED Headlights and Watches.  Continue Reading

Mike Cane just sent the link to a Register posting on something so bizarre that it must be seen to be believed: a 19″ laptop that folds over onto itself. I think you will agree with me that the first reaction to seeing this is something along the lines of “WHY?”

An intrepid eBay seller has posted a Xentex-brand prototype laptop that that has a hinge down the middle, allowing it to literally be folded in half. Although this won’t detract from the machine’s weight, and make the laptop twice as thick, the ability to ‘fold’ your laptop away is unique. – The Register

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I couldn’t help but chuckle when I read the title of Nick Denton’s “Eleven Ways the Internet Can Kill You” this morning; filed under “Webtards”, his choices used to make the point did live up to the hype. Included were the following items: YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, pornography, SPAM, blogging, eBay, drugs, webcams, chat rooms and his number one item, which I will leave for you to discover.

Among the gems, item #6…Blogging.

At risk: Those already at risk of dying
Case 1: There’s a trick to making listicles like this: Put the weakest item in the middle. Unfortunately the New York Times spent an entire trend piece on the bogus idea of “death by blogging.” But Gizmodo editor Brian Lam tells me, “Only bogus to lazy bloggers. I did 75 hours this week and anyone over fifty would die doing that.”

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