eBay finally has decided to ban the auctioning of anything that is digital. This means, anything such as eBooks, MP3 files, content in PDF format, recipes, etc., will not be sold on eBay anymore. Also, anything that can be shipped to a customer by email or a download link will also be not tolerated. In case you still want to sell digital items, you will have to sell it by using classified ads, which would cost about 9.95 a month on their site.

One of the main reasons leading eBay to follow through with such an action was that anything digital could basically be reproduced as many times as the person wants. Thus, the person could keep on re-selling the digital item and keep making more money. Then, it would mess up listings and the feedback system. What is your opinion on eBay getting rid of digital goods?

Via [Techdirt]

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Whenever you buy a GPS, they come with preloaded maps, basically if you buy one in the United States, you will get maps of the U.S., and neighboring countries and if you buy a GPS in Europe, you will get European maps. What happens if maps get updated? To update GPS maps it usually costs a lot of money, and if you move far away you will need a new GPS. This new service aims at stealing maps from sites and saves it and uses those. You would think such a service would cost a lot of money, but in fact, it only costs $9.

Dubbed MapCapt, it had already been released, but it probably wasn’t too popular, and now the creators have released version 2.0. How this works: basically, it scrolls, copies, and saves maps from map sites such as Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, and any other mapping service. Then, it will save it as a bitmap file and it will then show on your GPS. Now, in case you don’t want to pay $9 for this, you can opt to get the free version, which basically only allows you to scroll horizontally, without any vertical scrolling. Yes, I’m as confused as you are, I don’t see why anyone would want the free version. For $9 or 6 Euros, there are no limitations to scrolling, and it comes with the ability to follow roads with manual scrolling and it even comes with an auto-correct function which would make sure everything is aligned correctly.

I think this is pretty cool, I just wonder how well it can take in maps and would Google or Yahoo do anything to stop this.

Via [NaviGadget]

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It was just a few weeks ago, we saw BMW announcing that they will be incorporating full internet services into their cars later this year. The only problem with BMW adding internet to their cars was that it was only available in Europe at that time, however, when Chrysler rolls out their cars with internet, it will be available in the States.

Basically, this works by the cars receiving the internet signals from cell phone towers, however, those who buy these internet equipped cars will need to (at least) “initially” also buy a subscription to a cell phone carrier so they will be able to receive complete coverage.

Frank Klegon, Chrysler’s product development chief, said that “we want to make the radio itself a Wi-Fi port.”

With little details being announced as of yet, it seems to be a system where customers will be able to ‘surf’ using either the cell coverage or Wi-Fi, assuming they were in an available hotspot. Chrysler plans to begin the offering with the Jeep Wrangler, which will also include a special off-road navigation system and sound system.

Since the Chrysler system seems like it will also use Wi-Fi as opposed just cell coverage it should offer faster service than what BMW has in the works. Hopefully Chrysler will start rolling out these cars in ‘08 as planned, this way we can all see what internet in the car is truly like.

Read [Washington Post]

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If you remember Taipower’s Teclast M25, you may recall that one of the items it lacked was a touchscreen display. However, the M25’s brother gets rid of the basic display and goes all touchscreen and in a way kind of looks like the iPod Touch. One of the main differences between this and the iPod, is that this will be a lot cheaper and doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, making it your basic touchscreen PMP.

Otheriwse, it comes in two different models, either black or white. It comes with a 2.6-inch WQVGA touchscreen, plays RMVB, RM, FLV, or AVI videos and comes with a TV-out option. No word on exact audio formats, although it uses Microsoft’s PlayFX. No word on pricing of the M26 as of yet.

Via [PMP Today]

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If you torrent a lot, then you will be happy to hear about this new product by Myka. Usually, whatever we download we end up watching on our computer screen, but sometimes we just want to watch it on the bigger screen of our big screen TV. To do this, people often burn it on a DVD, or if they have a video iPod or any other PMP, they could convert the video to put it on that and then play on the TV. All of the above can become annoying and time consuming. Apple saw that people had a hard time with this and designed the Apple TV. Now this helped some people, but you would have to buy the videos of iTunes in order for this to work.

Myka, now realized that many people torrent over buying videos the legal way such as through iTunes. They then designed their own, which is product similar to AppleTV. Basically, you can connect the Myka unit using internet LAN or Wi-Fi. You can even connect using Composite, S-Video, or SPDIF. It sells in a few models including 80GB, 160GB or 500GB hard drives. I think 80GB is enough as long as you delete your videos off the Myka as soon as your done watching them, but I guess if you have a ton of videos and don’t feel like deleting them then the 500GB is probably your best option. It even comes with pre-installed BitTorrent software, meaning you can download videos directly from the web and avoiding using your computer as a middleman. This could free valuable computer memory. Prices, so far, are a little on the high side as they range from $299 to $459, which is a little more than AppleTV. However, I really like the idea of this product and if you torrent a lot then you might want to consider purchasing it.

Read [Myka] Via [Gizmodo]

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In efforts to protect the environment these days, many companies have begun designing energy efficient products. Tesla, is a major car manufacturer that plans to deliver energy efficient vehicles soon. You may or may not remember one of their main green cars, the Roadster, anyway, after many delays, company problems, and price increases, the car is finally ready for production. In fact, it is being produced right this very second.

Tesla touts that this is “the only zero emission electric vehicle in production today,” which is actually not true, because there are a lot of cars and companies making cars that are more energy efficient. However, it is the only energy efficient car that is able to hit 125 mph. One of the things that will turn people off from buying the Roadster is the hefty price tag that comes with it. Even though, in the end it will be worth it from all the gas it will save, but 100 grand is still a 100 grand.

Another bad thing about this car is that in the beginning they will only be able to pump out one to two cars per week. So far, around 900 people have shelled out the cash to reserve a Roadster. Most of which, as you can imagine have some money they can easily part with, ranging from Dustin Hoffman to George Clooney to Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Mahalo’s CEO Jason Calacanis.

I think that if only Tesla managed to lower the price of their car, many more people would buy it. However, it is a good effort by them to produce a car that will greatly help out the environment, not too mention I think the Roaster falls into a ‘slightly’ different category than most eco-friendly cars and could be worth the ‘premium’.

Read [Yahoo! Green]

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Usually, people just put their music devices in their pocket, hold it, or clip it on, no one really wears their MP3 player as a necklace. However, this new Diny D7 can be worn as necklace, and that’s something that is for the most part new. One of the most popular clip-on MP3 players is the iPod Shuffle, but this one is the few that could be worn as a necklace. Personally, I would just put my iPod in my pocket and leave it there, even if I could wear it as necklace, I probably wouldn’t.

Anyway, what makes this possible to be worn as a necklace is that it’s small and really portable. It measures out at 59.5 x 33 x 11mm, and has a screen size of 1.3-inches. It even plays videos with formats such as MP4 SP and WMV at 25fps, although I am not sure why you would want to watch video on a 1.3-inch display. For audio, it plays MP3, WMA, OGG, and WAV. It even comes with a built-in radio and comes in two different options, either 2GB or 4GB. No word on availability as of yet, but the 2GB will sell for $77 and the 4GB for $97.

Via [PMP Today]

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Many, giant companies are using iTunes as a way to get there videos, movies, and music to the general public and it really is helping them grow. Take Disney, for example, by selling their movies and video through iTunes, which began in 2006, they have already reached earned at total of just around $123 million. Keep in mind, in this day in age, many people download videos and such illegally and for Disney to make this much money legally, it’s pretty impressive. This just goes to show how online video sales really elevated in the past few years.

Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, said that through iTunes he has sold around four million movies and upwards of 40 million videos, since 2006. Unfortunately, with all these video sales, it hasn’t amounted to a whole lot of revenue, but hey, it’s better than nothing. It has been estimated that by Pali Research’s Rich Greefield, that Disney receives $14.50 for every movie sold through iTunes, meaning $14.50 x 4 million equals about $58 million. Also, it has been reported that Disney gets $1.44 for each video, so let’s say they sold 45 million videos meaning 45 million x $1.44 equals $64.8 million dollars. Totaling around $122.8 million, so somewhere around there is a good indicator of how much they made.

Via [Silicon Alley Insider]

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At CeBIT 2008, Navigon has announced a few new GPS models to add to their North American GPS lineup. The first of the few that they announced was the 2100 Max. One of the main things the Navigon touts about their 2100 Max is the widescreen display, but other than that, it’s basically your average GPS, coming with all the features you would expect a GPS to come with.

“Navigon is building on the same product strategy that drove our success last year. We are committed to providing GPS systems with features that are relevant to the navigation experience,” said Andreas Hecht, Navigon’s President for the Americas. “We believe we’ve raised the bar with a competitively priced, feature-packed GPS device.”

Basically, the 2100 Max comes with a 4.3-inch touch screen, text-to-speech capabilities and offers “Reality View” like many other Navigon GPS units. Reality View makes the pictures on screen a little bit more life like. Additionally, it offers another service called “Direct Help” which is a safety feature to help you know your current location and the fastest ways to get to hospitals and such. This new service, I think, is really helpful and all GPS units should offer a similar service. The last service/feature that the 2100 Max comes with is something called “Fresh Maps”, which is an optional add-on. For an additional $79, you will get a subscription that will give you 12 map updates over a 3 year period. So, whenever there are new maps or something is updated, it will automatically update the device to show these new maps. Furthermore, it comes with Lane Asssitant, Route Planning, and speed warnings. No word on pricing as of yet.

Via [GPS Review]

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Usually, maps of any GPS don’t really get updated unless you’re willing to pay upwards of a $100 just for one measly map update that you might not even use. Dubbed Fresh Maps, this is the first GPS company to actually offer a map updating subscription service. With this new service, Navigon will be offering around 12 map updates over a 3 year period, all for only $79. Only problem is, this service will only work with a few of Navigon’s GPS units such as the 7100, 5100, and the 2100/2120 Max series.

Andreas Hecht, Navigon President in North America, had this to say about this new service:

“Industry figures suggest the road network changes 15 to 20 percent annually. POI data is even more turbulent. FreshMaps is designed to provide users peace of mind by giving them regular access to quality map and POI updates,” said Andreas Hecht, NAVIGON’s President for the Americas. “FreshMap updates are field-verified, road-tested, and quality-controlled at the source. NAVIGON’s solution is to provide our customers what they want: regular, quality map updates that are easy to access.”

This Fresh Maps service is optional, when purchasing a Navigon GPS, you will be given the choice of whether or not this something you want or need. I would say, if you plan to keep a GPS for a good three years or so, then I would definitely recommend getting this service. Based on what Hecht was saying, maps and POI’s change 15-20% yearly, based on that it would be important to be kept up to date, and this service is the best way to accomplish that.

Garmin and TomTom use a similar service called MapShare, but this service often delivers maps that aren’t of the best quality because they aren’t really user trusted maps. On the other hand, Navigon only offers trusted, verified, and of high quality map updates. Expect this service to be available in April.

Via [GPS Review]

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