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Atari Online News, Etc. Volume 10 Issue 34
Volume 10, Issue 34 Atari Online News, Etc. August 22, 2008
Published and Copyright (c) 1999 - 2008
All Rights Reserved
Atari Online News, Etc.
A-ONE Online Magazine
Dana P. Jacobson, Publisher/Managing Editor
Joseph Mirando, Managing Editor
Rob Mahlert, Associate Editor
Atari Online News, Etc. Staff
Dana P. Jacobson -- Editor
Joe Mirando -- "People Are Talking"
Michael Burkley -- "Unabashed Atariophile"
Albert Dayes -- "CC: Classic Chips"
Rob Mahlert -- Web site
Thomas J. Andrews -- "Keeper of the Flame"
With Contributions by:
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=~=~=~=
A-ONE #1034 08/22/08
~ eBay To Cut Some Fees! ~ People Are Talking! ~ New PSP Version!
~ Seinfeld To Do MS Ads! ~ Space Invaders Turns 30 ~ EA: No Extension
~ New HP Lightweights! ~ eBay Sellers Frustrated ~ Wii Wand Suit!
~ Site Best Deal Promise ~ Newegg: No NY Sales Tax ~ Judge Backs Hackers
-* Microsoft, Novell Alliance! *-
-* Comcast: New Traffic-Managing System *-
-* FCC's Martin Wants Free Broadband for USA! *-
=~=~=~=
->From the Editor's Keyboard "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
What a week! For the first time this summer, I can actually say that it
was a beautiful one - no rain at all! A perfect week - all sun, not too
hot, and no chance for a sprinkle. Summer at its finest.
We started the week off taking a trek to Maine to take my father out to
lunch to celebrate his 88th birthday. The trip up and back was a total
disaster due to traffic problems, but we survived. It was good to see
my father again, so it was all worth it.
And then the week ended with our psycho neighbor finally being evicted
from her home after a two-year legal battle by her ex-husband! Now this
woman, who we have known for 11 years, as always a little flaky, but these
past couple of months have been something! From dawn to dusk, almost
every day, she would be out in the front yard moving things around in
some lame attempt to "blockade" the entire front of the property. This
included moving some furniture out from the house. All day long she would
rearrange things to try and improve her barricade. It never dawned on her
that if she could move about freely, others could as well!
The police had been called in at times because she would go off in vocal
tirades at neighbors and passer-bys. There had been numerous complaints
filed by numerous neighbors. The house was on the market, but she kept
hiding the realtor signs. She put up her own signs all over the property,
but nothing to do with a "for sale" topic. She was getting worse as the
weeks went on.
Well yesterday, I happened to look out the window and saw a couple of
police cars out front. Apparently she she had been served with a final
eviction notice and forced off of the property. The "show" that she put
on as a result were entertaining, but sad. The woman needed help, but she
just wasn't interested. After a few hours, she had called someone who
came along to help her - and she left.
Today I saw the husband and talked to him for awhile. Hopefully things
will go better for him. There's a large dumpster sitting in the driveway
now, with about a month of work to do to get the house back into shape
again. I really feel badly for him and the three kids. But now there's
a chance for normalcy for everyone, but who knows what will happen to the
one who needs help the most! Time will tell...
So, looking forward to a nice weekend, and a quiet one for a change. The
unofficial end of summer is rapidly approaching, so I want to enjoy as many
of these nice days as possible!
Until next time...
=~=~=~=
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
compiled by Joe Mirando
joe@atarinews.org
Hidi ho friends and neighbors. Again we're faced with a dribble of
messages in the NewsGroup, and I doubt we'll be seeing much of a
change, at least until autumn sets in. Meanwhile, in the real world,
I've lost a friend to the ravages of time.
George was a friend's father. I first met him more than 30 years ago.
His son nicknamed him 'The Yeti', since he was a tall, wide man, had a
fairly full head of white hair and was, under most circumstances, quite
abominable.
George and I disagreed on just about everything, and I often wondered if
he held me in any esteem at all, but more important than what he
thought of me was what I thought of him, since one can never really
know the mind and thoughts of another. While he was politically
reactionary and religiously... well, let's call it 'over the top', he
had a good heart.
After high school graduation, his son joined the Coast Guard and ended
up on a Search and Rescue team in Kodiak Alaska. We lived literally on
the other side of the continent, so it wasn't like he could come home
for the weekends or anything.
Another friend and I would stop by their house (usually on the way to a
night of bar-hopping and trouble-making) to chat and catch up for a
while. George always looked forward to our visits, not because of us,
but because it meant that his son would be calling shortly after we
left. We could never figure out why this happened, but it always worked
out that his son would call within 30 minutes of us leaving.
As you can imagine, once we were a few minutes into a visit, the Yeti
would start dropping hints about us leaving. It wasn't because he
didn't want us there... we always knew that we were welcome in his
house... but Yeti knew that the countdown to his son calling didn't
start until we left.
Shortly after that, they sold the house and moved to Florida and their
son moved to New Hampshire. I'd see my buddy on occasion... he'd stop
by sometimes en route from NH to FL.. but I haven't seen his parents in
almost 30 years now. We've kept in touch as well as we could with
Christmas cards and such, but I haven't seen them face-to-face in a
very long time.
Well, the Yeti is gone now, and there are two observations I've made in
the past couple of days...
First, two scamsters claimed to have found the carcass of a 'Bigfoot' in
Georgia... not all that far from where Yeti had settled in the
Jacksonville, Fl area. Bigfoot, in case you don't know, is the American
version of the Himalayan Yeti, or abominable snowman.
Second of all, the memorial service for Yeti is being held today in
Florida... just as Tropical Storm Fay treats the area to massive wind
and rain. Just like George... plenty of bluster and blow.
Amazing how things like that work out, huh?
Well folks, there aren't enough messages to make a decent column, so
we're going to call it quits here and hope for a better week next time
around.
Tune in next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to
what they are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
=~=~=~=
->In This Week's Gaming Section - EA Declines Extension!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Wii Wand Patent Suit!
New Version of PSP!
And much more!
=~=~=~=
->A-ONE's Game Console Industry News - The Latest Gaming News!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
EA Declines To Extend Take-Two Bid Deadline
The Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive Software acquisition drama
continues as the mammoth video-game publisher said it won't extend a
Monday deadline for its $2 billion offer to buy Take-Two, maker of the
Grand Theft Auto franchise series.
It may not be as dramatic as the Microsoft and Yahoo story, but EA and
Take-Two have danced a few rounds - and they apparently aren't done
dancing.
Take-Two on Monday confirmed that it expects to sign a confidentiality
agreement with EA that allows the gaming giant to enter into Take-Two's
formal process to evaluate strategic alternatives. Take-Two said it is
keeping lines of communication with EA open as part of a process to
"maximize value" for its stockholders.
"We welcome EA into our formal process and look forward to demonstrating
to their board the significant strides made by Take-Two since they last
undertook a detailed review of our business in early 2007," said Strauss
Zelnick, chairman of Take-Two. "Our board remains unwavering in its
belief that EA's unsolicited conditional tender offer of $25.74 per
share was inadequate and undervalued Take-Two's world-class
entertainment franchises and our strong operational and financial
performance."
Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two publishes and develops products
through several of its labels, including Rockstar Games, 2K Games, 2K
Sports, and 2K Play. The company is perhaps best known for its Grand
Theft Auto series, but also has such hits as BioShock. EA isn't willing
to call it quits on the deal, but agreeing on a price is the challenge.
"This deal comes down to leverage and agreeing on a price. At least for
the moment, EA doesn't have a lot of leverage over Take-Two, and
Take-Two doesn't like the price EA has offered," said Mike Goodman, an
analyst at The Yankee Group. "Take-Two is flying high right now as a
result of the success of Grand Theft Auto. That makes it tougher to make
a deal happen without paying a premium that blows them away."
There are two video-game publishers that have lowered their sales
variability, Goodman continued. Those companies are EA and Activision.
Thanks to its sheer scale, EA is not dependent on any given title or
handful of titles. Take-Two, by contrast, has a few hit titles but lacks
scale. That translates to up-and-down, ebb-and-flow success. That could
cause Take-Two to come to an agreement with EA at some point.
"Everybody has a number. The question is, will EA pay the price in order
to get Take-Two? Without knowing what Take-Two's magic number is, it's
hard to gauge. Is it a 20 percent premium? Is it a 50 percent premium?"
Goodman asks. "It is a premium over their current market valuation, but
only the boards of directors of these companies ultimately know the
answer to what that number is."
Sony Says To Launch New Version of PSP Handheld
Consumer electronics giant Sony announced a new version of its Playstation
Portable handheld games console that can be used as a telephone, to go on
sale in Europe and the United States in mid-October.
The Playstation Portable 3000, which has been the subject of speculation
on technology websites, will have a built-in microphone and a new screen
which has more colors and is better suited for use outdoors, Sony said
at a video games convention in Leipzig, Germany on Wednesday.
The PSP already supports the software program Skype, which enables users
to make free telephone calls over the internet, but the new PSP, with
built-in microphone, will make the process easier, Sony says.
"We believe that this will establish the PSP as a viable communication
device," said David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment
Europe.
The PSP 3000 will retail for 199 euros ($294), compared to 169 euros for
the current slim version of the PSP, which will remain on sale.
Sony also said it would launch a version of its flagship Playstation 3
console with a 160 gigabyte hard drive to store more downloaded content
and video, to retail for 449 euros on October 31. including 70 euros
credit for downloads.
A version of the PS3 with an 80 gigabyte hard-drive will go on sale for
399 euros later in August, Sony said.
Music videos streamed over the internet would soon be available free to
the PS3, while a music and video download service modeled on its U.S.
version should be available across Europe by the third quarter of 2009,
the company added.
All Hail to 'Space Invaders' at Europe's Biggest Games Show
Europe's biggest games convention marks 30 years since "Space Invaders"
this week with a homage to the alien 'shoot-em-up' as well as 500
exhibitors showing how far the industry has come since then.
"Space Invaders" first hit gaming arcades in 1978, setting players the
challenge of shooting a swarm of hostile extraterrestials descending at
an ever increasing pace - before they destroyed you.
The hugely popular game, released a year after the "Star Wars" movie,
was "revolutionary," according to organisers of the Leipzig GC Games
Convention in Germany starting on Wednesday, and changed the nature of
video games for ever.
"This might appear a simple feature to a modern audience but ... from
then on, you didn't only play against the machine but also against human
opponents," the organisers say.
And according to the creator of the "Invaders!" interactive installation
at the GC, French-US artist Douglas Edric Stanley, the game can even be
seen as an "unusual ... though obvious" metaphor for the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
"Space Invaders" though is not the main reason why some 200,000 people
are expected to make the journey to the convention in the east German
city of Leipzig between August 21 and August 24.
Held for the seventh time in Leipzig, 200 kilometres (125 miles)
southwest of Berlin, the GC has exhibitors from more than 40 countries,
including all the big names in the industry, except Nintendo, in four
halls and an outdoor area.
According to the German tech industry association Bitkom, gamers in
Germany alone are expected to spend 2.6 billion euros (3.8 billion
dollars) on consoles and games this year, 13 percent more than in 2007.
"Today the games market ... is at least as important as other branches
of the entertainment sector like film or music. With one difference: the
games market is booming," Bitkom said ahead of the convention.
And in Germany at least, the games industry is slowly gaining respect,
making it out of teenagers' bedrooms and overcoming criticism for being
too violent to win widespread popularity.
Only last week, the German Cultural Council deigned to allow the
country's games development association GAME to become a member, thereby
officially making the industry part of the country's mainstream cultural
establishment.
German MPs have even decided to create a special "Oscars" awards for
video games, with 10 categories and 600,000 euros worth of prizes,
starting in 2009.
"Of course some games are bloody and they should not be in the hands of
children. But that does nothing to change their aesthetic qualities,"
the Council's head, Olaf Zimmermann, told AFP.
The "Grand Theft Auto" series, which has sold about 70 million copies
worldwide, is the most notorious, coming under fire for its graphic
depiction of casual violence, drug dealing and prostitution.
Thai police even went as far as banning it earlier this month after a
disturbed teenager allegedly killed a Bangkok taxi driver apparently
inspired by the game in which players kill people and steal cars to win
points.
Organisers of the GC will be hoping visitors will be more law-abiding.
Video Games Not All Bad, Psychologists Say
Playing video games improves manual dexterity among surgeons, making
them faster and less likely to make mistakes, US researchers have said.
The findings were contained in a raft of research about how video games
effect the people who play them, discussed Sunday at the Annual
Convention of the American Psychological Association in Boston.
"The big picture is that there are several dimensions in which games
have effects," including their content, how they are played, and how
much, said psychologist Douglas Gentile of Iowa State University.
"This means that games are not 'good' or 'bad' but are powerful
educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they
could."
Gentile presented several studies on video games including one involving
33 surgeons specializing in laparoscopy, the use of a thin lighted tube
to inspect and treat various conditions in the pelvic and abdominal
cavities.
Laparoscopic surgeons who played video games were 27 percent faster at
advanced surgical procedures, and made 37 percent fewer errors, compared
to their non-gaming colleagues, the study found.
Studies involving high school and college students confirmed previous
findings about the social effects of playing violent video games, the
Iowa State researchers said.
Students who played violent games were more hostile, less forgiving, and
more apt to view violence as normal, than peers who played non-violent
games.
But students who played "prosocial" games got into fewer fights at
school and were more helpful to other students, the researchers reported.
Yet another study, at Fordham University, measured the effect of
learning a new video game on problem-solving skills in middle-school-age
children and found that "playing video games can improve cognitive and
perceptual skills."
"Certain types of video games can have beneficial effects improving
gamers' dexterity as well as their ability to problem-solve --
attributes that have proven useful not only to students but to
surgeons," the researchers found.
U.S. Company Sues Nintendo in Wii Wand Patent Suit
Nintendo's hit Wii console with its wandlike remote controller has been
targeted in patent infringement complaints by a U.S. technology company.
Hillcrest Laboratories, based in Rockville, Md., has filed a complaint
with the U.S. International Trade Commission in Washington D.C., and a
patent infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Maryland
against Nintendo Corp., the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Kyoto-based Nintendo spokesman Yasuhiro Minagawa said Thursday the
Japanese video game company has not yet received the lawsuit and had no
comment.
Hillcrest is accusing Nintendo of infringement in four patents dealing
with technology for a handheld three-dimensional pointing device and a
display interface system for organizing graphic content on a TV, it said.
"While Hillcrest Labs has a great deal of respect for Nintendo and the
Wii, Hillcrest Labs believes that Nintendo is in clear violation of its
patents and has taken this action to protect its intellectual property
rights," it said.
The Wii console has been a big hit around the world, selling a
cumulative 29.6 million worldwide since its arrival in late 2006.
With its trademark wandlike remove controller, which users have dubbed
"Wiimote," the Wii has scored success against the PlayStation 3 from
Japanese rival Sony Corp., which went on sale about the same time, as
well as against the Xbox 360 from Microsoft Corp.
Unlike old-style games that require players to push a complex
combination of buttons, Wii comes with an easy-to-use remote to swing
around like a tennis racket or fishing pole. The machine has proven
appealing to relative newcomers to gaming, including women and the
elderly.
Nintendo - which also makes the Nintendo DS handheld machine and Pokemon
and Super Mario game software - aims to sell 25 million Wii consoles in
the fiscal year through March 2009.
=~=~=~=
A-ONE's Headline News
The Latest in Computer Technology News
Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson
HP Introduces Lightweight Business Laptops
Hewlett-Packard Co has announced a line of portable lightweight computers
aimed at business travelers to compete with a product range announced by
rival Dell Inc last week.
HP said on Monday that the lineup included the EliteBook 2530p, which is
the smallest and lightest of its computers with a weight of just over 3
pounds and an extended battery life.
The company said its EliteBook 2730p is an ultra-thin computer that
converts to a touch-screen pen-based tablet computer with a twist of its
screen and weighs 3.7 pounds.
HP said it expected the HP EliteBook 2530p and HP EliteBook 2730p to
become available by early September, with estimated prices of $1,499 and
$1,670, respectively.
Judge Backs Hackers in Boston Subway Dispute
Three students from the elite Massachusetts Institute of Technology who
found a way to hack into Boston's transit system to get free rides can
talk publicly about the security flaw, a court ruled on Tuesday in a
decision hailed as a victory for academic freedom.
The students from the university, regarded as one of the world's top
science and engineering schools, raised the ire of the Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority with a paper demonstrating how someone could
work around flaws in Boston's "Charlie Card" automated fare system.
They had planned to present the paper, which showed how anyone could
take thousands of free rides on subways and buses, at a hackers
conference in Las Vegas this month.
The MBTA sued to block that presentation, contending that it would
violate U.S. laws on computer fraud. MBTA officials said they wanted to
stop the students from publicly exposing the security flaws before the
transit authority had a chance to review them.
U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole in Boston federal court found
that presenting an academic paper would not violate computer fraud laws.
"We need academic freedom and an ability to talk about these things,
without fearing legal consequences," said Carol Rose, executive director
of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which helped to
defend the students.
"The marketplace of ideas does not work when we have gag orders imposed
on our scientists," she added.
The three undergraduates - Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan and Alessandro
Chiesa - received top marks for their paper exposing the security flaw.
The hack worked by reprogramming the system's fare cards so they
appeared to have more value, so a hacker could take a card that had just
enough credits for a few rides and multiply that to work for hundreds of
rides.
The students said they had planned to withhold key details in the Las
Vegas presentation to prevent anyone in the audience from taking
advantage of the security weakness.
MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas said in a statement that the
students had said the lawsuit was an obstacle to talks with the agency.
"Now that the court proceedings are behind us, I renew my invitation to
the students to sit down with us and discuss their findings," he said.
Located across the Charles River from Boston, MIT's students are known
for their love of pranks - "hacks" in the school's vernacular - that
show off their engineering skills.
Among the most famous was a 2006 incident in which students placed a
25-foot (7.6-meter)-long fire truck atop the dome of a campus library
building.
FCC's Martin Wants Broadband Across USA
High-speed Internet access is so important to the welfare of U.S.
consumers that America can't afford not to offer it - free of charge -
to anybody who wants it, Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Kevin Martin says.
"There's a social obligation in making sure everybody can participate in
the next generation of broadband services because, increasingly, that's
what people want," he says.
Martin hopes to use a chunk of wireless airwaves due to hit the auction
block next year to help turn his vision into reality. Some cellphone
operators are objecting.
As FCC chairman, Martin is responsible for protecting the interests of
U.S. consumers. The FCC has regulatory sway over a broad swath of U.S.
business, including cable and broadcast TV, radio, telecommunications
and wireless. Martin sat down with USA TODAY to talk about some of the
biggest consumer issues facing America. Broadband Internet access is at
the top of his list.
"More and more people expect and demand to have access to the Internet
and new wireless technologies," Martin says. "It is important that the
(FCC) try to find new ways to address" those needs.
The way Martin sees it, broadband is quickly becoming what copper phone
lines were for decades: the main means of communication for millions of
Americans.
As people turn to the Internet for work, play, telemedicine, education
and more, Martin says, it's incumbent on U.S. regulators to make sure no
one gets left behind. Ditto for cutting-edge wireless technologies,
which have the ability to deliver a circus of advanced new services,
including the mobile Web.
Consumers living in rural areas are one of Martin's biggest concerns. In
these areas, he says, dial-up and satellite-based Internet still rule.
Owing to technical limitations, they don't offer enough speed to handle
advanced, interactive services.
People who live in densely populated areas, on the other hand, can pick
from an array of high-speed options, including DSL and cable modem
services.
No matter where, Martin says, he worries about availability and cost of
high-speed services. Broadband runs about $40 a month, on average,
though you'll pay a lot more for faster speeds.
Only 38% of rural households are broadband customers, according to a
Communications Workers of America report. For urban and suburban areas,
the numbers are much higher: 57% and 60%, respectively.
Cost is a big factor, according to the report. Among households with
incomes of $100,000 or more, 85% subscribe. The figure drops to 25% for
households with incomes of less than $20,000.
Martin wants to use a block of wireless spectrum to help bridge the gap.
By attaching a "free broadband" condition to the sale of the spectrum,
known as AWS-3 (for advanced wireless services-3), Martin thinks he can
help drive broadband adoption in rural areas in particular. Only 25% of
network capacity would have to be reserved for free broadband. The rest
could be used to provide premium broadband services.
Some cellphone providers are howling, none louder than T-Mobile. The
company paid $4 billion two years ago to buy AWS-1 spectrum, which abuts
the AWS-3 spectrum.
While the FCC's goal of providing broadband alternatives for rural
customers is "noble," the approach would cause service disruptions for
T-Mobile's data customers, says Cole Brodman, T-Mobile's chief
technology officer.
"The FCC has an obligation to make sure that their spectrum policy
allows for people who bought spectrum to be protected," he says.
Milo Medin, founder and chairman of M2Z, a start-up that first proposed
the "free broadband" idea and plans to bid for the spectrum, says
T-Mobile's problem is self-inflicted. He says T-Mobile is using handset
"filters" and antennas that "read" signals in the adjoining AWS-3 zone,
which could result in interference problems.
Brodman counters that the issue isn't that simple. If T-Mobile doesn't
prevail, he says, the company would have to "work it out" with the AWS-3
winner or perhaps bid on the spectrum itself.
Martin says FCC engineers are studying the interference issue.
As for the high cost of broadband generally, Martin says he'd like to
find a way to use a very old federal subsidy - the universal service
fund - to ease costs for lower-income people. The fund, currently about
$6 billion a year, is used to help keep basic phone service cheap. Rural
phone companies, which use that money to help offset their costs, would
likely resist such a plan.
Martin says it's just common sense. With so many cutting the cord and
going wireless, it's far more important "to make sure we're spending
that money in a way that better reflects the actual usage habits of
Americans today."
Comcast Proposes 'Fair Share' Internet Traffic Control
Following a Federal Communications Commission ruling that Comcast
blocked Internet traffic and ordering the company to submit a compliance
plan about how it intends to stop "discriminatory management practices,"
Comcast is planning a new traffic-managing system.
Called Fair Share, the system is intended to limit the heaviest Internet
users over short periods of time.
In an interview with Bloomberg news service on Wednesday, Mitch Bowling,
Comcast senior vice president and general manager of online services,
described the proposed "time-out" mechanism. Users who reach the top
download limits will have their bandwidth reduced to DSL speeds for 10-
to 20-minute periods, after which it would return to normal.
The new approach, he said, will move toward looking at congestion issues
as triggers for bandwidth management, rather than at the kinds of
applications being used, such as the peer-to-peer application BitTorrent.
At the beginning of this month, the FCC found the cable company used
"unreasonable network-management practices" in blocking P2P programs
such as BitTorrent, and that it had repeatedly changed its story when
asked by the FCC to explain its actions. It gave the company 30 days to
provide a plan to change this practice by the end of the year.
News media had reported that Comcast was secretly blocking users' P2P
traffic, and two consumer-advocacy groups, Free Press and Public
Knowledge, filed a complaint which led to the FCC decision.
Larry Hettick, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis,
said the three most important things Comcast needs to do is provide a
policy that is "clear, reasonable and published."
One of the main reasons the cable company "got into hot water with the
FCC," he said, was because it was reducing bandwidth for users without
telling them and without making clear what the policy was.
As for the specific approach Comcast is proposing, he said that "as a
consumer, if I downloaded 90 percent of a movie and then got a time-out
that reduced my bandwidth, I'd have to start over - and that would not
make me happy."
Hettick pointed to an approach used by satellite-service provider
HughesNet. Depending on the speed you sign up for, he said, you get a
certain amount of data downloading per 24-hour cycle. "For example," he
said, "if it's a T1 level, you get 500 megabytes of downloading per day."
If you exceed your download threshold for a given cycle, he said, you're
"rate limited" - downgraded - to dial-up line speed for the remainder
of that cycle. But there is a provision for unlimited downloading
between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., so a user can set a download manager to
utilize those times.
Newegg Stops Collecting NY Sales Tax
Consumer electronics retailer Newegg announced Friday that it would no
longer comply with a New York state law requiring the collection of
online sales tax.
"After careful review and consideration, we are pleased to inform you
that we have stopped collecting New York sales tax, effective August 21,
2008," Newegg spokesman Bernard Luthi wrote in a Friday e-mail to
customers. "This decision was driven by your direct and candid feedback
and our continued commitment to you as our valued customers."
New York lawmakers approved a budget package in April that includes a
bill requiring online stores like Amazon.com and Newegg to collect sales
tax. The state, which has been struggling to with budget issues, stands
to take in up to $50 million in unpaid taxes.
Consumers who purchase items online are largely exempt from state taxes
they might incur with in-store purchases. Technically, customers are
supposed to report online purchases and pay taxes on them, but most
people fail to do that.
Newegg complied with the law when it went into effect on June 1.
"While Newegg no longer charges sales tax to its New York customers,
you may still have an obligation to pay New York State use tax on your
purchases," Luthi warned.
In May, Amazon sued the New York State Department of Taxation and
Finance (DTF), claiming the bill is unconstitutional.
Though Amazon's headquarters are in Seattle, New York officials argued
that the company's affiliate program gives it a presence in New York.
The program allows customers with Web sites to put an Amazon icon on
their sites that advertise a particular product. If someone clicks
through and makes a purchase, the webmaster gets a small cut.
Amazon said in its suit that affiliates "do not solicit or consummate
sales on behalf of Amazon and are not authorized to act as Amazon's
agents." They operate independently from Amazon, and should not be
considered a brick and mortar extension of the site.
The case is still ongoing.
Microsoft, Novell Expand Alliance with $100M Deal
Microsoft Corp., expanding on an alliance with Novell Inc., has agreed
to buy as much as $100 million more for subscription certificates for
Novell's Linux products, Novell said Wednesday.
That comes on top of the $240 million in upfront purchases Microsoft
agreed to make when the rival sofware companies announced their alliance
in late 2006.
The deal is designed to help Microsoft's market-leading Windows
operating system and the increasingly popular Linux system work together.
Under the deal, Microsoft may sell, reuse or distribute those
certificates, which holders can redeem for expanded technical support
from Novell, primarily for the company's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
EBay Lowering Fixed-price Sellers' Listing Fees
EBay Inc is cutting the fees U.S. sellers on its site pay for fixed-price
items, in one of the company's boldest moves this year to boost
merchandise for sale, lure new buyers and take on competitors.
Total sellers' fees will decrease in most cases under eBay's plan to
improve the balance between buyers and sellers on the world's largest
online auction site, and thereby reduce customer defections to rivals
such as Amazon.com Inc.
"I'd say this is the most fundamental change we've made, ever, to the
marketplace," Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay marketplace
operations, told Reuters. "It's a huge shift from where we've been."
Instead of charging sellers to list each item separately, eBay will
charge 35 cents to list any number of the same types of fixed-price
items. Similar changes will be made in Germany and Britain, eBay's
second- and third-largest auction markets.
The move, effective September 16, is a bid to reduce the clutter of
similar items on eBay - 100 pairs of white socks will now be sold as a
group, for example. The change is timed to boost business heading into
the crucial holiday season.
Such items will remain listed for 30 days instead of seven, helping
sellers avoid the time-consuming process of re-listing unsold items and
lowering the risk of inventory going unsold.
Fixed-price items, which made up 43 percent of merchandise sales on eBay
last quarter, often attract newer or less-sophisticated online buyers
who don't want to wait for a multi-day auction to close. EBay says
fixed-price sales are popular because they bring in newer, more
in-season goods, whether its plasma televisions or the latest video game.
EBay has been trying to attract more buyers as its main auction site has
experienced slowing growth in recent years. The novelty of online
auctions has waned and rivals like Amazon have muscled in on its turf
with strong fixed-price offerings.
"Consumers are voting with their wallets and saying, 'Auctions aren't
really the way I want to buy cosmetics,' or something like that," said
Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, a sales consulting firm
that advises online merchants who sell through eBay and other sites.
He called eBay's move a "relatively big change" to make before the
holidays that also shows eBay's new management is willing to look beyond
the traditional auction format.
Patti Freeman Evans, research director at Jupiter Research, said given
the fast-growing nature of fixed-price sales, eBay's move is "very
opportunistic, but also in line with what their customers are telling
them they want."
EBay's fixed-price focus reflects a shift in e-commerce. Consumers are
now more comfortable with Web shopping and barraged with choices,
whether it's auctioneers, retailers or classified sites like
craigslist.com promoting bargains online or in stores. Also, sellers
often post wares on many sites.
EBay, a San Jose, California-based company with 84 million active users
worldwide, said lower listing fees, together with rejiggered back-end
fees that will vary according to category, will make it the most
competitive fixed-price player.
EBay said an "average" fixed-price seller that once spent $5,000 in eBay
fees each year would now spend 11 percent less under the new fee system.
A revamped search engine, which is now being tested and will be
introduced in September, will give buyers looking for a specific item
options to buy at a fixed price or via auction.
This year, eBay has been taking steps to reward its best sellers and
give new incentives to buyers, including coupons.
Fraud protections have been enhanced and upfront listing fees have been
cut in favor of fees for successful sales. Sellers with high customer
service ratings have won discounts and their goods featured more
prominently than other sellers.
Further changes eBay said it would make include a maximum shipping price
for sellers in its media category, with incentives to offer free
shipping, and requiring sellers to include at least one electronic
payment method.
The latter may irritate some small, but vocal, sellers who have objected
to recent eBay changes.
"This will be viewed as 'eBay continues to push PayPal down everyone's
throat,"' Wingo said.
Besides its main auction business, eBay also owns online payments
service PayPal and Web-based call service Skype.
Some eBay Sellers Frustrated with Rule Changes
Some people who sell things on eBay are fed up with new rules the
company has been imposing in hopes of making the auction site more
attractive to online shoppers. Now even more changes are coming in the
next few weeks, but this time eBay Inc. hopes it can cool tempers.
Already this year, eBay has tinkered with its fee structure, search
results and feedback system. These efforts might be meeting eBay's aims
of improving the experience for buyers, but several sellers say their
relationship with eBay is worse than ever, and some have left the site
entirely.
Jonathan Garriss, executive director of the Professional eBay Sellers
Alliance and head of Gotham City Online, which sells shoes on eBay, said
his group's members are seeing fewer of their listed items sell, and
lower average prices for things that do sell.
EBay has been rejigging its vast Internet marketplace in hopes of
turning around a troubling trend: Its number of active users is barely
rising. In the most recent quarter, the figure rose 1.4 percent to 84.5
million.
One big change came in January, when eBay altered its complex fee
structure and said it was trying to encourage sellers to offer more
items for sale, which in turn could attract more buyers.
Generally, eBay cut the fees it charges for listing an item, but raised
its commissions on completed sales of products auctioned for less than
$1,000 or sold at fixed prices lower than $100. Meanwhile, the company
began taking a lesser bite out of higher-end fixed-price sales - as much
as 4 percent instead of a previous maximum of 5 percent.
At the time, eBay said more than 60 percent of its sellers would save
money under the new rules. But plenty of complaints poured in. EBay
responded by cutting listing fees by as much as half for items in its
"media" category - such as books and DVDs - that sell for under $25.
Still, many sellers were still unhappy that unlike in the past - when
eBay consistently talked of a level playing field for brand-name
companies and weekend attic-raiders alike - a new top tier of vendors
seems to have an easier time flooding the marketplace.
Under a new "Diamond PowerSeller" plan, the highest-volume merchants may
be eligible for reduced fees. One Diamond PowerSeller, Buy.com Inc., is
offering so many goods on eBay that many sellers suspect Buy.com is
listing items practically for free. EBay won't comment on Buy.com's
arrangement.
Buy.com's listings also emphasize eBay's move toward sales with set
prices rather than its traditional auction format. EBay says auctions
are not going away, but fixed-price sales are the fastest-growing part
of the company's marketplace, increasing 60 percent a year.
And more changes are afoot. EBay announced Wednesday that starting Sept.
16, it will let U.S. sellers pay 35 cents to list an unlimited number of
identical items at a set price, for a month at a time. Previously,
fixed-price listing fees could run as high as $4 per item, and the
listings were good for a week.
EBay's president of marketplace operations, Lorrie Norrington,
acknowledged there has been "a lot of change" this year. But she said
the company carefully considered the moves and believes they are
improving buyers' experience because "the best values from trusted
sellers become better and better."
For some sellers, like Michael Knight, who dismantles motorcycles and
sells the parts on eBay from Garland, Texas, the sheer volume of recent
adjustments has been frustrating.
"I have no control. I have to comply with anything they choose to do and
I have no voice in the matter," he said.
Knight would like to move off eBay, but says it's difficult to transfer
his listings to another site. Other sites will not easily accept the
photos embedded in his item descriptions, and modifying every one of his
almost 4,000 listings "is just not practical."
"I'd be giving up a month's income to get that done. That's the only
thing that's keeping me on eBay - the inconvenience of leaving," he said.
Bruce Hershenson of West Plains, Miss., had spent 10 years selling
vintage movie posters on eBay. Instead he now does that twice a week on
his own site, eMoviePoster.com, using technology offered by
AuctionAnything.com Inc.
"I talk to other people who have done what I did and they're happy with
their decision. They've been able to get their business to the eBay
business levels or beyond," Hershenson said.
His poster auctions on eBay had started at 99 cents each, so under the
fee structure eBay imposed in January, he would have paid 15 cents to
list each poster, down from 20 cents. But his average poster sold for
$50, and eBay's take on that sale price would rise to about $3.07, from
about $2.12 previously.
Even with a discount he could get by keeping his customer-feedback
ratings high, he expected to pay eBay almost $20,000 more per year.
Sellers have also bristled at changes in eBay's feedback policy, one of
the site's traditional hallmarks. In the spring, the company removed
sellers' ability to leave negative or neutral feedback for buyers,
though buyers can still offer negative assessments of sellers. EBay also
adjusted its search engine so that items being hawked by people with
poorer feedback ratings come up lower in search results.
Some sellers complain that this put them at the mercy of unscrupulous
buyers who try to take advantage of the rating system.
"Many times you feel like they're really pushing it to see if you'll
give them some kind of a refund," said Bill Cartmel, who sells records
on eBay from Lewiston, Maine. "They'll float the suggestion that 'This
isn't exactly what I expected.'"
EBay's Norrington said that sellers can report such abuse, and that the
company hasn't seen it much.
Even with the rancor, some sellers clearly have benefited from eBay's
changes. Steven Holt and his wife, Crystal, who sell DVDs from Denison,
Iowa, say they've seen record sales since the spring, when eBay search
results began favoring vendors who, like them, have high feedback ratings.
Yet Holt understands why some sellers may be upset. He notes that the
uncertain effect of fee changes, combined with an iffy economy, "is
naturally going to be a concern."
"When eBay makes these dramatic changes, it can make you very nervous,"
he said. "But again, eBay is doing what eBay believes it has to do to
protect its marketplace."
Microsoft Enlists Seinfeld for Ad Campaign
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will star in a $300 million marketing campaign
for Microsoft Corp aimed at burnishing the image of its computer
operating system, a person familiar with the effort said on Thursday.
The centerpiece of that campaign, to debut next month, is a series of
television advertisements in which Seinfeld, 54, best known for his
eponymous NBC sitcom, will appear with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates,
the person told Reuters.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported details of the marketing
effort, said Seinfeld will receive about $10 million for his work.
Seinfeld's representatives were not immediately available for comment
and Redmond, Washington-based computer software giant Microsoft
declined to discuss the matter.
But the source who knew of the ad campaign said an immediate goal of the
commercials is to counter public perceptions that Windows Vista,
Microsoft's latest PC operating system, is clunky and hard to use
compared with rival products from Apple Inc.
The overall objective of the campaign is to rejuvenate the brand image
of Windows generally, the source said.
Devised by the Miami-based ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky, the spots
will employ some variation of the slogan "Windows, Not Walls" and the
theme of removing barriers that prevent people and ideas from
connecting, the person said.
The ads will begin appearing September 4. The Wall Street Journal said
the $300 million marketing campaign is one of the largest in the
company's history.
For now, Seinfeld is the only celebrity, other than Gates, taking part
in the campaign, although others were considered, including comic actor
Will Ferrell, the source said.
The attempted image overhaul comes in the wake of Apple's "Mac vs. PC"
ads featuring a geeky PC guy who vaguely resembles Gates being unable to
keep up with a better-looking, hip Mac counterpart.
Those ads, painting Windows as stodgy and unreliable, have reinforced
criticism about Vista's performance, stringent hardware requirements and
lack of support for other software and devices such as printers.
Despite selling more than 180 million licenses since its launch in 2007,
Vista continues to suffer from the perception the release was a dud,
although Microsoft has said early problems with the operating system
have been resolved.
The Windows operating system is the crown jewel of Microsoft's $60
billion software empire. It sits on more than 90 percent of the world's
computers and profits generated from Windows bankroll the company's
ventures into new businesses such as Xbox video game machines and Zune
music players.
Attention Shoppers: Website Promises Best Deal
U.S. and UK shoppers in the market for a television, dishwasher or other
big ticket purchases now have a website that will alert them when the
cost of an item they want drops to a target price they have set.
"I'm a consumer advocate. This is the kind of stuff I love," said Edgar
Dworsky, a former consumer protection official for the city of Boston
and Massachusetts.
Dworsky founded ConsumerWorld.org more than 10 years ago, a
non-commercial website aimed at saving consumers money.
For years, airline passengers have been able to set price alerts at
sites like Travelocity or Orbitz to be notified when airfares drop,
Dworsky said. Now consumers can do the same thing when looking for a
flat-panel television or a digital camera.
He set up DealAlerter.com (http://www.DealAlerter.com) powered by
PriceGrabber.co.uk (http://www.pricegrabber.co.uk/) to offer shoppers an
easier way to find a better deal.
The shopper picks an item and checks its current price range. If prices
seem too high, he or she can set a lower target price. The site
automatically rechecks store prices daily, and then sends them an email
alert if prices drop to or below their target price.
"DealAlerter takes comparison shopping to the next level. It lets the
Internet do some of the work for you," he said.
The program used by DealAlerter and PriceGrabber monitors up to 13,000
online stores.
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