Blowing Out the Dust: Afternoon Edition
• Turn Left at Bank – Nokia puts up $8.1 billion for U.S. GPS map supplier Navteq. [Reuters]
• VOIPped! – Skype loses a CEO; eBay loses money. [GigaOm]
• Pretend Portent – Apple's General Counsel leaves the company. [Gearlog]
• Pronounced "Juh-Ooh-Oh-Ess-Tuh"* – TV-on-the-Intero service Joost now open for business, should you like their limited content selection. Best of luck to them; the software is rather nice. [Joost.com]
• Nerd Alert – Access Google Calendar from the command line. [Lifehacker]
• Tool Bag – The Week in Tools: Top 5 [Toolmonger]
* Not really. "Juiced."
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Perhaps it is lame to comment on a 'Blowing Out the Dust' post but I won't let it stop me because two of these items inspired me.
1. The Navteq buyout sucks. This is going to be a major losing proposition for consumers. Nokia says they will continue to license the technology but Navteq has a big chunk of the market and I predict rising prices in the near future. We'll either pay more for the service on other carriers or the other carriers will opt not to buy so we'll have fewer features. Perhaps this is an opportunity for another player to move into this market.
2. eBay lost money eh? I haven't bought or sold on eBay for a couple years but just sold my old T-M-Mobile HTC Windows Mobile 5 phone and, boy, what a nightmare. I received 5 or 6 emails from scammers trying to convince me to end the auction and sell to them but of course the payment would arrive later but please help the guy out cuz he's headed to Iraq and blah blah blah.
Then, when the auction was complete and the nice buyer sent me the $, he received an email from some asshat in Romania telling him to mail a money order ASAP or he wouldn't get the phone. I suspect cell phones (especially pricey ones) attract the dregs in spades but sheesh, I think I'll stick with Craigslist and good 'ol greenbacks for a while.