hobobobo

Member since: Jul 25th, 2007

hobobobo's Latest Comments

Blog Activity

Blog	# of Comments
Joystiq	1 Comment
Engadget	3 Comments
Download Squad	1 Comment
DIY Life	2 Comments

Recent Comments:

iPhone 3.0 video recording interface, compass support spotted? (Update: voice dialing, too) (Engadget)

Apr 7th 2009 12:30PM I'm not sure I understand. I have an original iPhone and it records video just fine. Actually, in decent lighting, it's quite impressive at 15fps given the camera resolution. What's the big deal? I think I've actually got two different video apps installed right now; one of them compresses to all the best formats too. This isn't new, it's just Apple releasing the reins a little in the future. The Cydia flashlight app is the same thing... a genuinely useful flashlight that will light up a room instead of the crappy dim ones you get on the app store.

The editor-in-chief giveaway: Win Ryan Block's gadgets (Engadget)

Aug 23rd 2008 12:31AM I love swag.

eBay to de-emphasize auctions, lose all distinctiveness (Download Squad)

Aug 21st 2008 2:57AM Ebay shot themselves in the foot when it comes to an auction site. Like a real auction, a garage sale, or a clearance bin, shopper seek out deals. When they implemented the multi-category organization, spelling correction, automated descriptions, etc, they took the human component out of the site. This means that there are FAR FEWER deals resulting from spelling errors, miscategorizations, poor descriptions, etc. I used to surf Ebay with a dyslexic dictionary looking for deals. Those just don't exist any more... which has put a big dent in my Ebay shopping (I was a former power seller, btw). On top of that, Ebay really let the fraud get out of hand on their site. There was a time when 99% of auctions ended cleanly and items were real. Now, I would guess that big ticket items are about 30% fraud, and non-paying bidders are about 15% across the board (which is HUGE). In those situations, Ebay makes you jump through hoops to recoop your money from them (ie they profit from fraud on their site and therefore don't bother to fix it). This made it too expensive for me to continue making reasonable profit margins... and I was constantly waiting to get back large sums of money for fraud and non-paying items.

I could go on... the idiotically long and tedious listing process, the constant nickle-and-dime add-ons, etc. Frankly, whoever is running Ebay is probably also the president of a large bank since the policies seem to be the same... "Take the customers' money in any manner possible regardless of ethics or morality." Shame on Ebay for letting cumulitive bureaucratic management decisions ruin their site (and likely their future). Good thing they were smart enough to buy 25% of Craigslist... because it is the future of used/second hand items.