October 02, 2006, 9:29 PM PDT
Ugly ads no more: vFlyer makes pretty classifieds
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

Here's a useful new Web utility: vFlyer, a site that builds nice classified ads for you and posts them on ad sites such as Oodle. Ads go to the right services: items for sale get put in classifieds services in the correct zip code, and job postings show up on job aggregators such as SimplyHired.

vFlyer can't autopost into the two most important person-to-person markets, eBay and CraigsList, but it does have a browser bookmarklet to easily create a CraigsList ad (like this one), and it creates HTML that you can paste into any other site.

The service makes it easy to create a good-looking ad, which appears the same wherever you post it. But there's more to vFlyer than the nice formatting. For example, the service attaches a response page to each ad, which buffers your real e-mail address from potential buyers. (The company makes money by running its own advertisements on the response pages.) You can also track the performance of your ad on the various sites where it's posted.

While the vFlyer ads do look pretty good, the service is in beta, and some things need to be improved. For example, vFlyer tries to be smart about where it posts your ads, but the site doesn't let you choose or even see which services it is posting to. You can't format the text in your ads; even line breaks and simple HTML get filtered out.

Future enhancements include the ability to submit ads to sites that require payment (most job boards, for example), and even possibly to buy Google ad words for your flyer.

This is an interesting and potentially useful tool, although users need to understand that it's not a store or a classified service itself. While everything you list ends up posted on the vFlyer site, the service is designed not as a destination, but rather as a hub from which sellers distribute listings to other places on the Web. (In direct contrast, another Web classifieds service, Edgeio, is a centralized classifieds reader. It sucks up classifieds from all over the Web, including vFlyer.)

Once some of its beta issues are ironed out, vFlyer should be a useful utility for anybody trying to sell stuff online.

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October 02, 2006, 6:00 PM PDT
Shopster lets you set up your own Web store--to sell somebody else's stuff
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

If you want to get into e-commerce but don't want to actually do any work, check out Shopster. This site lets you set up your own online store without actually having to own any inventory, ship any boxes, process any credit cards, design any products, deal with customer returns, or do anything else normally associated with keeping a shop. The only thing you need to do is name your store and select items from Shopster's inventory of goods. The rest is fairly automatic and handled by Shopster.

Of course, if you set up a store without giving it much thought, you probably won't make much money. Shopster does let you apply thought to your storefront. You can write your own product blurbs, put products into categories you define, and set your own prices (but you can't sell anything for less than the Shopster warehouse price). You can choose from a few different site designs, too, or dive into the templates and monkey with layouts. You can even create coupons. To a limited extent, Shopster lets you be your own J. Peterman. Here's my store, created with very little thought: rafestore.secure2u.com (note that it will go offline after October 6).

There's something that bothers me about this service, though. It's not what I would consider a true e-commerce solution. You can sell only what Shopster has in its warehouse, which is fairly large, but not Amazon large. This makes it more like an affiliate marketing engine for Shopster's own inventory, with the twist that you get your own storefront and can set your own prices.

Amazon, by the way, has a new affiliate "store" system called aStore. However, you can't set your own prices, and you're paid on a sliding percentage of sales, not on profit.

While it has a smaller inventory, Shopster is more flexible and potentially more profitable for online retailers than aStore. It could be a very useful service if you want to open a branded store quickly, or if you have a particular flair for writing catalog copy and are convinced that your customers won't go elsewhere on the Web to find lower prices on the items you are pitching.

Shopster is thankfully not free (otherwise we'd run the risk of the Web being deluged with Shopster pop-up stores). It costs $39 a month, and there's a $99 set-up fee; additional services (such as the capability to sell more than 4,000 items per store) require an additional fee. You can try Shopster for a week for no charge, but a credit card is required.

If you want to sell your own goods, you'll want another e-commerce solution, such as Shopify, Yahoo Stores, or eBay. Or to sell gift items of your own design, manufactured on demand, check out CafePress or Qoop.

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October 02, 2006, 4:30 PM PDT
Yes or no--easy for me to say
Posted by: Ronn Owens

A lot of people find it hard to give you a yes or no answer when it comes to technology. I am not one of those people.

The Chocolate Phone (LG) is certainly good-looking. It's also a so-so phone. I give it a no.

Sony Ericsson's W810 might be the only candy bar phone to reverse my position against such phones. It does three things (phone, camera, music) and does them very well. I say yes.

The Nokia 8801 is now less than $400. If looks are your top priority (on an otherwise average phone) go for it. Yes.

For that matter, if cost is no object, wait for Nokia's next version (8800 Sirocco Edition). Pricey, but stunning. And with a 2-megapixel camera to boot. Yes.

On the other hand, the Nokia 7380 is pitched to the female market and is a thin attention-getter. It's also a terrible phone. No!

Motorola's Pebl U6. It comes in a variety of colors, is a solid clamshell phone with more than six hours of talk time, and it feels comfortable. Yes.

The Motorola Slvr L6 is certainly well priced, but with a mere VGA camera and my dislike of candy bar phones, I say no.

The Nokia 9300i is great if you want to carry a brick. Add to that a cumbersome menu, and it's clearly more trouble than it's worth. No.

Finally, a phone to look out for is the Motorola W220. Over eight hours talk time in a Krzr-like package. Yes?

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October 02, 2006, 3:36 PM PDT
Samsung SGH-T509 in plum
Posted by: Kent German

T-Mobile is now offering the Samsung SGH-T509 in plum. Almost a black color, plum is expected to be an "in" color for cell phones this year, or so T-Mobile says. The new T509 has the same features as the original silver SGH-T509 and is available for $49 with service.

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October 02, 2006, 3:20 PM PDT
Alltel's new phones
Posted by: Kent German

After my posting from last week regarding the arrival of the Motorola Krzr K1m, several good readers reminded me that Alltel will soon get the device as well. You now can preorder the K1m for its October 5 release; the price is $249, which includes a $150 rebate. The feature set will be largely the same and Alltel will get the same dark gray color scheme. But once again, the conventional wisdom is that another CDMA carrier will pick up the Krzr K1m this month.

Alltel's other new handsets include the Motorola W315 and the Pantech PN-218. The W315 is a simple flip phone with a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, basic PIM applications, text messaging, and a wireless Web browser. It retails for as low as $9.99 with service rebates. The Pantech PN-218 offers a VGA camera with flash, a speakerphone, voice-activated dialing, text and enhanced messaging, basic PIM applications, and a wireless Web browser. It's $49.99 with service.

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October 02, 2006, 3:17 PM PDT
T-Mobile launches MyFaves
Posted by: Nicole Lee

T-Mobile released MyFaves today, a new cell phone software package that the company refers to as a new "wireless communication experience." MyFaves lets you have up to five photos or icons that illustrate your five most favorite people on the phone's home screen, and here's the kicker: You can get unlimited nationwide any-network calling to any of those five people, even if they're on another network or on a landline. However, there will be a monthly fee; starting at $39.99 per month for individuals or $69.99 per month for families. And you can change each of the five people only once per calendar month. Also, not all phones will be compatible with the service; presumably because the device would have to support the MyFaves user interface, though T-Mobile plans to have most of its phones MyFaves compatible by the end of the year.

This concept isn't entirely new. Alltel has had a similar My Circle service for a while now, which lets you add up to 10 friends in an unlimited any-network plan. Alltel is a regional carrier, though, making T-Mobile the first national carrier to have this type of service. All of which begs the question: if you really call only five people on a regularly...

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October 02, 2006, 2:37 PM PDT
Ronn's ramblings
Posted by: Ronn Owens

Tempting as that $50 or even $100 discount might look, always go with a one-year cell phone sign-up with your provider. The landscape changes so quickly and dramatically, any contract more than a year old will be outdated. And you will be charged that severance fee.

Currently, the overall best phone is the Motorola V3i. They're ubiquitous for a reason. (The original V3 was just as good-looking but sketchy in operation.) Yes, the V3i's 1.23-megapixel camera is weak (but better than the V3's VGA) and yes, the sound could be louder. But besides that, it's a sleek, comfortable superb phone. And iTunes' support (with a decent speaker) is a plus.

Along that line, the new Krzr should debut this month. Its camera is upped to 2 megapixels, and it has a luxurious feel and is a bit thicker and longer than the V3i, but it's also narrower.

The most-asked question: which carrier? Answer: there is no universal answer. Your choice should be based on who has the best coverage in the areas you will most use the phone. How do you find out? All carriers give you a period (usually 2 weeks) to test your reception. If it's not perfect, switch to another provider. Outside of the most rural areas, with today's technology, the reception should be close to perfect.

As for design, in my opinion, clamshells are best; sliders are OK but a tad less solid. As for for the candy bar phones, unless you absolutely don't care if anyone hears anything you say at the most inopportune time, avoid them. A button will accidentally be pushed, and you'll be asking for trouble.

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October 02, 2006, 1:28 PM PDT
GrandCentral: one phone to rule them all
Posted by: Rafe Needleman

A lot of "unified messaging" services have been foisted on us in the last 10 or so years, but few have really gotten traction. At DemoFall, I checked out some very interesting phone-messaging applications, all of which looked useful by themselves, but it made my head hurt to think about using them in combination. One other service that launched at the show, GrandCentral, looked even more immediately useful than the messaging services, and I expect it will grow to incorporate many of their features.

GrandCentral is pitched as "One number for life." When you sign up, you get a new phone number. When people call this number, the system takes their name (the first time they call; after that, it remembers), and rings all of your telephones for you at the same time--your desk, your mobile, your home--and lets you pick up the call from any of them.

That, in itself, is a very useful feature. But wait, there's more: GrandCentral allows you to reject calls after you hear the name of the person calling; define which of your phones ring based on who is calling, and when (so work calls don't ring you at home); send some numbers to spam permanently; and even listen in on voicemail as it's being left and pick up if you want. You also get a permanent record of all your incoming calls. And you can use GrandCentral to place calls to people, too. When you use it to make a call, it calls you first on the phone you specify and then connects to the person you're calling--much like the VoIP go-between service JahJah. (It's free for now, but after the system leaves beta, this call completion service may cost you a few cents.)

All the features are wrapped up in a very slick and easy Web interface. The service will handle 100 minutes a month for free, beyond that it will cost $15 a month. During the beta period, it's all free--it doesn't even ask for a credit card.

I'd like to see a few things added, though. First, the system needs a mobile interface, either a Java or Windows Mobile download (or a Palm app for Treo users). I'd also like to see an Outlook plug-in (for placing calls from my address book). The calling rules could be more flexible, although there's something to be said for the simplicity of the rules engine as it stands. And using GrandCentral will cause new users some confusion, as every time somebody calls you you'll end up with "missed call" indicators on your phones except the one you accepted the call on. You'll need to find a way to turn off those reminders if you use this system.

Finally, pitching anything as a "for life" solution is asking for trouble. Who's to say if GrandCentral will still be around and handling phone calls a year from now? Indeed, this isn't even GrandCentral's first business--previously it was an enterprise data aggregation service. But that said, this looks like one of the best personal phone call-handling services I've ever seen. It's definitely worth experimenting with, and I hope the team continues to layer in new features.

Note: GrandCentral (in both its current and previous incarnations) was bankrolled by Halsey Minor, one of the founders of CNET.

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October 02, 2006, 10:15 AM PDT
Hackers announce zero-day flaw for Firefox
Posted by: Robert Vamosi

A flaw specific to Firefox's implementation of JavaScript could lead to a stack-overflow error. The vulnerability was announced at the Toorcon hacker conference in San Diego over the weekend and left Mozilla, the company that produces Firefox, scrambling to address the issue. Worse, the presenters, Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi, also released an exploit for the vulnerability, making it likely that someone could use that exploit for an attack against Firefox users. News.com reporter Joris Evers attended Toorcon and has more on the Firefox vulnerability in this article.

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October 02, 2006, 8:14 AM PDT
The biggest lens you'll never see
Posted by: Will Greenwald

The Zeiss Apo Sonnar T* was designed by Carl Zeiss to be the world's largest nonmilitary camera lens. The 1,700mm lens weighs more than 550 pounds, is larger than a refrigerator, and gives a medium-format camera a telephoto factor of almost 29X. Don't expect to actually see it in the wild anytime soon, though; the Apo Sonnar T* is a special project from Carl Zeiss and costs as much as a small house.

Source: DP Review via Gizmodo

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