auction

You've circled the block 10 times and there's nary a parking spot in sight. You could keep hoping someone leaves or you could bid for a parking spot that's about to open up.

Parking Auction lets you buy or sell info about public parking spots. You're not buying or selling the spot itself, it being public and all, just vacancy information, according to its developers. Unlike Streetline, Parking Auction is not linked to a sensor network.

The service launched recently in beta testing for New York's Upper West Side. Citing a study by Transportation Alternatives, the developers say people drove 366,000 miles in the area over a one-year period looking for somewhere to park. Manhattan, of course, has the most expensive parking spots in the U.S.

During the beta phase, users buy and sell spots with Parking Auction credits instead of real money. If it gets off the ground, co-founder Brian Rosetti has said spots could go for $5 or $6. Payment would happen through the app or PayPal.

Parking Auction users are supposed to yield a vacant parking spot if a third party happens to drive by and wants to park before the deal is done.

I can imagine that some drivers wouldn't like the idea of others buying and selling public spots. Hopefully it won't lead to parking rage.

(Via Wired) … Read more

For the past couple of months Pioneer DJ (a division of Pioneer Electronics) has been traveling the East and West coasts with the DJ Art Mix Tour, raising funds for VH1's Save the Music Foundation, to restore music education programs in public schools.

The event enlisted some of the top DJs, urban artists, and designers to create original works of art using a unique canvas: the Pioneer CDJ-2000 digital music player.

August 2 through August 23, everyone will have the opportunity to bid on one of the 12 original art pieces created by Steve Aoki, Tommy Lee and DJ Aero, BT, The Crystal Method, Jesse "Dean" Graves, Joe Hahn of Linkin Park, Bob Haro, Man One, Victor "Marka27" Quinonez, Ritzy Periwinkle, Rost Arr, and George Thompson.

Bidding will begin at $400, with final bids being accepted until noon ET, on August 23. All the information you'll need about each individual work of art and the artist(s) can be found on the Pioneer DJ Art Mix page on charitybuzz. To boot, 100 percent of the proceeds will be donated to the VH1 Save The Music Foundation.

We had the opportunity to check out the Pioneer DJ Art Mix show held at Twelve21 in New York on June 23.… Read more

The proposed debt ceiling bill that Congress is expected to pass in the next day or so will not give the Federal Communications Commission authority to auction additional wireless spectrum. But that doesn't mean that wireless incentive auctions are dead.

Wireless experts in Washington, D.C. say Congress could tack on the authorization for the FCC to conduct spectrum auctions to a package that may emerge later this year from the bipartisan deficit-reduction panel created by this week's debt agreement. President Obama said the "super committee," which will consist of six Democrats and six Republicans, will … Read more

What's keeping Congress from authorizing the FCC to auction off underutilized television spectrum badly needed for mobile broadband? The answer, strangely enough, is Net neutrality--specifically, the FCC's "Open Internet" rules passed at the end of 2010 and which are only now being published.

While mobile Internet spectrum is at a premium, most over-the-air television broadcasters are not making full use of the spectrum allocated to them as part of the transition to digital TV in 2009. So the FCC and the White House have been pushing hard for new powers that would let the FCC conduct … Read more

Congressional leaders seem to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the debate over the budget and raising the debt ceiling. Now it looks like the incentive wireless spectrum auctions proposed by the Federal Communications Commission may end up as part of a package that is being hashed out by Republicans and Democrats in Washington, D.C.

On Monday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid included the sale of wireless spectrum to mobile broadband providers in his proposed package of cuts and revenue-raisers. He said he expects the sale of wireless spectrum to generate $15 billion in revenue for the … Read more

A consortium comprising Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, Research In Motion, and Sony has purchased Nortel Networks' remaining patent portfolio for $4.5 billion in an auction that began earlier this week.

The group purchased some 6,000 patents and patent applications encompassing technologies such as wireless, wireless 4G, data networking, optical, voice, Internet, and semiconductors, Nortel announced late Thursday.

Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2009, said in a statement it was pleased with the auction's outcome.

"The size and dollar value for this transaction is unprecedented, as was the significant interest in the portfolio among … Read more

This 1939 Pontiac Plexiglas Deluxe Six "Ghost Car," once on display at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, could now be yours, at the right price.

The first full-size transparent car built in America (at a reported cost of $25,000), is expecting to fetch somewhere between $275,000 and $475,000.

The Plexiglas vehicle was a collaboration between General Motors and Rohm & Haas. It features a Plexiglas body that exposes the vehicle's innards.

Following the New York World's Fair, the "Ghost Car" went on a nationwide tour, and then spent several … Read more

Gary Shapiro, the head of the Consumer Electronics Association, is frustrated by TV broadcasters' lack of innovation, and he isn't shy about voicing what he thinks they should do with spectrum licenses that have been give to them for free.

Shapiro and the CEA, which lobbies in Washington, D.C., on behalf of gadget makers and retailers, support a controversial proposal from the Federal Communications Commission, which calls for TV broadcasters to voluntarily give up some of their spectrum to be auctioned off.

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has proposed the incentive spectrum auctions as a way to free up … Read more

The Senate Commerce Committee voted Wednesday to approve legislation aimed at resolving long-standing issues for mobile broadband users, both public and private.

Co-sponsored by Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.) and Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tx.), S. 911, the "Public Safety Spectrum and Wireless Innovation Act," had wide bipartisan support, passing the committee by a vote of 21-4. (A current version of the bill is not available online, pending several amendments approved during the markup.)

A key provision of the proposed law would authorize the Federal Communications Commission to hold "voluntary incentive auctions" both to … Read more