Eve Online’s PLEX for graphics card offer sells out in 64 seconds
At the end of March, developer CCP announced quite an exciting offer for players of Eve Online. A deal had been signed with Nvidia to allow Eve’s in-game Pilot License Extension (PLEX) currency to be used to purchase a real-world GeForce GTX 560 graphics card.
The announcement saw the price of PLEX shoot up on the Eve Online markets, but ultimately it was a way to get a $ 200 graphics card without spending any real money. The only issue was, the number of cards available had been limited to 100.
As you would expect for such an offer, demand was high. The graphics card for PLEX transaction became available yesterday, and even though it was limited to just one card per account, all 100 were gone within a mere 64 seconds.
The speed at which the cards were snapped up shows there’s definitely a healthy market for virtual currency to real world object transactions. CCP could, and probably should look into expanding the program as it may offer a new revenue stream for the company if they take a percentage cut on sales. At the very least it’s another novel feature for the game that may attract new players. It may have a few accountants scratching their heads when it comes time to file your return, though.
I’m sure Nvidia will see the potential of these types of offers, too. The company has just seen 100 of its cards grabbed by PC gamers, many of whom will be playing games for many years to come and therefore require PC upgrades. If they use a Nvidia card now, they are likely to select a Nvidia card again in the future.
via Games Press (registration required)
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Google Drive to offer 5GB of free cloud storage space: leaked screenshot
As portable hard-drives slowly become (to a certain extent) obsolete, an increasing number of people want to be able to remotely access data from any device with an internet connection. This is exactly what cloud storage aims to provide. Be it a movie, a word document, or a zip archive, cloud storage services enable you to access information you’ve previously uploaded from virtually every Internet-enabled corner of the world (odd, since the Earth is round).
The potential of development is huge, so every major web company is trying to grab a piece of the cloud storage pie, from Microsoft (SkyDrive) to Apple (iCloud). According to a couple of rumors fueled by leaked screenshots, Google is planning to soon release their own cloud storage service, dubbed Google Drive.
The original rumor surfaced at GigaOM and claimed that Google Drive will become available in early April and will be limited to 1GB of data. At that point, many claimed that 1GB is too little storage space compared to the average 30GB offered by players in the (paid) cloud-based storage market, such as Dropbox, Box, and SugarSync.
A few days later, a screenshot of the desktop client for Google Drive was leaked, pointing towards a maximum 2GB of space offered for free. Fast forward another few days, and I am now here to report about a leaked screenshot of the Google Drive web-service, one the claims Google Drive will feature 5GB of free storage space. Most likely, you’ll be able to buy more storage space, but the tariffs are obviously unknown at this point.
What’s your take on Google Drive? Are the rumored 5GB of free storage space enough for your current needs? Will you be willing to buy more if the price is right? Let us know in the comment section below!
HTC Partners with Dropbox, Adds 5 GB Cloud Storage for New Users 
As Cloud Storage Is Heating Up, Box and Dropbox Give Android Users a Treat
This article, Google Drive to offer 5GB of free cloud storage space: leaked screenshot , was originally published at androidtime.com – Your Android News Source.
Leaked screenshot suggests Google Drive to offer 5GB free storage
When we last checked in on Google Drive, it looked like Google was finally going to launch their oft-rumored cloud storage service — albeit with a scant 1GB of space for your files. According to a freshly-leaked screenshot, that’s not the case: Google may be planning to one-up competitors like Dropbox and offer up 5GB for free.
There are, however, some elements in this alleged screenshot that don’t quite jive. For example, everywhere Google abbreviates gigabytes on it web pages, they put a space between the number and the GB (5 GB vs. 5GB). Google also doesn’t add text like “for Windows” to its app names. Instead, the operating system that applies to your system is typically listed below the download button.
It’s also rare that Google is this cut-and-dried with their storage limitations. On Picasa Web, for example, photos up to 800×800 pixels and videos under 15 minutes in length don’t count against your 1GB of free space. On Google Docs, files you create or convert within the web apps don’t count either. Google+ offers unlimited storage for photos, and Gmail offers 7-ish gigs of space, but the upper limit is constantly changing. Google Music lets you store 20,000 songs of up to 250MB each.
Would it make sense, then, for Google Drive to launch with a 5GB limit? Probably not, especially since that space will no doubt be tied in to your other Google storage, too. A 1GB base should be fine, particularly if Google sticks to their current modus operandi and offers ways for you to sidestep the limitations.
Hopefully the rumors are true this time and Google Drive will finally launch in April as predicted — or at least by the time Google I/O kicks off — so we can start using it instead of just talking about it.
More at Talk Android
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Verizon teams up with IndyCar to offer exclusive access to IndyCar Mobile
Verizon has now teamed up with IndyCar to offer exclusive access to the Official IZOD IndyCar Series Mobile application. The app is being made available to all Verizon customers for their smartphones and tablets. If you're an IndyCar fan, this is the app to have:
- Live In-Car Cameras: Watch the race from the driver's seat and see the intensity first hand.
- Live Driver-Pit Crew Chatter: Hear the live radio communication between drivers and pit crews during the race.
- Mosaic: Four live features on a split screen – Streaming Race Control, Real-Time Track Mapping and two in-car camera views.
- Real-Time Track Map: See the real-time position of every car across the track during every race.
- Streaming Race Control: Get behind-the-scenes video and audio of the officials that run the race.
- Real-Time Leaderboard: Keep up to date with the current running order of each race.
- Driver Profiles: More information about your favorite 2012 drivers.
- Live Radio Broadcast: Listen to the full radio commentary of each race.
- Exclusive Video Content: Get app-only content including behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.
- Historical Race Footage: Watch video clips from historical races and famous IndyCar moments.
- IndyCar 101: Get the basics on the IndyCar Series.
That's a pretty compelling list of features for an app and will surely satisfy any IndyCar fans needs. If you're on Verizon, you can grab the app from the Google Play Store using the link below. Keep in mind, it may not be supported by all devices but it's leaps and bounds over last years version.
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Samsung Galaxy Note for AT&T offer – Best price online!
This week we have yet another surprise for people looking to get their hands on what Phil sees as "Style and power worthy of its oversized stature" – none other than the grand Samsung Galaxy Note running on AT&T Wireless.
For today Wednesday and tomorrow Thursday only, ShopAndroid.com in conjunction with Best Buy Mobile are bringing you a deal that is much too low to show as it is the very lowest price that you'll find anywhere for this amazing smartphone.
How much of a deal? You'll need to follow the link below to find out but we can tell you that if you're looking to start a new AT&T account with a 2 year contract or upgrade your existing one you'll get the Samsung Galaxy Note at up to $ 70 less than most options online.
So if you've been lusting to get your hands on the HUGE display and power of the Samsung Galaxy Note, there probably hasn't been a better time to do so than right now via the link below.
- Samsung GALAXY Note for AT&T Offer
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Sprint Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch in Black & White Offer – Best Price Online
This week we have another nice little surprise for people looking to get their hands on a brand new smartphone with "A large, gorgeous display matched by a powerful dual-core processor" — the stunning Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch in your choice of Black or White running on the Sprint Network.
For this Wednesday and Thursday only, ShopAndroid.com in conjunction with Best Buy Mobile Solutions are bringing you a deal that is much too low to show as it is the very lowest price that you'll find anywhere for this amazing smartphone.
How much of a deal? You'll need to follow the link below to find out but we can tell you that if you're looking to start a new Sprint account with a two-year contract you'll get it at up to $ 200 less than most options online. And if you've been wanting to renew or upgrade your existing Sprint contract you'll still be looking at up to $ 70 less than other offers.
So if you've been lusting to get your hands on the huge display and power of the Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, there probably hasn't been a better time to do so than right now via the link below…
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The Android Market may not offer the same revenue potential as the Apple App Store
The Android Market may not offer the same revenue potential as the Apple App Store
Article by Bestbatteryshops
Android is a phenomenal success story–skyrocketing from nothing to surpass both RIM and Apple and become the dominant smartphone platform in only a couple years. Recent studies, however, indicate Android may have lost some luster with developers as iOS seems to be the primary platform developers are working on.
Or, maybe not. Just in the past month or so PCWorld has had conflicting stories. In June, there was “Mobile Developers Still Choosing Android Over iOS”, followed recently by “Developers Favor iOS Over Android, Study Shows”.
The Android Market may not offer the same revenue potential as the Apple App Store.Which is it? When you’re dealing with studies, surveys, and statistics, it is often hard to tell. You have to understand the angle of the company conducting the survey, or the agenda of the organization that commissioned the study.
There are some legitimate reasons, though, why a developer faced with a decision between creating an app for iOS or an app for Android might lean toward the iOS side of the fence.
iOS Is a Larger Market. Android may have surpassed Apple in the smartphone arena, but iOS is bigger than smartphones. If you include iPads and iPod Touches in the mix, iOS has an audience of about 200 million possible customers compared with only 135 million for Android.
Android activations seem to be outpacing iOS, so Android is closing that gap. But, when the iPhone 5–along with iOS 5 and iCloud–hit the street, things may shift back in Apple’s favor. If the rumor of T-Mobile and Sprint also offering the iPhone 5, or the rumor that Apple will also offer the iPhone 3GS as some sort of economy version of the iPhone come true, iOS sales could quickly leapfrog Android.
iOS App Store Is More Dynamic. Not only does the Apple App Store have more apps than the Android Market, but there is more activity and greater turnover in the App Store.
Distimo, a Dutch mobile apps research firm, was quoted in a recent PCWorld article explaining lower Android Market sales with the following statement: “The top 10 free and top 10 paid applications together have seen only 26 applications in the Google Android Market, while there have been 94 applications in the top 10 free and paid in the Apple App Store for iPhone.”
Apple App Store customers buy more apps and pay more for them.According to a report from Distimo, 25 percent of the free apps, and 79 percent of the paid apps in the Android Market have been downloaded fewer than 100 times, and only two paid Android apps have managed to sell more than 500,000 downloads ever. The report contrasts that with six paid iOS apps that had each sold more than 500,000 downloads in only a two month period, and only counting U.S. sales.
iOS Users Buy More and Pay More. This is really the main point that matters. Android could have a larger audience than iOS, and have more apps in its market with a high degree of turnover in terms of which are the top, or most downloaded apps, but most developers are in it to make a profit.
GigaOM recently shared some data from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster indicating that iOS users buy more apps and pay more for them than other platform users–including Android. Munster reports that an average iOS user downloads 83 apps (up from only 51 the year prior) at an average sale price of $ 1.48 (up from $ 1.29 the previous year). Munster also states that the average sale price of the top 30 paid iOS apps is up 36 percent from 2010 to $ 6.32.
These points, combined with the slew of patent infringement lawsuits plaguing Android, suggest that the glory days of the Android OS may be waning quickly. I am not suggesting that Android will fade into oblivion–just that patent licensing fees and a stagnant app store will not support the kind of rapid growth that Android has enjoyed up to this point.
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Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus Offer – Best Price Online!
This week we have a nice little surprise for people looking to get their hands on the device that Phil calls "Android's most cutting-edge smartphone" — none other than the Galaxy Nexus running on the Verizon 4G LTE network.
For this Wednesday and Thursday only, ShopAndroid.com in conjunction with Best Buy Mobile Solutions are bringing you a deal that is much too low to show, as it is the very lowest price that you'll find anywhere for this amazing smartphone.
How much of a deal? You'll need to follow the link below to find out. But we can tell you that if you're looking to start a new Verizon account with a 2-year contract, you'll be saving up to $ 210 compared to most options online. And if you're looking to renew or upgrade your existing Verizon contract, you'll still be saving a very cool $ 100.
So if you've been lusting to get your hands on the amazing Galaxy Nexus, there probably hasn't been a better time to do so than right now.
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Microsoft to offer 125GB of storage on SkyDrive?
Talk about cloud storage services and Dropbox is usually the first name to come up. Its seamless interface with your system and 2GB of free storage make for a very popular online file store. We can’t forget about Microsoft though, and its SkyDrive service. While it lacks the easy integration and feature set of Dropbox, is does offer users a huge 25GB of free cloud storage.
Microsoft seem to have realized lots of free storage alone isn’t enough to compel users to switch, so it’s taking action on two fronts. First of all, we’re set to get desktop applications for Windows and Mac allowing for easier file transfers and storage management outside of a web browser. Second, SkyDrive is going to introduce paid tiers for those who require more than the free 25GB allotment.
That extra storage will require a payment, but it’s certainly not expensive. An extra 20GB costs $ 10 per year, 50GB is $ 25, and 100GB is $ 50. So for just over $ 4 a month you can have a SkyDrive with 125GB of storage. Compare that to Dropbox, which charges $ 19.99 per month for 100GB.
The new desktop apps and extra storage haven’t been officially confirmed by Microsoft yet, but the screenshot included above looks to be legitimate. It also makes sense to roll this out soon with rumors of Google releasing its own cloud storage service starting to appear once again.
With competing services looking decidedly expensive next to SkyDrive, if Microsoft gets the desktop app right we could see its cloud storage service get a lot more popular very quickly.
Read more at Engadget
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