Last week we reported that Continental Promotions Group (CPG), one of the largest and oldest rebate entities in the business, managed to put itself in a rather sticky situation by not having enough funds to pay off its obligations. To quickly recap, manufacturers have a pretty good idea of how many rebates on any given product will be processed and cut a check to CPG based on that amount. CPG then doles out the funds as rebate forms come trickling in, but a large chunk of money has gone inexplicably missing. According to HardOCP, CPG owes anywhere between $9 million...
Internet advertising revenue reached $5.9 billion during the third quarter of 2008. That’s the second-highest number ever, but quarter-to-quarter growth is slowing, according a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. These numbers lend support to the last few months’ speculation that online ad numbers are about to fall off a cliff. Gawker Media owner Nick Denton offered perhaps the most pessimistic take, saying businesses should prepare for a 40 percent drop in advertising spending, but he’s hardly the only one who thinks ad-driven businesses will be hit hard next year. (Denton seems to be taking his...
Things are bad out there, people. We're going to see a pretty sad holiday shopping season from retailers perspectives. Yet these Black Friday ads we're seeing, they look just like they do every year. I don't think they adequately reflect just how badly they want, nay, they need your money. Let's add a bit of that desperation into their advertising, shall we? For this week's Photoshop Contest, I want you to make some brutally honest Black Friday ads. Work your magic up and then send the results along to me at contests@gizmodo.com with "Honest Black Friday" in the subject line....
The British newspaper the Evening Standard reports that Madonna and Guy Ritchie have reached an agreement in their divorce proceedings. The couple will share custody of sons Rocco and David (they had apparently been arguing over whether the kids would be raised in New York or London). And Ritchie is not getting any of Madonna's estimated $450 million fortune, which he could have attempted since they did not have a pre-nup. A source said, "It will be all over by the end of the month. I am sure it will be announced by then. The priority for him has always...
For those who have managed to remain completely unaffected by the current state of the global economy - and who really dig Kung Fu - this may be the best thing to happen to you since your money. Nokia China has just made a special edition N96 available and it packs all kinds of punch (sorry). Sort of. Basically you’re looking at an N96 with the image and signature of Bruce Lee on the back cover, a bluetooth headset and a special wrist strap and pint-sized nunchaku. The price of admission - ¥8,788, which works out to roughly $1,286....
UbiGreen is such an interesting cellphone app that keeps track of how you travel and how “green” your trip is. How green you’re is all depends whether you’re to travel in a train, car, bike or you just walk. This application is jointly developed by University of Washington and Intel. The concern is if you choose to walk then you’ll burn some fat, save some money and since you don’t travel in a vehicle, you also save some pounds of carbon dioxide, and you’re greener in this case. The UbiGreen uses the built-in accelerometer of your mobile phone to detect...
We'll have a lot more than the 1983 Apple Phone prototype at the upcoming Gizmodo Gallery. Perhaps you were interested in getting a good look at the famous Red One camera? That's good, because we sorta know a guy. The Red One camera was never really interested in capturing HD video (1920x1080). Instead, the system's Super 35mm-sized Mysterium sensor captures footage at 4K (3626x2664) in precious RAW format. The camera starts at only $17,000, but once you get it fully loaded, the system can approach $80,000. Sound like a lot of money? It is. But seeing as it doesn't require...
I had a chance to give the new Samsung X360 a test drive earlier in the week and let me tell you it totally rocks. Engadget reviewed it here but I can guarantee you this will give the Thinkpad X300 or the Air more than a good run for its money. Gizmodo also have a video review here and I totally agree on the black piano finish but for me the winner was the screen, this is probably the clearest most vibrant screen that I have seen. First impression of the device is its solidness, I have always come...
Filed under: Money and Finance Today, Economic data, Housing, Financial Crisis When you read the stories today about home construction hitting its lowest level since 1959, you probably think it’s just more bad news — but it’s actually good news. The only way we’re going to even get near the bottom of the housing price drop is for the backlog of available homes to be sold. We’ll only see prices start to climb back up when demand is higher than the available supply. We’re still a long way off from that scenario, but if builders stop building, we’ll get...
Image by gleonhard via Flickr This is really a funny yet revealing video - it reflects the growing trend to look among the larger content owners to look for monetization of their video clips on Youtube rather than sending take-down notices. Related articles by ZemantaNew video: shifting values and the future of advertising and marketing Hollywood "Big Content" Under Siege (my comments on Jonathan Handel's AlwaysOn column)...
About 250 people attended the Facebook Developer Garage San Francisco this afternoon/evening, hosted by Offerpal. The event was held at Mezzanine, which is a great venue. A couple quick notes from the evening: Siqi Chen, CEO of Serious Business: “Friends For Sale has 3 kinds of users: 1) guys with a lot of time, 2) guys with a lot of money, 3) hot people. Usually, groups 1 and 3 do not interact much - we allow them to do that… Interestingly, some of our highest paying users are in Saudi Arabia. One woman has spent over US $30,000 in the...
