Fuzzy Math That Seems To Work? TrialPay Says They Can Make Money From Free

from TechCrunch by Nick Gonzalez

Maybe you want to try Skype-out, but don't want to be saddled with paying for unused minutes if the "VOIP revolution in telephony" isn't your thing. Well, Mountain View-based TrialPay will let you get a 3 month trial of free minutes by buying something on eBay or participating in any of 129 other partner offers.

The Skype deal is just one example of TrialPlay's ongoing promotions to help services make some money, while hooking new users and advertisers gain customers from trying something new, while paying for something familiar. The company is working with over 1,500 businesses to let users "pay" for their products by participating in an advertisers program, which range from buying the Economist, to trying out anti-wrinkle cream.

While TrialPay CEO Alex Rampell can't say how much Skype is making off their offers, he did say that "for most of our merchants, we are yielding between 10-100% in incremental revenue. A company like Skype might make $80 on a consumer not willing to buy their $8.85 calling plan". He went on to say "Skype now yields significant revenue for Staples.com, because people shop at Staples.com in order to get Skype credits for free". Conceivably, users not willing to buy Skype may be willing to buy enough from Staples to actually generate more revenue than Skype's purchase price. He made no qualifications about how commonly the over-achieving offers occur, though.

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Nokia's 5 megapixel N82 with WiFi and GPS spotted?

from Engadget by Thomas Ricker

Filed under: Cellphones, Digital Cameras

There it is, the first spy shot of Nokia's N82. Don't remember this Espoo candybar? No worries, the last update was way back in May when news was first leaked. Back then, the N82 was rumored to pack quad-band GSM, 2100MHz HSDPA, a 2.4-inch 240x320 display, WiFi, GPS, FM Tuner and biggie 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss lens. So until we hear otherwise, that's what we'll assume until the supposed announcement on November 2nd. Right, that's just 1 week from today.

[Via Unwired View]

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Brando Adapts eSATA Drives to USB with a Simple Adapter [Easy Attachment]

from Gizmodo by Charlie White

We've already seen a clever way to conveniently adapt eSATA hard drives to USB, and now here's an even easier and cheaper way to do that from Brando. It's a $15 adapter, and sure, you'll have to add $10 to that ticket to get a power supply to fire up that drive, but the money saved by using a bare drive instead of buying an enclosure will make up for that. So do the math: You get one of these and a power supply for $25, a Hitachi Deskstar 1TB drive for $300, and you have a TB for $325. Good deal. Or you can get a slower but arguably prettier Western Digital My Book 1TB external drive for around $350. Either way, that's a heap of storage, ain't it? [ Brando]

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First image of Fisker's plug-in luxury hybrid released?

from Engadget by Darren Murph

You can't be too careful these days, but if the above image isn't just the work of some overzealous fanboy (or girl), that's what Fisker's forthcoming luxury plug-in hybrid will look like. The vehicle itself will be developed in conjunction with Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies, which reportedly hopes to aid Fisker in developing an entire line of "environmentally friendly premium cars." If all goes well, the whip could make its North American entrance at the 2008 Detroit Auto Show, but as you can probably imagine, owning such a svelte looking ride won't run you cheap. The company plans to crank out some 15,000 of these creations initially and fetch around $100,000 for each, but until we actually get the word that people are taking delivery, we won't get too attached.

[Via Autoblog]

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Elle MacPherson: The Interactive Storefront

from CubeMe by Hans

For New York Fashion Week, Elle MacPherson Intimates launched an interactive storefront, allowing users to reveal the video footage of the models on the windows through their movements on the street. This is by no means a new medium but it has been executed very well and has received a lot of positive WOM.

Popout

Via [TrendHunter]

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