Tech blog

EBay just bought the hottest e-commerce app in the App Store.

RedLaser, which lets users scan product barcodes with their iPhone camera and then compare prices online, has been downloaded more than 2m times.

With eBay’s acquisition for an undisclosed price, it will be folded into eBay’s robust mobile portfolio and become free (it was $1.99). RedLaser technology will be incorporated into eBay’s existing shopping apps, and eBay listings will show up in RedLaser results.

AOL’s fire-sale of social networking site Bebo marks another ignominious end to an overpriced deal for the company saddled with dishonour of having engineered “the worst deal of the century,” its dot-com era merger with Time Warner. But the FT’s Lex column writes that “it is at least becoming clear what AOL thinks its purpose in life ought to be.”

It is now all about content for AOL, with its mix of hyperlocal news and more focused blogs such as TMZ and engadget. “Actually making the reorganisation work will be a mean feat,” writes Lex, “but falling technology and media costs as AOL taps a network of more than 30,000 freelancers will help.”

Continue reading “AOL”

Among the many upgrades included in the iPhone 4, the most intriguing is FaceTime, Apple’s mobile video calling service.

But despite its promise, video calling may not catch on with the masses.  As the FT’s Lex column writes, “consumers have hitherto been reluctant to talk face to face, even as video calling became available with the advent of 3G.”

Continue reading “Video calling” on FT.com