Posts Tagged ‘madbid’

iPhone 5 Nano or Mini – cheapest iPhone on the market rumoured for less than £125

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The iPhone 5 Nano or Mini is expected to launch this summer as the less expensive alternative to the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 Nano has many new changes from all the other iPhone models we have come to know so well.

This iPhone will be 1/3 the size of the current iPhone 4 with virtually no internal storage, making the new phone significantly lighter in your pocket and lighter on your wallet. Expected to retail at around £125 off contract and even less with a contract, Apple has made this phone so inexpensive by removing the most expensive part: internal memory.

These new phones will operate almost entirely off of Cloud-based storage through MobileMe.  This means that the iPhone 5 Nano will constantly be uploading, and streaming content, through the network. MobileMe is an Apple product that automatically synchs all your files across multiple devices. This online storage service acts as a virtual “locker” to store all your personal media including photos, music, video, email, contacts, calendars, and more.

Some aesthetic changes MadBid.com expect to see in the iPhone 5 Nano, apart from its new size, are an edge-to-edge display and likely no home button.  These changes will also increase the battery life of the phone to 14 hours talk time with 3G and 7 hours talk time with 4G.

A few little perks we found out for the internal workings of the new phone include voice-based navigation and face recognition security. With voice-based navigation you will be able to say your destination and instantly get directions. Face recognition security makes it virtually  impossible for someone to steal your phone when only the owner’s face will allow use of the phone.

Making life just a little bit easier for those of us who constantly drop our phones or leave them next to a nail file in our bag, the new iPhone 5 Nano has a shatter and scratch resistant screen.

It seems Apple has thought of everything to streamline our lives. To get your hands on one of these super small marvels for an even smaller price visit MadBid.com this summer when the phone is expected to become available. Can’t wait all summer? Try the 16 GB iPhone 4 in a live auction on our site right now!

iPhone 5 expected to launch September 2011

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

The latest Apple technology, the iPhone 5 is rumoured to be available to consumers in September 2011.

The new phone is expected to have a few cosmetic changes from the iPhone 4 including a metal back instead of the current glass backing which will reduce reception interference from the antenna, a larger screen boasting up to 4 inches with an edge to edge display, and a new LED camera flash moved to the right side of the phone opposite the lens to reduce redeye in photos.

But the new iPhone 5 isn’t just getting an external make-over, the inside of the phone is being upgraded too. Apple is expected to put their patented A5 Chip from the iPad 2 in the new iPhone giving it dual core processing power.  It seems however still uncertain whether or not Apple will bring 4G LTE to this new iPhone, or if they plan to wait to include that in a future model.iphone 4

We can expect the iPhone 5 to retail for somewhere between £510-612. The typical summer debut of new Apple products has been pushed back this year with the expected launch of the iPhone 5 in September due to the disaster in Japan earlier this year where the supplier of some key components of the phone was affected. More on the phone will likely be revealed at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 6 June 2011.

Some additional titbits MadBid.com have gleaned through the rumour mill include the inclusion of Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology in the newest iPhone, which essentially turns your phone into a credit/debit card.

Near Field Communication (NFC) Technology was founded by Nokia, Sony, and Royal Philips Electronics in 2004. This technology allows phones to transfer data from other devices at a close range, much like Bluetooth. If this technology is integrated as a part of the iPhone 5 as an e-Wallet app, as we expect it will be, your phone will then become your digital wallet with the ability to pay with your credit/debit cards, customer loyalty cards, and use coupons too. With this technology you may even be using your phone to get on the London Underground one day soon!

Also, the prototype of a smaller iPhone 5 model affectionately called the iPhone Nano is expected to launch this June as the least expensive iPhone model on the market. This smaller and budget friendly phone will have a shatter and scratch resistant screen, up to 14 hours of battery life, and Face Recognition Security making the iPhone Nano nigh impossible to steal.

With all this uncertainty surrounding Apple’s latest invention, one thing is certain: MadBid.com should be your first stop to getting your hands on the latest technology for up to 98% off recommended retail prices! Can’t wait until the end of the summer? We currently have the 16 GB iPhone 4 running live on our site.

So sign up to our newsletter that announces all the latest auctions and gadgets that we offer before they’re gone!

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Why is MadBid different?

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

There are a few sites around that offer auctions as a way of selling products – there are lots of different ways of selling and bidding. MadBid.com is one of them, but what makes MadBid different and why should you choose us?

Auction Types

  • Standard Auctions: There are sites like e-Bay where you don’t pay to bid and only pay the final auction price plus P&P. The price goes up in increments with each bid and whoever has bid the highest when the auction closes is the winner. With this type of auction items can often be second hand from individuals as well as professional sellers. Because it’s free to bid prices can go quite high and the discounts can be very small and so it is often similar to buying in any shop online.
  • Falling Price Auctions: These auctions have the price of a product decrease from its start price until it closes or sells out. A set quantity of the product is available and the first people to buy will win. So you buy it at the price you wish to pay, and wait for the auction to close – everyone pays the lowest price so even if you chose to buy at £100 if the price continues to fall and the auction closes at £30, you will only pay £30. You can get some good bargains, but they don’t tend to sell many brand names or high popularity products such as iPad’s, PS3’s etc.
  • Lowest Unique Bid: This type of auction requires bidders to buy bids and then place those bids to try and find a price that is unique. That means for a bid to be eligible to win no other bidder can have made a bid for the same amount. Bidders are generally able to place multiple bids and the number of current bids at each amount is typically kept secret. This type of auction can often be a guessing game as all of the details are kept secret so it can often be based more on luck than skill.
  • MadBid.com: MadBid uses a pay-to-bid system in which you buy a credit pack and then use these credits to bid. Using this system it means that we can sell products at incredibly low prices. There is skill involved and by developing your own strategy the bidding becomes much easier. We offer many high-end and popular products that customers really like to bid on.

Prices

So, with all these other types of auctions around what makes MadBid so good? Well unlike e-Bay where the prices can still go quite high or with only a small discount in price, MadBid sells products for an average saving of 87% off the retail price and all of our products are brand new and from reputable sources.

In one of our previous articles we mentioned some of the amazing bargains our users had got:

Xbox 360 with Kinect
RRP £249.99
SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB
RRP £284.99

SOLD FOR:  £23.10

These prices include the cost of bids plus the final action price. Because of the way the MadBid auctions run we can sell excellent products at some great bargain prices.

Latest Gadgets

Also, MadBid is unique compared to many of the other auction sites such as ‘falling price auctions’ in that we offer many of the latest quality gadgets and technology such as the iPad 2, iPhone 4, Wii, Xbox with Kinect, Android phones, Galaxy Tab, Nintendo 3DS to name just a few.

We pride ourselves in making sure we are always up on the latest technology and so MadBid.com is the ideal place to get the latest gadgets for low prices. We often have products as soon as they are out and sometimes even start auctioning them a day or two before the official release!

Social

At Madbid.com we like to provide a shopping experience and for our customers to be able to interact with each other, share tips, make bidding strategies and have fun communicating. We have a very active Facebook page, forums, Twitter, competitions plus we have our Auction Peek and Sneak-a-Peek service which lets you interact with others by seeing their buying habits. We call MadBid ‘Social Commerce’ due to the extensive community and how you can interact with our other customers.

We have a large customer base and over 21,000 fans on Facebook alone. These customers interact with each other, help newcomers and provide a great community feel, reassure customers that MadBid is a legitimate business and we like to interact with our customers too.

We are always introducing new aspects of this side of MadBid, recently we gave our customers the ‘Easter Game’ which allowed them to compete for the highest scores and we had over 1000 entries and was a great talking point amongst the community and more recently we went out to see everyone waiting at Westminster Abbey before the Royal Wedding to meet new people and spread the MadBid love via the fantastic Mrs Madbid!

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So you can see why MadBid is different, it’s not just that we have incredibly low prices or that we have the latest gadgets it’s also our whole approach to auctions and involving our customers.  We’re so pleased that we have such a strong online community and many supporters and will continue to grow this aspect into the future.

If you’d like to know what’s happening at MadBid register or login and sign up for  our newsletter to find out when we feature the newest releases and what’s happening in the community.

Wii 2 – The Rumours

Wednesday, April 27th, 2011

So the speculation has already begun, even before the Wii’s successor has been officially announced. And it’s not just at MadBid.com, some key executives at Nintendo, in various interviews, have often confirmed it is in development.

Way back in November 2006 Wii was the first console of the current generation to offer motion-controlled gameplay. Due to the relatively low price and Nintendo targeting the family orientated market, the Wii took an early lead in the battle of the consoles soon after it launched – with the company selling 20m units in the first year.

Nintendo Console TimelineBut Wii sales have been declining recently, in the financial year 2009/10 Nintendo still shipped 20.1m Wii consoles, but that fell to 15.1m in 2010/11.

This fall might be due to the introduction of the Xbox Kinect and the PlayStation move. Both bring motion-controlled gameplay to the other platforms and with their advanced graphics this gives them an edge over the Wii.

Market data suggests that Wii’s share of new console sales have now slipped to second place behind Sony’s PS3

“In the first three months of 2011, PS3 held a 36% share, compared with 32% for the Wii and 31% for XBox 360.” BBC suggests

So speculation has started on the next generation of Nintendo consoles. It is expected that there will be a preview at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles in June, and a release some time in 2012 – this certainly fits in with the Nintendo release timeline as consoles are released on average every 5 years (see image) – but everything is being kept quiet for now.

Edge magazine claims that some of the big publishers such as EA, Ubisoft and Activision have already had development kits ‘for months’. It has also been suggested that the console may even have a different name in a bid to appeal more to Western audiences – with the consoles codename currently being ‘Project Café’.

Speculation as to what the new console might have includes:

  • The controller:
    • Screen on the controller – perhaps touch-screen like the DS. The screen might be HD and could be as big as 6”
    • Extra game content can be seen on the supposed controllers screen (such as maps, your possessions, text/speech that replicates what’s on screen and using the touch-screen you can respond, mini games)
    • The controller might even operate as a second console – like a simplified DS
    • It’s suggested that there might be a camera to help with interaction
    • The controller will be more sensitive , with accurate mapping of movements
  • It is hoped it will be backwards compatible, so that users can play existing shop bought and downloaded games
  • It should hopefully be more powerful than the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
  • There might even be a chance for 3D technology as Nintendo have already embraced this in their handheld 3DS
  • Some say that it will be just an update of the current Wii with perhaps HD – but at MadBid.com we feel that is unlikely – as Nintendo seem to want to break the mould with each new release that they do.

Whatever Nintendo come out with is bound to be interesting – they seem to be willing to push the boundaries. We’re hoping for something a bit different and whatever it is we’re bound to be selling it on MadBid.com as we’re currently selling the other up to date consoles such as the Nintendo 3DS, Ltd Wii Black + Sports, Sony PS3 & Xbox 360 with Kinect.

Why not sign up to our newsletter that announces all the latest auctions and gadgets that we offer. To subscribe:

  • Login to MadBid.com
  • Click on ‘My MadBid’
  • Then click on ‘Edit Settings’
  • Make sure that there is a tick next to: ‘I want to receive the MadBid.com Newsletter and notifications by e-mail’

Is MadBid a Scam? We don’t think so!

Friday, April 8th, 2011

So sometimes people might think that because you can get products for such great prices from MadBid.com that it must be a scam – but we’re here to dispel that myth.

MadBid has so many credentials and reassurances behind it that it is impossible to think it is a scam or not a genuine website. Not only to we have a very large number of registered users but in order to trade legally in the UK we must comply with certain rules and regulations.

The important facts:

  • MadBid.com has had over 170,000 auction winners since 2008
  • We’re a UK based and registered company (UK Co Registration No: 6609609)
  • We run adverts on UK TV and in the press so we have to comply with strict ASA guidelines
  • All our adverts have substantiated prices with a paper trail, we have an article on this explaining how it works: Click here for more details
  • We run over 10,000 auctions a month
  • All our products are brand new and from reputable sources and suppliers
  • We have a lively and active Facebook page where all users can contribute their opinions and stories
  • We have a gallery of winners, where they can post photographs of their wins – so other users can see that customers do win and receive products – or why not visit our car winners on the news page and watch their videos. You can see that all of our winners are genuine and live in the UK
  • Madbid.com is registered with the information Commissioners Office (ICO)
  • Madbid.com is Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant, the highest security standard for online payments
  • We have telephone and e-mail for customer services – so you know that you are dealing with real people
  • Employees are never allowed to bid on the website and we do not have any automated ‘bot’ systems so that MadBid.com can bid on the site – all bids are from genuine and real bidders
  • We have been seen many times in the press with great reviews and we have a sample of these articles on our website so that you can see what these reputable sources say about MadBid.com

With all these facts it is impossible for us to be anything less than genuine, but if in doubt feel free to contact us of visit our Facebook page where you’ll be able to talk to other registered users about out service.

We have many things in place to help make bidding as fair as possible, we have:

  • ‘Winning Limits” which stop the big bidders from winning everything, see ‘Must Knows’ in our FAQ’s for these limits
  • We encourage responsible bidding on the website so that our users know how to bid in a safe and healthy manner
  • We have extensive terms & conditions and anyone not adhering to these will be dealt with so that they do not hinder the bidding experience of others
  • We even have advice from other bidders and winners on our Winners page and our News site – they give you tips and ideas on the best bidding strategies
  • We have the ‘Sneak-a-peek’ and ‘Auction Peek’ service which allows you to see how your opponents bid and how products have performed in the past – with all this knowledge it allows our customers to bid smarter and more strategically

We encourage our users to bid smart and bid responsibly, there are some amazing bargains to be had with on average an 87% saving on retail prices.

These are just some of the bargains (price includes cost of bids plus final auction price):

Xbox 360 with Kinect – RRP £249.99 – SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB – RRP £284.99 – SOLD FOR:  £23.10

Louis Vuitton Emilie Wallet – RRP £240 – SOLD FOR: £21.28

Fiat 500 – RRP £9465.00 – SOLD FOR: £211.51

Those are all genuine bargains that have been won by bidders here on MadBid.com and there will be plenty more to come!

We also have MadBid.com in Italy, Spain, Ireland and Germany and we abide by and fully support consumer and commercial law in all EU states and the law of each member state where we operate.

Any questions?

Please feel free to e-mail us: customer@madbid.com
or
Call: 0845 680 9716

Our customer service line is open:

  • Monday – Friday: 10am – 5:30pm
  • Saturday 11am – 4pm
  • Sunday and Bank Holidays: Closed

Touchy Feely – Touchscreens

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

These days people seem to want to get more interactive, with their computers, obviously, and now with their coffee tables! With the rise of touch-screen technology and the emerging plethora of devices that have them it’s all not only possible but happening.

In recent years we’ve seen an increase in mobile phones offering touch-screen technology, such as the Apple iPhone, HTC Desire (and other models), Samsung Galaxy plus many more. We then saw Tablet Computers come in to the fold with the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab, now we are starting to see a host of computers that are taking it to the next large-screen level.

HP touchsmartMadBid offer the HP Touchsmart 23″ Desktop PC (http://uk.madbid.com/show/767107/) that has a very large 23” touchscreen, which makes interacting with it even easier than just traditional mouse and keyboard inputs.  The auctions are going down well as bidders are eager to adopt this increasingly popular technology into their lives.

Microsoft are going one better with their new ‘Surface®‘ system which brings us the next level in touch-screen technology. The Microsoft Surface® platform enables people to have a 360-degree interface with the touch-screen and they have included PixelSense™ so that Microsoft Surface® sees and responds to touch and real world objects (it can cope with over 50 inputs at one time).

Fancy a touch-screen coffee table? Surface® will use the new 40 inch Samsung SUR40 that can be used as a table, on the wall, or used in other fixtures or furniture such as walls, bar tops, kitchen surfaces and much more.

This means that as well as Surface® being used in the home it can be used commercially – how about:

  • A restaurant with interactive tables and menus or letting customers pass the time playing games while they wait for dinner.
  • An interactive shop catalogue with comparisons, recommendations and a much more personal service.
  • An interactive bar so customers have an easy way to order drinks when the music is loud or the barmen are busy.

There are so many options to help give customers a much more engaging experience with menus, products, photos, documents, maps and more.

Socialising would become even more social. Imagine having your guests not only communicate in person, but also sending messages to each other or playing games with other parties across the room or bar – you could send a quick message to a girl or guy you like without the embarrassment of doing it in person!

Whatever your need, it’s clear that the popularity of touch-screens is increasing and we look forward to seeing what the future holds – we’re sure we’ll be selling plenty of them on MadBid as they are released.

Pay-to-bid – the inside scoop on prices

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

As the pay-to-bid style of auction is becoming more popular customers are becoming increasingly curious to how all the websites tick. There are several sites out there that offer this service and some are genuine while others are not. Luckily Madbid.com is one of those genuine sites and has nearly 1.5 million registered users and with over 10,000 auctions a month for users to bid on.

Often customers  say pay-to-bid auctions end on a low price and if you add the cost of bids the customer spent then it makes the product much more expensive, but here at MadBid.com we are very up front with the final price the auction ends on plus how much is spent on bids, if you ever see us advertising on the TV or in print our prices always include the cost of bids plus the final auction cost.

If you see an advert like the one to the right, in the paper, you will see that an Apple iPad 2 32GB sold for £23.30 – so this is what the customer paid in total – the final auction price plus all the bids they paid. Still sound like a bargain? We think so!

More items and their selling prices (including final auction price & cost of all bids that person used)

iPad priceXbox 360 with Kinect
RRP £249.99
SOLD FOR:  £69.19

PS3 slim 250GB
RRP £284.99

SOLD FOR:  £23.10

Louis Vuitton Emilie Wallet
RRP £240
SOLD FOR: £21.28

Fiat 500
RRP £9465.00
SOLD FOR: £211.51

RRP is the Recommended Retail Price that the company that makes a product recommend it is sold for.

Even with the bid amounts added the prices are still great and all the prices we quote in these articles are substantiated with a paper trail as we are required to do by the Office of Fair Trading, here in the UK where we are based, to make sure they are completely accurate.

Want a chance of getting the best bargain?  Listen to the other bidders; they give their hints and tips on our site: http://uk.madbid.com/winners – these customers will help you grab the best bargain you can.

Audi A3 Winner Collects His Car

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Today MadBid joined auction winner Hugh to hand over his new car, the superb Audi A3.

Bidders flocked to the auction to try and win the car but Hugh was victorious last Monday.

Hugh’s Interview

How do you feel?

Ecstatic. It’s really, really too good to be true, really. It’s really, really good.

Was there a tough battle?

Very tough battle yes, but we’re cool and calculated.

So how did you find out about MadBid?

We found out about MadBid from the times newspaper about 3 years ago, roughly. Saw how someone won a mini for £30 or something and thought she’s going to try that and her dream was to win an apple Mac at that time.

How did you decide to go for the car?

Well we’ve looked at various cars and to be honest we have bid on a lot of cars or quite a few of the cars and we’ve been a bit unlucky on some of them, but this time we decided this was going to be our car. We wanted an Audi A3 so our plan worked out well – we watched the main bidders on it, we’ve logged main bidders, we’ve watched people all the while and were cool and calculated and come in towards the end of the auction or to where believed the auction would finish.

So when you first saw MadBid did you think the prices were too good to be true?

Well yes, when you first see something like that you obviously think there is a catch with it and you think there must be some kind of trick with it. But, what we realise now there is no trick to it; it’s a totally genuine site.

What are your tips to the newcomers?

Start at the bottom and look, just look, at the big auctions and see who’s bidding on there and get used to the bidders. But try and win something easy to start off with and maybe work your way up.

What are you currently driving?

We drive at the moment, we’ve got a Landrover Freelander which is a 4-wheel-drive vehicle and we live on top of a mountain so the Landrover is a pretty essential car for this really.

What would be your dream road trip with the new car?

Wow that’s a difficult one, but I used to work in South Africa so I think maybe if I could, I couldn’t afford it at the moment, is take it over to Africa or hire the same car in Africa and drive from Durban down to Cape Town on the eastern coast, follow the garden route down by car. Fantastic.

Why would that road trip be special?

Because the scenery and countryside in South Africa is second-to-none, it’s beautiful. Well, maybe second to Wales, but still very good.

Audi A3 Winner

Juha Koski, Madbid MD (pictured below with Hugh) was there to oversee the handover

Handing over the keys to the Audi A3

What will the iPad 2 have in store for us?

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

Rumours  always abound when it comes to Apple and new products and everyone is eagerly waiting the next product whether it’s the iPhone 5 or the iPad 2.

With only weeks to go till the expected unveiling of the iPad 2 and all the secrecy around it, it seems that everyone is speculating about the new features it will have.

Will there be two cameras, one at the front and one rear facing as on the iPhone 4? This would hopefully mean that iPad 2 users might have use of the excellent FaceTime video calling software developed by Apple for iPhone 4. Their rival tablet the Galaxy Tab already has two cameras – a rear-facing 3.2 megapixel camera and a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video chatting.iPad

Some others think there will be a USB port added but with Apple strongly headed towards wireless technology (the current iPad already has wireless printing) we are not sure whether these users will get their wish.

Also, at MadBid.com, we wonder if the new iPad will be smaller and slimmer, the current iPad has a screen size of 9.7 inches, but rivals the Galaxy Tab and, the soon to be released, Blackberry Playbook both have optioned for a smaller 7 inch screen. This difference means that tablets like the Galaxy Tab are significantly lighter at 0.84lbs instead of the iPad’s hefty 1.6lbs.

When I asked around the Madbid.com offices for what features we’d like to see we got a loud shout out for official support for Adobe Flash and an almost equally loud shout out for them to be cheaper – you’ll get the latter by bidding on MadBid.com soon!

Being expensive is not something the Madbid.com users have to worry about though as our prices of the first iPad show – it looks like some people will be getting a bargain! On average customers bought the iPad 32GB for £56.16 (plus cost of bids)!

We will be offering plenty more iPad’s this year so if you want join in the bidding then make sure you sign up for a MadBid.com account and check out our forthcoming auctions.

Are Androids taking over the world?

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

And we don’t mean in a Blade Runner futuristic robot type of way, we’re talking about the Android Operating System that is taking the mobile world by storm.

The Operating System has been taken up by manufacturers such as LG, Samsung, Acer and HTC, with all of them experiencing excellent results.

Figures show that phones containing the Android platform have risen sharply in popularity as research firm Canalys revealed – Google’s Android has become the leading platform for smart phones with shipments of Android-based smart phones reached 32.9 million, while devices running the popular Nokia’s Symbian platform trailed slightly at 31.0 million worldwide.Galaxy Tab

The smart phone market continued to soar in the Q4 of last year, with shipments of 101.2 million units, which is an 89% growth from the same time last year.

With a whole host of phones and devices from the Galaxy Tab (aka Samsung P1000 Galaxy) to phones like the HTC Desire, HTC Legend, Samsung Galaxy, Google Nexus  and the Sony Ericsson X10 and more emerging every month and according to a report from DigiTimes, HTC will be releasing 3 new Android-based Tablets this year with the first reportedly being named ‘The Flyer’.

Here at MadBid.com we like to keep up-to-date with the latest technology and started offering the Android-based Galaxy Tab last year. One lucky auction winner purchased one for the bargain price of 26p (plus cost of bids)!

We will be offering more of these this year so if you want join in the bidding then make sure you sign up for a MadBid.com account and check out forthcoming auctions.