Update (12pm ET 2.10.14): It appears as though eBay is putting an end to the madness. Listings for both the $90,000 and $100,000 iPhones mentioned below have been removed from the auction site. We’ve reached out to eBay to find out whether these listings were removed by the company or by the sellers. We’ll update this post with any new information we receive.
File this in the “most ridiculous thing ever” category: A 16GB Apple iPhone 5 installed with Flappy Bird, the absurdly popular free mobile game inexplicably removed by its developer from the App Store this weekend, is currently going to for more than $90,000 on eBay. At the time of this writing, it has 65 bids (most of which are probably fake). If an old iPhone doesn’t do it for you, there are other insanely expensive options, including an iPhone 5S going for nearly $100,000.
This is just the most extreme example of Flappy Bird markups – but the others are equally nutty. Another listing has an iPhone 5S (32GB) loaded with Flappy Bird for $15,000. It has not yet received any bids, but has snagged 11 watchers so far. And a Flappy Bird-packed 16GB iPhone 5 – in “used” condition, with a free case included! – is available for the low, low price of $1,025. But act fast – that one already has three bids.
On the Android side, things are slightly less delusional. Actually, scratch that – it’s just as bonkers for Android users as well. For example, this Sony Xperia Z with Flappy Bird has a Buy It Now price of $20,000 – more than the price of a freakin’ new car. Meanwhile, another seller offers a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with Flappy Bird installed for a Buy It Now price of just $5,000 – and it comes with a bonus Galaxy Gear smartwatch included.
Flappy Bird crazy time comes after the game’s developer, Dong Nguyen, a 29-year-old from Vietnam, announced that he had decided to pull the game from the iTunes App Store and Google Play. Nguyen was reportedly raking in some $50,000 per day from advertising revenue from the free mobile game, which reached the top of the App Store charts and was downloaded millions of times.
While Nguyen considers the game “a success,” he explained on Twitter that the game “ruins his simple life,” which appears to be the reason he took the game down.
Those of you who have already downloaded Flappy Bird can keep it, of course. (Or, you know, sell your device on eBay for absurd amounts of money to total suckers.) And if you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can always just snag it from The Pirate Bay for free (but illegally), or try one of these complete ripoffs that are charting on iTunes. If you want to play some real games though, check out this list of Flappy Bird alternatives that don’t suck.
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts your internet traffic and routes it through a server run by the VPN provider. Websites see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours, and you can get around geo-blocks, censorship, and ISP throttling. The best VPN services are paid, but there are still a handful of free options that do the job well.
Most free VPNs come with a hidden cost, because running servers isn’t cheap and a company that doesn’t charge you has to make its money somewhere else. Many do so by logging your browsing activity and selling it to advertisers, while others flood you with ads and track you across apps.
There's nothing quite like curling up with a good book on a cold evening. As much as I love the feel of a physical book, books take up a lot of space, and carrying more than one on a trip quickly becomes a chore. That's where e-readers come in, and the Amazon Kindle remains one of the best options.
Amazon just refreshed its Kindle lineup with thinner, lighter designs, a new flush-front display, and colors that wrap from front to back. Add the Kindle Scribe and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft to the mix, and you have more choices than ever before.
A good Android app should earn its place on your phone. It might make an everyday task easier, handle something the built-in software can't, or let you change an experience that never quite worked for you.
These 20 apps cover everything from quick notes and password management to automation and local file sharing. Some are free, others charge for advanced features, and a few take some effort to figure out. The point isn't to install them all. It's to find the ones that make your phone work better for you.