By Staff Writer –

eBay wants to sell $1.5 billion goods through smart phones this year. The company is rolling out with an app for selling and bidding and another app for classifieds.

In 2009, they only had $600 million in sales. Besides the push for mobile apps, eBay has announced plans to set up eBayClassifieds (to revamp its old site Kijiji). Sorry no personal ads or x-rated materials here.

The New York Times reports:

The mobile apps will be eBay’s third and fourth. Its main app, for searching, buying and paying for items on eBay, has surprised executives with its success, [Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces] said. Another app, called Deals, sends daily deals to the shopper’s iPhone. Eight million people shop eBay on their iPhones.

Posting ads will be much easier. Just take a photo and post in it online. In less than 60 seconds, your item is up for sale. Plus, you can than spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

When the iPad goes on sale on April 3rd, eBay sellers and customers can expect to see an eBay iPad app too. Not surprisingly, some people who can get their hands on the iPad will try to earn a profit by reselling the iPad to people in the UK and other countries who will not yet have access to the new device.

Scott Moritz, a senior tech reporter for The Street, warns that owners of the iPad will have to worry about theft. Watch Moritz explain:

Image: eBay

eBay rolls out with its iPhone apps and wants (more than) a billion dollars is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Staff Writer – Boonsri Dickinson (@boonspoon)

The State Department sent eBay CEO John Donahoe, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, and Ashton Kutcher, among others as tech delegates to a Russian Tech Conference.

Black Book magazine pokes fun at Ashton Kutcher for being an American representative at the conference:

Good on him for the foundation. But is posting pictures of himself in silly Russian hats and tweeting pictures of his wife’s ass really what we want our frenemy country to think being “active in social media” means?

Here’s a (tweet) shot of their trip so far.

Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) tweeted:

Russia is building their own silicon valley. And they want help. If we rebuilt it today what would we do differently? #rustechdel

Jared Cohen (@JaredCohen), a member of Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning Staff, tweeted:

Great meeting with Russian Minister of Economic Development. Ministry and #RusTechDel discussed areas for collaboration on innovation

Jack Dorsey (@jack) tweeted:

In all of these delegations one question consistently arises: how and where do we start? And why? #RusTechDel

My name in Russian http://yfrog.com/33fv9fj

Jason Liebman (@jasonliebman), CEO and Co-founder of Howcast Media, tweeted:

@plusk responding to a question about how technology can be used to fight human trafficking #rustechdel #aym http://tweetphoto.com/11756185

Nothing like a happy meal in russia . It was inevitable #rustechdel http://tweetphoto.com/11775885

In previous trips, the tech group helped the government digitally restore artifacts that were looted from the national museum. And after their trip to Mexico, a SMS hotline was created so people could report crimes without the chance of being caught.

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Tech Leaders Tweet From Russian Tech Conference is a post from: TechStartups.com

One of my first jobs out of college was at an ad agency. Occasionally I would get to go on photo shoots. Nothing glamorous – usually just product shots. The setup was complex and very expensive as it was limited to corporate clients.

eBay came a long and in many ways, changed a lot of that. No one wants to buy a product that they can’t see clearly in a photo, especially when it’s used or refurbished. As a result, small, inexpensive lighting kits with tents came to market relatively cheaply. Coupled with a decent digital camera, you could take some pretty good product shots without a complex setup.

Combine the professional quality of my youth with the relative simplicity of an eBay lighting kit and you’ve got the Photosimile 5000.

If it’s gets into the right hands at the right price, it will change the nature of product photography.

(More, including photos and video after the jump)

The manufacturer, Ortery, wants to make the “World’s First Photography Machine” as commonplace at the office as a fax or photocopier.

A completely self-contained unit, it includes everything you need to take quality digital product shots including four symmetrical, daylight bulbs (6500K), a turntable and a DSLR (Canon Digital Rebel). The camera sits in a motorized mount and is controlled by a PC that allows you to capture images of the item from almost any angle in a single pass.

The Photosimile 5000 also comes with its own software that allows you to see previews of the item while it’s in the machine and control the angle and position of the camera so that you can preview shots before you snap them.

It will even create flash animations suitable for posting to your web site.

All this can be yours for…an unknown price. You’ll have to give the folks at Ortery a call to find out.

Disclosure of Material Connection: http://dsclzr.us/0

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Death of the Product Photographer: The Photosimile 5000 is “The World’s First Office Photography Machine” is a post from: TechStartups.com

MySpace may have just released an update that could make a large dent in the technology and online community. MySpace has released a classifieds service on their network that’s powered by oodle.

The MySpace community is huge, but hasn’t been getting the media love that Facebook has of late. That doesn’t mean there still aren’t loads of people visiting the site on a regular basis. They’ve still got a lot of eyes viewing their pages and now those eyes are going to be looking at classified ads. The newspapers are losing money and the loss of classified ads revenue. All that revenue is going online and now MySpace is getting a piece of the action.

From my perspective you’ve got the traffic volume and user base to take advantage of a great opportunity. eBay used to have a lot more traffic and popularity than it does now. Part of that reason is all the fees and transaction hassle of using the site.

Oodle is listing millions of items from users all over the web and now MySpace users will also be seeing those items and uploading their own. In the current economic climate, I think even more people will start taking advantage of classifieds and the exchange of items in a personal and casual environment.

MySpace Launches Classifieds Service with Oodle is a post from: TechStartups.com

My brother mentioned a site to me that I had not heard of prior to today called Search3.

Very simply it allows you to initiate a single search and display results from the three major search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo! It also lets you swap out twitter and eBay to your search results if you would prefer.

The idea of combining search results from multiple providers isn’t really new to the web, but what I like about Search3 is that they do it very simply and elegantly.

You add your search term to the input box and your results are organized below the search into three columns with the results from the selected search providers.

The display provides a very clear representation of the different results that can be available across each search engine, which sometimes allows you to see items you may have never noticed if you’re very loyal to a single search provider.

The image search function is very nice as well. Search3 allows you to do a single search for images across Google, Bing, Yahoo! and flickr. I really like this type of display. It would be nice if I could adjust the display size of the thumbnails though to get more results visible on the page. Another nice feature would be specify other sites I’d like to search for images if desired.

Search3 is Putting Search Back Together is a post from: TechStartups.com

By Senior Staff Writer – Tyler Knott Gregson

What happens when a tech start-up gets snatched up and purchased by a big-wig company, only to later buy themselves back from that company? The answer is: They become a start-up again. That’s exactly what’s going on in the land of StumbleUpon as word on the block is they’ve officially purchased themselves back from eBay.

Two years ago, you might remember, eBay purchased StumbleUpon for the low-low price of $75 million. Now, the two founders, with the help of “investors including Ram Shriram of Sherpalo Ventures, Accel Partners, and August Capital” have purchased it back from eBay. The bummer for us is, we don’t know the financial details.

Apparently with eBay’s shares and financial future still falling and on unsteady ground, the StumbleUpon founders, Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith, thought it’d be wisest to buy back their baby, and put it back on track. Given the changing climate of the web, eBay has been having trouble keeping up and even they themselves admit they’ve not done the best job adjusting and adapting to the new demands of the web.

According to reports:

“Chief Executive John Donahoe, echoing investors, said at the time that the marketplace business has not kept up with the changing competitive landscape and customers’ needs…Ebay shares fell 39 cents, or 2.6 percent, to close at $14.63 on Monday. Shares gained 25 cents to $14.88 in after-hours electronic trade.”

In a word…Yikes. It should be interesting to see where StumbleUpon goes from here, how they adapt, how they change, and most importantly, how they grow.

StumbleUpon Buys Itself Back from eBay is a post from: TechStartups.com