Category: Technology

No EarPods.com for Apple, but company acquires TheEarPod.com, EarPod.net

Post author By J.B.
Post date November 2, 2012

Apple has a poor track record when it comes to owning the matching domain names to new products that it announces.

As pointed out by Michael Berkens of The Domains back in September, Apple missed out on acquiring EarPod.com and EarPods.com, nor did the company get AppleEarPods.com which was put up for sale on eBay.

The company has, however, been able to acquire two related names: EarPod.net and TheEarPod.com.

According to WHOIS records, Apple is now the owner of the domains EarPod.net (WHOIS) and TheEarPod.com (WHOIS), both of which were under Domains By Proxy, Go Daddy’s privacy service, up until this week.

While the price paid for Apple’s latest acquisitions is unknown, can you guess how much it would cost for Apple to acquire EarPods.com?

Business Insider thinks the current owner could net $2 million.

Talking about this story: @RobinWauters

(Image of EarPod via Apple.com)

Tags apple, Apple EarPods, EarPod.com, EarPods, EarPods.com, the domains, TheEarPod.com

News Technology

KindleMother.com? Amazon secretly registers family member domain names

Post author By J.B.
Post date October 14, 2012

KindleChild.com, KindleFather.com, KindleMother.com, KindlePreteen.com – those are just a handful of the names that Amazon privately registered this week through the registrar Go Daddy.

All of the names were registered to Domains By Proxy, Go Daddy’s private registration service, but with a little sleuthing it was quite easy to reveal the company owner behind the domains as Amazon.

Dozens of domain names centered on “family” were registered, but the company is remaining hush-hush on its plans for them.

The names could point to new content for the Kindle devices, as they were all registered a day after Amazon’s General Counsel took control of KindlePublications.com (Whois).

Revealing Amazon as the owner was simple. By typing the domain and e-mail address “[email protected]” into Go Daddy’s online account retrieval system, you can quickly confirm Amazon as the owner, since Go Daddy shows a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent”, when you fill in all the fields correctly.

It’s the same technique I used to see that Amazon bought KindleFireHD.com.

In many cases, Amazon registered the Spanish and English versions of the same name, such as KindleMadre.com and KindleMother.com.

Below is a bigger list of the names privately registered by Amazon. It includes many, but not all of the names, which appear to have been registered on October 12, 2012, according to Whois records.

At the time of this story, all of the names direct users to a Go Daddy parked page.

(Image of Kindle Fire via Amazon.com)

Tags amazon, Domains by Proxy, Go Daddy, Kindle, Kindle Child, Kindle Families, Kindle Father, Kindle Fire, Kindle Infant, Kindle Mother

News Technology

New RIM domains hint at BlackBerry 10 apps like Flick, Newsstand, Peek & more

Post author By J.B.
Post date September 15, 2012
3 Comments on New RIM domains hint at BlackBerry 10 apps like Flick, Newsstand, Peek & more

Earlier this month, a photo of the upcoming BlackBerry 10 L-Series smartphone was leaked online that hinted at some new apps.

Now, RIM has registered several domains that likely reveal more about the lineup of apps including Flick, Flow, Hub, Keyboard, Newsstand, Peek, PlayOn, Remember, Story Maker, Time Shift, BBM Video, BBM Voice, and Voice Control.

The leaked photo of the device that surfaced on September 3, showed several apps including Facebook, Pictures, Remember, Maps and Story Maker. While the photo didn’t offer many details, RIM’s latest round of domain registrations may provide more clues.

On September 14, Research In Motion Limited, bought up dozens of names through the brand protection company MarkMonitor.

The list of domains includes names like BlackBerryFlick.com (Whois), BlackBerryPeek.com (Whois), BlackBerryPlayOn.com (Whois), BlackBerryRemember.com (Whois), BBMVideo.com (Whois), BlackBerryStoryMaker.com (Whois), BlackBerryTimeShift.com (Whois), and BlackBerryVoiceControl.com (Whois).

The majority of the names were registered publicly to RIM, like BlackBerryPeek.com.

A handful of names like BlackBerryHub.net were registered anonymously using MarkMonitor’s Whois privacy service DNStination.

Here’s a look at many of the new registrations:

bbmvideo.com
bbmvideo.net
bbmvideo.org
bbmvideo.biz
bbmvideo.info
bbmvideo.us
bbmvoice.net
bbmvoice.org
bbmvoice.biz
bbmvoice.info
bbmvoice.us
blackberry10os.us
blackberryflick.com
blackberryflick.net
blackberryflick.org
blackberryflick.biz
blackberryflick.info
blackberryflick.us
blackberryflow.net
blackberryflow.org
blackberryflow.biz
blackberryflow.info
blackberryflow.us
blackberryhub.net
blackberryhub.org
blackberryhub.biz
blackberryhub.info
blackberryhub.us
blackberrykeyboard.net
blackberrykeyboard.biz
blackberrykeyboard.info
blackberrykeyboard.us
blackberrynewsstand.net
blackberrynewsstand.org
blackberrynewsstand.biz
blackberrynewsstand.info
blackberrynewsstand.us
blackberrypeek.com
blackberrypeek.net
blackberrypeek.org
blackberrypeek.biz
blackberrypeek.info
blackberrypeek.us
blackberryplayon.com
blackberryplayon.net
blackberryplayon.org
blackberryplayon.biz
blackberryplayon.info
blackberryplayon.us
blackberryremember.biz
blackberryremember.info
blackberryremember.us
blackberrystorymaker.com
blackberrystorymaker.net
blackberrystorymaker.org
blackberrystorymaker.biz
blackberrystorymaker.info
blackberrystorymaker.us
blackberrytimeshift.com
blackberrytimeshift.net
blackberrytimeshift.org
blackberrytimeshift.biz
blackberrytimeshift.info
blackberrytimeshift.us
blackberryvoicecontrol.com
blackberryvoicecontrol.net
blackberryvoicecontrol.org
blackberryvoicecontrol.biz
blackberryvoicecontrol.info
blackberryvoicecontrol.us

At the time of this story being published, none of the domain names appear to resolve to a web page.

UPDATE 1 – SEP. 16, 2012: You may have noticed that BlackBerryFlow.com was missing from the list. The name was owned by Kevin Michaluk, the Founder and Editor In Chief of CrackBerry.com, as recent as July 2012. According to Whois history, Research In Motion acquired the name from Michaluk in late July. It’s unknown whether RIM paid cash for the name or if it was simply handed over. CrackBerry.com is one of the most trafficked BlackBerry community sites on the internet. Quantcast reports the site gets over 8 million monthly visitors. I’ve reached out to Kevin by email to learn more about the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

UPDATE 2 – SEP. 16, 2012: Kevin Michaluk was nice enough to provide a quick history on the domain in the comments below. You can also read about the domain BlackBerryFlow.com, along with information on the other names mentioned in this story in a CrackBerry.com post that was published earlier this evening.

Talking about this story: CrackBerry.com, CrackBerry.com Forums, N4BB BlackBerry Forums, BBin, BlackBerry Empire and BlackBerryOS.com

(Image of BlackBerry 10 Smartphone via N4BB)

Tags Blackberry, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry Flick, BlackBerry Flow, BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Keyboard, BlackBerry L-Series, BlackBerry Newsstand, BlackBerry Peek, BlackBerry Playon, BlackBerry Remember, BlackBerry Story Maker, BlackBerry Time Shift, BlackBerry Timeshift, BlackBerry Voice Control., MarkMonitor, Research In Motion

News Technology

Amazon acquired KindleFireHD.com domain right before announcement

Post author By J.B.
Post date September 8, 2012
4 Comments on Amazon acquired KindleFireHD.com domain right before announcement

Unknown if Amazon shelled out big bucks or threatened legal action

Domain first registered on Sept 28, ’11, same day Kindle Fire announced
Amazon revealed as owner even though name anonymously registered
Has better domain record than Apple, which still doesn’t own iPad.com

In a smart move by Amazon, shortly before announcing the new Kindle Fire HD family of products to the world on September 6, 2012, the company acquired the domain name KindleFireHD.com. According to Whois records, the name switched hands from its previous owner “Nathaniel Sawbo” to Amazon.

What is known (after some sleuthing) is that Amazon now owns the domain, but what isn’t known is if Amazon had to pay some money to the name’s original owner or whether the company threatened legal action.

On the very same day Amazon unveiled the first generation Kindle Fire in 2011, the company registered well over 500 domain names related to the Kindle Fire and Silk browser products, through the internet brand protection company MarkMonitor. While Amazon managed to secure the rights to names like KindleFireScreen.com and KindleFireDisplay.com, it failed to obtain KindleFireHD.com.

Today, KindleFireHD.com is a blank web page and is registered anonymously through Go Daddy’s Domains By Proxy service, but it takes only a few simple steps using Go Daddy’s public account retrieval system to figure out who is behind the domain.

It’s what some might call a “slight flaw” in Go Daddy’s account retrieval system which allows you to figure out the owner of a privately registered domain as long as you know the e-mail address of the registrant.

On my first and only try, I used [email protected], and was able to quickly confirm Amazon as the owner.

First, I went to Go Daddy’s Account Assistance page.

Next, I clicked on Retrieve my Customer #, then entered kindlefirehd.com for the domain name and [email protected] for the e-mail address. After entering the security code, I clicked Submit, as shown in the screenshot below.

If everything is a successful match, and it was, a message stating, “An email with the requested information has been sent.”

Unlike Apple, one of its biggest competitors with a reputation for announcing products before owning the domains, Amazon has a much better track record.

Amazon owned KindleFire.com when it unveiled the tablet.

The company owns Kindle.com and other product names like KindleDX.com.

To this day, Apple doesn’t even own iPad.com.

Amazon may even have a shot at owning FireHD.com, which has surprisingly expired according to Whois. If you browse Amazon’s website, you’ll notice the company uses “Fire HD” (minus Kindle) quite a bit, so it may be in the company’s interest. The domain name will be available to the public on October 3, 2012, if the owner doesn’t renew the name in time.

I’ve reached out to Nathaniel Sawbo, KindleFireHD.com’s original owner for more information on the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

(Image of Kindle Fire HD via Amazon.com)

Tags amazon, Amazon Domains, Domains by Proxy, Fire HD, FireHD.com, Go Daddy, Kindle Fire, Kindle Fire HD, KindleFireHD.com, MarkMonitor, WHOIS privacy

Unknown if Amazon shelled out big bucks or threatened legal action

Domain first registered on Sept 28, ’11, same day Kindle Fire announced

Amazon revealed as owner even though name anonymously registered

Has better domain record than Apple, which still doesn’t own iPad.com