Items tagged with Amazon
It seems like everybody thinks they can make great TV shows these days. Following in the formidable footsteps of Netflix and (to a lesser extent) Amazon, both Microsoft and Yahoo are looking to get into the original programming business. Yahoo’s effort in that direction, as reported by the Wall Street Journal...
Read more...
The Amazon Fire TV isn’t the only intriguing new tech to come out of Amazon this week. The company is also debuting a powerful new shopping tool called Amazon Dash, and it portends a future where you can order all the groceries and supplies you need as you go and as you think of them. Dash is a small handheld...
Read more...
In a perfect world, you'd never need to crack open any of your electronic devices because they'd work forever, dutifully doing their job and never needing repair. Here in the real world, things break, and they have a tendency to happen once that all-important warranty period expires. What then? Well, if you're handy...
Read more...
Amazon confirmed today one of the worst-kept secrets in the industry, which is that the company now has its own streaming set top box. It’s called the Amazon Fire TV, and true to the rumors, it offers streaming TV and movies as well as games. “Fire TV is a tiny box that plugs into your HDTV. It's the...
Read more...
Amazon is holding a press event on April 2nd, and it appears likely that the announcement will be the oft-rumored and long-awaited streaming video set-top box. Or at least, something pertaining to living room entertainment. The image that Amazon sent along with the invitation is a shot of a couch littered with a few...
Read more...
When Google slashed the prices for its cloud storage service earlier this month, it appears to have set off a price-cutting jamboree among some of its competitors, some of whom have also launched new features to boot. In an email, IDrive said, “We launched Sync functionality today, got NSA Proof private key...
Read more...
It's often said you have to spend money to make money, and if that's true, Cisco may make a fortune in the cloud space. That's because the networking guru is reportedly planning to invest a king's ransom -- $1 billion, to be precise -- over the course of the next two years building data centers that will help run a...
Read more...
There have been plenty of rumors suggesting Amazon will offer a set-top box of its own, but according to new reports, it appears the e-commerce giant might be readying a streaming device similar in form and function to Google's nifty Chromecast dongle. More than just for streaming movies and TV shows, those close to...
Read more...
Spoiler alert: Yes, Amazon Prime is still totally worth it for $99 a year, if you actually take advantage of what the service offers. The company announced today that it’s jacking up the annual cost of Amazon Prime from $79 to $99 (and up to $49 for students). Amazon cites rising fuel and transportation costs as the need to bump up the...
Read more...
Amazon's Prime service has gained a lot of traction from avid users who appreciate quick shipping and discounted overnight options, but what about the other aspects? Prime customers also have access to free books and video streaming, though outside bandwidth reports suggest that many don't take advantage of those...
Read more...
Perhaps you’ve heard this before, but Amazon is rumored to be launching its own set top box in a bid to gobble up more TV content and streaming market share. The purported Amazon box would be designed to compete with the likes of Roku and Apple TV by allowing users to stream content with a unit that’s not tied to a cable or satellite...
Read more...
Netflix has long chased after methods of improving its movie recommendation algorithms, once even awarding a $1M prize to any team of people who could substantially improve on the then-current design. As part of that process, the company has been researching neural networks. Conventional neural networks are created...
Read more...
Amazon is expanding its original content programming with a slew of new pilots while also nabbing an impressive smattering of existing popular programs that Amazon Prime users can stream. Thanks to a deal with Twentieth Century Fox, the latter group includes all past episodes of “The Americans”, as well as...
Read more...
It wasn't all that long ago that Amazon was solely an online bookseller. And then, it became an online superstore. And out of nowhere, it plunged into the hardware realm with its famed Kindle brand. The company doesn't seem like it's going to stop branching out anytime soon, hence a full force of rumors surrounding a...
Read more...
Investors reacted negatively to Amazon's fourth quarter financial report despite that fact that the e-commerce giant announced a 20 percent year-over-year sales increase to $25.59 billion. Operating cash flow increased 31 percent to $5.47 billion, operating income jumped 26 percent to $510 million, and net income climbed to $239 million, or...
Read more...
Amazon is testing the use of drones to make deliveries in populated areas, but the Lakemade Beer Company of Stevens Point, Wisconsin is testing the idea of drones in decidedly unpopulated areas--namely, ice fishing shacks. “Our tests are on vast, wide-open frozen lakes free of trees and power lines. Our drone...
Read more...
It's hard to believe that Amazon came into this world selling books, and while that business still thrives in digital form (Amazon makes a killing off its Kindle devices), the online retail giant has big plans for streaming video. With its Prime Instant Video service already in full swing and winning favor, Amazon has...
Read more...
Amazon never stops looking for ways to get packages to people in as little time as possible, and its latest effort on that front is shipping packages before you even order an item. Amazon is calling it “anticipatory shipping”, and the company just landed a patent for it. Simply put, Amazon will pack up...
Read more...
Usually when bleeding edge software and hardware first come out, there's a chicken or the egg scenario. We're not seeing that with the shift to 4K ultra high definition (UHD) -- hardware makers aren't waiting on media companies to come out with content and vice versa. As we've said in the past, this doesn't mean you...
Read more...
Amazon knocked it out of the park this holiday season. After announcing that it was able to keep the wait time for its "Mayday" live tech support feature on Kindle Fire HDX devices to just 9 seconds on Christmas day, the online retailer now says it also added more than 1 million customers to its Amazon Prime...
Read more...
If you were waiting in vain for UPS to arrive with your last-minute holiday packages only to see the magic day pass without the big brown truck stopping at your house, you’re not alone. UPS was overwhelmed by holiday shipping traffic. The company blames factors such as a higher-than-expected volume of packages...
Read more...
You've probably seen one of Amazon's commercials touting the new "Mayday" support feature in Kindle Fire HDX devices. Just tap the button and moments later a helpful support representative like Amy in the TV commercials will appear and guide you through whatever tablet troubles you might be having. We were always a...
Read more...
