Heads up! If you use Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPhone or iPad, don’t hit update! The new 3.6.1 update will, if installed, delete your entire book library from your device. Amazon’s working on the problem, and for a problem of this magnitude, expect a quick fix.
Update: And it’s now been fixed!
Google announced its first computer yesterday, the ChromeBook Pixel. Yes, they’ve had ChromeBooks for a few years now, but this is the first computer product that was made solely by Google.
Over the past few years we’ve seen service and software oriented companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon venture into hardware development. It’s left many people scratching their heads, as we wonder why these companies want to shift their focus to hardware when they’ve dominated by just offering great services? Asymco’s Horace Dediu is pretty sure he knows the answer, and it all comes down to money.
Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple alongside Steve Jobs back in 1976, believes the Cupertino company still has the ability to determine the future of consumer electronics, despite increasing competition from its rivals. He admits, however, that the company may be losing its edge, and that it increasingly needs to rely on its premium brand.
Audible. An amazing service, with the worst app ever. Until now, that is. Not only has Amazon (Audible’s owner) finally made a version for the iPad, it has also tweaked the iPhone version extensively.
Amazon has topped a poll for the best reputation among 14,000 U.S. consumers, narrowly beating Apple who was last year’s number one. The retail giant achieved an 82.62% positive reputation, according to research firm Harris Interactive, while Apple achieved 82.54%. Google nabbed fourth place with a vote of 81.32%.
Although you probably wouldn’t usually call it a PC, the iPad is a personal computer. And it’s currently dominating the PC market. During the fourth quarter of 2012, every one in six PCs sold was an iPad, according to research firm Canalys. When you include the Mac as well, more than a third of worldwide PC shipments during the holiday quarter were from Apple.
Amazon prides itself on offering affordable Android tablets, and so it likes to point that out whenever it gets the opportunity to do so. Usually this means taking a swipe at more expensive devices, and it’s Apple’s iPad that’s on the receiving end again in the company’s new commercial.
Focusing on the high-resolution displays in both devices, Amazon suggests that “you may not be able to tell the difference” between them… until you look at the price tags.
People don’t trust Apple with all their personal data as much as they used to. That’s what the latest survey on privacy data claims, after ranking the top 20 companies that U.S. consumers trust the most with their private information.
Ponemon Institute has conducted its annual privacy survey for the past seven years that asks U.S. consumers to rate organizations that they feel are most likely going to keep their information private. Apple was ranked 14th on last years list, but didn’t make the cut this time.
Siri has enjoyed mild success since her debut on the iPhone 4S. She’s not the world’s greatest personal assistant, but she gets the job done most of the time, which is better than a lot of other voice recognition options out there.
Now Amazon is preparing to do battle with Siri thanks to a new digital assistant they just bought. Her name’s IVONA, and we’re pretty sure it’s not the same Ivona from Austin Powers.
Amazon has today announced that its in-app purchasing service, which is already available on the company’s Kindle Fire tablet and other Android devices, is coming to Mac, PC, and web games. This will allow developers to take advantage of Amazon’s service on those platforms to provide their customers with a new way to purchase additional content using their credit card or virtual Amazon currency.
While Amazon isn’t the first company to offer an in-app purchasing system, its service does come with some advantages that developers may not get from its rivals. One of those advantages is that their content will be available via Amazon.com.
Amazon has today launched a new web app for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to purchase more than 22 million tracks directly from the retail giant’s MP3 store. Amazon says the HTML5 app has been optimized to work seamlessly inside Apple’s mobile Safari browser, and any music you purchase will be transferred instantly to your Cloud Player library.
Apple and Amazon are set to enter settlement talks over Amazon’s use of the term “Appstore,” Bloomberg reports. Apple has filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the retail giant, claiming that its Android software store could be confused with its own App Store for iOS. A U.S. Magistrate Judge has now ordered the pair to enter talks and try to settle the case ahead of the trial.
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Amazon has today launched a new music service called AutoRip, which offers customers a free MP3 version of every album they’ve bought on CD from Amazon since 1998. The service currently boasts more than 50,000 digital albums from all the major record labels, and Amazon insists that new titles are added on a regular basis.
Amazon Instant Video is one of the best reasons to sign up for Amazon Prime. It’s not as good as Netflix yet, but it’s getting there, and it’s cheaper. To make things better, Amazon just announced that they’re adding A&E’s networks to Amazon Instant Video.
The licensing agreement between Amazon and A&E gives Prime Instant Video customers access to popular shows from A&E, bio, History, and Lifetime. So now you can watch all the shenanigans of Duck Dynasty right from your iPad or Kindle Fire.
Apple launched a temper-tantrum when Amazon decided to title their marketplace for mobiles app as the “Appstore.” Apple was there first and they started using “The App Store” way before anyone else, so they told the United States district court that Amazon is trying to mislead customers.
Not everyone sees things Apple’s way though and the U.S. district court has dismissed Apple’s claims that the Amazon Appstore is false advertising and deceives customers.
Thanks to affordable offerings like the Amazon Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus 7, Android tablets continue to increase their market share and claw away at the iPad’s lead. However, Apple’s tablet remains king of the web, accounting for a whopping 87% of tablet web traffic in North America.
Apple has a reputation of excellent customer service. You can walk into an Apple Store and get your device fixed. You can play with an iMac or iPad in the store for an hour without a salesman trying to push you into buying.
Apple usually dominates customer satisfaction polls for physical retail locations, but their Apple Store website may need some help. Even though Apple is the most popular tech company in the world, in 2012 Apple’s ForeSee satisfaction score actually dropped.
Apple has set the gold standard for warranty and customer support with its successful AppleCare program, and now Amazon apparently wants in, having filed a trademark for a service that sounds suspiciously like, well, AmazonCare.
Amazon has updated its Instant Video app for iOS today, introducing support for the iPhone and iPod touch. The service has been available on iPad since August, but this is the first time it has come to smaller iOS devices, giving Amazon Prime subscribers more than 30,000 free videos in their pockets.
Glassdoor, a jobs and career community, releases a list of the best places to work for every year. A lot of other websites comprise similar lists, but what makes Glassdoor’s list unique is that it’s based on feedback from anonymous employees who actually work at the companies.
For the last three years Facebook has been in the top three while Apple has appeared in the number spot in the past as well. For 2013 Glassdoor ranked Apple as the 34th best place to work at, while Facebook grabbed the number one spot.
In the battle of the mobile platform wars, Android has been extending its lead over Apple’s iOS platform at a steady rate for over a year. Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt believes that the battle between Android and iOS is similar to Microsoft’s desktop expansion in the 1990s.
Schmidt say down with Bloomberg to talk about the mobile war with Apple and said that with 1.3 million new Android devices being activated per day, he thinks it’s pretty obvious that Android is winning now.
Amazon has issued an update to its Kindle app for iOS today, introducing its excellent X-Ray for Books feature which has been a big selling point for the company’s own Kindle hardware. If you’re not already familiar with it, X-Ray allows you to see the “bones of the book,” Amazon says, helping you learn more about its characters, places, and phrases.
Apple increased the iPhone’s screen size for the first time when it launched the iPhone 5, giving users an additional 0.5 inches worth of Retina display. If that’s still not enough for you, don’t think you’ll have to give up on iOS and turn to Android; pick up the popSLATE case instead and add an addition 4-inch display to your iPhone 5.
Apple launched the fourth-generation iPad back in October, introducing a new A6X processor, a FaceTime HD camera, and its new Lightning connector. But despite those improvements, it appears the device isn’t selling as well as its predecessors. The reason? Another tablet is “cannibalizing” its sales.
But that tablet isn’t from Microsoft, or Google, or Amazon — or any other manufacturer for that matter. That tablet is the iPad mini.