If you still haven’t succumb to Amazon Prime, then now is the time, because Amazon’s offering a generous discount that’ll save you a bunch of dimes (to celebrate the Emmys).
Amazon beats Apple to 4K with Fire TV, Fire TV Gaming Edition
Disappointed the new Apple TV doesn’t support 4K? Then get Amazon’s new Fire TV instead.
Two new versions of the device — Fire TV and Fire TV Gaming Edition — are here with updated internals that make them 75 percent faster than their predecessor, plus Alexa, Amazon’s own virtual assistant that is the brains behind the Echo speaker.
There’s also a new Fire TV Stick that promises the best Wi-Fi performance in a media-streaming dongle.
Amazon plans on releasing a super cheap $50 Android tablet
If you can’t beat ’em, underprice ’em. That’s been Amazon’s motto with pretty much all its hardware, especially its Android-based Fire tablets and phones.
But what do you do when even pricing your entry-level Android tablet at under $100 each doesn’t move units? Drop the price to less than $50, apparently.
Get your money back when you use Amazon’s new Dash buttons
Amazon’s Wi-Fi enabled Dash buttons are finally here, turning your home into a veritable vending machine for essential home items like laundry soap, pet food, paper towels, and more.
Better yet, when you order one — each costs about $5 — you’ll get your five bucks back the first time you use it to purchase an item from Amazon, making the buttons essentially free.
Amazon Prime bests Netflix by adding offline video
Amazon Prime Video today took a massive step toward beating Netflix by adding offline video to its growing list of advantages. The feature allows users to download movies and TV shows and enjoy them without a data connection while they’re on the go.
Amazon shrinks hardware efforts following Fire phone flop
Amazon has dismissed dozens of engineers and ditched a handful of hardware projects following its dismal attempt at tackling the smartphone market, according to a new report.
The retail giant has also restructured what’s left of its hardware division, combining what was two separate units into one.
Were damning anecdotes about Amazon workplace fair?
In the news business, a story that has legs stays in our heads, conversations and spins off follow-up headlines. Such was this week’s major newspaper expose describing Amazon as a hellish pressure cooker where employees cry at their desks.
Not everyone agreed with The New York Times piece that drew this conclusion after interviews with more than 100 current and former workers. Now even a Times editor is questioning whether the story was fair.
Jeff Bezos dismisses claims that Amazon is an evil employer
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wouldn’t want to toil in the dehumanizing hellhole described in a recent report about work conditions at his company. In a memo to employees responding to the allegations, Bezos painted a picture of caring Amazonians who are “fun” and “brilliant” and “helping to invent the future, and laughing along the way.”
He also said anybody who gets treated badly by Amazon should snitch to HR — or email him directly to air their grievances.
Amazon employee steals $12,500 of iPhones, iPads and other devices
A 21-year-old Amazon employee in India has been arrested for allegedly stealing $12,500 worth of electronics — including numerous Apple devices — while working in the packing department of the company’s warehouse.
Pramod Bhamble placed orders himself, but instead of packing the correct products, he stuffed the container full of the equivalent weight of iPhones, iPads, cameras and high-end watches before mailing the order to his home.
Amazon takes on Dropbox with Cloud Drive app
Amazon is getting more serious about taking a piece of the cloud storage action. Over the holiday weekend, the company released its Amazon Cloud Drive app for iOS, letting you finally access your files in Amazon’s cloud from your iPhone or iPad.
The app competes with the likes of Dropbox by enabling you to view your files anywhere, but falls short in a number of key areas.
Master Amazon’s web services from the ground up with this bundle for 89% off [Deals]
Finally, a boot camp where you’re encouraged to get your head in the clouds…er, the cloud. If you’re trying to establish any kind of cloud-based service, for yourself or a client, Amazon’s Web Services takes away the massive problem of actually having to build a server farm. That simplifies the work of setting up any service or application, and can help save (or make) you a lot more money, but only if you know how to use it. To help get your rear in gear, Udemy is offering the Amazon Web Services Engineer Bootcamp Bundle, a set of four critical courses. Clocking in at 24 hours’ worth of instruction on how to tap the potential of Amazon’s cloud, right now it’s 89% off the usual price — but like a vapor, this deal will disappear before long.
If you live in one of these states, Apple may owe you some money
This week, Apple lost its appeal on the antitrust case that the federal government and several state attorneys general filed on it concerning price fixing on ebooks. And now that that’s out of the way, it’s time for the company to pay up.
The green states in the map below were listed as plaintiffs on the class-action lawsuit, which means that if you live in one of them and have bought anything from iBooks, you may be entitled to a cut of the settlement.
Microsoft is bringing Android and iOS apps to Windows phones
More than four years after its debut, Windows Phone still has a native app problem. Microsoft has now accepted that’s not going to change anytime soon, so in an effort to attract new users to its platform, it’s going to allow them to run Android and iOS apps… sort of.
Amazon wants to turn your house into a shopping cart
Amazon has made ordering stuff online ridiculously easy with its huge warehouses shipping online orders to Prime members in an instant. Apparently ordering stuff online is just too damn hard though, so today Amazon announced it’s newest creation: Dash buttons.
The new Wi-Fi connected buttons can be placed throughout your home, allowing you to replenish supplies of your favorite products with just the push of a button. Once pressed, Amazon creates an order and sends an alert to your phone so you can cancel if the kids are spamming for more mac and cheese.
Amazon now delivers a plumber to your door
Amazon already delivers your toilet paper. Now it wants to deliver your plumber.
The online retail giant debuted a new service today called Home Services. It’s designed to take the simplistic Amazon ordering approach and apply it to real-world service needs, like fixing your home computer, cleaning the gutter or teaching aerial yoga lessons.
Amazon Prime for apps is coming
Amazon is preparing a new app service for Android. It’s called Unlocked, and think of it as free Amazon Prime for apps. But there’s a catch. Apps that are given freely can also be taken away again.
Amazon 1-Click shopping is coming to your Apple Watch
Amazon is in the business of making it as easy as possible to spend money in their online store. It should surprise no one, then, that Amazon is already developing an Apple Watch app, which will let customers search for products and purchase them with a single click, all from a user’s wrist.
Tim Cook offered Steve Jobs his liver, and other revelations from new biography
I can’t wait to read Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader. The upcoming biography, by veteran reporters Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, promises to be the definitive telling of Steve Jobs’ life.
The writers scored interviews with major players including Tim Cook, Jony Ive, Eddy Cue, Pixar’s John Lasseter, Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs. The result is a book loaded with interesting anecdotes and insights about the former Apple CEO.
I haven’t yet read the whole thing (it comes out March 24), but while pre-ordering my copy on Amazon, I could initially access a significant portion of the biography through the site’s “Look Inside the Book” feature. (Amazon later blocked out far more of the book’s contents.)
From what I’ve seen, some of the stories are pretty sensational — providing new details into the close relationship between Jobs and Cook, revealing Jobs’ secret plan to buy Yahoo!, and much more.
Want a few of the highlights? Check them out below.
Alibaba one-ups Amazon with drone-delivered tea
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is redefining high tea.
Drones are taking to the skies in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to deliver tea to a test group of 450 shoppers using Alibaba’s website Taobao. The three-day trial of drone delivery service in the Chinese cities ends Friday as Alibaba continues to push its might across the globe.
Killed by Apple, RadioShack could become Amazon.com Shack
Apple’s retail stores are one of Cupertino’s crown jewels, and the envy of pretty much every tech company out there. A new rumor suggests that online retail giant Amazon might soon be looking to replicate Apple’s success with its own line of brick-and-mortar stores. But how will they get them? By buying up old Radio Shack stores and rebranding them.
Google is kicking butt with apps as well as market share
Who says iOS has all the apps? According to new data, Google isn’t just kicking butt when it comes to market share, but also mobile apps as well. The search giant’s Play Store now offers a great selection of titles than the App Store, but Apple fans will argue that quality is more important than quantity.
Judge suggests Amazon, not Apple, is e-book monopolist
Apple was found guilty last year of colluding with publishers to raise ebook prices, but now that the antitrust case is being heard by the Second U.S. Court of Appeals, two out of the three appellate judges are starting to see things Apple’s way.
The appeals case kicked off this morning with Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart attempting to compare Apple to a driver taking a narcotics dealer to a drug pick up. The analogy was supposed to make the point that if Apple knew publishers were conspiring to fix ebook prices, it was just as guilty as them for facilitating the conspiracy. However, Fortune reports that Judge Denis Jacobs laughed off the analogy, pointing out that drug trafficking is one of the few “industries in which the law does not look with favor or new entrants.”
The comment drew a chorus of laughs in the courtroom, but Judge Jacob’s concerns went even further, as the the judge questioned whether the government should have even brought the case to court.
Why Retina iMacs can’t stream 4K Netflix
Yesterday, Amazon announced that they would begin streaming Amazon Prime movies in 4K Ultra HD, free of charge. This follows an announcement by Netflix in March that they would allow subscribers to stream 4K shows in Ultra HD for a small additional charge every month.
Of course, neither the iPhone, iPad, or the Apple TV support 4K video… but the new iMacs with Retina Display do. Yet despite this, Netflix and Amazon don’t actually stream 4K video to the Retina iMac. The best you can get is plain old 1080p.
What’s the deal? The same as it ever is. DRM.
Chromecast and Roku are crushing Apple TV
It’s been over two and a half years since Apple TV was updated, and while Apple’s been happy resting on its laurels, its biggest competitors are passing it by.
Google’s Chromecast is now more popular than Apple TV, reports Parks Associates, which says streaming media players become more popular than ever in the first three quarters of 2014, as 10 percent of U.S. households bought at least one new streaming device.