Articles about Amazon

Public Cloud is a massive business for tech giants like Amazon, Microsoft and Google. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is currently the clear leader, with 62 percent share, followed by Microsoft Azure, on 20 percent, and Google on just 12 percent.

However, Google has scored an important win over Microsoft, replacing its rival as the cloud infrastructure service Apple relies on for its own iCloud services.

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For anyone looking to bag a bargain-priced handset, Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones were a great idea. There was just one drawback: lockscreen ads. Of course, there was the option to pay to hide the advertising, but that sort of negated the benefit of the initial low price.

Last week, Amazon announced it was going to get rid of these ads. This is great news for owners of Prime Exclusive Phones, but it irked people who had paid for ad removal. Now Amazon has announced that it will be offering refunds to anyone who parted with money to hide ads.

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Part of the reason why Windows 10 S failed was because it only allowed software from the Microsoft Store and the Store is famously lacking in quality apps.

It’s always news when a big name app arrives in the Store, and today Amazon Music debuts there for users in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain and Japan.

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Amazon’s Prime Exclusive Phone Program is very admirable. True, Amazon itself benefits from selling these devices, but ultimately, the true winners are consumers. If you aren’t familiar, these Android phones are priced very low because they are subsidized by lock screen advertisements. It allows people that are struggling financially (or those that just like to save money) to achieve a solid phone at an affordable price.

Today, the Prime Exclusive Phone program gets even better. You see, Amazon is dropping the lock screen ads! In other words, Prime members can now score affordable phones with no gimmicks. Amazon will even issue updates to existing Prime phones to remove ads from them too. Nice!

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Amazon Echo is amazing. That's my personal opinion of course, but I use it for various things every day. And yes, I know that some of you who wear tin-foil hats will say Amazon is listening to everything. It may well be, but I don't really care, I've accepted that trade-off in exchange for functionality.

I regularly use it to set a timer for cooking or baking, checking sports scores, game schedules, playing music and much more.

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Coffee... is life. For me, and countless other people, the drink is responsible for daily motivation. Without a cup or two (or five) of the caffeinated beverage, I’d probably be asleep at my desk all the time.

If you live alone or simply don’t want to deal with brewing entire pots of coffee, single-serve pods have proven to be a godsend (not so great for the environment, though). You can quickly make a cup without stress. A new coffee system is looking to make coffee pods even easier. The "illy Y5 DRS Espresso and Coffee System," as it is called, can connect to your smartphone via Bluetooth for more intuitive controls. Even cooler, it can leverage Amazon Dash technology for automatic coffee pod reordering. How clever!

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Today sees the opening of the first Amazon Go store. The online retailer is looking to change the face of real-world shopping with its AI-powered brick and mortar stores that are free from checkouts and time-consuming lines.

Anyone shopping in the new Seattle store will find that they are constantly monitored by cameras as they shop, with the camera monitoring which items they place in their baskets. Customers are automatically billed when they leave the store.

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Amazon has just given people another reason to pay for their Prime subscriptions on an annual rather than a monthly basis. The company has increased the cost of a monthly subscription by $2 per month.

This is the first rise in Amazon Prime subscription pricing for a few years now, and the fact that the annual fee remains unchanged is a clear indication that Amazon is eager to lock customers into year-long packages.

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We're used to digital assistants controlling more and more aspects of our daily lives, but a UK police force is looking at how Amazon Echo could help in fighting crime.

Police in Lancashire, north west England, are looking at how Alexa could relay information about missing persons or updates on local crime to citizens. It could also be used in the reporting of minor offenses, freeing up police call centers to deal with more serious issues.

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In an attack on Amazon, President Trump has called upon the US Postal Service to charge the retail giant "much more" to ship packages to customers.

This is not the first time Trump has hit out at Amazon and Jeff Bezos, but his latest vocal volley was not well-received by his followers on Twitter.

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As well as being a handy way of storing items you've bought from the site, Amazon Music also allowed you to upload your own tracks and stream them from its cloud.

Now though the company is quietly pulling the plug on this aspect of its service. Previously you could store 250 tracks for free, or 250,000 if you paid an annual subscription. But the ability to upload new songs is now being withdrawn.

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Surfing the web on your television is hardly new. In fact, WebTV (later renamed MSNTV) launched over 20 years ago. If you don't remember that device, it was essentially a box that connected to a television and let people surf the web and access email. It was marketed towards those that were averse to buying or using a full-fledged computer, such as grandma and pop-pop. Over time, its popularity decreased, and ultimately, the service was shutdown by its eventual owner -- Microsoft.

Accessing a web browser on a TV-connected device remains an easy affair, but starting today, it may be even easier. You see, the Firefox web browser is now available for the low-cost Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick. In other words, if you know someone who doesn't want a computer but could benefit from occasional web browsing, Amazon's media box may be a great option. I guess you could say that Firefox for Amazon Fire TV is sort of the new WebTV!

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Christmas is quickly approaching. If you haven't finished shopping for gifts, what the heck are you waiting for? The longer you wait, the more anxiety you will feel about potentially not having presents ready to give on the big day. Thanks to the internet, you really have no excuse -- other than a lack of money -- to be empty-handed when visiting with friends and family this holiday season.

Speaking of online shopping, Amazon is one of the most popular such retailers. Quite frankly, I have done about 90 percent of my Christmas shopping on that site. I mean, can you blame me? Amazon has competitive pricing, a huge selection, and great shipping options. In fact, today, the company announces that it is extending its free shipping offer until December 16. This means you can have gifts delivered by Christmas at no charge if you place your order no later than tomorrow -- no Prime needed!

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Apple TV users in more than 100 countries now have access to Amazon Prime Video. The arrival of the streaming service means that anyone with an Apple TV 4K or an older model can enjoy a plethora of movies and Prime Original series.

On top of this, in the US, the Apple TV app brings live sports to iPhone, iPad and Apple TV users. There are already a number of supported sports apps within the Apple TV app, including those from ESPN and the NBA, and more will be added.

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Google has announced plans to block its YouTube apps from Amazon's Echo Show and Fire TV as the situation between the two companies stepped up a notch. This is, of course, not the first time this has happened.

The bad feeling stems from Amazon's unwillingness to stock Google products such as Chromecast, Nest and Google Home, and refusing to make its Prime Video service available to uses of Google Cast. Amazon's use of a "hacked" version of the YouTube app on its hardware has also been a bone of contention.

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