Amazon refreshes Kindle Oasis e-reader with larger screen and waterproofing
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While you can read e-books on Android tablets and iPad devices, you really shouldn't. These screens can strain your eyes, causing discomfort and creating a negative experience. Not to mention, if you tend to read outdoors, the glare can be unbearable. Instead, an e-ink reader is the best option. It does a great job of simulating actual paper, which in turn, will make your peepers happy.
Not all e-ink readers are the same, however. Quite frankly, other than Amazon's Kindle devices, none are worth your time. While other companies offer decent enough hardware, nothing compares to Amazon's virtual bookstore. Today, the company unveils its latest such model, and oh my, it looks amazing. The refreshed Kindle Oasis gets a larger 7-inch screen (the previous generation is 6-inch), but arguably more important, it is the first Kindle to be waterproof (IPX8 rated)! In other words, you can use it at the beach or poolside without fear.
New York Comic Con 2017 ditches high-tech in favor of extravagant experiences
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Taking a trip to a sparsely populated desert before it becomes inundated with zombies. Being immersed inside the new HBO series Westworld. Doing odd jobs alongside everyone's favorite time-traveling duo of Rick and Morty.
Those were just some of the experiences for which fans at New York Comic Con waited up to several hours in line...last year. And they all required virtually no booth space.
Europe demands €250m in tax from Amazon, sues Ireland for Apple's €13bn tax bill
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The European Union has ordered Amazon to repay €250m ($294m) after it ruled that the retailer was granted illegal state aid by Luxembourg. The tax advantage dates back to 2003, but Amazon says that it is considering making an appeal.
At the same time, the European Commission has announced that it is going to sue the Irish government for failing to collect €13bn ($15.3bn) in tax from Apple. The Irish government will need to defend itself in the European Court of Justice for failing to gather money from the iPhone-maker following a 2016 ruling by the commission.
Amazon Echo owners can now make free phone calls in US, Mexico and Canada
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Amazon has been gradually expanding its range of Echo devices, and it has been possible to make free calls between Alexa-enabled devices for a few months -- now Amazon is extending the free calling capability even further.
Owners of any Amazon Echo device -- not just the latest batch -- can now make free calls to phones in the US, Mexico and Canada. No extra hardware or software is needed to take advantage of free calling.
Amazon unveils all-new Fire TV with 4K and HDR
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I recently bought the Apple TV 4K, and I absolutely love it. What I don't love, however, is the price. The 64GB model that I purchased cost $200. While that was more than its competitor's 4K offerings, such as Amazon Fire TV, I was willing to open my wallet a bit wider for the compatibility with the Apple ecosystem, such as easily accessing my photos and videos in iCloud.
Today, Amazon unveils a new streaming TV box that features both 4K and HDR, but it is insanely affordable. This all-new Fire TV costs just $69.99! To make things even sweeter, for a limited time, Amazon will sell you an Echo Dot for $10 when you purchase the new Fire TV. Yes, you are reading that correctly -- for $79.99 you get a high-end 4K media box and a standalone Echo device.
Amazon unveils $99 next generation Echo, making Apple HomePod dead on arrival
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Amazon's Echo and associated Alexa assistant have taken the world by storm. Despite being a big company, Amazon's success in this market was very unlikely. Companies like Microsoft, Google, and Apple should be leading, but no, an online bookseller has been the true trailblazer in voice assistant technology.
Today, Amazon unveils the next generation Echo, and oh my, it looks amazing. Not only is it much shorter than its predecessor (still taller than Echo Dot), but it is wrapped in fabric, creating a more inviting experience in a home. It even has improved audio quality. Best of all? It is even less expensive at a mere $99. Unfortunately for Apple, this will essentially make its upcoming $349 Siri-powered HomePod dead on arrival.
Google introduces per-second billing for Compute Engine
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Google Cloud Platform has introduced per-second billing for App Engine, Cloud Dataproc, Compute Engine and Container Engine users, following a similar announcement made by rival AWS last week.
However, while Amazon's cloud arm announced that the new pricing scheme, which involves a one-minute minimum, will apply to EC2 customers starting October 2, the per-second billing on Google Cloud Platform's aforementioned cloud services is live now. Previously, customers were billed by the minute.
Google pulls YouTube from Amazon Echo Show for ToS violations
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If you have heard Alexa utter the message "Currently, Google is not supporting YouTube on Echo Show," you'll be aware of the issue: Google has pulled YouTube from the Amazon Echo Show.
Google says that Amazon's Echo-with-a-screen creates a "broken user experience", and it seems the company would rather there was no customer experience than a broken one. A war of words has erupted between the two companies, and neither is particularly forthcoming with detail.
Amazon announces faster Fire HD 10 tablet with improved battery, 1080p display and a lower price
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It has been a while since Amazon launched a new Fire tablet, but today the online retailer has unveiled the all-new Fire HD 10. The processors, battery and screen have all been upgraded, but the starting price has been slashed to just $149.99 (or £149.99).
The screen is a 10.1-inch 1080p affair offering 224 ppi, and the tablet's processor has been upgraded to a quad-core chip, boosting the speed by up to 30 percent. Amazon claims the battery will last for up to 10 hours, and the addition of stereo Dolby Atmos Audio speakers has the sound side of things covered. The company also claims that the Fire HD is "more durable than the latest iPad Pro 10.5” (and costs a lot less too)."
7 ways to lower your AWS bill
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The AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) service has many advantages, including easy scalability, pay-for-what-you-use, as-you-go pricing, and an enormous array of options and upgrades -- so many that your AWS bill may become quite complicated.
Have you been suffering from sticker shock but have no idea which of the literally thousands of line items on your invoice are the culprits? Here are seven hidden AWS costs that could be breaking the bank.
What you need to know about AWS RDS
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Traditional systems administration of servers, applications, and databases used to be a little simpler when it came to choices and costs. For a long time, there was no other choice than to hook up a physical server, put on your desired OS, and install the database or application software that you needed. Eventually, you could choose to install your OS on a physical server or on a virtual machine running on a hypervisor. Then, large companies started running their own hypervisor and allowed you to rent your VM for as long as you needed it on their servers.
In 2009, Amazon started offering the ability to rent databases directly, without having to worry about the underlying OS in a platform as a service (PaaS) offering called Relational Database Service (RDS). This added another layer of complexity to your choices when managing your infrastructure. Let’s explore AWS RDS pricing a little bit, and examine some of the features that comes with it.
Alexa and Cortana will be able to talk to each other
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Digital assistants can do many things well, but no single one can do everything that we need. That's why we use different ones, depending on what we want to do and what device we are using. But what if they could talk to each other, so we wouldn't have to switch between them anymore?
Amazon and Microsoft have decided to do just that, announcing that Alexa and Cortana will soon be able to work together to help users do what they want much more quickly and easily. Here's what that means for the two tech giants' customers.
Amazon adds Top Up payment service in UK
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Amazon is looking to make it easier than ever for UK shoppers to buy goods on the site using their mobile devices.
The company has this week launched Top Up, a new service that lets users deposit money into their Amazon account simply by scanning a barcode with their phone.
Amazon hands out $5 credits after accidentally making Echo Dot available free of charge
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Anyone shopping for an Amazon Echo Dot a couple of days ago may have spotted that the online retail giant was making its second-generation assistant available free of charge.
But the old adage "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" turned out to be completely accurate. The $49.99 "Audible Promo" discount that led to the device being reduced in price to $0 was a SNAFU -- but Amazon is going to make up for it.
Twitch Desktop app for Windows 10 and macOS now available for download
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Twitch used to just be a platform for people to stream themselves playing video games. While it still is used for that, it has evolved to be much more, such as vlogging and general interactions. The Amazon-owned company is wise to expand, as it betters its competition abilities with the monster that is YouTube. Google's service is insanely popular, but as more and more content creators grow tired of YouTube's heavy-handed antics, they will look for somewhere else to go. That somewhere is Twitch for many.
YouTube is largely a web browser affair on the desktop, while on Android and iOS, Google produces solid mobile apps. Twitch has decided to take the app approach on the desktop too, as there are now apps for both Windows 10 and macOS.
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