Articles about Amazon

Amazon is gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas with a new discount scheme. The online retailer has introduced a new "Discount provided by Amazon" tag, discounting independent merchants' prices -- at its own cost -- by up to 9 percent.

This is the first time Amazon has taken control of third party pricing, and in shouldering the cost itself the company is helping to ensure competitive pricing across the board, keeping customers on the site.

Continue reading →

Amazon Business users will soon be able to take advantage of free two-day shipping in a similar way to how Prime customers do to order a wide range of products right to their office.

In 2015, the online retailer launched its B2B marketplace, Amazon Business, that included a number of business-specific perks such as purchasing analytics, bulk pricing and free-two day shipping on orders over $49.

Continue reading →

Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones is a pretty interesting proposition, giving consumers the option to get a new smartphone at a lower price in exchange for ads and offers. The number of supported devices is not that high though, but Amazon is constantly adding more and more to the list.

And today it is the LG G6 and G6+ flagships as well as the Q6 and X charge that join the program. All are available through Amazon Prime Exclusive Phones in their unlocked version, so that they can be used on different carriers.

Continue reading →

Amazon has come up with a novel approach to make it painless for Prime customers to receive their packages. It is a new service, called Amazon Key, that leverages smart locks to let couriers open your front door to make in-home deliveries. And, to help folks keep an eye on things, the online retailer also announced a new security camera, called Cloud Cam.

The idea behind it is not just to enable deliveries when the customer is not home to receive the package, but also to enable folks to open the door remotely to friends or workers. Using the security camera, they can monitor who entered their home and when.

Continue reading →

I’m a big fan of e-ink Kindles -- preferring them over real books. If you do a lot of reading, they’re great. However, some people prefer the versatility of an iPad, Android tablet or smartphone, and there's a clear benefit to those. You only need to carry around the one device.

Today, Amazon launches a rebuilt Kindle app for both iOS and Android that provides easy access to the most popular Kindle features, and adds new functionality, such as built-in access to the Goodreads community.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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)."

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →