Articles about Amazon

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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Amazon has once again decided to suspend sales of the popular budget Android smartphone maker Blu as many of its devices came preloaded with spyware.

The Miami-based company has been suspended from selling its phones on the e-commerce site after cybersecurity experts at Kryptowire revealed that software on its devices was collecting sensitive user data and sending it to China.

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Moving your workload to the cloud has been made simpler thanks to a new partnership between two of the industry's biggest names.

Rackspace has today revealed a new partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS) that will see the companies work closer together than ever before, and help streamline the process for customers making the move to AWS.

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I'm not sure how I got here, exactly, but I seem to be all-in on Amazon home devices lately. I have one Amazon Echo and two of its smaller Dot models. I can use these voice assistant devices to control my television, lights, surveillance cameras, and thermostat. Last week, I bought a Fire TV stick to replace my Nexus Player, because my TV provider does not support HBO go on Android TV -- weird, but true. You know what? I couldn't be happier.

Well, actually, I am a bit happier today. Why? Because my Echo devices can now control my Fire TV stick; perfect timing! While the Fire TV supports Alexa with a button-press on the remote, I can now bypass that and just use speech. Cool right? Best of all, this is a free feature for existing standalone hardware, meaning you can take advantage of it immediately without hassle. Support for televisions with integrated Fire TV will be coming very soon.

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Amazon's Prime Day, although it's only been happening for three years, has already become a sort of Black Friday for the summer season. But a new report shows that it's having a positive benefit for other retailers too.

The study by mobile app marketing specialist Liftoff analyzed the install and purchase rates over a seven day period -- three days leading up to Prime Day, Prime Day itself, and the three days following. The company then compared 'Prime Week' to the previous six week period in order to establish benchmarks for shopping app install rates and purchase rates.

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In an effort to appear more user friendly, Amazon has removed a controversial clause from its AWS customer agreement that may lead to more businesses signing up for its cloud computing services.

For quite a few years now, potential customers have been wary of a clause in the company's customer agreement that prohibited customers from suing it over patent infringement. Businesses chose other cloud providers instead as they were concerned over whether or not they could trust Amazon with the intellectual property of their companies.

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Over the years Amazon has spread its wings in various directions, and the latest venture sees the online shopping giant dipping its toe into the waters of social networking. While not strictly a social network, Amazon Spark has many of the hallmarks of one.

Borrowing heavily from Instagram and Pinterest -- among others -- Amazon Spark is available for Prime subscribers using iOS. There is, of course, a strong emphasis on shopping, and members are able to post photos of items for sale, and can click through to buy, post comment, and leave "smiles" -- Spark's take on likes.

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While certain corners of the software arena have been, well, cornered by a single big name, there are others in which there is choice aplenty. Case in point -- messaging tools.

The number of messaging tools vying for attention is nothing short of bewildering, with everyone from Apple and Microsoft to Google and Facebook offering ways to communicate with other users of the same platforms. Choice may be a good thing -- up to a point -- but now it seems that Amazon has been feeling left out, and may be working on a messaging app of its own, called Anytime, further adding to the plethora of options.

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When people think of Amazon Alexa, they probably just associate it with asking questions or playing music. For me and many others, however, the assistant is much more than that. She (Alexa is female) controls my lights, thermostat, and even my television by integrating with my Harmony Hub. While relaxing on my couch, I no longer need to reach for a remote -- I just tell her what to do. Is it laziness? I suppose, but it is very cool too.

While Alexa and Harmony work very well together, there is one big issue. When I call upon Alexa, I can't just tell her what to do -- I must first say "Tell Harmony to" followed by the command. For example, when I want to watch TV, I must say "Alexa, tell Harmony to turn on the TV" rather than just "Alexa, turn on the TV. Today, this changes, as Logitech Harmony gets simplified Amazon Alexa voice controls. In other words, the pesky "tell Harmony to" is no longer needed. Finally!

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation has published the latest edition of its "Who has your back" privacy report. This is the seventh report from the digital rights group, and this year it criticizes both WhatsApp and Amazon for having policies that "fall short of other similar technology companies."

Four big telecom companies -- AT&T, Comcast, T-Mobile, and Verizon -- performed very poorly, while at the other end of the scale Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr, and WordPress were all praised. In all, the report rates 26 technology companies in five key areas relating to privacy and government data requests: "Follows industry-wide best practices," "Tells users about government data requests," "Promises not to sell out users," "Stands up to NSL gag orders" and "Pro-user public policy: Reform 702."

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The stock prices for many major US technology companies nose-dived last night following a computer glitch. The problem also sent shares in Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft to the same price after the pre-Independence Day early closure of the stock market.

With all four companies seemingly having a stock price of $123.47, Microsoft's market value appeared to increase by nearly 80 percent, while that of Google and Amazon were both slashed by more the 85 percent. Nasdaq stresses that actual stock prices were not affected, and no trading completed with incorrect pricing.

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Today the European Union gave Apple a great gift to celebrate iPhone's 10th anniversary (on June 29th): The ridiculous, record $2.7 billion fine, and associated sanctions, against Google that once again demonstrates the EU's small-minded oversight that wrongly regulates evolving technologies in a big world. The adverse antitrust ruling finds that the online titan favored its own online shopping services (and paying customers) over rivals.

In February 2010, with the EU Competition Commission's preliminary investigation starting, I rightly called "Google a dangerous monopoly". Seven years later, the competitive landscape has dramatically changed, and rapidly evolves. The Commission's action is too much, too late, and in the short-term can only benefit rivals like Apple that will dominate online activities and commerce as what we knew as traditional web search becomes something else.

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Some people don't like advertisements, but I do. They are a great way to learn about new products while also helping to pay for "free" content. People think I am crazy when I say this, but many times I don't bother fast-forwarding commercials when watching my DVR. Heck, in 2017, there is so much great content that is subsidized by ads, such as news articles, YouTube videos, and of course, both television and radio. If it weren't for advertisements, you would probably be "nickle-and-dimed" at every turn.

A great example of advertisements helping consumers is Amazon's 'Prime Exclusive Phones' program. The consumer gets a discount on the smartphone by agreeing to see ads on the device's lock screen. It is not forced on the buyer -- they get to choose if it is worth it to them. It actually empowers the consumer. Today, Amazon is introducing five more handsets into the scheme from Motorola, Alcatel, and for the first time, Nokia.

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Logitech recently unveiled the versatile Circle 2 -- its second-generation home surveillance camera. Unlike the first version of the cam, the newer variant can be used both indoors and outside. Plus, thanks to the many mounting options, you can position it in many different ways. It looks like a great product.

Today, the Circle 2 gets even more attractive thanks to an upcoming new feature. You see, the internet-connected camera is getting integration with the upcoming Echo Show -- Amazon's assistant device that features a display. This actually makes a lot of sense, as it transforms Amazon's screen-having device into a voice-controlled surveillance monitor.

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Market analyst Gartner has released a new magic quadrant that visualizes how cloud companies are currently sitting in the market. According to the report, Amazon and Microsoft are the sole leaders of the market, with the rest far, far behind.

Amazon Web Services is leading the charge. Microsoft is (sort of) trailing, but it is still considered a leader in the IaaS market.

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