If you haven't used a Harmony product and you have a home theater system then you may be missing out. The Logitech devices can control all manner of things from receivers, TVs, Blu-ray players, and so on, to many Internet of Things products in your home, such as light bulbs like LIFX and thermostats such as Nest.

If you have an Amazon Echo, better known as Alexa, then you can already do a bit of that, turning your recliner into a throne from which you can oversee your kingdom.

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Did you read the classic JRR Tolkien books? Perhaps you saw the award-winning series of movies that did a phenomenal job of portraying The Lord of the Rings story. There are, of course, some things left out for brevity's sake -- it's hard to put that many words on the big screen.

For everyone who reminisces about the books and/or the films there will soon be a way to get transported back to that magical land of elves, dwarves, wizards, orcs and other creatures that reside in a certain part of our psyche.

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Not long after releasing the original Amazon Fire TV as a small set-top box, Amazon shrunk its player down into stick form. It's a small dongle that plugs directly into an HDMI port on your TV or monitor, or even an HDMI switch if you'd like to easily move between sources.

Now the retail giant is opening up the market for the Fire TV Stick to people around the globe, bringing entertainment to everyone.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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