When it comes to mobile operating systems, apps still reign supreme. To highlight which ones were most popular in 2016, Nielsen conducted a study of Android and iPhone smartphone users.

Not surprisingly, two major players in the mobile space -- Facebook and Google -- lead the pack.

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The Grand Tour, The Man in the High Castle, Transparent… just three good reasons why you might have opted for Amazon’s powerful, yet diminutive TV box. Plus of course, it’s also the gateway to loads more TV, movies, apps and games.

If you have a 4K TV, it’s great source of UHD content (Amazon’s original shows are available in that format) -- although you may want to skip paying $25.99 to watch a scaled-up Groundhog Day! Once you’ve excitedly opened the gift of a new Amazon Fire TV, here’s what to do next.

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Boxing Day is not a holiday largely celebrated in the USA, but it is very big with our neighbors to the north -- Canada. If you aren't familiar, it is recognized on the day after Christmas -- December 26th. Unlike Christmas, however, it is not a religious holiday.

To celebrate this day, Amazon is offering some special deals to its Canadian customers. Starting tomorrow, at the Amazon.ca website, there will be many discounts to be had, and you can see some notable ones below.

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Looking for that last minute gift? You're running out of time, and some things are simply just no longer available. Many of the hottest devices this shopping season have proven tough to come by -- not really a surprise, as it's been this way every time for years.

While Amazon is offering free shipping (for Prime customers) through today, some things simply are not there and you won't be getting them in time.

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Regardless of whether or not you're a country music fan, you almost certainly know the name Garth Brooks. The famed musician is married to another icon of that genre, Trisha Yearwood. While both still tour and remain popular performers, the latter can also be found cooking on Food Network, sometimes with her husband in the kitchen.

While Brooks retired years ago, it was simply in favor of spending time with his kids, and he's since made a comeback. But getting ahold of his music has proven troublesome.

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From the day I received the Oct. 14, 2016 letter about billing changes, AT&T U-verse and Internet cancellation was inevitable. I had auto-pay set up to a credit card, but the service provider wanted access to my bank account, which I didn't want to give. "Beginning in December, your credit card will be charged eight days after your Bill Cycle date", the correspondence reads. The change meant AT&T would take payment on the 8th of the month rather than the 21st. Since the company bills a month in advance, the new date would work out to about six-weeks in fees paid ahead for future service. On principle, being an independent-minded "don't tell me what to do" Mainer, I considered other options.

Ironically, the launch of another AT&T service, DirecTV Now, on October 30th, made the decision to cancel super easy. After several starts and stops, the Wilcox household has finally cut the cord for good. DirecTV Now is the nudge, but other streaming services make a big difference, too. Much has changed since the last cord-cutting effort, in November 2015, which we abandoned after about 7 weeks. The quality and quantity of original programming from Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix is greater and hugely enticing 12 months later.

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Amazon is my favorite store. I don't just mean online either -- there is nowhere I'd rather shop, including brick-and-mortar retailers too. This is not just because of convenience either -- it has great product selection and competitive prices too. As a Prime member, I can even get my packages in two business days at no additional cost!

While I am totally satisfied waiting two days for my stuff, apparently some people aren't. Using drone technology, Amazon recently (December 7, 2016) delivered a package in a mere 13 minutes! This was the first-ever customer delivery using an Amazon Prime Air drone. Today, the company releases a video of the historic delivery, and it is pretty darn cool.

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Amazon's Echo devices are incredible. I'll admit that I was a skeptic at first, but once I got my own, I was hooked. Not only can the Alexa voice assistant provide me with important data like weather, news, and traffic, but it can play music too. Most importantly, it serves as a brilliant IoT control unit. My house has several WiFi connected power outlets, and I can verbally tell Alexa to turn off my lamps. It can even control my television!

Much of Amazon's success with Echo and Alexa is thanks to third-party developers and hardware. Today, Conexant and Amazon announce the AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit. This add-on for the Raspberry Pi should enable easier development of devices using Amazon's Alexa voice technology. This could ultimately lead to further growth and adoption of the Alexa voice assistant.

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Following the massive attack that took down the servers of the DNS service provider Dyn and a number of high profile websites including Netflix, Twitter, Spotify and Reddit last month, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced a new technology to protect sites against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

The new tool, which is called AWS Shield, was announced at the company's re:Invent developer event in Las Vegas. Amazon's own site was affected by the attack on Dyn and the company has now decided to launch its own DDoS protection service to ensure that its site and those that use AWS are able to withstand future attacks.

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During its re:Invent developer event in Las Vegas, Amazon announced its new Amazon AI platform which will make many the company's machine learning tools available to developers to use in their apps and websites.

Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon Web Services, explains that the company has a great deal of background in machine learning, saying: "We do a lot of AI in our company. We have thousands of people dedicated to AI in our business". Amazon has decided to release three tools that take advantage of its AI to developers with the launch of its new platform.

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Waiting for the new season of Game of Thrones? Perhaps you like some other show that airs on a premium network such as HBO or Cinemax. There's no shortage of exclusives -- regardless of your tastes you're bound to find something that suits you.

Well, if you are an Amazon Prime subscriber then the wait is over. Both HBO and Cinemax are arriving on the premium subscription service.

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When it comes to backing up a computer, I am a big proponent of the cloud. While local backups should also be part of your plan, redundancy is key. If there is ever a disaster, such as a flood or fire, you will be very glad for the cloud backup. If the cloud storage company goes out of business, you will be thankful for the local copy. In other words, don't just rely on one method.

Seagate has an interesting new product, called "Duet", that it developed with Amazon, and it aims to create a positive redundant backup experience. The hardware itself is rather basic -- a 1TB 2.5-inch portable USB (Type-A) hard disk drive. The magic is in the software (Windows and Mac only), however, as it creates automatic cloud backups of the HDD contents to Amazon Drive in the cloud.

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Holiday sales from Black Friday and Cyber Monday could very well help Amazon hit its target of $134 billion in annual sales, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) could make up for $12 billion of it

The company began offering web services to its customers over 10 years ago and in recent years this division has grown from a small to significant portion of the online retailer's business. AWS currently operates in 38 availability zones within 14 geographic locations and large companies such as Netflix, Adobe and Spotify have turned to the company for hosting and operating their websites and services.

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One of the benefits of shopping with Amazon is that you are able to read reviews written by other customers before you part with your cash. Now the company has updated its review policy, placing a limit on the number of reviews customers can write in a week.

The new limit means that there is now a maximum of five reviews per customer per week, but there is an exception. If Amazon is able to verify that products have been purchased by -- rather than gifted to -- the reviewer, the limit is increased. But it gets a little more complicated.

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The British edition of Top Gear holds the record for being the most widely watched factual television program in the world. Having departed that show under a cloud, the presenting trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May had a lot to live up to with their new show on Amazon, but it turns out The Grand Tour fully met expectations, and then some.

If you’ve watched it, you’ll know it’s pretty much Top Gear with a much, much bigger budget. As it’s an Amazon Prime exclusive and currently only available in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan (officially anyway), it was never going to match Top Gear for viewing figures but it is still Amazon’s biggest hit to date.

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