Articles about Amazon

When Amazon initially announced that it wanted to make deliveries by drone, the world became very curious. The media jumped on the story, of course, driving people to get both excited and anxious about the possibilities.

Like many things, however, the USA government bureaucracy stifled our drone delivery dreams, somewhat. While I am all for safety and testing, I hate to see progress move at a snail's pace. The UK Government seems a bit more open to the unmanned delivery idea, as it is now working with Amazon to begin testing these drones in the nation as a delivery method.

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) has acquired the San Francisco-based startup Cloud9 for an undisclosed sum in an effort to add more development tools to its web services stack.

The company was founded in 2010 and gives remote teams of developers the ability to work together to develop, edit and test code across 300 different browsers and operating systems.

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As you're no doubt already aware, Amazon Prime Day is upon us. You have to be a Prime Member to take part in this day of deals, but you can sign up for a free 30-day trial if you're not already a Prime subscriber.

The team over at TechBargains has prepared some of the best, longer lasting deals but be warned, this is a pretty crazy day and a lot of offers are going fast. For full coverage be sure to check out TechBargains for the most up to date coverage on the Lightning Deals which launch every 5 minutes and will have a limited supply and time limit, so act fast.

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Amazon Prime is popular for many reasons, such as free two day shipping, streaming video and music, even a Kindle lending library. Now the company plans to once again celebrate those who cough up the $99 it costs for an annual subscription.

July 12th is Prime Day where users can take advantage of extra deals and large discounts are being offered on an array of items.

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When Amazon launched its Kindle 'with offers', some folks likely groaned at the prospect of getting a discount on the device in exchange for advertisements. Me? I loved it. Seeing advertisements doesn't bother me, and I find a lower cost for the hardware to be a reasonable trade-off.

Today, Amazon announces that it is expanding the program beyond its own hardware. Prime members exclusively can now buy unlocked Android phones with ads on the lock screen. If you are OK with this, you can score some extreme discounts -- up to 50 percent off! Initially, there are just two devices being offered, the Moto G (2016) and BLU R1 HD.

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Following a court ruling that it was involved in ebook price-fixing with five publishers, Apple has started the process of paying back $400m in refunds. Despite agreeing to pay out the thick end of half a billion dollars, Apple denies doing anything wrong.

Interestingly, the payouts will not necessarily reach customers direct from Apple. Refunds are being issued through four ebook stores -- iTunes, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo -- and Amazon customers (Kindle users) should be getting their credit today. If you're in line for a refund, you should have received an email informing you, but in case this made its way to your spam folder, you can manually check to see if you've benefitted.

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Like it or not, we’re all going to have Batman’s Alfred Pennyworth soon. In a digital format, that is, but nonetheless an assistant.

This was concluded by research specialists Gartner, which said that by 2019, at least a quarter of households in developed countries will use the services of a digital assistant, either on a smartphone, or in a standalone device.

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Cloud storage has become a prominent part of everyone's life these days, with services abounding. But what happens when one either goes out of business or sets an end-of-life date for support for one of its apps?

Amazon is encountering that very situation right now, with older versions of its Cloud Drive app. The company is now sending notifications to customers explaining the situation.

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A report from Reuters, citing two sources close to Amazon, says that the online retail giant is about to launch a music streaming service to rival the likes of Spotify. The as-yet-unnamed service is expected to launch towards the end of summer or beginning of fall, pending negotiations with record labels.

With a rumored monthly fee of $9.95, the streaming service does nothing to compete with its rivals financially, but Amazon will still be hoping that it will help boost its Echo product. The paid-for streaming service will sit alongside the free one currently available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Amazon believes its ecosystem will help it stand out from Google Play Music, Apple Music et al.

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Amazon Fresh has arrived in the UK and starting this week the online retailer delivers groceries in London.

This is the first time that the service will be available outside of the US and initially it will offer over 130,000 grocery items to consumers living in north and east London. A host of new items including thousands of fresh produce, dairy and bakery items will be available through the online delivery service.

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There is something of a trend for voice activated devices at the moment, and you might well be wondering if any of them are worth investing in. If you've been thinking about buying an Amazon Echo, you can now try it out in your web browser to get a feel for what it's like.

Amazon has launched the Alexa Skill Testing Tool which gives everyone the opportunity to test drive the virtual assistant for themselves. It's the perfect blend of try-before-you buy blended with clever marketing.

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Amazon has been actively pursuing improvements to its line of products, be it Echo, Fire TV, Kindle or Fire tablet. Of all of the products, perhaps the most updated one and the one which gets the most attention, is the Echo, often referred to as Alexa.

The latest improvements are to Fire TV, gaining Alexa-like features. This isn't technically an Echo update, but an update to the set-top box.

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Amazon is preparing to expand its business with the addition of several new lines of private label brands that it will begin selling in the coming weeks.

The company’s private brands will initially be available to Amazon Prime subscribers and will include perishable foods, tea and coffee, vitamins and baby food as well as other household items such as laundry detergent and diapers.

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"Alexa, play Jeopardy". Many phrases uttered around here lately begin with "Alexa". Amazon's Echo can do an ever growing number of things from simply playing music to controlling home automation. Other tricks are always in the works from both Amazon and third-parties.

The latest "skill", as these things are called, is integration with travel giant Kayak. The company is announcing integration with all Amazon Echo devices, including Dot and Tap.

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Amazon has decided to follow in the footsteps of Google and other technology companies by open-sourcing its deep learning software.

The company has released its deep learning software DSSTNE (pronounced destiny) on GitHub under an open-source Apache license. Deep learning has gained a lot of traction in recent months and many tech companies are currently developing their own software to help teach computers.

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