Articles about Amazon

Amazon just recently introduced support for IFTTT (If This Then That) to its Echo product. The company is pushing fairly hard to add functionality to its device. On a regular basis you will find a new addition at the top of the app when you fire it up on your phone or tablet.

With the introduction of IFTTT Triggers Alexa can now do even more. There are a number of recipes to choose from, but setting them up, in most cases, is pretty similar. Many involve your phone so be prepared to turn your number over, though neither entities have given reason for mistrust.

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Amazon Echo continues to gain functionality, utilizing music apps like Pandora, TuneIn and Last.fm, as well as, of course, Amazon Prime music. There's also a growing list of home automation integration which allows customers to control devices by voice. You can even control your second-generation Fire TV -- first-generation is coming soon, or so Amazon has told me.

Now the company is introducing trigger phrases for IFTTT events and it also works into the home integration slant, though there can be other uses.

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I'm likely preaching to the choir when I say all data should be backed up, in fact it's best to have it in two places -- one local and one off site in case of disaster. Off-site can mean several things, but the increasingly popular choice is the cloud and there are many choices for that.

Now Amazon has an offer you may not be able to refuse. Get unlimited cloud storage space for a year. The price? A mere $5. In addition customers can also choose unlimited photo storage for a year at only $1. Those are both great deals given what they regularly retail for --$59.99 for data storage, though if you're a Prime customer then you already have the unlimited photo storage.

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I’m lucky I get to try out a lot of tech and, like my colleagues here at BetaNews, I buy a fair amount of shiny new products too. 2015 has been a good year for new hardware and I have a long list of items that have become essential to my daily life.

I picked up a trio of new Apple products this year -- an iPhone 6s, an iPad Air 2, and an Apple Watch -- but as much as I love them all, not one of those is the product I’m most thankful for in 2015.

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The year is winding down, but the tech world is winding up with Black Friday deals already appearing and CES heading our way in early January. As always a lot came out this year, and most people will have differing opinions on their favorite product, which is fine. To each his own. I'm just throwing in my two cents.

While I tested and reviewed many products during the course of this year, there was one that stood out. One that I use every single day. What is it?

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Hoards of shoppers hunting for the best Black Friday deals and perhaps not paying full attention to online safety makes this a time of year when cyber criminals are also keen to cash in on moneymaking opportunities.

Internet security company Zscaler has uncovered a widespread malware campaign whose authors are scamming large numbers of people by creating fake Android apps offering early access to Amazon's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

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Big businesses are increasingly recognizing the potential of data science and machine learning. Until recently, however, it hasn't been readily available to smaller organizations and individuals.

But now companies like Amazon and Google are beginning to make machine learning available more widely. Is this the start of a new trend? What will it mean for businesses, and will we see the rise of a new generation of ‘citizen data scientists’?

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It's getting to be that time of year when thoughts turn to holiday giving. Amazon has already launched its Black Friday deal site and we've seen Best Buy's answer to that. Now the Amazon attempts to go one better with a special offer.

The online retailer is announcing its eight day holiday special, beginning this Friday November 20th. The company plans to add new deals as often as every five minutes.

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One of the best ways to protect your online accounts is by using two-factor authentication (2FA) wherever possible. With this activated, logging into a site requires the use of both a password, and a code sent to your mobile phone. Since most of us have our smartphones within easy reach 24/7, this isn’t as much of a chore as it could be, and it certainly delivers a useful layer of additional security.

Not all sites offer this feature however, Amazon being a prime example (pun intended). However, from today that all changes, as the retail giant has quietly introduced the option to set up two-factor authentication on your Amazon account. This means that even if your password falls into the wrong hands, no one will be able to get into your account and go shopping at your expense. This is what you need to do:

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It seems as Amazon is ready for another round in the payment platform fight. This time around, however, the media is saying everyone should be paying attention, as Amazon just might have finally gotten it right.

Re/Code was first to bring it to the public's attention, saying Amazon is ready to launch "Pay with Amazon", bringing the buttons to mobile apps while "tripling down" on placing its Pay with Amazon buttons on websites in overseas markets. The feature is currently available in the U.S. only.

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A lot can be said about Amazon's Echo product. People either love it or don't trust it. After all, what you say goes through Amazon's servers to answer the questions and requests, and it works almost instantly.

Now Amazon has a deal for those who want to try it out, but you'll need to act fast because the deal is good for today only. The device normally retails for $179, but today you can get $30 knocked off that price, lowering the product to $149.

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Halloween is now behind us, the ghosts and goblins have all hid for another year. And for retailers that means one thing -- holiday shopping. The season begins earlier each year and stores are already displaying decorations, in some cases before All Hallow's Eve was even past.

Amazon is no exception, today announcing it is beginning its run up to Black Friday, which is the official kickoff of the money-spending frenzy.

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Earlier this year two different research reports came out describing the overall cloud computing market and Amazon’s role in it. Synergy Research Group saw Amazon as by far the biggest player (bigger in fact than the next four companies combined) with about 30 percent market share. But Gartner, taking perhaps a more focused view of just the public cloud, claimed Amazon holds 82 percent of the market with cloud capacity that’s 10 times greater than all the other public cloud providers combined. I wonder how these disparate views can be possible describing the same company? And I wonder, further, whether this means Amazon actually has a cloud monopoly?

Yup, it’s a monopoly.

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True to its word, Amazon has made good on an earlier promise (or threat, depending on your point of view) not to sell Apple TV. In what will be widely regarded as an aggressive marketing move, the online retailer has cut out Apple TV like a cancer. The block on sales comes just as Apple launches its latest streaming device, and the sanctions also affect Google's Chromecast.

Previous links to such product now 404, but there are still a few accessories scattered through the store. But the ban does feel like a case of Amazon cutting off its nose to spite its face. While it does means that Amazon is able to take steps to fight the competition, it does so at the cost of hurting its customers.

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The emergence of online reviews has changed the way we choose products and services. But while the opportunity to read about other people's experiences and thoughts is helpful, online reviews are open to abuse. Fake reviews are a serious problem and it is important to know what to look out for.

Amazon is taking steps to clamp down on fakers, and #noreceiptnoreview campaign exists to help try to clean up TripAdvisor. Feefo is a feedback engine and closed review platform, and company CEO, Andrew Mabbutt knows that fake reviews are a serious problem. He has a number of tips to help consumers spot the fakes.

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