Articles about Amazon

If you've traveled to certain locations then you likely know that bargaining over a price is an acceptable practice. It is, however, something that went out of style long ago in the US, save for car dealers. Now Amazon aims to bring it back into fashion.

The new system is called, quite simply, 'Make an offer'. It enables customers to haggle a price with third party sellers who operate on the retailer's platform.

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More than two months after it introduced Passport in black, BlackBerry today announces that its latest smartphone is now also available in red and white. The two new color options were introduced for pre-order in late-November, but are only just now shipping.

Both the red and white Passport are officially available from Amazon and BlackBerry's own online store. Both companies list the smartphone as being in stock; taking the Amazon route coupled with one-day shipping will get you a new Passport tomorrow, December 9.

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George Osborne has announced a new tax proposal aimed at multinational firms like Google, Amazon and Apple, normally associated with shifting profits to avoid paying UK tax.

The measure, which has been dubbed the "Google tax", was announced during the chancellor’s autumn statement.

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Black Friday is now out of the way, and while there have already been a number of technology deals available, things now get serious as we approach Cyber Monday. As has become the norm, retailers are no longer waiting for the day itself to roll around before trying to lure customers in. Amazon is no different as its Cyber Monday deals start today.

There are, of course, a few headline grabbing offers to be had, but the online giant is looking to maintain shoppers' interest by offering new deals every ten minutes. Don’t see anything that takes your fancy right now? Just stick around, because you never know what may show up in the next batch of deals.

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It's now the time of year for shopping and finding deals, and Black Friday reigns supreme in this category. As customers line up at retail stores, they miss the fact that staying home can also net you deals at online retailers and save you from the hectic mess that is the king of shopping days.

This time around, Amazon is offering steep discounts on its own products. Those in the market for a Kindle, Fire tablet, Fire phone or the new TV stick are in luck.

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Amazon recently released new devices, including Fire tablets and Kindle readers. But with the holiday shopping season now upon us, it's time for deals. The retailer is responding with multiple ones, some already being available on the site.

This one is a bit different, though. The online store wishes for you to purchase its new Fire HD 6 tablet, and to entice you, the pot is sweetened.

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The Great Firewall of China is renowned for the restrictions it places on what Chinese citizens can access online. Free speech advocates have long called for the Chinese government to allow access to the wider web, so people in China can get a better idea of what is going on elsewhere in the world. Now GreatFire.org, working with the BBC, has found a way to deliver uncensored Chinese language news to those on the wrong side of the firewall.

GreatFire.org is an anti-censorship group that monitors web blocking in China and campaigns against censorship. Various techniques for getting around the Great Firewall of China have been publicized in the past, but they have relied on VPNs and other tools that can be complicated to set up. The latest method requires no special tools.

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If you have grown tired of hardback and paperback books, then a Kindle may be your answer. Coincidentally, Amazon has released two new models, a standard and the Voyage, which my colleague Brian Fagioli reviewed recently. These complement the existing Paperwhite, which has not yet been updated.

If you've never before owned a Kindle, a club I fell into, then you'll find many interesting aspects to the device, which we'll discuss as we go along. The most prominent feature is obviously e-ink, and that isn't new to the platform. But it's important for several reasons -- one, it makes your books look like actual books, and two, it preserves battery life beautifully. You can go weeks without charging.

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I get it -- you own a tablet and don't think you need a dedicated e-ink based e-reader. While I respect your opinion, I must tell you that it is wrong. Sure, reading a book on a back-lit LCD display is passable, but hardly a good experience. Not only can this be fatiguing to your eyes, but most tablets are unusable as a reader in direct sunlight. If you read a lot, you want to go e-ink.

So yes, there are benefits in owning an e-ink based e-reader, and quite frankly, it is affordable. Amazon's entry-level reader is a paltry $79 -- a great value. Today, the value of the retailer's newest readers increase, as an update introduces many cool new features.

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Many people shop online to save money and avoid tax; who doesn't want to save a buck? However, online shopping is more than just savings; it is a great way to avoid leaving the house too. Don't get me wrong, I like going out to a nice restaurant or the beach, but a trip to the mall or store like Walmart is enough to drive me insane. Human beings can be very annoying and for whatever reason, Walmart appears to attract some of the most annoying. If you take a trip to that retailer, you can expect people that smell, crying children, and for reasons unknown, butt-cracks. Don't ask me why, but Walmart shoppers don't seem to wear belts, so their buttocks often peak out to say hello.

Today, it is revealed that all Walmart stores will begin price-matching Amazon and other online retailers. On the surface, you might think Amazon is in trouble, but I say otherwise -- even if the prices are on parity. I personally would avoid Walmart even if it was beating Amazon's prices, just to maintain my sanity. Getting a package delivered is just easier. Do you agree?

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Securing data and making sure that it's stored in compliance with regulatory standards is a key task for all businesses, but it relies on knowing where the information is stored in the first place.

That isn't always as easy as it sounds but a new solution from database security specialist GreenSQL allows enterprises to easily identify all sensitive and regulated data fields across their Amazon Relational Database Service databases.

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Enterprises can be reluctant to move some functions into the cloud because of security and other concerns. So services that can allay these fears have big potential in the market.

Data flow specialist Axway already hosts secure private cloud portfolio solutions with AWS and has now announced that it’s making a Cloud B2B service available.

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Amazon has been producing its Fire tablets for the past few years, and the devices have remained among the retailer's top selling items. For one reason, they are always good solid products, but for another, Amazon sells them at a good price and frequently discounts the devices. Now the company has released its latest iteration of the tablet, but what new features does it bring along?

In all honesty, there are not a lot of big changes, but many minor updates to both the operating system and the hardware have been made. The new tablet comes in both six and seven inch models, though there is also a new 8.9, which retains the HDX name used for last year's models of both 7 and 8.9 devices.

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I so requested to buy Amazon Echo, which promises to bring Star Trek-like responsive computing to the home. The cylindrical device, announced today, is a Bluetooth- and WiFi-enabled speaker that responds to users' questions. Just say "Alexa" and ask something. "What's the weather?" "What is the largest dinosaur?" This is how search information should be, assuming Echo resounds as strongly as Amazon's product information and demo video claim.

Touchless interaction is by no means new. Apple got the jump with personal assistant Siri, which responds to requests and commands on iOS devices. Google Now, available on multiple platforms, is far superior, and Windows Phone now has Cortana. All three cloud-based touchless-response systems make your voice the primary user interface. But Echo, like the Moto X smartphone, is always listening, such that the interaction is almost completely hands-free. That's the difference.

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For those with tons of family photos, and probably the occasional selfie, safe storage can be an issue. Phones get lost and stolen and computer hard drives have a nasty tendency to die. Having a backup to a cloud service is a good option, and there's no shortage of solutions for it, with Amazon being one of them.

That option just got a whole lot simpler and cheaper. The online retailer is announcing that its cloud storage will take on the task of unlimited photo storage for Prime members, adding one more benefit to the growing list already available.

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