Articles about Amazon

Yesterday we celebrated Memorial Day, and this year it’s followed immediately by a more infamous day. June 1 of each year marks the start of hurricane season in the Atlantic and Pacific basins. It runs through December 1, but remember, mother nature doesn’t always follow our schedules and directions -- one hurricane already formed in mid-May. 

Most don’t reach land and those that do frequently amount to little, but then you also have the likes of Katrina or Sandy that can prove devastating. Maria knocked out power for months in Puerto Rico in 2017. 

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If you suffer from motion sickness in VR games, or you just want to feel more like you’re "there", then Cybershoes offers a possible solution.

They are smart overshoes that you use to walk or run through virtual games, and are compatible with most of the popular VR headsets, including the Quest 2. You can read my review of them here. If you’ve been tempted to buy them but haven't yet got around to it, the good news is they are now being sold on Amazon in the US.

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For 100 years, retailers have segmented the broad marketplace into groups -- soccer moms, or Millennials, or New Yorkers, or readers…  pretty much every retailer uses target segments like those. But Amazon has never been interested. Instead, it wants a segment of one: you. It gathers information about what you look at, what you buy, your browsing habits. To that it adds information from your purchases -- address and credit cards on file -- as well as your Amazon address book to find those close to you.

It is also the second biggest tracker on the web, after Google, so it follows your activity far beyond the Amazon ecosystem. And it can access the standard sets of information that can easily be sucked in from outside: your credit score, your home ownership, criminal complaints and records…. Amazon  probably knows more about you than any other entity on the planet, including your mother and your spouse.

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Earlier today, Amazon revealed its all-new Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus tablets. Both are more powerful than their predecessors, but priced from just $149. If you’re in the market for a low cost Android tablet, then they are definitely worth your consideration.

You can also pick up either device as part of the new Fire HD 10 Productivity Bundle which includes a 12-month Microsoft 365 Personal subscription and comes with premium Office apps, and 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage. You don’t need to buy a new tablet though as the Microsoft Office and OneNote apps are now available to install through the Amazon Appstore.

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Last week, Apple took the wraps off its latest iPad Pro and it's a beast, thanks in part to being powered by the company’s own powerful 8-core M1 chip.

Not everyone has $800 (and upwards) to blow on a tablet though, and not everyone wants to buy into Apple’s ecosystem. That’s the market that Amazon targets and its new Fire HD 10 and Fire HD 10 Plus tablets are more powerful than ever, and with price tags that won’t break the bank.

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Since the first supermarket was opened in the US in 1930, the industry hasn’t changed much. Supermarkets are handy places for us to go and pick up what we need, when we need it, all from one place. It’s fair to say that expectations are limited when it comes to supermarkets -- customers know what’s coming: baskets, shelves, and checkouts. However, this all changed when Amazon opened its first physical grocery store location in 2018, Amazon Go.

The move created shockwaves throughout the grocery industry for one major reason -- there are no checkouts at Amazon Go. In this article, we look at all the latest grocery innovations Amazon has brought to the table.

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The coronavirus pandemic has been bad news for many businesses, but some, like Amazon, have truly thrived. The retail giant recorded an incredible $100bn in sales in the last three months of 2020.

But while that’s amazing news for Amazon, it's not actually the biggest story of the day. Jeff Bezos, the billionaire who founded the company in 1994, is to step down as chief executive to focus on other interests which include Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and The Washington Post.

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Amazon Prime Day is a bit of a misnomer, as it is two days long (October 13 and 14). But hey, who can argue with that? Having 48 hours of great deals is like celebrating Christmas in October! Hell, some people are predicting these Prime Day deals could be even better than Black Friday.

We here at BetaNews have been sharing top technology news with you for over 20 years, so obviously, we know good tech deals when we see them. So to help you navigate Amazon Prime Day 2020, we have compiled some of the best deals.

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It’s that time of the year again when Amazon takes the wrap off its latest generation of hardware devices. As is to be expected, first up at 2020’s virtual event is the fourth generation of its Echo smart speaker, and this one looks very different indeed.

Switching from the usual cylindrical design to a spherical one, the new Echo promises better all round -- pun intended -- sound. The light ring, that shows you it’s working, listening, or has notifications for you, still exists, but is now at the bottom.

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This upcoming Monday is Labor Day in the USA. It is a national holiday designed to celebrate the hard work of America's laborers. Many will have off from work on this day, but sadly, not everyone will.

Besides getting off from work, another big aspect of Labor Day is sales. Yes, many retailers offer discounts on products as a Labor Day promotion. This year, popular gaming company HyperX is offering some nice deals on several of its products.

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Podcasts have been steadily gaining in popularity over the last several years, but thanks to COVID-19, it feels like interest has exploded recently. After all, people are stuck indoors -- whether unemployed or working from home -- and listening to a podcast is a great way to pass the time. Don't forget, Spotify recently paid Joe Rogan $100 million to get his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, on its platform exclusively.

Pandora may not be the most popular platform for listening to podcasts, but some people do, in fact, use it for that purpose. If you are one of those people, I have great news -- you can now start and listen to your favorite podcasts on Pandora using Amazon Alexa.

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Star Wars sucks. There, I said it. Other than A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, the films are all horrible nonsense. Many current fans of the franchise are older men simply clinging to nostalgia. It's sad that Disney takes advantage of them, cranking out terrible new films and TV shows while selling them plastic tchotchkes. For the love of God, people, please stop buying figurines and make-believe laser swords.

If for some reason you are still a fan of the Star Wars franchise, I have some good news. You know that TV show The Mandalorian on Disney+? Remember that Baby Yoda puppet thing that fanboys went gaga over? Well, you can soon have Baby Yoda ears for you 3rd gen Amazon Echo Dot. Yeah, it is an Echo Dot holder with friggin' Baby Yoda ears jutting out from the sides. It is just for decoration, and it adds no features to the device.

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First, for the record, the process I detail here should work on any Android device. With that said, my elderly, but still used, Google Nexus 9 tablet went into an endless reboot cycle a month or so ago that I couldn’t stop. I set it aside for a couple of weeks and began using the Fire 10 tablet I have. I’m fine on Fire 10 and honestly may stick with it, but seeing the Nexus sitting there useless bothered me so I decided to give it one more shot.

Yes, I know this tablet launched in 2014 when Lollipop was the current iteration of Android, but I still like it. So, here’s how I solved it.

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Want to know a secret? Nobody that buys an Amazon Fire tablet actually wants one. It's true. They see the higher price of an iPad or good Android tablet, and then instead convince themselves that a cheaper Fire tablet is just as good. This is particularly true for those giving a tablet as a gift. If someone presents you with an Amazon Fire tablet for Christmas or your birthday, it pretty much means they didn't think you were worth very much money. Although, it could also mean they just don't have a lot of money.

But hey, that doesn't mean a Fire tablet is totally bad. In fact, they are actually quite decent for content consumption (especially if you are invested in the Amazon ecosystem). With that said, without access to the Google Play Store, they can be rather frustrating. Today, Amazon unveils three new variants of its 8-inch tablet -- Fire HD 8, Fire HD 8 Plus, and Fire HD 8 Kids Edition.

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Big technology companies have been recently coming under increased scrutiny from federal regulators. Several tech companies are reportedly under investigation, but this column is only about Amazon, which seems to be in regulatory crosshairs in part because President Trump doesn’t like Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns one of Trump’s least-favorite newspapers, the Washington Post. Ironically, Trump’s goal of breaking-up Amazon would only make Jeff Bezos at least $35 billion richer.

It’s simple: Amazon is worth a lot more in pieces than it is as a single company.

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