Articles about Amazon

Looking at the biggest stories on BetaNews from September, 1 - 7, 2013. This was a week packed with news from IFA in Berlin -- lots of big announcements to whet our appetites for the coming months. LG's G Pad was revealed as a potential competitor to the Nexus 7 and iPad mini, while Acer was found to be proudly showing off its new R7 notebook complete with innovative Ezel hinge that allows for a range of working positions.

IFA was also where Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Note 3 as well as the Galaxy Gear smartwatch which will allow us all to live out our Star Trek dreams. It wasn't long before Note 3 pre-orders were being taken. If you've noticed that phones are getting bigger and bigger, the same is certainly true of tablets -- the Panasonic Toughpad 4K is a staggering 20 inches from corner to corner.

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Apple says it will appeal against a court ruling that bans the company from entering into deals with publishers that could allow ebook prices to be fixed or inflated. The case was raised by the Department of Justice and judge Denise Cote's decision is very much in line with what they were seeking. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company is banned from entering into agreements with five named publishers in ways that might restrict ebook prices.

Having been found to have conspired with publishers to prevent retailers (rather than publishers or Apple) from setting ebook prices, Apple fell foul of antitrust legislation. The company is required to wipe out a controversial 'most favoured nation' clause in its contracts that effectively ensure that Apple's ebook prices would always match the lowest price available online. Restrictions are in place for different lengths of time for various publishers, ranging from two years in the case of Hachette, to four years for Macmillan.

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The Kindle Paperwhite is the most successful e-reader ever, and Amazon is updating the range with the sixth generation of the Kindle family. It's the "All-New" prefix that aids identification, but aside from the name, there's a new display, faster processor and a raft of new features for readers to use. In terms of appearance, there are few differences to its predecessor, but the display is where things are most noticeable.

New display technology gives a higher contrast ratio and Amazon claims that pages are "virtually indistinguishable from a physical book". No new version would be complete without an extra turn of speed, and the latest Kindle Paperwhite doesn't disappoint, offering a processor running 25 percent faster than in the previous model. The touchscreen has been upgraded with a tighter grid to help improve sensitivity and accuracy.

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Playing with fire is generally considered bad practice -- I know, as a parent I recommend my kids avoid it. Amazon, however has a whole new Matchbook that it can not wait to set alight. In this case, thankfully, there are no pyrotechnics involved -- just some good literature.

Today the online retailer announces Matchbook -- "a new benefit that gives customers the option to buy -- for $2.99, $1.99, $0.99, or free -- the Kindle edition of print books they have purchased new from Amazon".

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Saludos a nuestros lectores Mexicanos. The good folks who reside south of the US border have been waiting a rather long time, but find today that Amazon has not forgotten them. The Kindle Store for the Mexico market launches and the online retailer is doing so with a splash.

The splash may be small in comparison to the big picture -- 70,000 Spanish titles out of the more than two-million titles in all -- but it's a solid start. The early list includes authors such as Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende and Paulo Coelho.

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There is money to be made from online advertising, particularly if you happen to be Google. Research by Statista shows that in 2012, there was around $104b in advertising revenue sloshing around in the coffers of various companies. Projected figures show that 2013 is likely to even more profitable, with ad revenue expect to rise to $117.6b. This is not as great an increase as between 2011 and 2012, but it is still a climb.

It is the big names who are raking in the cash, with Google coming out on top. The search giant is expected to pocket $38.6b by the end of the year, equating to very nearly a third worldwide income from online advertisements.

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HTML5 has become one of the buzzwords for the modern web, with the seeming demise of Flash -- the Adobe app, one of many, that has been under serious attack in recent times. Now Amazon is opening up its App Store to the HTML5 world, allowing for easier development for those wishing to take advantage of the platform.

"Amazon today launched web app support in the Mobile App Distribution Program", the retail giant said in an announcement. "Developers can now submit URLs for their HTML5 web apps and mobile websites and have Amazon offer that content to millions of Kindle Fire and Amazon Appstore customers in the same, convenient way as native apps. Developers can submit and distribute mobile web content without using third party software or doing any native app development, and they can take advantage of Amazon’s In-App Purchasing API for JavaScript, which provides them the option to build sales of digital goods into their apps".

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Amazon sells many things -- customers can shop for everything from electronics to grocery store items. With a Prime membership you can even receive free two-day shipping. But I doubt customers think of the retail giant in the same breath as an art gallery -- the Louvre certainly does not come to mind.

To be fair, the famous Paris museum is not selling off its collection on Amazon, or anywhere else, but art galleries now have a home on Amazon. Today the retailer announces Amazon Art, "a marketplace that gives customers direct access to more than 40,000 works of fine art from over 150 galleries and dealers".

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Amazon Prime has been slowly growing, from shipping to video and even a lending library, but the company has also been busy adding original content these days and that continues today. Previously the retail giant even crowd-sourced new shows, asking those who viewed the pilots to choose which would make it to production.

Now the company wishes to launch five new kids shows -- in pilot form, once again. "Following the positive response to its first set of TV pilots, Amazon Studios today announced it will produce five more original pilots for kids, including the first pilots for ages six to eleven. The new pilots come from Emmy Award-winning creators as well as a Hollywood newcomer discovered though Amazon Studios’ open-door submission process. The pilots will stream on Amazon Instant Video and LOVEFiLM in the U.K. for customers to watch, provide feedback, and help determine which shows should be produced as a series", the company announces today.

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The apartment was strangely silent last night and darker than usual. Gone was the flickering light filling the center room as one of us scanned the program guide. A year later than planned, we dismantled the TV shrine and took back the living room from the false idol. Henceforth, we will worship at a different altar. Finally, I cut cable's cord -- IPTV, really, but we all call it the other, eh?

I feel anxiety and elation at the dramatic change, which allowed us to rearrange the furniture such that the living room is more open, more inviting and more suited to entertaining real people. The television now resides in the bedroom, more for the benefit of my wife's sleepless nights (the thing is narcotic). We'll stream from Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix primarily -- haha, maybe even iTunes. I had planned Google Play by way of Nexus Q, but the search giant nixes that option.

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Unlike Fox News, I make no pretense of being "fair and balanced" when it comes to Amazon Prime -- I am a subscriber and lover of the service. I also have children, which is why the latest announcement grabs my attention. The online retailer expands its relationship with the Public Broadcast System.

"Amazon.com today announced an expanded multi-year licensing agreement with PBS Distribution that will allow Amazon Prime members to instantly stream, at no additional cost, past seasons of PBS programs" the company announces.

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Big Brother is watching you. Or rather technology giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Yahoo are. The firms track their users relentlessly, and use that information to provide a tailored online experience (and maybe share it with government agencies).

Baynote, which provides personalized customer experience solutions for multi-channel retailers, has put together an interesting visual insight into what data the tech titans gather about you, how it’s collected, and what purposes it’s put to.

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If nothing else, Microsoft's forthcoming gaming console has received more than its fair share of attention, and plenty of it on the wrong side of what the company would hope for. There was controversy before the official announcement even came, there was double-talk at the announcement, and of course some major backtracking later.

Although we know a lot about the console now, the one thing Microsoft has so far failed to announce is an official release date. Despite a vague promise of "later this year", most of us likely expected the holiday shopping season. It turns out, if Amazon is correct, the device will only just make it in time for that.

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Amazon continues to beef up its Prime video offering, making friends with major studios and networks in a race for content. Today the online retailer woos even more customers, building on the recent update that will introduce original content to the platform, by adding a new group of popular TV shows to its library.

New partner Viacom will begin providing hundreds of TV shows and thousands of TV episodes from Viacom to Prime Instant Video, including a collection of TV shows that customers won’t find on any other digital video subscription service.

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Back in April Amazon released 14 original TV shows, exclusive to Prime customers. The company, through its video production studio, promised to take the most popular of these and turn them into series. The viewers spoke, and now the retail giant today announces those results.

Five of the original 14 pilots have been accepted -- Alpha House, Betas, Annebots, Creative Galaxy and Tumbleaf all make the final cut. Meanwhile, one of the hot favorites, Zombieland, was not picked up. It became much less popular after customers actually watched it.

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