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Tag: Amazon

  • Amazon Reportedly Getting Into Travel

    Amazon Reportedly Getting Into Travel

    Amazon is reportedly getting into the travel business, because why wouldn’t it?

    Travel industry news site Skift reports that the company is getting ready to launch its own travel service, which would feature booking at independent hotels and resorts near major cities. It would be called Amazon Travel (fittingly) and feature a “curated selection of hotels within a few hours’ drive from New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle”. It’s expected to launch on New Year’s Day.

    Skift, which spoke with representatives of a handful of hotels appears to have a lot of details about how Amazon Travel will work, so it seems pretty legit. It reports:

    Properties would load their room types, availability, pricing information, and photos into an Amazon extranet and would pay a standard 15% commission to Amazon for the prepaid bookings, the hoteliers at the independent properties said.

    The properties would get notified by Amazon via email of bookings, hoteliers said, and they would update calendars on the extranet. The hotels would generally list their properties at rack rates, but would be free to discount, one hotelier said. Hoteliers would receive their payments from Amazon for the stays in two installments and could obviously attempt to negotiate a lower commission than the standard 15%.

    Amazon isn’t commenting on the matter, but you should definitely check out the report for additional details.

    Meanwhile, in New York, Amazon just signed a 17-year lease for a building across the street from the Empire State Building, where it will reportedly launch a brick-and-mortar store/distribution center.

    In California, it’s been working with taxis, but on package delivery as opposed to transportation.

    Image via Amazon

  • Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Amazon’s New Live-Action Kids Show, Now Available

    Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Amazon’s New Live-Action Kids Show, Now Available

    Amazon’s first live-action kids series aimed at older kids (those aged six to 11) is now available to stream – the first six episodes at least.

    Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, the project of first-time writer David Anaxogorias, launches today. Anaxagorias is a preschool teacher and submitted his show idea to Amazon Studios through its “open-door pilot submissions process”. His show is the first to be greenlit.

    “I have much to be thankful for this year and I’m especially grateful that after months of intense work, we can now share Gortimer with the world,” said Anaxagoras. “I couldn’t be more proud of our marvelous cast and crew who managed to tap into that Normal Street magic again and again with each new episode.”

    According to Amazon, “the series is a coming-of-age tale of friendship that centers around Gortimer and the bond with his two best friends Ranger and Mel, as they chronicle their adventures on Normal Street – an ordinary suburban neighborhood that has a hint of something unexpected just beneath the surface.

    This isn’t Amazon’s first original live-action kids show (Annedroids), but it’s the first one aimed at kids 6 – 11. The protagonist in the series in 13.

    Image via Amazon Studios

  • Amazon Signs 17-Year Lease For NYC Brick-And-Mortar Location

    Amazon Signs 17-Year Lease For NYC Brick-And-Mortar Location

    Last month, we learned that Amazon was planning to open a brick-and-mortar store across the street from the Empire State Building, and on the same street as the Macy’s flagship store. This was according to The Wall Street Journal, which said Amazon would test this physical location concept, and if successful, could expand it to other cities.

    Well, it looks like Amazon is going to go ahead and get comfortable in the location, as the company has signed a 17-year lease. Amazon has agreed to lease 470,000 square feet of space from Vornado Realty Trust, which, according to a new report from the Journal, includes “a site people familiar with the matter say will serve as a same-day shipping hub, warehouse and the company’s first customer-facing brick-and-mortar location.”

    The 17-year lease was confirmed by the realty company, which released the following statement:

    VORNADO REALTY TRUST (NYSE:VNO) announced today that it has completed a 17-year lease with Amazon for 470,000 square feet at 7 West 34th Street, an office building in the Penn Plaza District where Vornado owns approximately 9 million square feet of commercial space.

    Here’s a look at the place via Google Street View:

    Amazon brick and mortar manhattan

    According to the initial WSJ report, the spot will function as a “mini warehouse, with limited inventory for same-day delivery within New York, products returns and exchanges, and pickups of online orders,” and “is meant primarily to be a place for customers to pick up orders they’ve made online, but will also serve as a distribution center for couriers and likely one day will feature Amazon devices like Kindle e-readers, Fire smartphones and Fire TV set-top boxes.”

    Since that report came out, the company has reportedly opened temporary retail stores in San Francisco.

    In New York City, the company has since launched its AmazonFresh grocery service.

    Image via Google Street View

  • Is Amazon Part Of Your Search Strategy?

    If you sell something online, and you’re not showing up in Amazon search results, you might be missing out on a major opportunity. This is especially true as we enter the holiday season.

    Do you have search visibility on Amazon? Is this a priority for your business? Let us know in the comments.

    Compete has released some interesting numbers on Amazon and how it related to consumers’ searching habits. Considering that Google thinks of Amazon as its biggest rival in this department, these are worth paying attention to.

    75 million consumers conducted at least one search on Amazon in September, though only 30% ever clicked beyond the first page of search results, it says.

    According to Compete, when a user searches on Amazon, there’s a 35% chance they’ll click on products listed first in any search, compared to a 17% chance for items listed second. They’re ten times more likely to click on items listed first then on items listed tenth.

    Amazon itself accounted for 22% of visits to any online retailer in September (up from 19% last year). The top 5 online retailers combined for about half of all visits.

    “For manufacturers of toys, diapers, groceries, auto parts, and everything in between, being on Amazon, and more importantly being seen by consumers on the site, is paramount to ecommerce success,” says Compete’s Mattt Pace. “Amazon acts as the Wikipedia of ecommerce for many consumers: it’s their de facto jumping off point for online shopping.”

    “To succeed in ecommerce, consumer product brands need greater visibility into consumers’ path to purchase for their brands and categories… both across the web and within key retailer websites like Amazon,” he says. “Understanding how consumers shop enables brands to optimize their channel investments to drive greater awareness, consideration and purchase of their products.”

    According to Compete, the average shopper returns to Amazon 2.8 times per month to search for products.

    Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt recently said, “Really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don’t think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon. They are obviously more focused on the commerce side of the equation, but, at their roots, they are answering users’ questions and searches, just as we are.”

    So how do you rank in Amazon? Well there’s not nearly as much research out there on the topic compared to ranking in traditional search engines, but Nathan Grimm posted an in-depth look at Moz a few months ago. That’s probably a good place to start. He breaks down the key differences between Amazon and Google, and looks at results page mechanics, ranking factors, tracking your progress, and other visibility systems.

    I will pull an excerpt from Amazon’s own documentation that he references:

    “Search is the primary way that customers use to locate products on Amazon.com. Customers search by entering keywords, which are matched against the search terms you enter for a product. Well-chosen search terms increase a product’s visibility and sales. The number of views for a product detail page can increase significantly by adding just one additional search term – if it’s a relevant and compelling term.

    “Factors such as price, availability, selection, and sales history help determine where your product appears in a customer’s search results. In general, better-selling products tend to be towards the beginning of the results list. As your sales of a product increase, so does your placement.”

    So if you’re talking about ranking factors, Amazon is basically naming a few of them here: keywords, price, availability, selection, and sales history.

    When many businesses think about being seen in the search engines, they think about Google, Bing, and Yahoo, but if your’e selling a product, and you’re not thinking about getting Amazon search visibility you might be missing out on an important opportunity.

    Is Amazon part of your search strategy? Let us know in the comments.

    Images via Compete

  • Amazon Starts Black Friday Deals Early

    Amazon Starts Black Friday Deals Early

    Amazon announced that it’s starting its Black Friday deals early. In fact, they’re starting a week early on November 21.

    The company will be adding new deals every ten minutes for eight straight days, so people are going to be spending a lot of time over the next week checking Amazon.

    They’ll introduce three “coveted” Deals of the Day starting on Thanksgiving at midnight, and then three more on Black Friday itself. This is in addition to thousands of limited-time “Lightning Deals” that will appear on amazon.com/blackfriday.

    “Our customers are redefining Black Friday shopping. They want to stay home with family, enjoy some turkey and football and shop the hottest deals from their phone, tablet or PC,” said Steve Shure, Amazon Vice President Worldwide Marketing. “Starting November 21, we will add new deals as often as every 10 minutes, for eight days, including tech, toys, tools and more.”

    Customers can also give to charity while doing their Black Friday shopping. If you go to smile.amazon.com/blackfriday, you can find the same deals, but with the bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase to charity.

    For today only, Amazon Appstore is offering SpinArt for free. Starting on Thanksgiving, it will offer a free app of the day bundle, featuring over $115 in paid apps and games.

    Image via Amazon

  • Mozart in the Jungle Hits Amazon December 23

    Mozart in the Jungle Hits Amazon December 23

    Amazon Studios’ new comedy show, Mozart in the Jungle, has just received an official premiere date – December 23.

    Amazon will release all 10 episodes of the first season at once on Amazon Prime. Mozart in the Jungle was first greenlit alongside Amazon’s Transparent – which has received rave reviews since its premiere in September.

    Mozart in the Jungle stars Gael Garcia Bernal, Saffron Burrows, Hannah Dunne, Lola Kirke, and Peter Vack. It’s executive producers are Roman Coppola. Jason Schwartzman, Paul Weitz, and John Strauss. The show also boasts a bunch of guest stars including Malcolm McDowell, Bernadette Peters, Debra Monk, Wallace Shawn, and John Hodgman.

    Here’s Amazon’s official description:

    Based on the critically acclaimed memoir Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs & Classical Music by Blair Tindall, Mozart in the Jungle is seen through the eyes of a young oboist, Hailey (Kirke), who tries to navigate through the egos and eccentricities of a world renowned orchestra, and new conductor Rodrigo (Bernal), an enfant terrible whose passion for music threatens the plans of the orchestra’s old guard. That old guard is represented by Thomas (McDowell), the reluctantly outgoing conductor, and Gloria (Peters), the chairwoman of the board, who wonder what they have wrought by bringing Rodrigo into the fold. The musicians themselves, a colorful family of disparate personalities, are struggling to deal with this new regime. Along with her friends Alex (played by Vack), a dancer on the brink of success, Cynthia (Burrows), a worldly cellist, and Lizzie (played by Dunne), a world class partier, Hailey searches for what it means to dedicate your life to music.

    “Our customers will be immersed in a provocative and compelling world,” said Roy Price, Vice President of Amazon Studios. “Jason, Roman, Paul and John have brilliantly tapped into this microcosm brought to life by an unparalleled ensemble cast.”

    Last week, Amazon announced the first set of pilots for 2015 – for hour-long shows, two half-hour shows, and a docu-series.

    Image via Amazon Studios, YouTube

  • Nielsen To Start Measuring Netflix, Amazon [Report]

    Nielsen To Start Measuring Netflix, Amazon [Report]

    Nielsen will soon start measuring viewing on Netflix and other streaming services, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, which claims to have reviewed Nielsen client documents.

    This, according to the report, will begin as soon as next month, and will also include Amazon Prime Instant Video. Nielsen will reportedly analyze audio components to identify what content is being streamed, but it won’t account for mobile streaming as the technology won’t work on that yet, it says.

    The report also includes a quote from Nielsen SVP Brian Fhurer: “Our clients will be able to look at their programs and understand: Is putting content on Netflix impacting the viewership on linear and traditional VOD ?”

    The streaming content providers aren’t commenting.

    It’s going to be quite interesting to see what the numbers look like once that data becomes available, as all anyone has really had to go on in the past is whatever data companies like Netflix felt like sharing.

    The data could have a direct impact on the deals that are made between Netflix/Amazon and content creators and licenses.

    Of course, without mobile, the picture will still be far from complete, and it’s unclear whether tablet viewing falls into the mobile category. If so, that will be a very significant chunk of missing data.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon Fire TV Stick Is Now Shipping

    Amazon Fire TV Stick Is Now Shipping

    Amazon’s Chromecast competitor, the Fire TV Stick, has now begun to ship.

    According to Amazon, the pre-order buzz for the new device was the most impressive the company has ever seen.

    “Fire TV Stick has been our most successful device launch ever,” said Dave Limp, Senior Vice President, Amazon Devices. “We built a ton of these, but customer demand still outpaced our supply. We’re excited by the overwhelming customer response and the team is working hard to build more as quickly as possible.”

    Amazon first announced the Fire TV Stick late last month, It’s a few dollars more than Google’s Chromecast ($39 vs $35) – but Amazon sold it at a lower price point to Prime subscribers. Once you plug it in to your TV, It’s controlled by a separate remote or by the Fire TV remote smartphone app.

    Like its competitors, the Fire TV stick offers access to all the most popular content providers – Netflix, Hulu Plus, Watch ESPN, etc. It isn’t launching with HBO Go access, however, which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s followed Amazon product launches of the past few months. April saw Amazon launch its original Fire TV (set-top box) without an HBO Go app.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Lets Invited Consumers Order Echo

    Amazon has begun sending out invitations for its new Echo smart device. The company unveiled the device on November 6th, and let interested consumers request invites.

    ZDNet’s James Kendrick writes that he received his invitation today, and shares a screenshot of the email, which says:

    Dear Amazon Customer,

    We’re excited to offer you an invitation to purchase Amazon Echo. We hope you’ll have as much fun using it as we did inventing it. By accepting this invitation, you will be one of the first customers to use Echo, and we appreciate your input to help shape Echo as it evolves.

    To accept this invitation, go to the Amazon Echo page, add to cart, and purchase as usual.

    Thanks,

    The Amazon Echo Team

    At a $200 price tag, I don’t expect Echo to be a huge hit, as it appears to do things consumers can mostly already do with their smartphones and/or tablets. It’s half that price for Prime members, and that’s probably Amazon’s real motivation here – getting more Prime members, as that seems to be its motivation with most things these days.

    Ultimately, it’s going to depend on reviews from people like Kendrick that determine just how interested people are in the product. As we saw with Amazon’s Fire phone earlier this year, both price and tech blogosphere opinion can make or break a product.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon Won’t Charge Prime Members For Ultra HD

    Amazon Won’t Charge Prime Members For Ultra HD

    Amazon confirmed this week that it will not charge Prime members for Ultra HD content.

    Earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show, Amazon announced it would make Ultra HD content available this year. The company sent us this statement from Michael Paull, VP of Amazon Digital Video:

    “We want to be the best entertainment destination for customers. We’re confident that offering Ultra HD content, whether it’s a TV series or a film, will help create the ultimate viewing experience and can’t wait to start making it available this year. We’ve already announced that the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek To Cheek LIVE! concert will be available in the premium resolution as well as Amazon Original Series including Transparent, Alpha House and the upcoming Mozart in the Jungle series, and we’re excited to unveil even more titles that Prime members and customers can watch in Ultra HD later this year and into next year. Amazon Prime members will have access to a great selection of Ultra HD content on Prime Instant Video at no additional cost.”

    “Customers are excited about the future of 4K and the next evolution of high resolution video. We’re working with consumer electronics leaders and Hollywood studios to make that a reality,” said Bill Carr, Vice President of Digital Video and Music for Amazon in January. “There are a number of elements that need to work together to create a true 4K experience for customers—you need great content and compatible devices but you also need a service that can deliver that content to your devices so that it plays beautifully—we’re excited about making that a reality.”

    At the time, Amazon had announced partnerships with Samsung, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and others to offer 4K Ultra HD content.

    Rival Netflix also announced this year that its originals would all be available in 4K. It has since made Breaking Bad available in Ultra HD as well.

    Beyond its contribution to Ultra HD content, Amazon’s news represents part of its strategy to give Prime members more and more features. At some point, it’s going to be hard for many consumers to justify not becoming a member.

    This week, Amazon also announced its first set of pilots for 2015.

    Image: Amazon, YouTube

  • Kindle Finally Lets You and Your Family Share Ebooks

    Amazon told us that it was coming soon, and today is the day. You can finally share ebooks with your family on your Kindle devices.

    Amazon has announced a slew of new features for its Kindle line, and ‘Household and Family Library’ is one of them. This feature lets two adults (you and your partner) share your ebooks across Amazon accounts, and also gives you the ability to manage up to four kids accounts.

    Family Library lets you share across Kindle devices, and even lets you share across Kindle apps on non-Amazon devices. The only drawback is that this only applies to ebooks – not previously-purchased TV shows or movies.

    Though Family Library is the most significant new feature announced today, Amazon also unveiled a few other interesting things. For instance, there’s Word Wise, which aims to help people better understand what they’re reading by displaying simple definitions above difficult words.

    Amazon has also added deeper Goodreads integration and has improved search.

    You can snag the update here.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon And Hachette Reach Agreement

    Amazon And Hachette Reach Agreement

    Amazon and Hachette agreed to settle their highly-publicized dispute over book pricing. The whole thing began earlier this year when Amazon dropped pre-orders for Hachette books and delayed delivery on some of them.

    The online retail giant wanted Hachette to price all e-books at $9.99 while giving Amazon more money. The two parties have issued a joint press release announcing a new agreement. It’s a multi-year agreement for e-book and print sales in the U.S.

    Michael Pietsch, Hachette Book Group CEO said, “This is great news for writers. The new agreement will benefit Hachette authors for years to come. It gives Hachette enormous marketing capability with one of our most important bookselling partners.”

    “We are pleased with this new agreement as it includes specific financial incentives for Hachette to deliver lower prices, which we believe will be a great win for readers and authors alike,” said David Naggar, Vice President, Kindle.

    According to the release, the new terms will go into effect early next year, and leave the responsibility for setting consumer prices for e-books with Hachette.

    Both parties will resume normal trading, and Hachette books will be featured in promotions.

    Image via Amazon

  • Walmart Is About to Start Price-Matching Amazon at All Its Locations

    Walmart Is About to Start Price-Matching Amazon at All Its Locations

    One of the only things consistently cheaper than Walmart is Amazon, and in order to make sure people are buying their holiday doo-dads and knick-knacks in-store instead of online, Walmart is about to start matching Amazon’s prices. Everywhere.

    Reuters reports that Walmart has told the managers of its roughly 5,000 stores nationwide that they are now allowed to fully match prices with Amazon and “other online retailers”.

    Walmart has already been doing this, on a smaller scale.

    “About half of the stores were doing it anyway,” Walmart President and CEO Greg Foran said on an earnings call.

    Reports that this might happen began to surface a couple weeks ago. Walmart has already altered prices in its online store to better match those of retailers like Amazon.

    But Walmart wants people to buy stuff inside its walls. Price-matching a company like Amazon might not always net Walmart a financial gain – but it does do something to combat the problem of showrooming. If people can get the same price inside a Walmart that they can get via Amazon, they may just take the instant gratification of being able to carry it out of the store, instead of waiting a few days for it to come in the mail.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Amazon Reportedly Ramping Up Its Drone Efforts

    Amazon Reportedly Ramping Up Its Drone Efforts

    It was just under a year ago that Amazon revealed Amazon Prime Air, its ambitious project that would see the online retail giant delivering packages to customers by drones. The announcement was met with a great deal of skepticism (for a variety or reasons), but Amazon has shown no signs of backing off from the goal.

    “One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” Amazon said back then. Since then, it’s already been working on newer models of the drones. It April, CEO Jeff Bezos said the company was already working on its 7th and 8th-generation models.

    Now, Amazon is reportedly expanding its R&D efforts in Cambridge, which includes an increased focus on Amazon Prime Air. Natasha Lomas at TechCrunch reports:

    A source familiar with the company’s plans told TechCrunch it will focus on Prime Air, its autonomous delivery drones project, and on beefing up its speech tech R&D team.

    The e-commerce giant has been staffing up for Prime Air over the summer, including seeking hires in Cambridge. It has continued advertising for Prime Air positions in the U.K. university town this fall, including a Flight Operations Engineer role posted this month, a Site Leader role posted in October and a Senior Research Scientist role posted in September. The latter asks for “experience applying machine learning approaches to complex problems,” among other skills.

    According to the report, the new R&D expansion will also include work on speech technology.

    In August, rival Google introduced its own delivery drones under the name Project Wing. We haven’t heard a whole lot about that since then.

    Amazon, however, has been frequently increasing its methods of getting products to people. It’s even been testing same-day delivery by taxi.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Releases Cloud Drive API For App Integrations

    Amazon Releases Cloud Drive API For App Integrations

    Amazon announced the launch of the Cloud Drive API. This enables developers to integrate Cloud Drive into their own apps for various features.

    With the API, Amazon customers will be able to edit their Cloud Drive photos and documents, print photos, organize cloud services, etc. with third-party app integrations. It’s already integrated with or will be soon integrated with the following apps: OfficeSuite, Perfectly Clear, FreePrints, Photo Gifts by MailPix, ScanCafe, FileThis, CloudHQ, File Commander, Jumptuit, Secrata, and Wappwolf.

    “For developers,” Amazon says, “Cloud Drive eliminates the worry about the complexities of storage, conversion for multiple devices and screen resolutions, metadata management, indexing, search, and sync functionality.”

    “Using the new Cloud Drive API, you could allow users to enable synchronization with their personal storage in the cloud,” it says. “Saving notes to their Cloud Drive would make the data accessible to your customers wherever they run your app—without requiring you to set up and manage servers, storage, or load balancers.”

    The API is available to developers today. You can find the documentation here.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon Announces 2015’s First Set of Pilots

    Amazon Announces 2015’s First Set of Pilots

    Amazon Studios has just announced the seven new shows that will make up its first pilot season of 2015. Set to debut early next year, the set of pilots includes hour-long shows, half-hour shows, and a docu-series.

    Without further ado, here are your new pilots:

    Hour-long pilots:

    Cocked

    Created by Sam Baum (Lie to Me) and Sam Shaw (Manhattan – TV series), Cocked stars Sam Trammell (True Blood) as Richard Paxson, a family man and corporate lap dog who left his family in rural Virginia twenty years before and vowed never to go back. After some unfortunate circumstances, he is forced to leave the big city and return home to help his family’s gun business—one of the oldest in the country. But no good deed goes unpunished. Older brother Grady Paxson, played by Jason Lee (My Name is Earl), who’s a bachelor, playboy and gun aficionado, isn’t so happy to have him back, and Richard’s liberal wife and two opinionated teenage children are horrified by the world they have been thrown into. Hilarity, epic fights and emotional breakdowns ensue. Cocked also stars Brian Dennehy (The Good Wife) as Wade Paxson, Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad) as Hannah Paxson, and Dreama Walker (The Good Wife) as Tabby Paxson. The hour-long dark comedy pilot is directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Skull Island), and Erwin Stoff (Unbroken), Shaw, and Baum are Executive Producers.

    Mad Dogs

    Mad Dogs is a dark comedy created by Cris Cole (The Bill), and Executive Produced by Cole, Shawn Ryan (The Shield) and Marney Hochman (Last Resort), Andy Harries (DCI Banks), Suzanne Mackie (All in Good Time), and Charles McDougall (The Mindy Project). Based on the hit UK series, Mad Dogs follows the twisted reunion of a group of underachieving forty-something friends—a mixture of single, married and recently divorced—who are all at different crossroads in their lives. Celebrating the early retirement of an old friend at his gorgeous Belize villa, grudges begin to emerge and secrets explode as their trip becomes a labyrinthine nightmare of lies, deception and murder. Mad Dogs is a twisted tale of friendship put to the ultimate test. As an inconceivable chain of events unfolds, cracks within the group widen before the friends realize that the only people they can trust are each other, the last people they want to be relying on. The pilot stars Steve Zahn (Dallas Buyers Club) as Cobi, Billy Zane (Twin Peaks) as Milo, Romany Malco (Weeds) as Gus, Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) as Lex, and Ben Chaplin (World without End) as Joel. Mad Dogs is directed by McDougall and is being co-produced with Sony Pictures Television.

    The Man in the High Castle

    Based on Philip K. Dick’s Hugo Award-winning 1962 alternative history, The Man in the High Castle considers the question of what would have happened if the Allied Powers had lost World War II. Some 20 years after that loss, the United States and much of the world has now been split between Japan and Germany, the major hegemonic states. But the tension between these two powers is mounting, and this stress is playing out in the western U.S. Through a collection of characters in various states of posing (spies, sellers of falsified goods, others with secret identities), The Man in the High Castle provides an intriguing tale about life and history as it relates to authentic and manufactured reality. The hour-long dramatic pilot stars Alexa Davalos (Mob City) as Juliana Crain, Luke Kleintank (Pretty Little Liars) as Joe Blake, Rupert Evans (The Village) as Frank Frink, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat Legacy) as Tagomi, Joel De La Fuente (Hemlock Grove) as Inspector Kido, Rufus Sewell (Eleventh Hour) as John Smith and DJ Qualls (Z Nation) as Ed McCarthy. The pilot is directed by David Semel (Madam Secretary, Heroes) and written by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files), both serving as Executive Producers. Also executive producing are Ridley Scott and David W. Zucker, with co-executive producer Jordan Sheehan of Scott Free Productions (The Good Wife, The Andromeda Strain), and Executive Producers Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute of Headline Pictures (The Invisible Woman). In addition, Isa Dick Hackett will executive produce and Kalen Egan will co-executive produce on behalf of Electric Shepherd (The Adjustment Bureau). Christopher Tricarico (May in the Summer) is also Executive Producer.

    Point of Honor

    At the start of the Civil War, a Virginia family, led by their West Point bred son, John Rhodes (played by Nathan Parsons, True Blood), makes the controversial decision to defend the South while freeing all of their slaves. At battle against his northern brethren and his best friend and brother-in-law Robert Sumner (played by Christopher O’Shea, Baby Daddy), John leaves his three strong-willed sisters at home to run the plantation that is now without a free labor source. The choice to protect the life they have always known and defend the moral high ground will pit the family against one another and test their strength, courage and love. An hour-long drama shot entirely on-location in historic Virginia, Point of Honor also stars Annabelle Stephenson (Revenge) as Kate Rhodes, Riley Voelkel (The Newsroom) as Lorelei Rhodes, Hanna Mangan Lawrence (Old School) as Estella Rhodes, Patrick Heusinger (Revolution) as Colonel Palmer Kane, Luke Benward (Ravenswood) as Garland Rhodes, Adrienne Warren (Black Box) as Abby, Lucien Laviscount (Waterloo Road) as Elijah, and James Harvey Ward (Low Winter Sun) as Cutler. The pilot is directed by Randall Wallace (Braveheart), written by Carlton Cuse (Lost) and Wallace, and Executive Produced by Cuse, Wallace and Barry Jossen (Sex and the City). Point of Honor is being co-produced with ABC Signature Studios.

    Half-hour shows:

    Down Dog

    Blessed with good looks, a winning smile, hippie parents and a Southern California upbringing, life has been relatively easy thus far for Logan Wood (played by Josh Casaubon, I Just Want My Pants Back). In his late 30’s, having coasted through romances with countless women and various random jobs, he now teaches yoga to the trophy wives, hot moms and aspiring celebrities of Santa Monica and Venice Beach. And he’s damn good at it. But when Logan and his current girlfriend, a successful and attractive older woman named Amanda (played by Paget Brewster, Criminal Minds) who happens to be the owner of the yoga studio, break up, life starts to get more complicated. Down Dog also stars Lyndsy Fonseca (How I Met Your Mother), Will Greenberg (Halt and Catch Fire), Andrea Savage (The Life and Times of Tim), Amir Talai (American Dad), Kris Kristofferson (Lone Star), and Alysia Reiner (Orange is the New Black). The pilot is written by Robin Schiff (Are You There, Chelsea?), produced by Bob Cooper (RFK) and Michael Fuchs (Death in the Modern Age), and directed by Bradley Silberling (Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events).

    Salem Rogers

    In this half-hour comedy, Leslie Bibb (About a Boy) plays Salem Rogers, an overly confident, outrageously blunt, and hard-partying former supermodel who is forced to face her past and re-enter the real world after ten years in a posh rehab center. Intent on recreating her glamorous lifestyle and modeling success, she tracks down Agatha (played by Rachel Dratch, Saturday Night Live), her former assistant who has since built a career as an author of self-help books to help her win back the spotlight. Salem Rogers also stars Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Brad Morris (Playing House), Harry Hamlin (Mad Men), Toks Olagundoye (The Neighbors), Brad Morris (Cougar Town) and Scott Adsit (30 Rock). The pilot is written by newcomer Lindsey Stoddart, Executive Produced by Will Graham (The Onion News Network) and directed by Mark Waters (Mean Girls). Salem Rogers was submitted as part of the studio’s online screenplay submission process.

    Docu-series:

    The New Yorker Presents

    America’s most award-winning magazine comes to life in this half hour docu-series pilot. The New Yorker Presents is a completely unique viewing experience that features Tony-Award winner Alan Cumming (The Good Wife) and actor Brett Gelman (Go On) in a short film based on a story by Simon Rich (Saturday Night Live) and directed by Emmy Award-winning director Troy Miller (Arrested Development); a poem by Matthew Dickman; a documentary by Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) about biologist Tyrone Hayes based on a Rachel Aviv article; and an interview with famous performance artist, Marina Abramović, conducted by The New Yorker writer Ariel Levy. Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) is Executive Producer, joined by Dave Snyder (Death Row Stories) and Dawn Ostroff (The Fashion Fund). The pilot is co-produced by Condé Nast Entertainment and Jigsaw Productions.

    Like with all Amazon pilot seasons, only the strong will survive. Amazon will take feedback from viewers to help them determine which pilots should be given a full series order.

    Every pilot season from Amazon looks more impressive than the last. We know that Amazon Studios is ready up to spend big bucks on originals to compete with the likes of Netflix and HBO and 2015’s first run at it seems to suggest that the company isn’t messing around.

  • Amazon’s Echo Device Quickly Parodied

    On Thursday, Amazon unveiled Echo, its new $200 cylindrical device that listens to you and tells you stuff. Okay, it does more than that, but that seems to be the gist of what most people are taking out of it.

    As you might expect, someone has already put out a video parody based on the promo Amazon released. Honestly it’s not really that funny, but I doubt this will be the last one we see. Either way, it already has nearly 70,000 views.

    We’ll just have to wait and see if this one draws as much comedic interest as the original promo for Google Glass.

    Via Uproxx (and probably reddit).

  • Amazon Tries Taxis For Same-Day Deliveries

    Amazon Tries Taxis For Same-Day Deliveries

    Amazon has been doing a lot of experimenting with different ways of getting products delivered to customers, while expanding its actual services that do just that. Now, the company is even trying out delivery by taxi.

    According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Amazon has been testing this in San Francisco and Los Angeles this fall, using Flywheel, a taxi-hailing mobile application, which gets the vehicles to show up at its distribution centers, and takes packages to consumers for same-day delivery. It says:

    For its recent test, the people familiar with the matter said, Amazon joined with Flywheel Software Inc., whose cab-hailing mobile app competes with Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. Amazon summoned cabs through the Flywheel app to mini-distribution centers before loading them with as many as 10 packages bound for a single ZIP Code, paying about $5 a package for delivery within one hour, according to the people…

    The Flywheel deliveries were typically done in the early morning when the cabs had fewer fares and were less likely to be noticed by customers and competitors, said the people familiar with the matter.

    Amazon, as far as we know, hasn’t actually announced or confirmed the service.

    The report makes a point to bring up shipping delays experienced last holiday season from UPS, FedEx, and the USPS. It’s not entirely clear if this taxi thing is just something for the holidays, or if Amazon is thinking about making it a permanent offering.

    Amazon has other initiatives that are only specific to the holiday season. For example, it recently announced that it’s adding 80,000 seasonal jobs, though some of those will be converted into permanent positions. It also has temporary brick-and-mortar stores for the holidays.

    As far as Amazon deliveries go, Amazon is expanding in a variety of ways. Of course there’s the whole Amazon Prime Air drone plan, but that’s not likely to materialize for quite some time if it ever does. In more immediate terms, the company announced this week that it’s expanding same-day delivery into two new cities (Toronto and Vancouver), debuting the offering in Canada. A few weeks ago, it expanded AmazonFresh, its grocery delivery service, to New York City.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Amazon Introduces Echo, A $200 Device That Serves As An Assistant And…Companion?

    Amazon just unveiled a new device called Echo, a plug-in, voice-controlled hardware device that talks to you, and gives information, music, news, weather, etc. Apparently it even tells jokes. Soon, you’ll never need people again.

    The video below, which shows the device in action, probably sums up what we’re dealing with here better than I can.

    It gives you weather and news from various sources, including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn. You can listen to your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio with it. It includes voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping, and to-do lists, and gives you info from Wikipedia, definitions, answers to common questions, and other things.

    Amazon will be adding more features, and Echo will be updated automatically via the cloud.

    To use it, you just connect it to your home network, and use the set-up provided by the companion app on Fire OS, Android, iOS or desktop browsers. It’s always on and connected to WI-Fi, and is Bluetooth-enabled. That means you can use it to stream music services like Spotify, iTunes, or Pandora from your phone or tablet.

    Here’s a look at the hardware:

    The company explains, “Amazon Echo is designed around your voice. It’s always on—just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it hears you say the wake word, ‘Alexa.’ It’s also an expertly-tuned speaker that can fill any room with immersive sound.”

    Examples of commands you can use include:

    – Will it rain tomorrow?
    – Set an alarm for eight a.m.
    – Play music by Bruno Mars
    – How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?
    – Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln
    – Add gelato to my shopping list
    – Play my “dinner party” playlist
    – When is Thanksgiving?
    – What’s the weather in Los Angeles this weekend?
    – Add “make hotel reservations” to my to-do list

    You get the idea.

    “Tucked under Echo’s light ring is an array of seven microphones. These sensors use beam-forming technology to hear you from any direction,” Amazon says. “With enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can hear you ask a question even while it’s playing music.”

    Not only does Echo update via the cloud, it continuously learns and adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.

    Echo costs $199 for regular customers and $99 for Prime members. For now, it’s only available by invitation, which would seem to suggest Amazon isn’t looking to bulk up its holiday sales with it.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Expands Same-Day Delivery Into More Cities

    Amazon Expands Same-Day Delivery Into More Cities

    Amazon announced the expansion of its same-day delivery offering into two more cities: Toronto and Vancouver. Customers shopping on Amazon.ca in those places will be able to receive the service on eligible items.

    Amazon’s same-day delivery option allows users to place orders as late as noon to receive packages ahead of 9:00 p.m.

    “We’re constantly working to speed up delivery times and introduce new services that make our customers’ lives easier,” said Alexandre Gagnon, country manager for Amazon.ca. “With Same-Day Delivery, customers in Toronto and Vancouver can conveniently take care of errands or complete holiday shopping in a day with just a few clicks, receive orders seven days a week and have what they need delivered to their home in a matter of hours.”

    Amazon Prime members will be able to get same-day delivery for a flat fee of $6.99 per order. Non-Prime members have to pay $11.99 per shipment in addition to $1.99.

    The better same-day delivery price is one of the many perks of using Amazon Prime – something Amazon seems to be adding by the week. This week, the company announced unlimited photo storage for members. News also came out that the company is working with other retailers to give Prime members free next-day shipping on items purchased on other sites.

    In August, Amazon expanded same-day delivery to six new cities in the U.S. including: Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C.

    There are over a million items available in Toronto, which are eligible for same-day delivery. There are hundreds of thousands in Vancouver.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Wants To Get Other Sites’ Customers On Prime

    Amazon Wants To Get Other Sites’ Customers On Prime

    Amazon is extending Amazon Prime benefits to purchases made on other retail sites. At least that’s what it’s trying to do, and has succeeded with at least one retailer.

    Re/code reports that Amazon has been reaching out to various retailers with such a plan, which it refers to internally as Prime Pass, and that British fashion retailer AllSaints is on board. Re/code’s Jason Del Rey spoke with executives from both Amazon and AllSaints about the development, which will see shoppers on these other sites being able to take advantage of free, next-day shipping.

    AllSaints is advertising products in Amazon search results, and according to the report, Amazon charges it a small fee when a customer clicks through without taking anything from the actual sale. Del Rey notes that some retailers have declined offers from Amazon to take part in the program, and are actually turning to Amazon competitors for similar relationships.

    There’s not a lot of sharing of customer data with the initiative. The report says Amazon only gives retailers customer names and email addresses, and Amazon only sees the purchase total, and not the actual items.

    Just about every consumer-facing move Amazon makes these days is a play to get more people signed up for Prime. In fact, the company just announced that it’s giving unlimited photo storage to members. If this Prime Pass thing is able to get a significant number of retailers on board, it would certainly make Amazon Prime much more enticing to online shoppers.

    For Amazon, it could firmly implant its presence throughout the e-commerce ecosystem, which it is already such a huge part of.

    Image via Amazon