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Tag: Amazon

  • Amazon Expands Mobile Ads API To iOS Developers

    Amazon announced that it is expanding its mobile ads API to enable iOS developers to use interstitial and banner ads from the Amazon Mobile Ad Network in their apps. It already enabled developers on Android and Fire OS to do so.

    The company also announced that starting on July 25th, ads will also be able to be displayed on its new Fire phone.

    “As a developer, you can now monetize your apps with the Amazon Mobile Ads API across iTunes, Google Play, and the Amazon Appstore while taking advantage of multiple targeting features,” says Amazon’s David Isbitski.

    The API for iOS requires iOS 6.0 or later, and assumes the developer has Xcode 5.1.1 installed. The company details the steps to getting set up here.

    “The Amazon Mobile Ad Network supports Interstitial Ads as well as banner ad sizes of 300×50, 320×50, and 300×250 for phones and 300×250, 728×90, and 1024×50 for tablets. Your app should request a device-appropriate size,” says Isbitski.

    As far as targeting, you can specify geolocation (US only), age, and gender.

    Amazon’s Mobile Ad Network serves banners and interstitials across the Amazon Appstore, iTunes, and Google Play. With the latest API release, Amazon is expanding ad serving to users in Spain and Italy across Android and iOS.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Offering Two-Day Delivery Inside the EU

    Amazon Offering Two-Day Delivery Inside the EU

    Noting that their delivery systems inside the EU “continue to improve,” Amazon is now offering two-day shipping to Prime customers all across the EU.

    Although customers in the UK have long enjoyed free one-day shipping as Prime members, shipping products stored in fulfillment centers outside the UK has always taken a bit longer – anywhere from three to seven days.

    Now, as reported by The Telegraph, Amazon says that they can ship these products – stored all across the EU – to customers in the UK in just two days.

    “This is another significant step towards what Amazon believes providing the best customer offering across Europe should look like,” Xavier Garambois, Vice President Retail, Amazon EU Sàrl told The Telegraph. “Our long standing goal has been to offer an unrivalled service for customers regardless of where they are based in the EU and the systems that we have created to deliver to any customer, in any EU country from any of our 25 European Fulfilment Centres continue to improve.”

    A VP of EU operations at Amazon added that the company will be looking to include even more products for this shipping window.

    As of right now, Amazon says that they can get the number of products to top three million by the end of this year.

    Image via Olli, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Kindle Unlimited Subscription Service Spotted in the Wild

    Kindle Unlimited Subscription Service Spotted in the Wild

    Before it was quickly removed from Amazon’s pages, some hawk-eyed users spotted a landing page for a service called “Kindle Unlimited” floating about in the wild.

    According to a web cache, Kindle Unlimited will offer over 600,000 titles and “thousands of audiobooks” on any device for $9.99 per month.

    GigaOm also points to an active page with results for a “KU test” which lists 638,416 titles and 7,351 ‘Whispersync for Voice’ titles.

    This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise, considering we heard reports last months that Amazon was currently in talks with publishers about a subscription service.

    Of course, Amazon already has a sort-of subscription ebook service – their Kindle Owners Lending Library, which is free for Amazon Prime members.

    The 600,000+ titles available in the Kindle Unlimited test mainly come from Amazon’s own publishing arm and the ones available through the lending library. It doesn’t look like major publishers like HarperCollins or Simon&Schuster have their titles available on the yet-to-be-officially-revealed service, however.

    If Kindle Unlimited does in fact go live, Amazon will at least have a foot in the door with every major form of subscription-based media – movies and TV with Prime Instant Video and Music with the newly-unveiled Prime Music.

    Image via Google cache

  • Amazon Prime’s Discount for College Kids Hits Canada

    Amazon Prime’s Discount for College Kids Hits Canada

    Amazon Student, the program that allows college and university kids to receive free and then discounted Amazon Prime memberships, has just landed in Canada.

    Eligible college students can sign up today and receive six months of Amazon Prime for free (two-day shipping). After that, they’ll pay 50 percent of the full subscription price for Amazon Prime, which is currently $39 a year (it’s $49 in the US, after Amazon’s Prime price hike).

    Once you begin paying for Prime, you’ll get the other benefits like Amazon Prime Instant Video and Prime Music.

    “We want students to feel empowered by offering a program that makes going off to university and preparing for the upcoming semester easy and affordable — where students can get fast, free shipping and have everything they need delivered directly to their doorstep,” said Alexandre Gagnon, country manager for Amazon.ca. “Amazon Student saves time and money and makes it convenient for university students to find deals on room essentials and campus must-haves like electronics, small kitchen appliances and more. Plus, students can find a wide variety of textbooks – all at Amazon.ca.”

    After you graduate or at the end of your fourth year of Amazon Student Prime benefits, whichever comes first, your subscription will automatically upgrade on its anniversary date into a full paid subscription for Amazon Prime, according to Amazon. So make sure you keep an eye on how long you’ve had your student membership.

    Image via Amazon.ca

  • Google Glass Founder Is Heading to Amazon

    Babak Parviz, the guy who once headed up Google’s experimental wing Google X and gave us Google Glass, was jumped over to Amazon.

    Parviz made a bit of a cryptic announcement on Google+, simply posting the Amazon logo and saying “status: super excited.”

    If you take at look at his profile, however, Parviz confirms he has taken a position at Amazon.

    The optics whiz has this to say:

    “I dig making (really) small things, new computing and communication tools, high-tech with social impact, and biotech and usually hang out in the Silicon Valley or Seattle. Having worked at companies ranging from tiny start-ups to huge corporations and universities in Europe and the US, I have found each one to be fun in its own unique way. I founded and led a few efforts at Google (among them, Google Glass and Google Contact Lenses are public so far 🙂 prior to moving to Amazon and work on a few other things now…”

    It’s still unclear what Parviz will be working on at Amazon, but it’s a safe bet that it’ll have something to do with augmented reality.

    Parviz was responsible for both Google Glass and Google’s smart contact lenses effort.

    Parviz’s talent is in the tech, so it wasn’t that much of a surprise that he stepped aside in May and allowed fashion marketing whiz Ivy Ross to lead the Google Glass team. And as Google Glass Almanac points out, Parviz hasn’t really been super involved with Glass for some time now:

    As such, this move can be seen as a blow to Google Glass – a founder jumping ship – but more realistically it’s just an instance of moving on when the time was right.

    Image via Solve for X, YouTube

  • Extant Lands on Amazon Prime This Weekend

    Extant Lands on Amazon Prime This Weekend

    If you’re curious about Halle Berry’s new sci-fi drama Extant and missed the premiere on CBS earlier this week, you’ll be able to stream it this weekend via Amazon Prime Instant Video.

    It’ll pop up on Sunday, July 13.

    Extant‘s super-fast appearance on a streaming service comes from a deal Amazon made with CBS back in January to bring new episodes of the show to their catalog just four days after they air on CBS. It’s the same model that Amazon and CBS have for another series, Under the Dome.

    “Judging from the customer response we got to Under the Dome last summer, we know Prime members are going to enjoy having access to Extant just four days after it airs on CBS,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “We love innovating on behalf of our customers and are fortunate to be able to collaborate with CBS to offer this unique model to Prime members.”

    In fact, the Under the Dome deal was such a huge hit with streamers that it was the most-watched series of the summer on all of Amazon Prime Instant Video.

    “Last summer with Under the Dome, CBS and Amazon demonstrated how a broadcast network and premium streaming service can maximize the viewer experience while building a hit television show,” said Scott Koondel, Chief Corporate Licensing Officer, CBS Corporation. “Using this proven model again for Extant, we’re excited to offer TV viewers and Prime members another big event, summer series.”

    Berry has said that she feels like the character she plays in the new series is “in her DNA.” The show has received decent reviews so far, with the most enthusiastic calling it “compelling” and “elegant” and the least affectionate calling it “copycat” and “bogged down.”

    Image via Extant CBS, Facebook

  • Amazon Asks FAA for Drone Exemption

    Amazon Asks FAA for Drone Exemption

    Amazon is making strides in the development of Amazon Prime Air, the company’s oft-parodied but completely serious drone delivery service. Their newest delivery drones (currently ninth-gen) can travel over 50 mph and can carry five-pound packages – which covers 86 percent of all products sold on Amazon.

    They’ve been able to make these advancements through research, development, and testing indoors and in other countries – but in order to really ramp up the project, they’re going to need some space. Some American space.

    Amazon has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration, asking for an exemption from their commercial drone (sUAS) ban.

    “Current FAA rules allow hobbyists and manufacturers of model aircraft wide latitude in flying their sUAS outdoors. Because Amazon is a commercial enterprise we have been limited to conducting R&D flights indoors or in other countries. Of course, Amazon would prefer to keep the focus, jobs, and investment of this important research and development initiative in the United States by conducting private research and development operations outdoors near Seattle – where our next generation R&D lab and distinguished team of engineers, scientists and aeronautical professionals are located,” says Amazon in a letter to FAA administrator Michael Huerta.

    The FAA has several designated testing locations around the country, but Amazon wants to fly their drones close to home, in Seattle.

    The FAA grants exemptions on a case-by-case basis, and only in situations where the petitioner can prove that operating their unmanned aircraft will provide a benefit to the public, and also no harm.

    “Granting Amazon an exemption to allow R&D testing outdoors in the United States is in the public interest because it advances Congress’s goal of getting commercial sUAS flying in the United States safely and soon. It is a necessary step towards realizing the consumer benefits of Amazon Prime Air and, at this point, Amazon’s continuing innovation in the United States requires the requested exemption for outdoor testing in support of our R&D,” says Amazon.

    “Further, granting this request will do nothing more than allow Amazon to do what thousands of hobbyists and manufacturers of model aircraft do every day, and we will abide by much stronger safety measures than currently required for these groups by FAA policies and regulations. In this petition for exemption, we seek to engage in essentially the same type of sUAS operation that the FAA would permit us to currently – but for the fact that Amazon is not a hobbyist or manufacturer of a model aircraft.”

    Amazon thinks that one day the sight of flying delivery drones will be as common as mail trucks. It’s a bold prediction for sure, and not everyone shares their enthusiasm.

    But some do.

    Amazon says their drones, which weigh no more than 55 pounds, will be flown at 400 feet or lower.

    “We will effectively operate our own private model airplane field, but with additional safeguards that go far beyond those that FAA has long‐held provide a sufficient level of safety for public model airplane fields – and only with sUAS. Indeed, the combination of geo‐fencing and lost‐link procedures sUAS stays within the tightly defined operating area within our private property,” says Amazon.

    Last month, the FAA approved the first-ever commercial drone flight over land, allowing sUAS to survey BP pipelines in Alaska. Amazon is far from the only ones asking the FAA for waivers.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Charges a Penny for Shipping to Get Around French Law

    In an attempt to help brick-and-mortar bookstores unable to offer the deep discounts and free shipping that has made Amazon so successful, France enacted a law last year disallowing the online retailer from offering a five percent discount and free shipping on books.

    That law recently went into effect, and Amazon, professional trolls, have come up with a pretty ingenious screw you solution to the problem.

    No free shipping huh? Ok, we’ll ship for a penny.

    The announcement via Amazon.fr (translated) explains that they will stop offering the five percent discount and free shipping, as the law requires, but instead “set the shipping costs to the minimum permitted by law, or just 1 penny per order containing books shipped by Amazon.”

    Amazon Prime members in France will continue to get completely free shipping.

    And this, my friends, is how you render legislation basically pointless.

    Image via Stephen Woods, Flickr Creative Commons

  • FTC Files Suit Against Amazon Over In-App Charges

    The United States Federal Trade Commission has filed a lawsuit seeking a court order requiring Amazon to refund consumers for unauthorized charges from in-app payments made by kids without parents’ knowledge.

    The suit alleges that Amazon billed parents and other account holders for millions of dollars in such charges, and wants to see Amazon banned from billing them for in-app charges made without their consent. Amazon itself keeps 30% of all in-app charges, it notes.

    The FTC said in a statement, “Amazon offers many children’s apps in its appstore for download to mobile devices such as the Kindle Fire. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that Amazon violated the FTC Act by billing parents and other Amazon account holders for charges incurred by their children without the permission of the parent or other account holder. Amazon’s setup allowed children playing these kids’ games to spend unlimited amounts of money to pay for virtual items within the apps such as ‘coins,’ ‘stars,’ and ‘acorns’ without parental involvement.”

    “Amazon’s in-app system allowed children to incur unlimited charges on their parents’ accounts without permission,” said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez. “Even Amazon’s own employees recognized the serious problem its process created. We are seeking refunds for affected parents and a court order to ensure that Amazon gets parents’ consent for in-app purchases.”

    The complaint criticizes Amazon’s password system and its refund process, calling it “unclear and confusing”.

    You can get a look at the suit here.

    This is the FTC’s second case related to kids’ in-app purchases. It settled with Apple earlier this year.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Web Services Launches Storage, Mobile Developer Solutions

    Amazon just made a couple of Amazon Web Services (AWS) announcements, involving some new capabilities for mobile developers and a new enterprise storage and sharing service.

    The storage service is called Amazon Zocalo. Starting in limited preview today, Amazon describes it as a ” fully managed, secure enterprise storage and sharing service with strong administrative controls and feedback capabilities that improve user productivity.”

    The offering allows customers to store, share, and gather feedback on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, webpages, images, PDFs, and text files from laptops, iPads, Kindle Fires, or Android tablets.

    “Customers have told us that they’re fed up with the cost, complexity, and performance of their existing old guard enterprise document and collaboration management tools,” said Noah Eisner, GM of Amazon Zocalo. “AWS was increasingly being asked to provide an enterprise storage and sharing tool that was easy to use, allowed users to quickly collaborate with others, and met the strict security needs of their organizations. That’s what Amazon Zocalo was built to do.”

    The new mobile developer services are aimed at making it easier to build, deploy, and scale mobile apps. These invlude Amazon Cognito, a way to securely store, manage, and sync user identities and data; Amazon Mobile Analytics, a way to quickly access and analyze app usage data; the AWS Mobile SDK to easily connect apps to AWS; and Amazon SNS, a way to send notifications, updates, and promotions across platforms.

    Developers can learn more about all of this here.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon Rounds Out New Pilot Season with Soderbergh-produced ‘Red Oaks’

    Amazon Rounds Out New Pilot Season with Soderbergh-produced ‘Red Oaks’

    Amazon’s third round of pilots, inarguably its most promising set of original content yet, has just been finalized with the addition of a new comedy, Red Oaks. Amazon describes it as “a coming-of-age comedy set in the “go-go” 80s that is equal parts hijinks and heartfelt, Red Oaks is about enjoying a last hurrah before summer comes to an end — and the future begins.”

    The new comedy stars Craig Roberts (Submarine), Paul Reiser, Richard Kind, and Jennifer Grey. It’s being produced by Steven Soderbergh and directed by David Gordon Green, of Eastbound & Down acclaim.

    “Greg Jacobs told me this idea on the set of Behind the Candelabra and I told him it was great and that he should start working on it immediately,” said Steven Soderbergh. “Then, while we were on the set of The Knick he gave me the script he wrote with Joe Gangemi and I said, ‘This is ready to go, let’s find a director.’ We very quickly agreed to approach David because the humor was sharp without being mean, and we felt he would understand and appreciate that.”

    Here’s Amazon’s full synopsis:

    Red Oaks is set in 1985, and features college student David Myers who is both reeling from his father’s heart attack and conflicted about what major to declare in the fall. Myers gets a summer job as an assistant tennis pro at the Red Oaks Country Club in suburban New Jersey and while there, he meets a colorful cast of misfit co-workers and wealthy club members including an alluring art student named “Skye” (played by guest star Alexandra Socha) and her corporate raider father “Getty” (played by Reiser).

    “To be able to collaborate with Steven, David and Greg, three of the most highly-regarded creators in Hollywood, is an absolute pleasure,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “Red Oaks brings together not only top-notch talent, but also a hilarious and wonderfully written script that we think our customers will enjoy seeing come to life later this year.”

    Clearly feeling the pressure from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Studios seems to have really stepped up its pilot game and announced a handful of shows with a lot of potential. Red Oaks joins Hand of God, which features Ron Perlman as a hard-living preacher, and Hysteria, a thriller about an epidemic that spreads, in part, via social media. Also coming to Amazon’s third pilot season are the Jay Chandrasekhar dramedy Really and The Cosmopolitans.

    Like all of Amazon’s pilot rounds, viewer feedback will help determine which shows receive full season orders.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Amazon Launches Cheap T2 Instances For EC2

    Amazon announced the addition of new low-cost, general purpose T2 instances for Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The company says they’re designed to reduce costs for apps that don’t require sustained high CPU performance, but benefit from the ability to burst to full core performance.

    The on-demand instance prices start at $0.013 per hour or $9.50 per month.

    “Amazon EC2 provides an unmatched selection of instances to support customers running whatever workload they want on AWS. Some of our customers have requested instance types that optimize their performance and cost for applications that don’t use the full CPU capability frequently, but require the full CPU resources for short bursts,” said Matt Garman, VP of Amazon EC2. “T2 instances address this need by providing a consistent baseline performance with the ability to burst to full CPU core performance – all at a very low cost.”

    Users can launch T2 instances with the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface, AWS SDKs, AWS Marketplace, and/or third-party libraries. They’re available in three sizes.

    For now, T2 instances will only be available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Australia (Sydney), and Brazil (Sao Paulo) regions.

    The instances can be purchased both as on-demand and reserved instances.

    Image via YouTube

  • Amazon’s New Pilot Is About an Epidemic Spreading via Social Media

    Amazon’s New Pilot Is About an Epidemic Spreading via Social Media

    Amazon Studios has just added another drama to its third round of original pilots. This one’s called Hysteria, and it’s an “hour-long character-driven thriller.”

    From Amazon’s short description, Hysteria appears to center on some sort of disease or mass panic that’s spreading on Facebook and Twitter.

    Amazon says:

    Starring Mena Suvari (American Beauty) as “Dr. Logan Harlen,” James McDaniel (Orange Is The New Black) as “Carl Sapsi,” Josh Stewart (The Dark Knight Rises) as “Ray Ratajeck,” Adan Canto (X-Men: Days of Future Past) as “Matt Sanchez,” Laura San Giacomo (Saving Grace) as “Grace Pelayo” and T.R. Knight (Grey’s Anatomy) as “Carter Harlen,” Hysteria follows a doctor (Suvari) who returns to her hometown of Austin, Texas to investigate a growing epidemic that appears to be spreading through social media.

    “We’re very excited to be collaborating with Universal Television and Alcon Television Group to bring Hysteria to life for viewers,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “Shaun is known for creating shows with layers of mystery, depth of character and topical themes. His script immediately hooked us and we can’t wait to hear what customers think.”

    The Shaun here is Shaun Cassidy, who produced the well-received but short-lived ABC sci-fi series Invasion.

    “I can think of no better platform than Amazon to tell a story that explores the price of fear and the very real threat of viral connection becoming contagion,” said Cassidy.

    Hysteria is the fourth pilot confirmed for Amazon’s upcoming round. It joins the Jay Chandrasekhar dramedy Really, the Ron Perlman vehicle Hand of God, and The Cosmopolitans.

  • Amazon Kids Original ‘Creative Galaxy’ Now Available

    Amazon’s second original kids series is now up on Prime Instant Video and available to stream.

    Creative Galaxy, from the creator of Blue’s Clues, was one of three original kids series greenlit during Amazon’s first round of original pilots. The show, described as a “make-along, create-along art adventure series for children ages three to five,” features some high-profile guest voice actors like Samantha Bee, Jason Jones, Cloris Leachman, Jason Priestley, and Brooke Shields.

    “The premiere of Creative Galaxy could not have come soon enough. I’m ecstatic that Prime members now have the opportunity to explore the world of art and creativity with Arty and Epiphany,” said creator Angela Santomero. “Working with Amazon has been an inspiring experience since we both believe children’s programming should support key educational goals by teaching the importance of learning through play.”

    Amazon Studios debuted its first original kids series, Tumble Leaf, about a month ago.

    “We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Angela Santomero, one of the most influential and renowned minds in children’s entertainment,” said Tara Sorensen, Head of Kids Programming at Amazon Studios. “With Creative Galaxy, Angela and her team at Out of the Blue have developed a series that encompasses exactly what Amazon strives to achieve with our preschool programming and we can’t wait to hear about the artistic and creative adventures Prime families embark on in their own galaxies at home.”

    Like most of Amazon Studios’ originals, they’ll dangle the first few episodes in front of you all at once (in Creative Galaxy‘s case, six). The rest of the season will come later (in this case, September).

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon: Prime Music Has Already ‘Exceeded Expectations’

    Amazon: Prime Music Has Already ‘Exceeded Expectations’

    It’s been a little over a week since Amazon launched Prime Music, the company’s new music streaming service for Amazon Prime subscribers. At first glance, Prime Music didn’t dazzle us with a vast catalog or anything else particularly shiny. It launched without any content from Universal Music Group, the largest record label in the world. Prime Music is also six months behind – in that it doesn’t offer the most recent hits.

    But still, it’s free streaming music. Nobody is going to complain about that. But will people really use it?

    According to Amazon – yes – quite a few Prime subscribers took advantage of the new streaming service over the past week. The company says that in the time since launch, users have “streamed tens of millions of songs—that’s millions of hours of music—and added tens of millions of songs and more than a million Prime Playlists to their music libraries”

    “Prime members across the country have been rockin’ out this week, exceeding our expectations for how well this new benefit would be received,” said Steve Boom, VP of Digital Music for Amazon. “We’re humbled and thrilled to see just how enthusiastically customers have responded to this service. We’re looking forward to continuing to add new artists, albums and playlists so we can keep Prime members singing, dancing, driving, working out and rocking to their favorite music.”

    Once again, free music is free music. And if it’s there, people are going to take it.

    But of course, the true goal of Prime Music is to help Amazon both acquire and maintain Prime subscribers after that $20 price hike. Amazon has to give people as many reasons as possible to pay $99 a year for a Prime subscription, and adding a bunch of free music is a good carrot to dangle (even if it’s not the tastiest carrot out there). These are some impressive initial streaming figures, but whether or not Prime Music will succeed in boosting Prime subscriptions remains to be seen.

  • Amazon Adds Dramedy ‘Really’ to Next Round of Pilots

    Add another interesting pilot to Amazon Studios’ next (third) round of originals – the company has just announced Really, “a funny, extremely honest behind-the-curtain look at the psychological and emotional complexities of marriage, and the charged dynamics of a tight-knit group of friends.”

    Really comes to us from Main Street Films and Jay Chandrasekhar, who you probably know from Super Troopers, Beerfest, and other Broken Lizard productions. He’ll star as well, alongside Scrubs‘ Sarah Chalke and Hellboy‘s Selma Blair. The pilot will also feature Travis Schuldt, Hayes MacArthur, Collette Wolfe, Luka Jones, Lindsay Sloane and Rob Delaney.

    Here’s Amazon’s full description of the new pilot:

    Really is about four hard-charging suburban Chicago couples trying to grasp on to their dwindling youth. At the center are the happily but messily married couple “Jed,” played by Chandrasekhar, and “Lori,” played by Sarah Chalke. When Jed is faced with the choice of keeping his pal’s secret or destroying his friend group, he winds up digging himself into a very deep hole. Really explores marriage, friendship and the stifling peculiarities of suburban Chicago life

    “Really is meant to be a sophisticated, funny, strikingly honest cable comedy for adults,” said Jay Chandrasekhar. “We’re going to talk honestly about subjects including sex, alcohol, addiction, drugs, race and politics. Good fun.”

    Really is the third piece in Amazon Studios’ upcoming pilot puzzle. Back in April, we learned that two other pilots had begun filming – Hand of God, starring Ron Perlman, a story about “a hard-living, law-bending married man with a high-end call girl on the side, who suffers a mental breakdown, and goes on a vigilante quest to find the rapist who tore his family apart.”

    And The Cosmopolitans, starring Adam Brody and Chloë Sevigny, which “follows a group of young American expatriates in Paris searching for love and friendship in a foreign city.”

    Amazon hasn’t given a specific launch date for these three pilots, but say they will be available for your feedback later this year.

    Image via Jay Chandrasekhar, Twitter

  • Amazon Officially Releases SDKs For Dynamic Perspective, Firefly

    Amazon unveiled the Fire Phone on Wednesday, and two of the most talked-about features are Dynamic Perspective and Firefly. The former enables the device to track where your head is with a system of cameras and sensors so your perspective when looking at and interacting with the device becomes “dynamic”. The latter enables you to take pictures of physical items to bring up information about them, and/or links to buy or otherwise interact with them.

    It’s quite possibly a game changer for e-commerce, or at least for how people interact with Amazon.

    Amazon said it had software development kits for both features, and on Thursday, officially released them.

    “Today we are launching the Dynamic Perspective SDK and the Firefly SDK. The underlying technologies for Dynamic Perspective and Firefly are sophisticated, but we’ve made it simple for developers to harness their capabilities,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Fire phone. “Developing for Fire is easy—developers can mix and match APIs from the Dynamic Perspective and Firefly SDKs with standard Android APIs. We can’t wait to see what developers are going to do with these new, exciting technologies.”

    It’s going to be very interesting to see what kinds of applications developers can utilize Dynamic Perspective and Firefly with. The company already showed some interesting cases at its event, but these only scratched the surface, I’m sure.

    You can read Amazon’s announcement for a variety of examples of what launch partners have already done with the SDKs.

    As Amazon notes, Fire is based on Android, so it can support most Android apps with little to no extra work, but these SDKs will enable developers to create app experiences that extend beyond the standard Android versions.

    Image via Amazon

  • Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Is The Amazon Fire Phone A Game Changer For E-Commerce?

    Leave it to the world’s leader in e-commerce to develop a mobile device that you can simply point at an object and push a button to buy it.

    Do you expect the Amazon Fire to have a significant impact on how people buy products online? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    After months, or even years of anticipation, Amazon unveiled its first smartphone on Wednesday. Keeping in line with its Kindle Fire and Fire TV brands, it’s simply called Fire or Fire Phone.

    The device comes with some surprises including two completely new features called Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, both of which Amazon is offering developers software development kits for. It also comes with Mayday support, as was made famous on the Kindle Fire. This lets users get live customer support at the click of a button.

    Amazon explains, “Fire is the only smartphone with Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, two new breakthrough technologies that allow you to see and interact with the world through a whole new lens. Dynamic Perspective uses a new sensor system to respond to the way you hold, view, and move Fire, enabling experiences not possible on other smartphones. Firefly quickly recognizes things in the real world—web and email addresses, phone numbers, QR and bar codes, movies, music, and millions of products, and lets you take action in seconds—all with the simple press of the Firefly button.” Emphasis ours.

    Yes, millions of products at the click of an actual hardware button on the device. Just point your phone at a product in person, and quickly buy it on Amazon. Brick and mortars already concerned about showrooming are going to just love this. A couple years ago, Target stopped selling Amazon’s Kindle in retaliation for for showrooming. What will retailers do now that Amazon is offering consumers a device that removes just about any friction from the process?

    Here are features Amazon lists for Firefly:

    • Printed phone numbers, email, web addresses, QR, and bar codes: Firefly identifies printed text on signs, posters, magazines and business cards—make a call, send an email, save as a contact, or go to the website without typing out long URLs or email addresses.
    • 245,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels: Firefly recognizes movies and TV episodes, and uses IMDb for X-Ray to show actors, plot synopses, and related content—add titles to Watch List or download and start watching immediately.
    • 35 million songs: Firefly recognizes music and uses Amazon Music’s rich catalog to show information about the artist—play more songs, add them to your Wish List, or download instantly to your Fire. Developers, such as iHeartRadio and StubHub, used the SDK to build Firefly-enabled apps, so customers can create a new radio station based on the song or find concert tickets for the artist.
    • 70 million products, including household items, books, DVDs, CDs, video games, and more: Access product details, add items to your Wish List, or order on Amazon.com.
    • The Firefly SDK is available starting today so developers can invent new ways to use this advanced technology. Later this year, Firefly will include artwork recognition, foreign language translation, and wine label recognition powered by Vivino.

    The device also includes functionality that even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos admitted was a little creepy. It knows the position of your head pretty much all the time because of four cameras and infrared sensors that work together to track it. That’s how it’s able to offer the Dynamic Perspective feature, which lets you “tilt, auto-scroll, swivel, and peek to navigate menus and access shortcuts with one hand” and “peek to see detailed views of clothing, shoes, and more in the new Amazon Shopping app.”

    Yes, the company that unveiled its drone project last fall will now know the exact position of your head. Creepy indeed.

    Perhaps one day Amazon will deliver your order before you’ve even left its brick and mortar competitor where you’ve been showrooming. Just walk out the door and pick it up. How convenient.

    Beyond features like Dynamic Perspective and Firefly, the phone is really about keeping you in the Amazon world, just as Apple is moving more and more towards keeping iPhone users in its world, and Google is doing so with Android. Where there is certainly still a lot of overlap, we appear to be moving closer to a world where the device will dictate the services we use. Just as Apple seems to be trying to wean users off of Google, Amazon may be trying to do something similar, and ironically, while using its own version of Android (which is about to be extended to a whole other platform in BlackBerry).

    The Fire of course comes with Amazon’s Silk browser. You’ll notice from this image that Amazon is not pointing users to anything Google-related.

    They’re reportedly using Bing for Search and Nokia for maps.

    There are a lot more features on the Fire. You can get a nice rundown right here.

    The device is only going to be on AT&T, but we’ll see how long that lasts. It’s $199 with a two-year contract, but Amazon is sweetening the deal with a free year of Prime, which gives users unlimited streaming and downloads of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, over a million songs, over 500,000 books from the Kindle Lending Library, and free two-day shipping on millions of items.

    Last year, Amazon Marketplace Sellers sold over a billion units with sales in the tens of billions of dollars. Third-party merchants selling on Amazon hit a new record. These businesses can potentially benefit from Amazon’s new device and future generations of it, not to mention the competitive implications of it. The Firefly SDK means third-parties can also take advantage of the technology through other apps.

    It’s going to be quite interesting to see what kind of impact the Fire has on online shopping. It can only be good for Amazon itself.

    What do you think? Is this a game changer? Meh? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Unveils Fire, Its Long-Awaited Smartphone

    Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos just unveiled the company’s long-anticipated smartphone, and it’s called the Fire Phone. The device looks vaguely iPhone-esque, but should appeal to fans of Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets.

    It uses Gorilla Glass 3 and a rubber frame with aluminum buttons. It has a 4.7″ IPS LCD HD display, optimized for on-handed use. Bezos says the phone has better outdoor viewing with “industry-leading” ultra-bright display with 590 nits as well as dynamic image contrast and circular polarizer.

    The device has a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor, Adreno 330 graphics, and 2 GB of RAM. It has a 13MP rear-facing camera, f/2.0 five element lens, and optical image stabilization. Bezos compared a photo taken with the Fire phone to one taken by a Samsung Galaxy S5 and one with an iPhone 5S. Based on this, the difference is quite noticeable, but in the real world, who knows?

    The phone does give users instant access to the camera when the screen is off. According to Bezos, you can just press once to open the camera, and then again to shoot.

    It comes with unlimited photo storage on Amazon Cloud Drive, which is pretty nice.

    The device has dual stereo speakers with stereo audio in landscape and virtual surround sound. It also comes with magnetic earbuds aimed at preventing tangling. They’re also ergonomic.

    The phone supports Amazon’s Second Screen and X-Ray features. In other words, you can send video from your phone to your Fire TV device and get details about content you’re viewing. It also supports ASAP with predictive caching and personalization based on time of day.

    Obviously the recently announced Prime Music service is supported as is Whispersync for Voice and the popular Mayday feature previously available on the tablets.

    A feature called Firefly lets you point your camera at things and recognizes what it is – things like numbers, products, QR codes, URLs, etc. It keeps a history of the things you scan, and of course buy them from Amazon later if you like. It also has a Shazam-like feature that identifies songs, which you can also purchase. Interestingly, other apps can utilize the feature as well. iHeartRadio, for example, could create a new station. Likewise it can identify shows you’re watching. I even gives you Wikipedia info about some things. Bezos demoed this with a painting.

    Apparently, Firefly recognizes over a hundred million items, and even has its own physical button on the phone – The Firefly Button (on the side).

    The company is releasing an SDK for Firefly.

    After showing off Firefly, Bezos showed off the phone’s rumored 3D interface, which provides for some interesting lockscreens and visuals in the maps app. The feature is called “Dynamic Perspective”. The perspective changes as you move the phone, which seems pretty cool. In fact, tilting the phone appears to be a big part of interacting with the operating system, which may or may not be annoying.

    It can apparently also be used in games to see around levels and whatnot. It apparently does all of this by knowing where the user’s head is. It utilizes four special cameras (two sets with 120-degree views) and infrared lights. You know, everything you’d want from a company has drones. I hope Elon Musk is keeping an eye on things over there too.

    Dynamic Perspective has an SDK as well.

    A big part of the phone’s experience is going to be based on the apps that are available for it, which is why earlier this week, Amazon shared some stats around that. It has 240,000 apps and games (which are also coming to BlackBerry’s new operating system). The Amazon Appstore’s selection nearly tripled year over year.

    The device (32GB) is $199 with a two-year contract on AT&T. It’s also available through AT&T Next at zero down and $27 per month. Pre-orders start today, and it ships July 25th. 12 months of Prime are included with purchase (for a limited time).

    Update: They just posted the press release if you want to see everything from the horse’s mouth.

    Image via Twitter

  • BlackBerry Adds Amazon Appstore To New OS

    BlackBerry Adds Amazon Appstore To New OS

    BlackBerry announced that the Amazon Appstore will be available with the launch of the next version of its operating system BlackBerry 10.3. This will come in the fall, and will be a significant increase in availability for Amazon’s offering.

    “With more than 240,000 Android applications in the Amazon Appstore worldwide, BlackBerry 10 device customers will gain access to popular apps such as Groupon, Netflix, Pinterest, Candy Crush Saga and Minecraft,” BlackBerry says.

    “Making the Amazon Appstore available on BlackBerry 10 devices will help BlackBerry continue to meet two essential needs: greater app availability for our smartphone users and enhanced productivity solutions for enterprises,” said BlackBerry CEO John Chen. “We’ve listened to our customers and have taken this important step to deliver on their needs, while executing on our strategy.”

    The use of these Android apps certainly brings another layer of intrigue to the BlackBerry platform, even if it has to add Amazon’s platform as a competitor simultaneously.

    Amazon, as you may know, is expected to unveil a smartphone today to go along with its Kindle Fire line of devices, which make use of the Appstore.

    Amazon has been talking up the store ahead of its launch event, claiming that it has over 240,000 apps and games, available in 200 countries.

    This seems like a win for Android as well, as its presence will be felt across yet another line of devices.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Appstore Now Has Over 240K Apps

    Amazon Appstore Now Has Over 240K Apps

    Amazon announced that its Amazon Appstore selection of apps has nearly tripled year-over-year, and that it now has over 240,000 apps and games, which are available in about 200 countries. This seems like something the company might want to play up as it prepares to unveil a new smartphone, which it is expected to do this week.

    Last year, Amazon launched Amazon Coins, its virtual currency for Appstore apps. It’s become “widely popular,” according to the company, with customers having spent hundreds of millions of the coins on apps, games, and in-app items.

    Amazon is playing up its ecosystem for developers ahead of its event. It shares some quotes from a few of them:

    “Amazon users are very high quality users. User engagement with edjing on Amazon is higher than on any other platform. In proportion, Amazon users spend more time in edjing than any other platform. In addition, the Average Revenue Per Download (ARPD) on Amazon is actually higher than on Android.” —Jean-Baptiste, CEO, DJiT

    “Getting our app on Kindle Fire was very easy and it gives developers a great opportunity to distribute and monetize their apps. Monetization in the Amazon Appstore jumped 100% using Amazon’s In-App Purchasing API and Mobile Ads API in the first month since implementation.” —Daniele Calabrese, CEO, Soundtracker

    “We already develop for Android, so getting our games on the Amazon Appstore was a real breeze.” —Paul Case, TribePlay, developer of Dr. Panda.

    “Developers tell us that they experience improved reach, greater monetization, and, oftentimes, higher revenue when they have their apps and games in the Amazon Appstore,” said Mike George, VP of Amazon Appstore and Games. “But this is just the beginning—we’re building more services and capabilities for developers and more Android-based APIs based on their feedback. Most Android apps just work on Kindle Fire, and with an Appstore made for Android devices, Amazon’s Appstore can help developers distribute their apps on Android devices all over the world. It’s a great time for developers to bring their apps to the Amazon Appstore.”

    65% of developers, Amazon says, say that total revenue on Kindle Fire is the same or better than their experience with other platforms. 74% of them said average revenue per app/user is the same or better on Kindle Fire than other platforms. 76% said the Kindle Fire platform helps them connect with new market segments. These stats come from an Amazon-commissioned IDC survey.

    Amazon’s event is set for June 18th.

    Image via Amazon