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Tag: Amazon

  • Will Amazon’s Drones Be As Normal As Mail Trucks?

    Will Amazon’s Drones Be As Normal As Mail Trucks?

    Are you ready for a future in which unmanned drones come from the sky to deliver you products you ordered less than a half hour ago? I hope so, because that future is very close. At least Amazon hopes it is.

    Do you like the idea of drones delivering products to your home? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    The service is called Amazon Prime Air, and the company pretty much has it ready to go, pending FAA regulations. As long as April Fool’s Day didn’t come four months early, Amazon appears to be serious. The company has been working on it in its R&D lab. Here’s the test flight footage that shows what we’re looking at.

    I like how the guy at the end seems disinterested that there’s a drone leaving him a package.

    “Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations,” says Amazon. “It looks like science fiction, but it’s real. From a technology point of view, we’ll be ready to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles.”

    Amazon drone

    “One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today,” the company says in the Amazon Prime Air FAQ. “We hope the FAA’s rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015. We will be ready at that time.”

    CEO Jeff Bezos, admitted, however, that it could be four or five years.

    The company notes that the FAA’s rules would prioritize public safety.

    “Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards,” Amazon says.

    If Amazon Prime Air becomes a reality, we have to believe many other company’s will follow suit. Including Amazon’s competitors. It’s hard to imagine that Google, for example, won’t offer up some competition, especially considering that it’s already in the autonomous vehicle business, and is already looking to compete with Amazon and eBay and quick deliveries with Google Shopping Express.

    Amazon is hardly the first company to experiment with delivery-by-drone. It was only a few months ago that we were talking about Domino’s Pizza testing its DomiCopter.

    But even before that, pizzas were being delivered by drone. Others have had similar ambitions.

    But this is Amazon we’re talking about. Just think about the amount of business that takes place on Amazon every day. Friday saw $1.198 billion in desktop ecommerce in the U.S. alone. Amazon was the top ranked site among 66.1 million shoppers. And that’s just from the desktop.

    The early drones will be somewhat limited, according to Bezos, in that they can only carry packages under five pounds, and can only carry them up to ten miles away from a fulfillment center, but there’s no reason to think that they won’t get better as time goes on if this whole thing really comes to fruition. Of course, much of where things go will rely on the regulations set forth by the FAA.

    According to Bezos, 86% of Amazon’s packages are under the five-pound weight limit.

    Meanwhile, Amazon continues to give users more reason to become Prime members. The company is even going head to head Netflix (or HBO and other cable networks for that matter) with original television content, and it’s all about getting more Prime members. You have to be a member to watch Amazon’s original shows (at least past the first few complimentary episodes).

    Amazon also continues to rapidly expand its fulfillment center operations. News of a new Connecticut location just came out a couple weeks ago, and that was preceded with a similar announcement for Wisconsin earlier in the month.

    Drones

    Who knows? Maybe Amazon’s drones can keep people from having to run out for another bottle of wine, and prevent some accidents and DUIs. Maybe they’ll deliver newspapers. It would certainly be convenient to have your Amazon Fresh groceries delivered in less than 30 minutes by a drone, no?

    Even more revolutionary than Sunday deliveries.

    Some think the drones even have potential in B2B.

    Christopher Mims at Quartz makes an interesting point comparing Prime Air to Amazon Web Services: “If Amazon can become the first company with significant resources to invest in consumer drones, it could corner the market on cheap unmanned aerial vehicles the way it’s cornering the market on cheap computing power.”

    Naturally, the whole Amazon Prime Air concept has been met with some skepticism and of course parody. Good ol’ Taiwanese animation studio NMA covers both pretty well:

    Someone has also set up a parody Twitter account for one of the drones:


    What do you think? Do you expect delivery-by-drone to become a normal part of life, or is this something we’re going to be laughing about one day? Let us know what you think.

    Images: Amazon

  • Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Amazon Online Sales Tax Lawsuit

    Online sales tax – is it constitutional? That’s the question Amazon wanted an answer to when it petitioned the Supreme Court to hear its argument against New York state regarding the state’s right to collect sales tax from purchases made in the state despite the online retailer not having a physical presence in the state. Well, Amazon will have to wait a bit longer to get an answer.

    Forbes reports that the Supreme Court has refused to hear Amazon’s lawsuit against New York state. For those just joining us, New York instituted a law in 2008 that said online retailers had to collect sales tax even if they were tangentially related to a physical presence in state. In this case, Amazon was forced to collect sales tax merely because it sold advertisements through a New York-based Web firm.

    As you can imagine, Amazon saw the New York law as an overreach of the state’s ability to collect taxes. The online retailer sued the state, but the state Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional. By refusing to hear the case, the SCOTUS has effectively said that Amazon will now have to abide by the New York online sales tax law.

    Is this a big deal? Not really, as Amazon has been one of the biggest proponents of the much maligned Marketplace Fairness Act. The legislation, which was passed by the Senate earlier this year, would require all online retailers to collect sales tax from every customer regardless of having a physical presence in a state.

    So, why is Amazon throwing its weight behind a bill that would tax purchases made in every state while simultaneously fighting a bill that does the same thing in just one state? It’s all about priorities. The Marketplace Fairness Act wouldn’t affect Amazon that much as it continues to build out more fulfillment centers in more states thus giving it a physical presence in more states. If the Marketplace Fairness Act isn’t passed, the retailer obviously doesn’t want to be stuck collecting sales taxes in states that it doesn’t have a presence in. That way Amazon can then barter with those states to collect sales tax in exchange for the state helping to build more fulfillment centers.

    In short, Amazon has a plan worked out for either scenario, but the New York law throws a monkey wrench into those plans. Even if the Marketplace Fairness Act isn’t passed, other states that Amazon doesn’t operate out of might follow New York and pass bills that target large online retailers before Amazon has a chance to negotiate with them.

    In the end, we’re all probably going to end up paying sales tax for online purchases. The only question that remains is how those taxes will be collected. Will online sales tax legislation be introduced on a state-by-state basis, or will the federal government pass the Marketplace Fairness Act? My money’s on the former as House Speaker John Boehner doesn’t seem too interested in approving new any taxes anytime soon.

    But hey, at least we’re getting drone delivery by air out of it.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Yelp Gets Friendly With Amazon And The Kindle Fire HDX

    Yelp has been working with Amazon on a new Yelp app for the Kindle Fire HDX, and it’s now available on the device right out of the box.

    Yelp compares the partnership to those it has with Apple and Bing.

    “We’re committed to connecting people with great local businesses worldwide, and this new Yelp app delivers an amazing consumer experience, in line with Yelp and Amazon’s shared vision of delivering the best of the best to our customers,” says Yelp’s Justin Overdorff. “We worked closely with Amazon to build a new Yelp app that takes advantage of the Kindle form factor to emphasize photos through a new visual style.”

    Yelp on Kindle Fire HDX

    “We are thrilled to see the beautiful new Yelp app built and optimized exclusively for the Kindle Fire HDX,” said Steve Rabuchin, General Manager of Amazon Appstore. “The Yelp app really shines on the Kindle Fire tablet, giving customers access to useful local information, right at their fingertips.”

    Users can of course add their own reviews from the app – a feature recently added to Yelp’s iOS and Android apps.

    The new app’s announcement comes at Amazon is running a Cyber Monday deal on the HDX 7” device, selling it for just $179.

    Images: Yelp

  • Amazon Prime Air Gets The NMA Treatment

    Amazon Prime Air Gets The NMA Treatment

    Over the weekend, Amazon surprised just about everybody with its announcement of Amazon Prime Air. For those just joining us, it’s a new project at Amazon R&D that seeks to deliver packages to customers via drones. The hope is that Amazon can finally deliver same day delivery as the drones would take only 30 minutes to reach a customer.

    As you might expect, the news have received mixed reactions. Some people welcome a future full of delivery drones while others are still distrustful of the technology. Those who are distrustful cite privacy claims as well as safety hazards that might result from the use of autonomous drones.

    Like always, our favorite Taiwanese animators at NMA already envision a future of Amazon Prime Air where drones take pictures of our private underwear parties while our redneck neighbors shoot down the drones. There’s also the concern that people might “kidnap” the drones to keep, but I’m sure Amazon will have anti-theft measures in place to keep people from getting a five-finger discount on a multi-thousand dollar piece of technology.

    Are you one of the many Americans that still don’t trust drones, or do you think Amazon Prime Air is a natural evolution of package delivery? I for one welcome our new flying robot masters if it means I get free air delivery by drone. Hopefully others will follow suit, including pizza delivery by air.

    [Image: Taiwanese Animators/YouTube]

  • Black Friday Was First Billion Dollar Desktop Shopping Day Of The Year

    Black Friday Was First Billion Dollar Desktop Shopping Day Of The Year

    U.S. desktop ecommerce holiday spending was already up 14% year-over-year by for the first 24 days, ahead of Black Friday.

    Black Friday itself, comScore reports, was the first billion dollar online shopping day of the holiday season with $1.198 billion in desktop ecommerce in the U.S. According to the firm, as of December 1st, holiday online shopping in the country has reached $20.6 billion so far, up 3% from last year.

    Online shopping

    If that doesn’t seem like much growth, it’s because of a variation in the 2012 and 2013 shopping calendars with Thanksgiving falling later than usual this year. Last year’s numbers contain a full week of heavy post-Thanksgiving/Cyber Week buying, comScore says, so the growth rate is being “artificially suppressed in the short term.” The effects, it says, will normalize as the holiday season goes on.

    Black Friday was the heaviest online spending day to date, up 15% compared to Black Friday last year. Thanksgiving saw 21% growth year-over-year, reaching $766 million.

    “While Black Friday – and now Thanksgiving Day – is the traditional kick-off to the brick-and-mortar holiday shopping season, both days continue to grow in importance on the online channel,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Clearly many consumers prefer to avoid the crowds and lines typically associated with Black Friday by shopping from the comfort of their own homes, and we saw a record 66 million Americans do that this year. Also interesting is that the recent trend of kick-starting holiday shopping by opening stores on Thanksgiving Day seems to be having a spillover effect on the online channel. Thanksgiving once again posted a well above average growth rate and is the fastest-growing online shopping day over the past five years, as more Americans opt for couch commerce following their Thanksgiving Day festivities.”

    Believe it or not, Amazon had a major impact on Black Friday shopping. 66.1 million Americans visited online retail sites on Black Friday from the desktop (up 16% from last year, and Amazon was the top site, followed by eBay, Walmart, Best Buy and Target.

    27% of sales went to apparel and accessories with 19% going to computer hardware, 7% to consumer electronics, 5% to consumer packaged goods, 5% to shipping services and 36% to everything else.

    Image: Thinkstock

  • Amazon to Use Drones for Delivery

    Amazon to Use Drones for Delivery

    The question of if drone use is ethical has been a hot topic this year. Although they have initially been deployed to fire missiles across seas, Amazon wishes to use them in a more peaceful manner– to get items to a purchaser fast.

    How fast?

    The founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, recently told 60 Minutes that more than 80% of ordered packages can be delivered by drones, and that these packages could reach us at an average time of 30 minutes.

    The drones Amazon will use are mini-drones called “octocopters.” The octocopters are estimated to being able to hold up to five pounds, and are powered by electric motors. These motors can power the drones up to a 10-mile radius from their home base centers, which means that they can cover most urban areas.

    While the reviews are somewhat mixed so far,

    It’ll be a while before we actually see winged packages in our skies. According to amazon, it’ll take at least a year or more for the service called Prime Air to pass safety and federal tests, and the Federal Aviation Administration still hasn’t finalized their own secular rules on drones.

    An advantage to this form of delivery, beyond the speed, is that it saves on fuel costs and toxic emissions. A disadvantage of drones is a decreased workload for human delivery drivers.

    Just think, soon we might have real-life mechanical Santa Clauses flying through our neighborhoods. Are you comfortable with that or not?

    [image: Youtube]

  • Furby Boom is Hot Holiday Toy for 2013

    The Furby Boom is Hasbro’s 2013 edition of a toy that has become a modern classic.

    Hasbro is pushing the app component of the Furby Boom this holiday season. The app is available for iOS devices through iTunes and for Android devices through Google Play.

    New app features offer the ability to name your Furby and to monitor its vital stats. Among the new ways to play with Furbies touted on the Hasbro website:

    “Collect, hatch, and raise Furblings!”

    “Fill your Furblings city and get the golden egg!”

    The Furby Boom looks a little different from previous versions of the toy. It’s available in six new color schemes, its ears feature cut outs, and its feet are plastic versus cloth.

    It also has five new personalities, which change as the Furby is played with.

    The Furby Boom has made top toy lists at retailers like Amazon and Target and is being featured in Black Friday sales across the nation.

    It will be available for $29 in Walmart’s Black Friday sale and is one of only 21 “Doorbuster” deals covered by the retail giant’s 1-Hour In Stock Guarantee.

    On its social media channels, Hasbro is putting out images of the Furby with pop culture references:

    The Furby was launched in 1998, causing “near riots” during the holiday season that year. New models were released in 2005 and 2012.

    Image via Facebook

  • ‘Betas’ Hits Amazon Instant Video

    ‘Betas’ Hits Amazon Instant Video

    Amazon’s second original series is available to stream today. You can now head on over to Amazon Instant Video and watch the first three episodes of Betas.

    Betas in Amazon Studios’ second original series to debut, following last week’s debut of the political comedy Alpha House – a debut, per Amazon, that went pretty damn well. According to the company, Alpha House was the most watched show on Amazon during its debut weekend.

    Here’s Amazon’s official synopsis for Betas:

    Set in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups where the right algorithm can make you king, Betas, written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, follows four computer geeks and their quest for nerd fame as they attempt to crack the ultimate code. Ed Begley Jr., Jon Daly, Joe Dinicol, Margo Harshman, Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni star in the pilot.

    Like Alpha House, the first three episodes of Betas will be available to stream, for free, all at once. After that, Amazon has elected to go with a week-to-week release schedule, premiering one every seven days. If you want to watch the rest of the series past the first three episodes, you have to be an Amazon Prime member.

    “Betas has been an incredibly fun show to create for customers. We have a stellar cast of comedians and actors, and we think customers are going to enjoy it,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “The chemistry these guys have on set definitely translates to the screen. While their characters are still very much underdogs, it’s easy to find yourself hoping they make it big in techland.”

    Image via Amazon

  • You Can Now Gift Amazon Prime To Friends And Family

    Does a family member buy a lot of stuff on Amazon? Perhaps your friend uses Amazon Instant Video to watch their favorite shows? Well, now you can make their lives a lot easier with a Prime membership.

    Amazon announced today that it’s now letting customers purchase Amazon Prime memberships for friends and family through a new gifting system. Instead of trying to convince your parents that Amazon Prime is the best thing to happen to online shopping since, well, Amazon, you can now just buy them an annual membership for $79.

    “Members have told us they want to give the gift of Prime and we are delighted to offer this new capability in time for the holidays,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President of Amazon Prime. “Our customers can now give the convenience of unlimited two-day shipping to family and friends – it’s a gift that can be enjoyed all year long. When you add in the huge selection of popular movies, TV shows and Kindle books already included in the membership, giving Prime is giving a year’s worth of convenience AND entertainment.”

    We all know that Amazon Prime gets you free two-day shipping on nearly everything on the site, but a membership includes a number of other benefits. For starters, all Prime members get access to Prime Instant Video – a Netflix-like service that allows members to stream a large number of movies and TV shows. With plenty of exclusives and its own in-house produced TV shows, chances are a family member or friend will get a lot out of it.

    If the family member is more of a book lover, a Prime membership will give them access to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library – a service that allows users to borrow eBooks at no extra cost with no due date. Prime members also get early access to one book published through Amazon Publishing per month.

    All that is just icing on the cake, however, as the real star of the show is still the free two-day shipping. I’ve been a Prime member for four years and it really pays for itself in no time if you do the majority of your shopping on Amazon. If you have a family member that does the same and is still not a Prime member, this just might be the gift for them.

    You can start the gifting process over at Amazon’s new “Give the Gift of Prime” site.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon To Open Fulfillment Center in Connecticut

    It seems like Amazon is announcing a new fulfillment center every other week now. Far be it from me to criticize the online retailer though as the new warehouses create jobs and serve customers more quickly. Now prospective workers and Amazon customers alike can look forward to a new fulfillment center in Connecticut.

    Amazon announced today that it intends to open a new fulfillment center in Windsor, Connecticut. The new warehouse will lead to the creation of more than 300 full-time jobs in the community.

    “Amazon is excited to bring hundreds of great full-time jobs to Windsor that offer competitive wages and programs like Career Choice where we will pre-pay tuition for employees to pursue their education in high-demand fields,” said Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North America operations. “We are grateful to the state and local elected officials who have supported Amazon in bringing jobs and investment to the Constitution State.”

    It’s been said before, but it’s worth repeating. Amazon is a pretty great place to work as the company offers pay that’s 30 percent higher than the average, a range of benefits and a program it calls “Career Choice.” The program allows Amazon employees to pursue degrees in any field they wish, even those not related to Amazon, and the retailer will pre-pay up to 95 percent of the tuition.

    “We are thrilled for Amazon to join the Windsor community, bringing full-time jobs and investment to the area,” said Mayor Don Trinks of Windsor. “The importance of having a company like Amazon in our town and adding new jobs cannot be overstated. We are proud to welcome Amazon to Windsor.”

    One interesting thing of note is that Amazon is only looking to hire around 300 full-time employees. Other fulfillment centers run by the online retailer employ thousands so what makes this warehouse different? Amazon notes that this fulfillment center will be solely dedicated to the shipping of large items, like televisions and kayaks, so the reduced need for employees is understandable.

    If you want to more about opportunities at Amazon’s many fulfillment centers across the U.S., check out the official site.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon Makes A Pair Of New Exclusive Streaming Rights Deals

    Amazon Makes A Pair Of New Exclusive Streaming Rights Deals

    Amazon has announced two separate deals for exclusive streaming rights to content. It has added to its PBS relationship, adding exclusive subscription streaming for Mr. Selfridge, and is also entered an exclusive licensing agreement with film studio A24, which has produced films like Spring Breakers and The Bling Ring.

    Already in effect, Amazon Prime Instant Video is the only subscription service offering Mr. Selfridge, a Masterpiece title.

    “Our Prime customers have an appetite for Masterpiece, as evidenced by the undeniable success of Downton Abbey—which is the all-time most watched series on Prime Instant Video,” said Brad Beale, Director of Digital Video Content Acquisition for Amazon. “Mr. Selfridge is another great Masterpiece show that our customers love and we are excited to add it to our growing list of exclusive programming in Prime Instant Video.“

    Amazon already has similar rights to Downton Abbey and other Masterpiece titles as well as NOVA, Ken Burns documentaries and some PBS Kids shows.

    The deal with A24 is a multi-year one, and makes Prime Instant Video the exclusive premium subscription home for all current and forthcoming A24 titles.

    “We are always looking for new ways to bring our Prime Instant Video customers, unique, exclusive movies and TV that we think they will love,” said Beale. “As always, we monitor DVD and digital sales very closely and A24 movies such as Spring Breakers and The Bling Ring are exceptionally popular among our customers. This new deal with A24 allows us to offer those same titles to our Prime Instant Video customers soon after they are released on DVD and Blu-Ray and at no additional cost.”

    “As an independent film distributor, our relationship with Amazon Prime Instant Video marks the next generation in output deals. It speaks to the larger shift in customers’ consumption habits,” said Matthew Bires from A24. “Not only can we share our content with an engaged audience, we have access to better analytics to monitor the films’ reach. Amazon is an extremely innovative and entrepreneurial company and the scope and dynamism of the platform is incredibly exciting for our films.”

    Last week, Amazon launched its first original series Alpha House, which quickly become the most-watched show on Amazon. On Friday, it will debut it second, Betas.

    Image: Spring Breakers (YouTube)

  • Amazon VIPs Get To Try Out Kindle Fire HDX For Free

    Are you still trying to decide which tablet to get yourself or a loved one this holiday season? It’s a hard choice, especially when you can’t try out the device yourself for a bit to see if your life would be improved by it. Well, Amazon has a new offer that you may be interested in.

    Phandroid reports that Amazon is now giving away Kindle Fire HDX models and the Kindle Paperwhite to “VIP customers” for free. Of course, these aren’t gifts, but merely a free one month trial period to see if you like Amazon’s new devices. After the month is up, you can either send it back at no charge to you, or keep it and be charged its normal price.

    Free trials are nothing new, but it’s definitely an interesting way to market a tablet. After all, most people forget they’re even on a free trial after the first week and then end up getting charged for the product after the trial period is over. Would the same thing happen to somebody trying out a tablet for a month? Probably not, but sticking with the tablet for a month will undoubtedly push some consumers over the edge into buying it.

    Unfortunately, this promotion isn’t available to everyone. As mentioned above, Amazon is being incredibly selective with the promotion and only sending invites to customers that it considers to be “VIP.” We have no idea what that means, but it probably means customers who are Amazon Prime members. Even then, you also probably have to do a lot of your shopping on Amazon to be considered eligible for the offer of a free one month Kindle Fire HDX trial period.

    While it may not be the same as a free trial period, check out previous Kindle Fire HDX coverage to see if it’s the tablet for you this holiday season.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Kindle Paperwhite Gets Goodreads, FreeTime Integration

    In September of this year, Amazon announced a new Kindle Paperwhite that boasted a better display and easier-to-read text. Now the retailer is delivering an update that will make its latest flagship eReader even more desirable to readers and parents alike.

    Amazon announced today that the new Kindle Paperwhite will be receiving Goodreads and Kindle FreeTime integration via an OTA update over the next few weeks. The Goodreads integration is one of Amazon’s first uses of the service since it purchased the book recommendation platform earlier this year. As for Kindle FreeTime, the feature was already available in Kindle Fire tablets so it only makes sense to see it show up on the Paperwhite as well.

    “The new Kindle Paperwhite is already the best e-reader in the world, and we’re excited to make it even better with new features we think readers will love,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “First, we’re combining the world’s largest e-reading community and the world’s largest community of book lovers with new Goodreads integration. Second, given the great customer response to our tablet version of Kindle FreeTime, we’re excited to extend this feature to Kindle Paperwhite, helping parents encourage their kids to read more.”

    With Goodreads integration, Amazon says you can expect the following on your Paperwhite following the update:

  • Share favorite passages with your Goodreads friends without leaving the book.
  • See what your friends are reading, read their reviews and discover new books to read.
  • When you finish a book, immediately rate it without putting down your Kindle.
  • Keep track of all your reading activity—update your “Currently Reading”, “Read”, and “Want to Read” shelves directly from your Kindle. Easily add your Amazon book purchases, print and digital, to your Goodreads account.

    • As for Kindle FreeTime, parents can now set reading goals for their children. For instance, you can set a goal for your child to read 30 pages a day. After completing the goal, the child will be rewarded an achievement to satiate their desire for instant gratification. Parents can also set milestones, like an achievement to be given when their child has read a combined 1,000 pages.

    If you don’t mind waiting, the above features will be delivered to Kindle Paperwhites via an OTA update in the coming weeks. If you can’t wait to get started on Goodreads, you can download the update today from Amazon’s Kindle software update site.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • ‘Alpha House’ Was The Most-Watched Show On Amazon Over The Weekend

    Amazon released the first three episodes of its new show Alpha House last week. The company announced today that it was the most-watched show on Amazon over the weekend.

    The series is written by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Trudeau, and stars John Goodman, Mark Consuelos, Clark Johnson and Matt Malloy.

    The company has made the first three episodes free to all Amazon users, who can watch it on Amazon Instant Video, but if you like it, you’re going to need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to enjoy the rest of the show. Starting on Friday, Amazon will release one new episode per week, exclusively for Prime members (they are offering a free trial for Prime, however).

    It will be interesting to see how this model works compared to Netflix’s strategy of releasing all episodes of a show’s season at once. Amazon could easily offer its episodes to non-Prime members at a price per episode like it does with other shows. That would give them an opportunity to get more viewers, but clearly they see it more as a way to get more Prime members instead.

    “The Amazon Studios process is designed to use data and feedback from customers to help us create and launch shows they will love,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “It is incredibly rewarding to see that process working—customers loved the pilot and we’re getting the same reaction to the series. We’re excited to introduce Betas later this week.”

    Betas, Amazon’s second original series, will debut this Friday. It will follow the same strategy of thee free episodes followed by one per week for Prime members.

    Image: Amazon

  • Amazon Updates Fire OS To 3.1, Adds Goodreads Integration

    Less than two months after Amazon unveiled Mojito – Fire OS 3.0 – the company has now launched 3.1.

    It’s a free, over-the-air update available to Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX users, who should be getting it sometime within the next few weeks. If you want it immediately, you can go here and install the update.

    “The response to our new family of Kindle Fire tablets has been fantastic, and we’re excited to add new features we think our customers will love,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “This free, over-the-air Fire OS update brings new features like Goodreads integration, Second Screen, Cloud Collections, enterprise support, wireless printing, and more.”

    The update include deep Goodreads integration, as well as new second screen controls and enterprise BYOD support.

    Users can capture and share quotes with Goodreads friends from inside books, and see what their friends are reading with the Goodreads updates feed. You can also rate and review books, and share that info with friends, as well as import all your Amazon-purchased books (including print) into your Goodreads account.

    The OS lets users fling TV shows and movies from their tablet to the TV.

    “Second Screen turns your TV into the primary screen and frees up your Fire HDX to provide playback controls, a customized display for X-Ray, or simply a place to email, browse the web, and more while you watch a movie,” Amazon says. “Second Screen is available for PlayStation 3 and Samsung TVs, and will be available starting later this year for PlayStation 4.”

    “Fire OS 3.1 delivers the ability to connect to secure enterprise Wi-Fi networks and access corporate apps, documents and resources like SharePoint; native VPN client for instant access to corporate networks; and a native SCEP (Simple Certificate Exchange Protocol) client to retrieve digital certificates for secure resources,” the company adds. “Fire OS also now supports Kerberos authentication, which enables the ability to browse secure Intranet websites from the Silk browser. The new Kindle Fire tablets also include Kindle-specific device management APIs that integrate with existing mobile device management (MDM) systems to make it easy for IT departments to manage Kindle Fire.”

    Amazon also lists the following features for Fire OS 3.1:

    • Cloud Collections helps you organize your books, newspapers, magazines, and apps in customized collections for easy reference, and Amazon’s Whispersync technology synchronizes the collections across your Kindle devices and reading apps so they’re available on all of your devices.
    • Voice dictation converts your speech to text—available in all languages when online; offline support available in US English.
    • 1-Tap archive which frees up space on your Kindle Fire by identifying items that have not been recently used and provides a 1-tap option to store them in the Cloud for later retrieval.
    • Wireless printing of photos, PDF, e-mails, contacts, calendar and docs.
    • New accessibility enhancements that enable blind and visually impaired customers to save a separate accessibility profile for children in Kindle FreeTime, scroll lists automatically when swipe navigating, hear enhanced sound feedback and screen orientation changes announced, and have more control when editing text and navigating web content.
    • Dozens more new features, performance and battery life improvements, and bug fixes.


    Amazon unveiled the Kindle Fire HDX and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ in September. Read more about the devices here.

  • USPS – Amazon Deliveries… on Sunday!

    USPS – Amazon Deliveries… on Sunday!

    Just when we were going to have to get used to the United States Postal Service (USPS) shutting down their mail delivery on Saturdays, they step up for the holidays and go beyond our wildest dreams. Deliveries on Saturday AND Sunday, what a surprise!

    Congress did shut down the USPS plea’s to stop Saturday mail service, so that was shelved anyway but to include Sunday is a real crowd pleaser. Especially in the mad Christmas rush, and with Industry Statistics claiming an estimated 65 percent of holiday shoppers buying online, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

    After our November 11th holiday the unlikely pair who joined forces, the USPS and Amazon have begun the Sunday delivery program for those who order packages from Amazon Prime.

    Amazon Prime service runs about $80 per year, but it offers free 2-day shipping, unlike regular members who get free ground shipping, which usually takes 3 to 5 days.

    “For Prime members, it’s free, for non-Prime members, it’s like any other delivery day of the week,” said Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service at Amazon. In other words, it won’t cost extra for Sunday deliveries.

    Apparently Amazon has been hot on the idea of Sunday delivery for years, but don’t get all warm and fuzzy, yet. There are some restrictions in place; not all items are available for Sunday delivery, and they are only delivering to New York City area and the Los Angeles area. So, if you live anywhere else, hold on, it’s coming.

    Amazon say’s they plan on expanding their Sunday service to other large metropolitan areas such as Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and many others in 2014.

    The USPS who was struggling financially is getting a huge boost from this arrangement. Their intention when canceling Saturday delivery was to cut costs, as Fox News stated, the agency lost 5.1 Billion in 2011 and more the year before, prompting the shut down of low-volume post offices and selling hundreds of properties. Many a small town have seen their Post Offices closed, or hours cut dramatically.

    The financial terms of this union has not been revealed, but the U.S. agency is sure to get some much needed financial support from this partnership, and Amazon? Shares of Amazon.com Inc. climbed from $1.69 to $52 in morning trading.

    For New Yorkers and Angelenos it’s definitely a plus, but for Amazon and USPS, it’s a huge financial win-win.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, 1, 2, 3

  • USPS Seals Deal with Amazon for Sunday Deliveries

    Isn’t it irritating when non-business days prolong deliveries you’re waiting for? Well, that won’t be a problem anymore – at least not when you purchase something from Amazon. It appears the world’s largest online retailer has sealed an innovative deal with the United States Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays. The Seattle-based commerce company issued a press release on Monday announcing the entrance into the new deal with the government entity. The brief statement also elaborated on the details of the agreement.

    Amazon and USPS confirmed that the new package delivery system had begun as of Sunday of last week. The two entities are making gratuitous strides toward a full transition into the new system, starting with deliveries in the Los Angeles and New York metropolitan areas. However, Amazon Prime members with unlimited two-day shipping priority benefits will reap the immediate benefits of the new system. Prime members are currently the predominant consumers that will be guaranteed to receive packages on Sundays in the two major metropolitan areas.

    Amazon.com-Logo.svg

    In the spring of 2014, Amazon and USPS plan to move the system toward a larger United States population scale, implementing Sunday deliveries in other metropolitan areas like Dallas, New Orleans, and Atlanta. Amazon vice president of worldwide operations and customer service, Dale Clark, also provided a general example of how the new system will operate.

    “If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can order a backpack for your child on Friday and be packing it for them Sunday night,” said Clark. “We’re excited that now every day is an Amazon delivery day and we know our Prime members, who voraciously shop on Amazon, will love the additional convenience they will experience as part of this new service.”

    Patrick Donahoe, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer, also weighed in with his perspective on the beneficial factors consumers will reap as a result of Sunday deliveries. “As online shopping continues to increase, the Postal Service is very happy to offer shippers like Amazon the option of having packages delivered on Sunday,” said Donahoe. “With this new service, the Postal Service is now delivering packages seven days a week in select cities. Customers can expect the same reliable and valued service that the Postal Service currently provides.”

    Image(s) via Wikimedia Commons | Amazon   Twitter | USPS

  • This Small Company Is Battling Amazon For The Next .COM

    XYZ.com is bringing the new domain extensions .xyz and .College to the Internet as part of the new gTLD program. It’s also in a battle with Amazon and others to bring .Now to market.

    Do you expect to get any domains with new gTLDs? Anything in particular you’re leaning toward? Let us know in the comments.

    The company consists of a small team of about five people battling against giants like Amazon, Google and Donuts. Co-founder Daniel Negari is the youngest gTLD applicant at 27 years old. The company is prviately funded by its co-founders, and has been going through the application process for a few years.

    The company wants .XYZ to be the next .COM, as opposed to going after niche markets like some of the other players launching new gTLDs. We had a conversation with Negari about where the new gTLDs will take the Internet, and what role XYZ.com aims to play in that.

    “The new TLDs offer Internet users choice when selecting a domain name,” he says. “There are currently over 250 million domain names registered in the world, and almost half of them are .coms. That means it’s nearly impossible for people to register their first, second, or maybe even 5th choice in a domain name, without paying potentially thousands of dollars.”

    “Overall, we will see a lot of success from the new domain extensions because it is a win-win situation, especially for the average website user,” he adds. “The Internet has only existed for 24 years and is still in its infancy. The new extensions are a huge step towards getting more people online and leveraging all of the potential opportunities of being constantly connected to a stream of data, news, and information.”

    Asked about the benefits to a business or webmaster in choosing a .XYZ domain over something else, Negari tells WebProNews, “.xyz is a low-cost, high-volume domain extension for every website, everywhere. Anybody can register the domain name they really want at a competitive price (we expect the base MSRP to be under $9.99).”

    One important consideration in selecting domains for those who want global sites is using characters that are global themselves.

    “.xyz makes sense as a globally adoptable domain extension since X, Y, and Z are recognized as the last three letters of the Latin alphabet,” says Negari. “There is no language barrier, unlike most other extensions, since XYZ serves more as a universal symbol than an English word with a dictionary meaning. It is also three letters like other popular extensions today, like .com, .net, and .org.”

    “With .xyz, users are not limited or labeled by their domain extension,” he says. “As a flexible, ‘true generic’ extension, people can register .xyz domain names for any purpose and receive instant recognition. We have coined the phrase ‘Generation XYZ.’ This is the idea of combining the three major generations (Generations X, Y, and Z) to create a whole new generation inspired by the Internet and its limitless potential. We are introducing .xyz to the world so that people everywhere can sure their passions, cultivate knowledge, and express themselves. We think of .xyz as more than just a domain extension – it is a global community.”

    As Negari points out, a lot of the new extensions coming out are very niche-specific, which makes them less valuable to some types of businesses and websites. Selecting such a domain has a several consequences, he says.

    “First, because these domain extensions are not necessarily meant to be high-volume, they may have a higher price tag than true generic extensions (for example, .pw starts at $20, .pro starts at $26, and .tv starts at $30 on eNom),” he says. “Second, by getting a domain name with a niche extension, users are able [to] easily convey what type of website they are or the industry they are in. But what if they are in multiple markets? Or if there are multiple domain extensions with the same meaning (like .store and .shopping; .car, .cars, .auto, and .autos), people may get confused and visit the wrong site. Although there are obvious benefits in getting a niche extension, not all users want to be boxed in.”

    “Third, because of these natural market limitations, most niche extensions may never see widespread adoption,” he adds. “While a specific extension may be best suited for a certain type of user, it can hurt the brand’s perceived reputation by having a domain name that isn’t immediately recognizable. Eventually, some of these users may choose to switch to something more popular.”

    In addition to .XYZ, XYZ.com is launching the .College TLD, which obviously carries more of a niche connotation – one of education. One might expect this to compete with .EDU.

    “.edu is a very specialized and exclusive domain extension, with only about 7,000 domain names registered,” Negari explains. “Only US accredited universities are able to register .edu domain names. And even they are limited to one .edu domain name per institution. That means universities can’t get individual .edu domain names for their colleges (approximately 18 on average per university), departments, campus programs, and staff. .College addresses this need, in addition to many others.”

    “There are over 30,000 recognized colleges and universities in the world, which means about 23,000 are not able to register their institutions name under the .edu extension,” he says. “.College is a global education-related domain extension meant to create greater consistency in institutional presence online all over the world.”

    “But .College isn’t just for schools,” Negari notes. “It is a 100% and unrestricted domain extension, meaning anyone can register a .College domain name for any purpose. It can be used by an unlimited number of organizations and individuals, including non-traditional education, tutoring services, online education, corporate training, recruitment, test preparation, events, special interest groups, university research parks, startups, and students.”

    For some reason, Hamburger University comes to mind.

    XYZ.com expects a million registrations for .XYZ domains in the TLD’s first year of existence.

    “We have done extensive market research and analysis to determine how we can best position .xyz to succeed and maximize accessibility to all Internet users,” says Negari. “We understand how big the market is, and we have detailed strategies in place to attract individuals and organizations in every major industry.”

    “Ultimately, we believe widespread adoption stems from ensuring affordability, generating early brand awareness, and connecting with the people all over the world who are interested in .xyz,” he says. “We are a small but experienced team playing the underdog role against big players like Amazon, and I think users appreciate our bold, expressive style.”

    The company is marketing the TLD globally, and says it has received a lot of positive feedback from users around the world, but especially in countries with high internet usage and growth. Negari specifically names the US, Germany, China, India, and Canada. XYZ.COM itself is currently available in English, German, and Spanish, with Chinese, and will launch in other languages soon.

    “Our preregistration tracking is in line with the timelines we have in place, and we expect these numbers to continue to increase, especially as we begin to go deeper into our multi-million dollar marketing campaign in the coming months,” Negari tells us. “My team and I have developed numerous longstanding relationships in the domain name industry with a very strong understanding of the market. We have acquired and sold over $100 million in domain names. We have already have registry operating experience after successfully launching .com.de.”

    “ICANN has offered their key support and endorsement of our domain extension. .xyz has everything in place – capital, expertise, support, brand positioning, and dedication – to become a major innovator on the internet as it continues grow at an exponential rate,” he says.

    While XYZ.com is still competing with five other applicants (including Amazon) for the .NOW TLD, it has already created a .Now website and Twitter account in preparation for the acquisition, as the company expects to win the auction.

    “.Now is one of the few three-letter words that has the flexibility to be used across all industries and activities, and is generally a term understood by most people, even if they don’t speak English,” Negari says. “.Now is for companies who are trying to incite customers to action (i.e. buyit.now). But it can also be used for fundraising, events, interest groups, content sharing, or anything else people can think up. It’s can be instantly applicable to just about anything.”

    “It makes sense for a large retailer like Amazon to be attracted to .Now domain names because it can be applied to multiple verticals, like general e-commerce, their new grocery delivery service, music and video downloads, and for their Android app store,” he notes.

    Negari is excited, however, to be able to go head to head with giants at such a young age, and with such a small company.

    What business benefits do you see to new gTLDs? Discuss in the comments.

  • Alpha House Makes Its Debut on Amazon Instant Video

    Amazon has just released the first three episodes of its first original series Alpha House, and you can watch them for free on Amazon Instant Video.

    Alpha House stars John Goodman and was written by Doonesbury‘s Garry Trudeau. It focuses on four U.S. Senators who live together in a rented house in Washington D.C.

    Amazon is departing from the path blazed by Netflix, choosing not to release the entire season of Alpha House all at once. Amazon is giving viewers a taste by allowing them to watch the first three episodes for free, but after that each episode will become available on a weekly basis. You’ll also have to have a subscription to Amazon Prime (Instant Video) in order to watch the whole series.

    According to Amazon Studios director Roy Price, they chose this release model “so that customers can chat about the shows and build up anticipation.”

    “We are incredibly excited to make our very first original series available to Amazon customers. Our goal has always been to create shows that customers will love and we can’t wait to see Alpha House come to life,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “Creator Garry Trudeau and the amazing cast of Alpha House have delivered a humor-packed first season that doesn’t skip a beat.”

    Amazon’s second original comedy series, Betas, will premiere its first 3 episodes a week from today.

    Image via Amazon Studios, YouTube

  • Amazon Launches Amazon RDS For PostgreSQL

    Amazon Launches Amazon RDS For PostgreSQL

    Amazon announced RDS (Relational Database Service) for PostgreSQL on Thursday, and that PostgreSQL is now available as a managed service on Amazon Web Services with up to 3TB of storage, 20,000 IOPS and support for high-availability.

    Amazon RDS supports the core PostgreSQL database features, like PostGIS, free text indexing and search extensions.

    Users can scale I/O operations to 30,000 IOPS per database instance. according to Amazon, achieving “consistent, fast performance.”

    Users will be able to deploy production Postgre SQL apps using the multi-availability zone option, and Amazon says RDS will operate a synchronous stand-by replica with an automated fail-over mechanism. It also supports cross-region snapshot copy operations.

    “Since we launched Amazon RDS four years ago, a large number of enterprises and startups have adopted the service because it allows them to run familiar relational databases without any of the operational complexity of on-premise systems, at a substantially lower cost,” said Raju Gulabani, Vice President of Database Services, AWS. “As mobile, web, social and geospatial applications proliferate, we have seen a steady demand for PostgreSQL as a managed service. We’re pleased to bring the agility, manageability and cost benefits of the Amazon RDS platform to PostgreSQL.”

    “Thousands of enterprises rely on ArcGIS to build rich geospatial applications that combine location data with business analytics,” said Marwa Mabrouk, Cloud and Big Data Product Manager, ESRI Inc., which has been testing Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. “As our customers move their applications to the cloud, many of them choose PostgreSQL. We are excited about Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL because customers can focus on their business and not on the database administration. We think Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL is simple to use, cost-effective and will enable ArcGIS developers to be more productive. We are looking forward to expanding our usage.”

    The product is available around the world in every Amazon Web Services region. More info here.

  • Amazon Will Let You Personalize a Kindle Cover for No Additional Charge

    If your Kindle device is looking a bit…bland for your tastes, Amazon is now allowing you to spruce it up with a cool new cover.

    Not just any cover, but one that’s personalized with your own photos, if you’d like.

    Amazon has announced that if you purchase a cover or skin for your Kindle device, you can now put your own photos on it. Maybe your cute little dog, maybe your cute little kid. Maybe a picture from your last vacation – the sky is the limit.

    If you don’t have a cool image to offer up, Amazon is also opening up a library of hundreds of images, including some from movies, TV shows, National Geographic – as well as more generic patterns.

    The best thing about it is that it comes at no additional cost. As long as you pay for the cover, you can paste your own photo on it for free.

    “With this new service, we’re making it possible for customers to dream up virtually any design and seamlessly turn it into a Kindle cover – at no additional cost,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “We’ve also created designs exclusive to Amazon that work perfectly with our new Origami covers to give customers even more options. We’re excited to bring this all-new technology to Kindle accessories and we can’t wait to see what customers come up with.”

    Customization is available for Amazon Origami covers for the Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX, and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9.” Regular cover personalization is available for Kindle Fire HD 8.9″, Kindle Fire HD, and Kindle Touch.

    If you’re interested, the personalization portal is here.

    Image via Amazon