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Tag: Amazon

  • Give Kindle Books As A Gift Via Email

    Give Kindle Books As A Gift Via Email

    Amazon.com said today people can now give Kindle Books as gifts to anyone with an email address even if they don’t own a Kindle.

    "We’re making this functionality available in time for the holidays to offer an easy, stress free holiday shopping option for anyone – not just Kindle owners,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President, Amazon Kindle.

     

    Kindle-Gift

     

    To give a Kindle Book as a gift, user can choose a book in the Kindle store, select “Give as a Gift” and send it to the recipient’s email address. Notifications of the books are sent via email and the recipient can redeem the book in the Kindle Store.

    Kindle Books can be read on Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps for iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices.

     

  • Amazon Introduces Shape Search For Shoes

    Amazon.com today introduced a new visual search feature for shoppers looking to purchase men’s and women’s shoes.

    The new visual search feature allows people to browse for shoes based on how they look with the aim of helping them find the styles they want more quickly.

    “With the launch of this new search feature, finding the right pair of shoes becomes even easier for customers,” said Bill Stasior, president of A9.

    Amazon-Shoe-Shape

    “The customer is presented with a palette of shapes, representing different styles of shoes and that palette is constantly changing to match the customer’s context. Because the styles are shown graphically as silhouettes, customers don’t even need to know the name of the styles they are exploring.”

    The new visual shape feature is integrated with existing navigation, including price range, brand and color.

    Amazon says its shape search feature relies on global and local shape contour descriptions, along with texture descriptions, computed using algorithms developed by A9.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.
     

     

  • Amazon Looks For New Filmmakers With Launch Of Amazon Studios

    Amazon.com has launched Amazon Studios, a new online business that allows filmmakers and screenwriters to submit full-length movies and scripts to get their movie made and make money.

    Through the monthly and annual Amazon Studios Awards, Amazon Studios will offer a total of $2.7 million to the top submissions received by Dec. 31, 2011, and will seek to develop the top Amazon Studio projects as commercial feature films under its first-look deal with Warner Bros. Pictures.

    Amazon says its goal is to produce new, full-budget theatrical films based on the best projects. Under the Amazon Studios development agreement, if a filmmaker or screenwriter creates a project with an original script and it is released by Amazon Studios as a theatrical feature film, the submitter will receive a rights payment of $200,000; if the movie makes over $60 million at the U.S. box office, the original filmmaker or screenwriter will receive a $400,000 bonus.  If Warner Bros is not interested in developing a particular project, Amazon Studios can produce the project with another studio.

    Either scripts and active content are not permitted to run or Adobe Flash Player version 10.1.0 or greater is not installed.

    Get Adobe Flash Player

     

    Filmmakers are invited to add full-length test movies to Amazon Studios. Test movies may be made from an original script or from any script submitted to Amazon Studios. Test movies must be full length (more than 70 minutes), but they don’t have to be "full budget." While test movies must include imaginative stories with great acting and sound they don’t need to have theatrical-quality production values. Film fans can review Amazon Studios scripts and test movies, or even upload alternate, revised versions.

    Winning screenplays and full-length test movies will be selected on the basis of commercial viability, which will include consideration of premise, story, character, dialogue, emotion and other elements of great movies.

    In the 2011 Annual Awards, Amazon Studios will award $100,000 to the best script and $1 million to the best movie submitted by December 31, 2011. To be eligible for the first monthly awards, test movies and scripts must be uploaded by January 31, 2011. Winners for the first monthly awards will be announced near the end of February 2011– $100,000 for the best full-length test movie and $20,000 each for the two best scripts.
     

     

  • Amazon Offers Higher Kindle Royalties For Publishers

    Amazon has introduced a new revenue sharing model for magazine and newspaper publishers who sell content in the Kindle Store.

    For each magazine or newspaper sold, publishers will be able to earn 70 percent of the retail price. The new 70 percent royalty terms will become available on December 1.

    Kindle-Publishing
    “We are constantly working at improving the Kindle magazine and newspaper experience for both customers and publishers,” said Peter Larsen, Director of Kindle Periodicals.
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  • Amazon To Purchase Diapers.com For $545 Million

    Amazon.com said today it has reached an agreement to acquire Quidsi, which operates Diapers.com and Soap.com.

    Under the terms of the deal, which was approved by Quidsi’s stockholders, Amazon will purchase all outstanding shares of Quidsi for $500 million in cash, and also take on $45 million in debt.  The acquisition is set to close next month.

    "I’m not sure which is more unpleasant–changing diapers, paying too much for them, or running out of them," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

     

    Amazon-Diapers

     

    "This acquisition brings together two companies who are committed to providing great prices and fast delivery to parents, making one of the chores of being a parent a little easier and less expensive."

    Following the acquisition, Quidsi will continue to operate independently under its current leadership team.

    In addition to Diapers.com and Soap.com, Quidsi recently launched BeautyBar.com, a beauty boutique.

    "Amazon shares our commitment to the customer," said Marc Lore, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Quidsi. "We are excited to be part of a company that will help us to serve an even larger audience.”
     

     

  • Send Amazon Gift Cards To Your Facebook Friends

    Amazon.com has introduced a new way for sending its gift cards to people on Facebook.

    People can now connect to their Facebook account on Amazon and create a personalized gift card that will be sent to the recipient’s Facebook Wall.

     

    Amazon-Facebook

     

    “We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that we’ve made gift-giving more social,” said Michal Geller, director of ACI Gift Cards, Inc., the exclusive issuer of Amazon.com Gift Cards.

    “Sending gift cards has never been easier and we’re excited to offer the Facebook option just in time for the holidays.”

    After connecting to their Facebook account on Amazon, the sender can choose a gift card design, select an amount up to $5,000 and provide an optional gift card message. The sender can also schedule the date for the gift card to appear on the recipient’s Facebook Wall up to a year in advance.

    In addition, Amazon is now offering a “Give 5, Get $5” promotion for a limited time. Starting today, the first 10,000 customers who give an MP3-themed gift card to five different Facebook friends will get a $5 credit good for music downloads at Amazon MP3.
     

     

  • Amazon Partners With MasterCard On Free Shipping

    Amazon.com has released its annual 2010 Holiday Toy List, which features this year’s most popular toys, video games, sporting goods, electronics, music, movies and books for kids.

    The online retailer has introduced free two-day shipping , or a $10 credit towards a future purchase for Amazon Prime members, when they use a MasterCard to buy $75 or more in eligible items from the Holiday Toy List.

     

    Amazon-Toy-List

     

    The Holiday Toy List features navigation tools that allow users to narrow and expand search results. Users can sort by “bestselling,” “price” or “average customer review,” then filter by age, category, gender, price range, discount and brand.

    “At Amazon we are focused on making holiday shopping simple and cost effective for parents, friends and family members,” said Sarah Wood, director of the Toy & Games Store for Amazon.com.

    “We know saving money is very important to our customers, and now when they use their MasterCard to purchase select items from the Holiday Toy List they can get faster shipping at no additional cost.”

     

  • Amazon Readies Kindle App For Windows Phone 7

    Amazon.com said today it will launch a Kindle app for Windows Phone 7 sometime later this year.

     The Kindle app for Windows Phone 7 includes new features, such as  personalized book recommendations on the app home screen and the ability to send book suggestions to a friend from any book in your library without leaving the app.

    “When you buy a Kindle book, we make it easy for you to get your books on all of the devices you want to read on – your iPhone, iPad, Android-based device, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, and of course your Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle.

    Kindle-Windows-Phone-7

    “Kindle for Windows Phone 7 extends our vision of ‘Buy Once, Read Everywhere.’ The app is optimized for the unique user interface of Windows Phone 7, and will include our Whispersync technology, so you always have your library with you and never lose your place in a book as you switch between devices.”

     Other features of Kindle for Windows Phone 7 include:

    *Integrated shopping experience that allows customers to shop without leaving the app.

    *Customized reading, choosing from five different font sizes and three background colors.

    *The ability to read in portrait or landscape mode, and to turn pages by tapping on either side of the screen or flicking.
     

     

  • Amazon Launches Windowshop App For iPad

    Amazon Launches Windowshop App For iPad

    Amazon.com has introduced a free app for iPad called Amazon Windowshop, which the company describes as a complete “rewrite” of its website for iPad.

    Amazon says Windowshop takes advantage of the iPad’s responsive, multi-touch user interface and offers a fluid user interaction.

    “Amazon Windowshop is a top-to-bottom rewrite of Amazon.com – designed and built without compromise just for iPad," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.

     

    Amazon-iPad

     

    "Try it. I think you’ll find it’s an amazing new way to shop Amazon’s millions of items. Same selection, same low prices, same fast delivery, same benefits of your Amazon Prime membership – just a completely new, fluid interface designed specifically for lean-back, touch screen tablets.”

    Key features of Amazon Windowshop include:

    *Discover more products within a category by touching the category (column) heading and be presented with all of the subcategories with hundreds of additional, related products.

    *Explore the Amazon catalog by selecting the Browse button and picking the list type desired (Best Sellers, New Releases, Recommendations, etc…) then browse the categories and subcategories to find the products you are looking for.

    *Learn more about the products by selecting the product from the grid of product images and be presented with the detailed product screen including the pictures and videos related to that product (which includes 30 second samples for the music items). Included are tabs for product details and description, user reviews, and related products.

    *Share items you have discovered via e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter.

     

  • Amazon Says New Kindle Sales Better Than Last Year

    Amazon.com today said its latest Kindle eReader is the bestselling product on its U.S. and U.K. Websites.

    Without giving specific numbers, Amazon said sales of its new Kindle have already surpassed total devices sales from October through December 2009.

    Kindle-Wireless “It’s still October and we’ve already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year–astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon," said Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President, Amazon Kindle.

    “It’s clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet–by far."

    In addition, Kindle book unit sales continue to overtake print on Amazon, even while print book sales continue to grow. During the past 30 days, Amazon customers purchased more Kindle books than print books–hardcover and paperback combined–for the top 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 bestselling books on on the site.

    "For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1. Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1,000 bestsellers–it’s across the board," said Kessel.

    "This is remarkable when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover and paperback books for 15 years, and Kindle books for just 36 months."

  • Iffy Forecast Overshadows Positive Earnings For Amazon

    This afternoon, Amazon delivered its third quarter earnings report, and just about everything pertaining to the period ending September 30th was positive.  Unfortunately for Amazon, shareholders are sending the stock lower in after-hours trading due to lower margins and concern about the fourth quarter.

    We’ll start with the good news, at least.  Amazon reported $7.56 billion in revenue versus estimates of $7.35 billion.  Earnings per share hit $0.51, too, rather than $0.48.

    Here’s the problem: operating margins decreased from 4.6 percent to 3.5 percent on both a quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year basis, which is sort of a big drop.

    Also, Amazon stated with respect to the fourth quarter, "Operating income is expected to be between $360 million and $560 million, or between 24% decline and 18% growth compared with fourth quarter 2009."

    So Amazon’s stock is now down 4.10 percent despite the company’s past achievements.

    Still, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos assured everyone that his business will do its best to attract customers, saying, "This holiday season we’ll have the best prices, the biggest selection, the highest in-stock, and the fastest delivery in our history."

  • Influential VC Firm Creates $250M Social Fund

    Entrepreneurs who are interested in creating social apps and services may be in luck.  This afternoon at Facebook’s Palo Alto headquarters, venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced the creation of the $250 million sFund Initiative designed to assist some individuals.

    Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Zynga’s Mark Pincus, and Comcast’s Brian Roberts were all on hand to lend support (along with John Doerr and Bing Gordon of KPCB), which may be an interesting sign of the sFund Initiative’s importance.

    As for some details about the sFund itself, an official statement explained that it "will provide financing, counsel, and relationship capital for a new generation of entrepreneurs to deliver on the promise of the social web."

    Otherwise, the sFund will invest outside the United States, and it’s not necessary to be in any way "connected" in order to submit a business plan.  Applicants just need to piece together a market overview, technology overview, product description, business model overview, and description of their team.

    Then all of the info can simply be emailed to [email protected].

    KPCB partner Doerr predicted, "We’re at the beginning of a new era for social Internet innovators who are re-imagining and re-inventing a Web of people and places, looking beyond documents and websites.  There’s never been a better time than now to start a new social venture."

  • Verizon Adds Kindle App To Android

    Verizon Adds Kindle App To Android

    Verizon Wireless said today it will begin pre-loading Amazon’s Kindle app on some of its Android phones.

    Verizon will pre-load the Kindle app on the new Samsung Fascinate, Droid 2 by Motorola and the Motorola Droid X.

    Features of the Kindle app for Android include:

    *The ability to synch bookmarks across devices so users can pick up where they left off.

     

    Verizon-Kindle-app

     

    *Books purchased from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online, where they can be re-downloaded.

    *The U.S. Kindle now has more than700,000 books, with 575,00 books for under $9.99 or less.

    "We’re very excited to bring Kindle for Android directly to Verizon Wireless customers," said Jennifer Byrne, executive director, business development and partnerships for Verizon Wireless.  

    "Our smartphones come with great screens that make buying and reading books simple and easy, and Amazon’s commitment to reading and offering a seamless customer experience is directly in line with what our customers want."

     

     

  • Amazon Readies Single-Serving Kindle Books

    Amazon announced today that it will launch Kindle Singles, a new kind of Kindle book format that are twice the length of a New Yorker feature or the length of a few chapters of a book.

    "Less than 10,000 words or more than 50,000: that is the choice writers have generally faced for more than a century–works either had to be short enough for a magazine article or long enough to deliver the ‘heft’ required for book marketing and distribution," the company says. "But in many cases, 10,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages) might be the perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated–whether it’s a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event."

    Kindle-DTP

    The format will have its own section in the Kindle Store, and will cost less than a regular book, though the exact price wasn’t revealed. Like any other Kindle content, Singles will come with a "buy once, read everywhere" experience. They will work with any Kindle model, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, or Android device. 

    "Ideas and the words to deliver them should be crafted to their natural length, not to an artificial marketing length that justifies a particular price or a certain format," said Russ Grandinetti, VP, Kindle Content. "With Kindle Singles, we’re reaching out to publishers and accomplished writers and we’re excited to see what they create."

    Kindle Singles will be automatically backed up online in users’ Kindle libraries on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded for free, anytime.

    Amazon did not disclose a release date for the format offering, but has called upon those writers and publishers who wish to be considered for Kindle Singles, to contact the company. 

    Kindle is becoming an increasingly important format for writers to reach new and wider audiences. With not only the amount of supported devices, but iPad sales coming to places like Walmart, it’s very likely that more people will continue to do a significant amount of Kindle reading. Kindle Singles should eliminate some constraints for writers and publishers.

  • Amazon Purchases Spanish Online Retailer

    Amazon.com said today it has reached an agreement to purchase Spanish Internet retailer BuyVip.com for $96.5 million.

    BuyVIP BuyVip is a fashion and lifestyle online buying community with more than six million members in countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Portugal.

    Members of BuyVip can participate in sales that run for a limited time and involve limited quantities of fashion products from over 500 brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Converse, Timberland, Pepe Jeans, and Calvin Klein. Members can purchase items for 30 to 70 percent below retail sales prices.

    “BuyVIP.com offers their members an exciting selection of top fashion and lifestyle products at extraordinarily low prices,” said Greg Greeley, vice president European Retail at Amazon. 

    “BuyVIP.com is an excellent complement to Amazon’s European business and will provide another unique way for Amazon customers to find and discover unique and compelling products.”

    The purchase is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter.

  • Amazon Introduces New Royalty Option For UK Kindle Authors

    Amazon said today its 70 percent royalty option for its Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) is now available in the UK.

    Amazon began offering the same 70 percent royalty option in the U.S. in June. For each book sold from the Amazon UK Kindle Store, authors and publishers can choose to earn a 70 percent royalty, minus the delivery costs.

    Kindle-DTP Delivery costs are based on file size, and pricing is set at $0.15/MB. At today’s median DTP file size of 368KB, delivery costs would be less than $0.06 per unit sold. For example, on an $8.99 book an author would make $3.15 with the standard option and $6.25 with the new 70 percent option.

    "The 70 percent royalty option for Kindle Digital Text Platform has been available for a few months for sales to US customers," said Greg Greeley, Amazon Vice President, European Retail.

    "We are excited to be able to announce the launch of the 70 percent royalty option in the UK. Now authors and publishers worldwide can offer more content to Kindle customers in the UK and make more money from the books they sell."

  • New Tablet from RIM, Amazon Making a Tablet Too?

    Amazon may have launched a new web version of its Kindle software, but rumor has it that it is also launching its own Android app store and possibly even its own tablet. 

    MG Siegler at TechCrunch says Amazon is on the verge of releasing an Android-based App store,  but will also release its own iPad competitor. These are unconfirmed rumors at this point, but it could give Amazon another leg up over e-reader competitors as well as tablet makers. 

    Meanwhile, RIM has unveiled its new tablet – the BlackBerry PlayBook:

    "RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world’s most robust and flexible operating systems," said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM. "The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia."

    The PlayBook is expected to be available in early 2011, missing the holiday season.

  • Amazon Brings Kindle To The Web

    Amazon.com today launched a beta version of “Kindle for the Web,” allowing users to sample books directly through browsers without having to download anything.

    To promote the offering, Amazon is allowing bloggers and website owners in its Amazon Associates Program to be part of Kindle for the Web by embedding samples of books on their websites. Website owners will earn referral fees from Amazon when users buy books using the links on their websites.

    Kindle-for-the-Web

    Users can click the “Read first chapter Free” button on a book product page on Amazon or on other websites, and the first chapter will open within the web page. Users can change the font size and line spacing, adjust the background color, and share their favorite books with others via, Facebook, Twitter, and email without leaving the book in the browser.

    “With Kindle for the Web, it’s easier than ever for customers to sample Kindle books – there’s no downloading or installation required,” said Dorothy Nicholls, Director, Amazon Kindle.

    “Kindle for the Web is also a great way for bloggers and authors to promote books on their websites by letting visitors read a chapter without leaving their site.”

     

     

  • Amazon Launches New Version of Kindle for Android

    Amazon announced a new version of Kindle for Android that comes with several new features. These include:

    • Search within the book: Customers can either type or speak a word or phrase to search within a book.
    • Add, Edit and Delete Notes and Highlights: Kindle for Android is the only reading app for Android-based devices that allows readers to add notes and highlights to books, and have them automatically synchronized between devices.
    • Wikipedia Lookup: Look up words and phrases in Wikipedia simply by selecting text.
    • Shelfari Book Details: For the first time, customers can view additional book details from the books-focused social networking site Shelfari. Readers will find a description of the book, synopsis, summary, cast of characters, and many more features, and be able to view real-time discussions that the Shelfari community is having about the book.
    • Orientation Lock: Choose to lock the orientation of their screen in landscape or portrait mode to allow for comfortable reading in any position.

    "Customers tell us they love the freedom and flexibility of our Buy Once, Read Everywhere approach because they always have their full reading library at their fingertips and never lose their place in a book—whether they are reading on a Kindle or one of their other favorite devices," says Kindle Director Dorothy Nicholls. "We’re excited to see our customers’ positive response to the Kindle for Android app and we think that customers are going to enjoy the updates we’ve made."

    Kindle for Android Gets an Update

     The app is available in the Android Market and users who already have Kindle for Android will receive updates. 

    Interestingly, Amazon also says it has over 700,000 books in the U.S. Kindle store.

  • Amazon Reportedly Makes Offer to Buy “Netflix of Europe”

    If a report from Reuters is accurate, Amazon has made an offer to buy European video rental service Lovefilm  for about  £200 million ($312 million). Neither company has confirmed the offer. 

    Lovefilm offers both DVD and game rental, as well as online video rental. It also has content like movie news and film reviews. 
     
    Amazon already owns a stake in Lovefilm, and an acquisition would give the company another asset in competing with other video rental services like Netflix. 

    According to Ryan Lawler at NewTeeVee, Lovefilm is already known as the "Netflix of Europe". He writes, "While Amazon is unlikely to begin a DVD-by-mail service in the U.S., acquiring Lovefilm could give it the domain expertise necessary to do so, and it already has the warehouse and shipping infrastructure needed if it chose to launch an assault against Netflix here."

    Amazon looking to buy LoveFilm?

    You can expect YouTube to start making a bigger mark in this area too, at least in the online video realm. YouTube just got a new Global Head of Content and a new Global Head of TV and Film Entertainment (the latter actually coming from Netflix). 

    Meanwhile, Netflix is doing all it can to stay ahead of the curve. It recently released a new iPhone app (with Android on the way). It recently announced a new deal to stream first-run theatrical releases, as well as plans to go international (starting in Canada). 

    Amazon is reportedly working on a subscription service for TV shows and movies.

  • Google Talks White Spaces, Google TV Coming This Month?

    Google has a post on its Public Policy blog talking about moving forward on white spaces. As the company notes, the five current FCC Commissioners will soon meet to set final technical rules for white spaces. 

    "If it gets the rules right, the Commission will have taken a huge step to put better and faster Internet connections in the hands of the public," says Richard Whitt, Washington Telecom and Media Counsel.

     

    Intel CEO Paul Otellini has reportedly said that Google TV devices should start shipping as soon as this month. 

    Google released some helpful updates for Google Maps for Android today. These include Walking Navigation, Street View Smart Navigation, and a new search bar. 

    Walking Navigation

     

    Apple announced the publishing of App store review guidelines, which has application developers excited. 

     

    Telegraph points to some TwitPics from outer space. These were uploaded by astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock. 

     

    Ars Technica reports that Amazon is joining forces with Best Buy to sell Kindles. This is probably a smart move, considering Barnes & Noble is dedicating entire in-store boutiques to its Nook device. 

     

    eWeek looks at an In-Stat study that projects that notebook sales will reach 291 million by 2014, accounting for 52 percent of the computing market. AppleInsider refers to a researcher who says that Apple will sell 28 million iPads in 2011 (while "chipping away at PC sales"). 

     

    Microsoft announced the beta release of Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011. "Microsoft Dynamics CRM has tremendous momentum around the world, and we’re glad to bring an exciting new wave of technology to our customers and partners," said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM. "Our new beta release for cloud-based and on-premises deployments allows customers and partners to try the product and see the benefits from the investments that we’ve been making."