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Tag: Amazon

  • Amazon Now Lets You Customize Your Kindle Accessories

    If you’re buying a Kindle Fire HDX for a family member this holiday season, you’re also probably buying a cover for the device. Now you can make your gift even more special by slapping your beautiful mug on the cover.

    Amazon announced today that consumers can now fully customize their Kindle accessories. In other words, you can take your own pictures, or a selection of designs from Amazon, and put them on your Kindle cover. The online retailer also offers a wide variety of covers featuring designs from comics, movies and TV shows, like Peanuts, Breaking Bad and Star Trek.

    “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.”

    If you just want a simple cover for your tablet, that will be $19.99 across all devices. If you’re looking into one of Amazon’s fancy Origami covers, you’re looking at a cost of $45 for the new Kindle Fire HD and $50 for the Kindle Fire HDX. Previous generations of Kindle Fire devices and the Kindle Paperwhite are also supported.

    You can begin making your own personalized Kindle covers at Amazon’s customization Web site.

    [Image: Amazon/Business Wire]

  • Amazon Opens Its Own PlayStation Network Store

    From its humble beginnings in 2006, the PlayStation Store has grown from one of the most basic digital storefronts into one of the best. Frequent sales, great selection and day one digital releases are all great reasons to shop on the PSN. Now it’s getting even better thanks to Amazon’s marketing muscle.

    Amazon unveiled its new PlayStation Network digital storefront today where gamers can buy anything that’s currently on the PSN through Amazon. In other words, PlayStation fans now have more choices when buying digital content for their Vita, PS3 or PS4.

    Kotaku reports that Amazon’s PSN store will be offering some special deals as part of its grand opening. For starters, those who buy select digital content through Amazon will get $5 back in PSN credit. This deal is good for those who buy the digital versions of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Batman: Arkham Origins, Battlefield 4, The Last Of Us, FIFA 14 or Madden NFL 25 through Amazon. The above games’ season passes will also net you the $5 credit. It should be noted that this credit can only be used on the Amazon PSN.

    If digital games aren’t your thing, you will have a chance to net $5 in PSN credit today during Amazon’s buy two, get one free sale on all PS4 games. The sale will start at noon today and last for only a few hours. If you’re getting a PS4 on Friday, you may just want to take advantage of that to pick up three games instead of two.

    With Amazon now having its own PSN store, cost conscious gamers will now have two places to buy digital content for their PlayStation systems. That being said, those same gamers may want to stick to Sony’s PSN for now as Amazon only carries a limited number of games, and its DLC selection is slim pickings. Of course, if you’ve only played the year’s big releases, Amazon’s store should suffice.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • USPS, Amazon’s Sunday Delivery Deal May Save Postal Service

    USPS, Amazon’s Sunday Delivery Deal May Save Postal Service

    Amazon customers now have even more incentive to shop through the online retailer: Sunday deliveries. The U.S. Postal Service has teamed up with Amazon to deliver packages on Sundays in Los Angeles and New York, with plans to expand to more cities next year. Considering that Christmas is just around the corner, this will help people who live in participating areas get their gifts wrapped a little sooner.

    As long as Amazon members meet the minimum purchase requirement of $35 on items eligible for free shipping or have Amazon Prime, they won’t have to pay for delivery. Otherwise, the Sunday delivery cost is the same as it would be for any other day of the week.

    This move should encourage more people to shop through Amazon, plus it could also increase membership in Amazon’s Prime program. Amazon Prime costs $79 per year and one major perk of joining Prime is getting free two-day deliveries. So, for Prime members who live in L.A. and NYC, if they make a purchase on Friday, they will receive the package on Sunday.

    “The three big pieces of growth for us are selection, lower prices and speed,” said Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service. “Adding an additional day is all about delivery speed. An Amazon customer can order a backpack and a Kindle for their child and be packing it up on Sunday for school on Monday.”

    Considering the woes the USPS has been facing, many wonder whether this deal with Amazon will help save the Postal Service. The USPS posted over a $1 billion loss in the first quarter of the fiscal year. After making some changes, which included cutting out some mail centers and reducing employee work hours, the USPS improved somewhat as it posted only a $740 million loss in the third quarter. While just how much Amazon is paying for its Sunday deliveries through the USPS hasn’t been released, it’s easy to see that there should be some potential to help the Postal Service rebound, especially as more cities are covered.

    Do you think teaming up with Amazon for Sunday deliveries is a good move for the USPS? Respond below.

    [Image via Twitter]

  • USPS Amazon Sunday Deliveries Started Yesterday

    The regular mail may not run on Sundays, however, if you order from Amazon, your orders will now be shipped seven days a week.

    The United States Postal Service recently partnered with Amazon to allow the delivery of their packages on Sundays. That’s right, the same group that wanted to quit working on Saturdays, will now be working on Sundays. The deliveries started yesterday in the major cities such as Los Angeles and New York. The company is hoping, by next year, that the program will extend further across the United States. The agreement is an NSA (National Service Agreement), which is defined on the USPS website. “A Negotiated Service Agreement is a contractual agreement between the U.S. Postal Service and an individual company that provides customized pricing incentives or other arrangements justified by a shift in the company’s mail operations. NSAs are intended to meet the needs of specific customers for whom mail is an integral part of their business strategy.”

    The delivery rates for Sundays will not increase, but will remain a standard rate. However, Amazon Prime members will be able to get their deliveries for free. The packages will not come from Fed Ex or UPS, but will arrive from the USPS itself.

    “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,” Dave Clark, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide operations and customer service, said. “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.”

    The USPS also released a statement about the new Sunday deliveries. “As online shopping continues to increase exponentially, the Postal Service is very pleased to be able to offer shipping solutions that allow major mailers and customers alike to appreciate the benefits of using the U.S. Mail,” Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe said. “By offering Sunday delivery, the Postal Service is focused on serving the needs of our valued customers in today’s busy online world. We consider this a win/win for both organizations and are excited to be delivering packages seven days a week in select markets.”

    Image via Twitter

  • Amazon To Start Offering Sunday Delivery

    The worst part about free two-day shipping with Amazon Prime is ordering something on Friday and having to wait until Monday to get it. If only the post ran on Sunday, right? Well, that will soon be a reality for two of the biggest cities in the U.S.

    Amazon announced this morning that it has teamed up with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver orders to Amazon Prime members on Sunday. The service will soon be rolling out to the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas on November 17. The online retailer says that Sunday deliveries will also be coming to more areas in 2014, including Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix and other large U.S. population centers.

    The U.S. isn’t the only country getting Sunday delivery as The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon will begin Sunday delivery in the UK, specifically London, as well. Unlike in the U.S., however, Amazon will be using its own trucks to make these deliveries instead of a third-party postal service.

    “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 Dave Clark, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide operations and customer service. “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.”

    Traditionally, Sunday delivery hasn’t been a thing in the postal service industry, but it seems that the demands of online shoppers is changing that. It’s also a good thing for the troubled U.S. Postal Service as it has an exclusive contract with Amazon to deliver items on Sunday.

    “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 Patrick R. Donahoe, Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer. “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.”

    With Sunday delivery now being an option on Amazon, the online retailer can start negating the immediacy advantage that brick-and-mortar retail stores have enjoyed for years. This may lead to those stores offering Sunday delivery as well to fulfill their customers’ desire to get items on Sunday without having to leave the house.

    UPDATE: Despite Amazon saying that Sunday delivery would begin on November 17, USPS took to Twitter today to say that Sunday delivery began yesterday.

    That may be the case, but Amazon Prime members in New York and Los Angeles will first start to see the benefits of Sunday delivery on November 17 as they just learned of it today.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon Releases The Best Books Of 2013 List

    As we approach the end of 2013, we’re getting into top 10 list season. Today, Amazon annouonced its selections for the Best Books of 2013.

    “This year offered a stellar list of books to choose from, both fiction and nonfiction,” said Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon.com. “Our top choice, The Goldfinch, is an emotionally trenchant masterpiece and was hands down our team’s favorite book of the year.”

    Below you can see the Top 10 editors’ picks for 2013:

    1. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt: A decade after her last novel, Tartt has written a wide-ranging, emotionally trenchant masterpiece that follows the life of Theo, a 14-year-old Manhattanite, who loses his mother, steals a painting and sets off on a journey worthy of Dickens.

    2. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini: A father gives away his daughter to a wealthy man in Kabul, setting into motion a novel that moves through war, separation, birth, death, deceit and love. On the heels of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini has proven that lightning can strike thrice.

    3. Thank You for Your Service by David Finkel: From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Good Soldiers comes a mesmerizing nonfiction account of the day-to-day hope and pain that soldiers carry upon returning home. As Finkel writes: “While the truth of war is that it’s always about loving the guy next to you, the truth of the after-war is that you’re on your own.”

    4. Life After Life: A Novel by Kate Atkinson: What if you could be born again and again? This brilliant, multi-layered novel answers that question as Atkinson’s protagonist moves through multiple lives, each one an iteration on the last, flirting with the balance between choice and fate.

    5. Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier by Tom Kizzia: When the “Pilgrim” family rolled into the old mining outpost of McCarthy, Alaska, they were a sight to behold: Robert “Papa Pilgrim” Hale, his wife Country Rose, and their 15 children. But dark secrets lurked behind their congenial faces, ones that shocked a frontier community.

    6. Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Scott Anderson: During World War I, the course of the modern day Middle East was set by a handful of young, low-ranking actors who exerted oversized influence on the region. Anderson focuses our attention on four men: a minor German diplomat and spy, an American oilman descended from the Yale family, a Romanian-born agronomist, and T.E. Lawrence himself.

    7. Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders: Saunders’ first collection of short stories in six years introduces his ironic, absurd, profound and funny style to an army of new readers.

    8. The Son by Philipp Meyer: A multigenerational Western spanning the 1800s Comanche raids in Texas to the 20th century oil boom, The Son is a towering achievement.

    9. A House in the Sky: A Memoir by Amanda Lindhout: Written with uncommon sensitivity, Lindhout’s account of the 460 days she spent as a captive in Somalia is a moving testament to human resilience in the midst of profound darkness.

    10. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell: This young adult novel about two kids who fall in love on a bus is sweet without being saccharine. And it’s a story adults can love, too.

    Is there a book you’re surprised didn’t make this years list? If so, let us know in the comment section.

    (Image: Wikipedia)

  • Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ Is Now Available

    In mid-October, Amazon unleashed the Kindle Fire HDX upon the world. The 7-inch tablet immediately became a critical and commercial darling thanks to its affordable price and superior specs. It’s now been a few weeks since its launch, and Amazon is letting its big brother have a chance in the spotlight.

    Amazon announced today that the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ is now available and shipping to all those who pre-ordered the device back in September. Much like the 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ is a major improvement over its predecessor.

    “The 8.9” Fire HDX is startlingly light—at just 13.2 ounces, it’s the lightest large-screen tablet. This is combined with a 339 ppi, perfect-color HDX display, 3x the processing power, 2x the memory, 4x the graphics performance, and backed by Fire OS 3.0, with exclusive features like the revolutionary new Mayday button—and all of this is just $379, much less than you’d pay for a comparable tablet,” said Peter Larsen, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “This is the best tablet we’ve ever built, and we can’t wait to see what our customers think.”

    According to all the reviews that Amazon quotes in its press release, the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ is the lightest and brightest large-screen tablet on the market. It’s even lighter than the iPad Air, and Dr. Raymond Soneira at DisplayMate Technologies says it’s the “best performing tablet display that [they] have ever tested.” According to the good doctor, it beat out the iPad Air in Brightness, Screen Reflectance, high ambient light contrast and Absolute Color Accuracy.

    Even if the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ is superior to the iPad Air, it won’t matter if Amazon can’t compete with iOS in software. That probably won’t be a problem, however, as Amazon has invested a lot into Kindle app development this past year in a bid to attract large and small developers to the platform. On that end, it seems to be working as the Kindle Fire sports most of the same apps that are on iOS, but with Kindle platform specific features, like Amazon Coins and Whispersync.

    If you’re looking to buy a Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ today, you’re out of luck for now. Much like the Kindle Fire HDX, the 8.9-inch model is backordered. The 16GB model will ship on November 15, the 32GB model will ship on November 20, and the 64GB model is set to ship on November 26.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Jeff Bezos’ Wife Writes Amazon Review About Tell-All

    Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is the subject of a new tell-all book by Brad Stone called “The Everything Store”, and while the book itself is getting positive reviews and attention on the site, Bezos’ wife felt she needed to clear some things up.

    MacKenzie Bezos wrote a lengthy review of the tome titled “I wanted to like this book”, and in it she implores readers to take the contents with a grain of salt. Bezos says that several times in the book, she found inaccuracies that kept her from being able to give it a positive markup on Amazon.com.

    “Everywhere I can fact check from personal knowledge, I find way too many inaccuracies, and unfortunately that casts doubt over every episode in the book,” she wrote.

    The writing itself gets a critique, as Bezos says that her husband was not interviewed for any portion of the book, yet some of the sections read as though he was.

    “While numerous factual inaccuracies are certainly troubling in a book being promoted to readers as a meticulously researched definitive history, they are not the biggest problem here. The book is also full of techniques which stretch the boundaries of non-fiction, and the result is a lopsided and misleading portrait of the people and culture at Amazon. An author writing about any large organization will encounter people who recall moments of tension out of tens of thousands of hours of meetings and characterize them in their own way, and including those is legitimate. But I would caution readers to take note of the weak rhetorical devices used to make it sound like these quotes reflect daily life at Amazon or the majority viewpoint about working there,” she wrote.

    Bezos isn’t the only reviewer with firsthand knowledge of the inaccuracies, however; commenter “Rick”–presumably Rick Dalzell, who worked with Jeff for ten years–wrote that Stone completely missed Bezos’ character in his writing.

    “I’m currently retired, but spent 10 years working alongside Jeff and the incredible team he assembled, so I have first-hand knowledge of much of the period the book covers,” Rick wrote. “While I found it rather interesting, lots of stories are missing or just inaccurate. Brad painted a one-dimensional picture of Jeff as a ruthless capitalist. He completely missed his warmth, his humor, and his empathy — all qualities abundantly present in the man.”

    Image: Amazon

  • Amazon Mobile App Developers Now Have Access To Analytics, A/B Testing

    Despite building Fire OS on top of Android, Amazon wants developers to choose its platform over Android or iOS when building apps. Over the last year, it’s become easier to recommend the platform as Amazon has leveraged the power of AWS to offer a number of services to developers that are typically hard to implement on their own.

    Amazon announced today that it’s continuing to add value to its platform with the addition of analytics and A/B testing to all developers who make apps for the Amazon Appstore. As the retailer notes, developers “who build their own analytics and testing solutions are forced to spend time on building and scaling backend services.” By providing the services through AWS, Amazon says developers can get back to doing what they do best – building content.

    “Mobile developers really want to understand how customers are using their app,” said Mike George, Vice President of Amazon Appstore, Games and Cloud Drive. “We’ve spent years at Amazon using data, analytics, and A/B testing to continually improve the experience of customers who shop with us. We wanted to bring those same advanced tools to mobile app developers to help them improve their customers’ experience.”

    Here’s what both the analytics and A/B testing services will bring to your apps:

  • Analytics – the Analytics service provides usage metrics on daily and monthly active devices, sessions, retention, and in-app purchase revenue. These metrics are updated continually and are available within 60 minutes of the data being received. When using this service, developers can quickly assess how, for example, launch day is going or how a new feature might be affecting retention.
  • A/B Testing – the A/B Testing service allows mobile developers to simultaneously test up to five different in-app experiences to understand which experience is most successful based on conversion, clicks, or other criteria they define. A developer simply needs to integrate the SDK and the service handles all of the complex statistical calculations on behalf of the developer. The service then presents the results in a simple web dashboard that shows which experience is most effective and statistically significant.

    • If you want to know more about analytics, check out Amazon’s page for the service. It includes a download for the beta SDK. As for A/B testing, go here to learn more and to grab the beta SDK download. Both tools are available for Android, Fire OS and iOS apps.

    [Image: Amazon Developers]

  • Amazon Says Thanks to the FAA with Kindle Sale

    In company-promotions-that-actually-feel-rather-joyous news, Amazon is celebrating the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to jump into the 20th century by offering a pretty significant discount on a few Kindle devices.

    Last week, the FAA made the friendly skies a whole lot friendlier by finally lightening up their regulations on the use of personal electronic devices on all stages of flights. Starting soon, you won’t have to power down your iPhones, e-readers, and tablets during takeoff and landing (making calls and texts will still be prohibited). The FAA is working with U.S.-based airlines to get the new rules implemented, and some airlines like Delta and JetBlue have already made the switch.

    The FAA hopes that by the end of the year, you’ll never have to be scolded by a flight attendant for playing Angry Birds ever again.

    Amazon, who says they’ve been lobbying for this rule change for years, is saying thanks to the FAA with a short Kindle promotion.

    With the “ThanksFAA” code, you can now receive 15% off a Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX 7”, and the $69 Kindle.

    “We’ve been fighting for our customers on this issue for years, and we are thrilled by the FAA’s recent decision—this is a big win for customers. Delta and JetBlue have already started flights with the new rules – we’re excited to see which airlines are next,” says Amazon VP Drew Herdener. “To say thank you, for one day only we’re offering 15% off Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire HDX 7”, and the $69 Kindle – happy flying!”

    It’s one day only – so act fast if you’re in the need of a new Kindle. A $59 basic Kindle sounds like a pretty good deal – I mean, you’d pay close to that for an actual book at the airport, right? And the price of the Kindle Fire HDX 7” is actually under $200 now.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Amazon Departs from the Netflix Path, Sets Weekly Release Schedule for Original Shows Alpha House and Betas

    Amazon has just announced when and how they’re going to release episodes of two recently greenlit original comedies – Alpha House and Betas.

    Alpha House will premiere on November 15th and Betas a week later on November 22nd. Amazon says that they will release the first three episodes of each at first – and they will be available for all to watch, for free, on Amazon Instant Video. After that, Amazon will stick to a weekly release strategy – debuting one episode every 7 days for Amazon Prime members only.

    Of course, this strategy is much different from the one successfully employed by rival Netflix. With its original content, Netflix has taken a binge-friendly approach by releasing all episodes of any given season all at once – that’s the way they’ve handled every major content release since Lilyhammer back in 2011.

    This shouldn’t come as a surprise, however, as we already knew that Amazon was planning on diverting from the trail blazed by Netflix. Sure, binge watching has its benefits – mainly the absolute lack of any sort of forced delayed gratification. But some argue that the immediate availability can be a buzzkill for shows by removing it from the pop culture eye after a few weeks. It appears that Amazon subscribes to this this latter view – at least for now. Amazon Studios director Roy Price even mentioned building up anticipation –

    “Based on customers’ enthusiastic response to the pilot episodes we are counting down the days until we can share more of the political and entrepreneurial exploits of our Alpha House and Betas characters. Our goal is to make great TV shows that customers will love and we hope they’re going to love these shows,” he said. “We will release three episodes upfront for all customers so they can try out the shows and get to know the characters. Then we will release new episodes via Prime Instant Video week by week so that customers can chat about the shows and build up anticipation. We’re constantly experimenting and trying new things – and we’re eager to hear customers’ feedback on this model.”

    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. The show recently added some big names, too.

    Betas “follows four friends as they attempt to strike it rich with a new mobile social networking app.”

    I guess user feedback on the release style will determine how Amazon moves forward. They have plenty of new shows on the way, including some greenlit children’s shows and a couple of new dramas – one from X-Files creator Chris Carter. If people hate it, it wouldn’t be too surprising if Amazon switched course and opted for a bulk release strategy. Amazon Studios has generally tried to involve the viewers at every turn – even the way they chose which pilots were turned into full series runs was largely based on user feedback.

    Image via Amazon Studios, YouTube

  • Amazon To Open New Fulfillment Center In Wisconsin

    It almost seems like Amazon wants to open at least one fulfillment center in every single state across the U.S. If it’s successful, the online retailer may very well be able to reach its goal of providing services like same day delivery and online grocery shopping to every U.S. citizen. It’s still a long ways off, but the state of Wisconsin now joins 14 other states in taking a step towards the future of online shopping.

    Amazon announced today that it intends to build a new fulfillment center in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It will be the first fulfillment center in the state and will over 1,000 full-time jobs.

    “We are excited to join the Kenosha community, creating more than 1,000 full-time jobs at our new fulfillment center,” said Mike Roth, Amazon’s vice president of North America operations. “We appreciate the state and local elected leaders who have supported Amazon coming to Wisconsin and we look forward to bringing jobs and investment to the state.”

    Like all other Amazon jobs, those who work at this new center will get competitive pay, a wide range of benefits, company stock awards and Career Choice. The latter is a program where Amazon will pre-pay up to 95 percent of the tuition costs for its employees to pursue the degree of their choice even if said degree takes them away from Amazon.

    “We’ve worked hard over the last few years to turn the Wisconsin economy around and make our state a better place to create jobs. We are proud to welcome Amazon to Wisconsin and are thrilled with the more than 1,000 jobs their expansion will bring to our state. It shows our economy is growing, our reforms are working and we’re headed in the right direction,” said Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. “This is excellent news for the Kenosha community and the state of Wisconsin as a whole.”

    The announcement doesn’t include a date by which Amazon expects the new fulfillment center to be completed, but it usually doesn’t take all that long. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the new fulfillment center open by this time next year.

    In other Amazon news, the company is still hiring seasonal workers for the upcoming holiday peak season. To find out more, hit up Amazon Fulfillment.

    [Image: Google Maps]

  • Amazon Opens Black Friday Deals Store

    We’re still a few weeks away from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but Amazon doesn’t care what day it is. This year, the retailer is going to celebrate the holiest of shopping days every day for the next two months.

    Amazon announced today that it has now opened what it calls the Black Friday Deals Store. Like you would normally see on the actual Black Friday, the Black Friday Deals Store will feature a number of crazy sales every day until December 22.

    Now, there are some differences between the actual Black Friday and Amazon’s new Black Friday Deals Store. For one, not everything on Amazon is on sale like it will be on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Instead, Amazon will have two Deals of the Day every day until December 22, and there will “hundreds of Lightning Deals on great gift items every week.”

    You can check out the Black Friday Deals store here. Currently, there’s a sale on Alien Anthology on blu-ray and slippers. An eclectic combination to be sure, but there’s sure to be somebody out there who wants to watch Alien while wearing a new pair of slippers.

    Alongside the Black Friday Deals Store, Amazon has also revealed its Electronic Holiday Gift Guide. The guide features over 350 of the “hottest items” and claims to have something for everyone.

    “We’re making it easy for customers to discover and zero in on the hottest gifts and holiday trends – from streaming media players to Bluetooth portable speakers,” said Ben Hartman, Vice President of Consumer Electronics for Amazon.com. “Our Electronics Holiday Gift Guide is designed to help people shop how they like: by price, category, gift recipient and interest. The Guide gives customers gift ideas for everyone on their list, making it easy to shop from the comfort of home and take advantage of fast and free shipping.”

    In other Amazon shopping news, the retailer opened its Holiday Toy List earlier this month to give parents an idea of what their kids may want for Christmas. While you’re at it, you should sign up for AmazonSmile to donate 0.5 percent of your purchase to a charity of your choice.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Read an E-book a Month Early with Amazon’s New Kindle First Program

    In its attempt to boost the brand value of the Kindle (and sweeten the Amazon Prime deal as well), Amazon has just announced a new initiative called Kindle First, which will give readers early access to a selection of e-books every month.

    The way it works is pretty simple. Every month, Amazon Publishing editors will choose a handful of books, sourced from Kindle’s most-popular categories. Kindle First will allows Kindle users to pick one of these books and read them weeks before their official release date.

    It will cost regular Kindle users $1.99 – but it will be free to Amazon Prime members. Another (albeit small) reason to pony up for Amazon Prime, it seems.

    “Customers can receive a monthly email alerting them of new Kindle First selections. Signup is free and there is no purchase obligation. Customers can visit the Kindle store on amazon.com or their Kindle device to select their book. All Kindle First books become part of your permanent Kindle library and can be read on any K,” says Amazon.

    The picks for November are:

    Things We Set on Fire, Deborah Reed
    We Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor and Sue Carswell
    No Place for a Dame, Connie Brockway
    Silent Echo, J.R. Rain

    Amazon’s next-gen Kindle Fire HDX started shipping a couple of weeks ago, and two months ago the company announced a new Kindle Paperwhite.

    Image via Amazon

  • Amazon Turns to Original Dramas, Orders Chris Carter Pilot

    For the first time, Amazon Studios is switching its focus from comedy to drama. Amazon has just announced that they’ve greenlit two new drama pilots – both involving some pretty big names.

    The first is called The After and it’s being written and directed by Chris Carter, the man behind The X-Files (which he created, produced, wrote for, and directed some episodes). Carter also created the short-lived Millennium and Harsh Realm, as well as the X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen. From Amazon:

    Written and directed by Emmy-nominee Chris Carter (The X-Files), executive produced by Marc Rosen of Georgeville Television and produced by Gabe Rotter, The After follows eight strangers who are thrown together by mysterious forces and must help each other survive in a violent world that defies explanation. Sharon Lawrence, Jamie Kennedy, Aldis Hodge, Andrew Howard, Arielle Kebbel, Jaina Lee Ortiz, Adrian Pasdar and Louise Monot will star.

    “I’m very superstitious about talking about what I’m working on before it’s finished, and it’s more fun if it’s kept a mystery! So let me just say that this is a show that explores human frailty, possibility, terror, and the triumph of the human spirit,” said Chris Carter, creator of The After. “I’m so excited to be telling this story with Amazon in this new frontier of television.”

    There were reports as early as late august that Amazon was eyeing Carter’s series.

    The other pilot is for a show called Bosch, which is based on author Michael Connelly’s book series of the same name. Bosch “follows a relentless LAPD homicide detective as he pursues the killer of a 13-year-old boy while standing trial in federal court on accusations that he murdered a suspected serial killer in cold blood.” It’s being written by Eric Overmyer, who wrote and produced a handful of episodes of the popular HBO dramas The Wire and Treme.

    These will be hour-long pilots.

    “We are very excited to be working with creators like Michael Connelly and Chris Carter, both epic storytellers in their own right,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. “For the first time we are bringing Amazon customers hour-long programming and we can’t wait to hear what they think of these new stories.”

    Amazon has been busy producing pilots (and greenlighting some full series runs) over the past year, but until now they had mainly focused on comedies and children’s programming. This step into hour-long drama means that they are preparing to do battle with other streaming services who offer high-quality original dramatic content – you know, Netflix, HBO.

    As always, Amazon Studios is putting the fate of their pilots squarely into the hands of the viewers. The pilots, which will be completed early next year, will be shown for free on Amazon Instant Video. From there, fan response will determine if they make it to full series production.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • AmazonSmile Auto-Donates 0.5% of Purchases to Your Favorite Charity

    If you like your charitable donations quick, automatic, and with the least amount of effort humanly possible – Amazon wants to help you out.

    Quick and effortless isn’t a bad thing – in fact, it’s just the thing that many people need in order to even consider donating to charities. Amazon’s new charitable donation program, AmazonSmile, lets you donate to your favorite charities while doing something you’re already going to do anyway – shop on Amazon.com.

    “We’re offering customers a way to support charitable organizations around the country that’s simple and automatic,” said Ian McAllister, General Manager, AmazonSmile. “We think customers will love the opportunity to support their favorite organizations without changing how they shop, and there’s no cap on how much Amazon will donate.”

    Here are the basics of AmazonSmile. Instead of going to amazon.com, you simply head to smile.amazon.com. Once there, you’ll be asked to pick your favorite charity (you can change this later at any time in your account settings). After that, you can shop Amazon as usual. Pretty much everything is the same – except for one small change.

    When shopping on Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price (minus shipping costs, taxes, and other fees) to the charity that you picked – automatically.

    Amazon says that there are “tens of millions” eligible products on AmazonSmile. Recurring Subscribe-and-Save purchases and subscriptions are outside the purview of the program. If a product is AmazonSmile approved, you’ll see a little icon in its product description. As far as the charities go, there are nearly a million to choose from, including widely recognized organizations like St. Jude and The American Red Cross as well as more local charities.

    For Amazon, it’s a win-win. Not only do they get to do some actual good, but they get to promote this program – which has a really nice ring to it. And it’s not like they’re going to lose a ton of profits from AmazonSmile. With as many purchases that are handled by Amazon on a daily basis, 0.5% is a small chunk for the retail giant (but could make a huge impact on a small charity).

    And for shoppers, well, there’s absolutely no reason not to shop via smile.amazon.com. Most of the same products will be there, and you’re not having to spend an extra penny to donate to charity. It’s a rare feat for a large business, but it appears that with AmazonSmile, the company has pulled off a win-win-win.

    Image via American Red Cross, Facebook

  • Amazon Appstore Celebrates Halloween With A Sale On 22 Apps

    Halloween has always seemed like one of the lesser holidays compared to the likes of Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sure, it’s a fun time, but it just doesn’t really feel all that special. Apparently I’m in the minority as the Amazon Appstore has just put a lot of games on sale in celebration of the holiday.

    Amazon announced today that 22 games on the Amazon Appstore will be on sale through November 2. Not all of the games included in the sale are necessarily Halloween related, but most of them do have a connection with the spooks that populate the holiday.

    Here’s everything that’s on sale:

  • House of the Dead Overkill – $0.99
  • Magicians Handbook – $0.99
  • Nightmares From the Deep: The Cursed Heart – $0.99
  • Lost Souls – $0.99
  • NBA 2K14 – $4.99
  • Breach & Clear – $0.99
  • Brink of Consciousness: Dorian Gray Syndrome Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Dark Parables: Curse of the Briar Rose Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Depths of Betrayal Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Grave Mania: Undead Fever – $0.99
  • Haunted Manor: Lord of Mirrors Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Hidden Expedition 4: Devil’s Triangle – $0.99
  • Mystery Case Files: Madame Fate – $0.99
  • Mystery Case Files: Return to Ravenhearst – $0.99
  • PuppetShow: The Mystery of Joyville – $0.99
  • Redemption Cemetery: Curse of the Raven Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Shattered Minds: Masquerade Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Shiver: Poltergeist Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Shiver: Vanishing Hitchhiker Collector’s Edition – $0.99
  • Small Town Terrors – Livingston – $0.99
  • Time Relics: Gears of Light – $0.99
  • Treasure Seekers: Follow the Ghosts Collector’s Edition – $0.99

    • Like always, the Amazon Appstore also offers the Free App of the Day. Unlike the above sale, the app available for free today – Fish Jam – lacks the kind of spooks you would see around Halloween. The little cartoon shark does, however, possess some spooky charm what with his spooky teeth.

    While you’re at it, you may also want to check out the Amazon Appstore’s collection of zombie-themed games. ‘Tis the season after all.

    [Image: Amazon Appstore]

  • Amazon Appstore Is Giving Away 6 Apps For Free Today

    One of the best parts about the Amazon Appstore is its Free App of the Day program. Every day of the year, Amazon takes a popular app that regularly costs anywhere from $.99 to $5 and offers it for free to anybody with a Kindle Fire or Android device. Now Amazon is upping the ante for a special promotion today.

    As part of its Free App of the Day program, Amazon has decided to make six apps completely free. These apps, called “Kindle Hits,” presumably represent what Amazon sees as the best performing Kindle apps of the past year.

    Here are the free games included as part of the promotion:

  • Angry Birds Star Wars Premium HD
  • Splashtop Whiteboard
  • Diner Dash Deluxe
  • Fishdom Premium
  • Toca Builders
  • The Room

    • All of the above apps are free for the remainder of today. If that’s not a good enough deal, Amazon will be sweetening it with the addition of 20 free Amazon Coins for each of the above apps that you download. These coins can be used in place of money on in-app purchases within any Amazon Appstore game.

    Oh, and besides the above free apps, the Amazon Appstore is also offering Autodesk Sketchbook Mobile as part of its regular Free App of the Day promotion. Unlike the above apps, this isn’t a game, but rather an app similar to Adobe Illustrator. You can use your Android device to draw whatever you like and even import it to your PC through a convenient email feature.

    [Image: Amazon Appstore]

  • Amazon Announces Q3 2013 Results, Sales Up 24%

    Back in June, Amazon announced that its quarterly sales were up 22 percent. That growth has now been confirmed to have continued into its third quarter this year.

    Amazon announced this afternoon that its net sales for Q3 2013 increased 24 percent to $17.09 billion. The retailer notes that net sales would have increased by 26 percent if it excluded the $332 million it in Q3 thanks to “unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates.”

    Amazon also announced that operating cash flow increased 48 percent to $4.98 billion. On the other hand, its free cash flow decreased 63 percent to $388 million. It notes that its free cash flow was impacted by the $1.4 billion purchase of corporate office space and property in Q4 2012.

    As for operating loss, Amazon announced that it was down to $25 million in Q3 2013, compared to $28 million in Q3 2012. Net loss was also down to $41 million in Q3 2013, compared to $274 million in Q3 2012.

    “It’s been a busy few months—we launched a new Paperwhite and new Kindle Fires to positive reviews and surprised people with the revolutionary Mayday button—average Mayday response times are just 11 seconds!” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “And that’s not all. In the last 90 days, our AWS team got back to work on a big government contract, we brought 8 million square feet of fulfillment center capacity online, deployed 1,382 Kiva robots in three FCs, provided a new venue for artists to reach customers, signed up millions of new Prime members, announced Kindle MatchBook, Login & Pay, and nine new original TV pilots, joined the Code.org coalition, acquired TenMarks—a company that helps kids with math, scored a win for customers who want to use Kindles on airplanes even during takeoff and landing (also, a big hat tip to Nick Bilton on that one), began hiring and training 70,000 new U.S. FC employees to help serve customers this holiday season, and saw the Kindle Million Club grow to include 14 KDP authors.”

    In its Q4 2013 guidance, Amazon says to expect net sales between $23.5 billion and 26.5 billion, and an operating income of $500 million.

    In after hours trading, Amazon’s share price is up 27 points to 359.60.

    [Image: Amazon]

  • Amazon’s Set-Top Box May Not Arrive by the Holidays

    Amazon’s Set-Top Box May Not Arrive by the Holidays

    The oft-rumored Amazon set-top box has been delayed once again, according to a report from The Verge:

    Amazon has been been rushing to finalize and release a set-top box in time for the holidays, designed to compete directly with the Apple TV and Roku. However, The Verge has learned that the company recently made the decision to delay the device, possibly beyond the holiday season

    Of course, the ultimate goal of most companys eyeing major products launches is to have their new products available for the big shopping season. This delay would prevent Amazon from competing in the streaming device game this year, which is surely a disappointment for all involved.

    Amazon’s set-top box has been rumored for a long time, but the most-recent report from the WSJ indicated that Amazon was eyeing a by-Christmas launch for the device.

    Amazon’s set-top box reportedly looks something like a Roku, and will stream video and music. The video offerings won’t just come from Amazon, as the box will support third-party apps like Netflix. Oh, and there are also reports that Amazon is looking to add gaming to its capabilities. In the end, Amazon wants to complete with the likes of Roku, AppleTV, and even gaming consoles that people are increasingly using as their go-to portals for streaming content.

    Around the time of the WSJ’s report, a Canadian trademark filing was unearthed and suggested that Amazon was working on something called a “Firetube” – an obvious portmanteau of the Kindle Fire and “tube,” as in the boob tube, as in TV. Whether or not the Amazon set-top box is indeed called the Firetube, it appears that Amazon is having a harder time than they thought they would getting everything in order for a launch.

    Image via Robert Scoble, Flickr Creative Commons

  • Amazon Ups Free Shipping Threshold to $35

    Amazon has just increased the threshold for orders to qualify for free shipping – the first time the company has made a change to this policy in over 10 years.

    Starting now, orders must hit $35 to qualify for free shipping. As you probably recall, free shipping used to kick in at $25.

    “Amazon’s minimum order size for free shipping has changed to $35. This is the first time in more than a decade that Amazon has altered the minimum order for free shipping in the US. During that time, we have expanded free shipping selection by millions of items across all 40 product categories. Look for “FREE Shipping” on product pages to discover eligible items,” said the company in a notice to customers.

    Amazon doesn’t give a specific reason for the change, but you’d have to assume that it all boils down to profit margins and shipping costs.

    One effect it could have is giving customers a greater incentive to pony up for Amazon Prime, the company’s $79-per-year service that offers free two-day shipping on millions of products. Amazon Prime is already a tempting deal, considering it also gives customers access to Prime Instant Video and Amazon’s free Kindle library. But with Amazon upping the threshold on free super saver shipping, it might force frequent Amazon shoppers to take the Prime plunge.

    Image via Stephen Woods, Flickr Creative Commons