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‘Amazon’ Stories

Amazon lands patent on gift cards that can restrict purchases

Shane McGlaun, Oct 26th 2011 Discuss [6]

Amazon has been granted a patent on a new tech for gift cards that will help the giver limit exactly what the person they gift the card to can purchase. Amazon applied for the patent titled "customizing gift instrument experiences for recipients" back in 2008 and the patent was granted recently. In a nutshell, the patent boils down to parental controls for the products the gift card can be used to purchase. Read The Full Story

Amazon.com Third Quarter 2011 report has net sales up 44%

Chris Burns, Oct 25th 2011 Discuss [0]

The team at Amazon.com have released information surrounding their third quarter sales as well as reporting to stock holders that their four new Kindle devices will blow away consumers for the holidays. Financial results for the third quarter ended in September 30, 2011 showed operating cash flow increasing by 19% to $3.11 billion for the 12 months trailing that date, while the 12 months in that timeframe ending at September 30 in 2010 ending up just below that number at $2.62 billion. Net sales had a similar jump at 44% to $10.88 billion in the third quarter while the same quarter last year yielded $7.56 billion. Read The Full Story

Amazon profit dip predicted over Kindle Fire loss-leading

Chris Davies, Oct 25th 2011 Discuss [3]

Amazon's loss-leader strategy with the Kindle Fire ereader tablet, as well as a growing US sales tax bill, could lead to significantly reduced income this quarter analysts have predicted. The retailer is expected to announce earnings figures today, but already there are concerns that Amazon's net income may be just half of Q3 2010, according to an estimate average crunched by Businessweek. Part of the issue is the $199 Kindle Fire, hardware sales of which Amazon is believed to be taking a loss on, and instead relying on subsequent digital media sales to buoy profits. Read The Full Story

Amazon adds HTML5 ebooks in Kindle Format 8

Shane McGlaun, Oct 24th 2011 Discuss [4]

Amazon is talking up the new features that it is adding to the Kindle Format 8 (KF8) upgrade for ebooks. The key feature is the support of HTML5 in the new format. That HTML5 support brings all sort of goodies with it that will make ebooks using the new KF8 format more interactive and exciting. HTML5 means support for CSS3, fixed layouts, embedded fonts, drop caps, floating elements, text on background images, lists and a bunch more. Read The Full Story

Amazon adds old Kindles to trade-in program

Chris Davies, Oct 20th 2011 Discuss [0]

Amazon has begun accepting Kindle ereaders in its trade-in program, offering discounts against future purchases if you send in your old model. Shoppers can get up to $135 for their old Kindle DX, or up to $48.75 for a 6-inch third-gen model with 3G. Read The Full Story

EFF talks Silk browser privacy with Amazon

Shane McGlaun, Oct 19th 2011 Discuss [0]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has announced that it has talked openly with Amazon about privacy with the new Silk browser that will ship on the Kindle Fire tablet that was announced not long ago. The EFF wanted to find out since the browser on the Fire was new to the market how it was handling privacy. One key element of the browser that is different from most browsers on the market today is that rather than using the HTTP protocol, Silk will use the Amazon cloud servers and the SPDY protocol as well. Read The Full Story

Amazon pursues authors, cuts out the publisher middleman

Michael Crider, Oct 18th 2011 Discuss [1]

If you needed any more evidence that Amazon is building its own digital media empire, here it is. The New York Times reports that the online retail giant will publish over 120 books this quarter alone, both on its Kindle e-book platform and traditional physical copies. That puts it in the odd position of competing with some of its biggest suppliers, the traditional publishing houses that have been around for decades. Read The Full Story

Amazon Locker delivery system expands to NYC

Shane McGlaun, Oct 17th 2011 Discuss [3]

A while back, we talked about the first of the Amazon Locker cubbies for package deliveries that turned up inside stores like 7-Eleven in Seattle. They were interesting, but more than a little strange. The NYC package delivery system is now in place in NYC after the test in Seattle performed well. Right now Seattle and NYC are the only places where the Amazon Locker system is in place. Read The Full Story

Amazon could ship as many as 5M Kindle Fire tablets in Q4

Shane McGlaun, Oct 14th 2011 Discuss [8]

As soon as the Kindle Fire was unveiled, I think we all knew this tablet would be popular thanks to the low price. With that low price, we can also bet that the things will be hard to get with tablets being sold out shortly after launch. Analyst Ashok Kumar is now stating that Amazon may move more tablets than previously thought. Read The Full Story

Amazon Locker gets stealth launch, caught on video

Chris Davies, Oct 13th 2011 Discuss [1]

Amazon Locker has quietly gone live, with the option to have orders shipped to a locker system at a local 7-Eleven or other store showing up in the address book of some customers. In Seattle, GeekWire's nearest store showed up as a delivery option and they caught the whole collection system on video, which you can see after the cut. Read The Full Story

AmazonWireless puts ALL Verizon phones on sale for a penny

Chris Burns, Oct 12th 2011 Discuss [2]

There's only one exception to the rule on this "all Verizon phones" sale for a penny, can you guess what it is? One might think that the servers here at AmazonWireless would be massacred if it was found that all models of the iPhone would be on sale for a penny, but alas for you iOS fans, AmazonWireless doesn't carry the iPhone at all, so technically this is an "all Verizon phones that we have here in stock" sale. That said, you'll be able to pick up such BRAND NEW devices as the DROID 3, the DROID BIONIC, HTC Rhyme, and the Pantech Breakout, amongst the 31 on sale today. Read The Full Story