Amazon has updated its most affordable ereader, with the all-new Kindle now getting a screen light and a more readable e-paper display. It's the first time that Amazon has offered screen illumination on a Kindle under $100, though the ability to read when the lights are out isn't the only improvement.
Apple Music is now available on Amazon Fire TV, enabling customers to play music through their television using voice commands. The new support has arrived in the Apple Music skill, which has already been available for Echo device owners to utilize. In addition to the new Fire TV support, Apple Music will also soon arrive for Echo and Fire TV device owners located in the UK.
Amazon has completed its acquisition of Eero, and to mark the occasion it has slashed $100 off the price of the home WiFi mesh networking system. News of the acquisition broke back in February, with Amazon adding the multi-router system to its growing list of hardware brands it owns.
Amazon has dozens of Pop-Up stores located around the US, enabling potential customers to try out the company's hardware devices before they make a purchase. These stores are small, as their name indicates, and can be found in other, larger destinations, such as malls and Whole Foods stores. That will change soon, according to a new report, with Amazon shutting down all of its Pop-Up locations.
If you've ever been listening to a playlist only to have songs you've never heard before pop up, you definitely aren't alone there. Depending on how you're listening, figuring out the title and artist of a song can be as simple as looking at your phone for more information, asking an AI assistant to tell you what's playing, or when things get particularly dire, heading to Google to search lyrics. Amazon is rolling out new functionality to Amazon Music and Alexa today that will answer the question of what's playing before it even comes up.
With all of the thousands of Alexa skills out there, it's at least a little surprising to realize that Roku has gone all of this time without a skill of its own. That all changes today with the roll out of the new Roku Alexa skill, which will of course allow you to control your Roku devices with voice commands. Alexa is joining Google Assistant and Roku's own voice search, giving users a decent number of options when it comes to voice support.
Last week, a CNN report detailed the alarming amount of anti-vaccine content that's available on Amazon, including documentaries on its Prime Video service. It appears Amazon got the message and is acting quickly to address the situation, as only days later the company has starting pulling the video content from Prime.
Whole Foods may not be enough to sate Amazon's appetite, with the online retailer reportedly planning to open a new chain of grocery stores in the US. Amazon acquired Whole Foods in mid-2017, and promptly set about integrating services like Amazon Prime into the grocery company.
When they first came out, Amazon's Dash buttons easily became the butt of jokes. Who would want a dedicated button just to order laundry soap through Amazon? Apparently, a lot did and Amazon saw the quirky $5 connected devices as hit to the point that its success may have been its own undoing. Now the retailer has announced that it will no longer be selling these quirky physical Dash buttons but its spirit and support lives on in today's connected home appliances.
Amazon has taken another step in addressing the problem of counterfeit products on its platform. The company has unveiled Project Zero, a program that enables brands to directly target counterfeit product listings. Using what Amazon describes as a 'self-service' tool, brands can remove counterfeit product listings themselves rather than wait for Amazon to act on a report.
Today Amazon Prime gets Amazon Day, a service that'll place all items ordered into a single delivery. This initiative is aimed at people who like the idea of using less boxes - and of getting a bunch of stuff they bought on the internet all at once. Less packaging means less environmental impact, and Amazon Day means you're more likely to feel like you've got a standing appointment with Amazon, a convenience-made-promotion not unlike that of a coupon or a gift card in such a sense.
The Federal Trade Commission has announced its first ever case tackling fake, paid reviews published on an "independent retail website." According to the FTC, it has settled a complaint with Cure Encapsulations and its owner Naftula Jacobwitz over alleged "false and unsubstantiated claims" involving a weight-loss supplement sold on Amazon. According to the FTC's complaint, the company paid a third-party website to post fake reviews about the product.