Nike has decided to end its pilot program with Amazon, the company has announced, but its products will remain for sale on the platform through third-party sellers. Nike launched its pilot program in 2017; under it, the company sold some of its products directly to Amazon, a move that would potentially give it more control over its brand on the Internet retailer's platform.
Amazon has rolled out a new feature it calls 'Alexa Home Theatre System' that enables its home entertainment customers to play audio from a Fire TV through an Echo smart speaker. The feature has launched with support for select Fire TV and Echo models at this time, including for some of the older units. Multiple configurations can be used ranging from a 1.0 to 2.1 setup.
Some signs over the past couple of months had teased the potential for a Disney+ launch that wouldn't include support for Amazon's Fire TV platform. In an announcement today, the company put those rumors to rest by confirming that Fire TV will support the Disney+ streaming service when it launches in a little over a week from now. Users will be able to download the Disney+ app from the Amazon App Store.
Amazon has rolled out another discount to its Prime membership service, this one offered exclusively to active and retired military service members. The new discount cuts a substantial chunk off the membership's price tag, joining the existing discounts for students, Medicaid participants, and EBT cardholders. The company requires proof of eligibility: here's how to submit it.
Ever since smart speakers started hitting shelves, there's been no lack of people bringing up certain security concerns, whether those have to do with flaws in hardware and software or just general privacy issues. Today, a team of researchers are detailing a new vulnerability that exists in many smart speakers - along with some phones and tablets - that could potentially allow hackers to issue voice commands from far away.
Amazon is rolling out new features for Alexa, ones that involve connected lighting systems with support for its personal assistant. The two big new features are Sleep Lighting Time and Wake-up Lights, both intended to improve the sleeping experience by automating lighting both at night and in the morning. Joining these two features are a couple of new Routines, as well.
Amazon is making some big moves today with Amazon Fresh, its grocery delivery service. The company announced that it's rolling Amazon Fresh into Prime, making it one of Prime's baseline benefits. Before today, Amazon Fresh cost $14.99 per month, so this is a pretty big perk if you happen to be subscribed to Prime.
Amazon has launched a news app for Fire TV, making it easier for its home entertainment customers to watch news broadcasts from a variety of sources. Simply called the News app on Fire TV, this new offering joins the previously launched news aggregator on Plex and similar offerings from competing companies. The News app is free for Amazon's Fire TV users.
The previously announced Food Network Kitchen platform has officially arrived on Amazon's Echo Show smart displays and its various Fire devices, including the Fire TV and Kindle Fire tablets. The service is also available on iOS and Android mobile devices, and Discovery is planning to launch it on other devices later on next year. Users can expect more than 25 interactive and live shows weekly.
Smart speakers like Amazon Echo or Google Home can certainly be useful tools, but along with that usefulness also comes a number of security concerns. These concerns have been well stated since these smart speakers first hit the market, and today, a team of security researchers are sounding the alarm on exploits affecting Google Home and Amazon Echo devices that developers can use to either eavesdrop on users or phish for personal information.
Amazon Alexa users located in the United States can now speak with the personal assistant in Spanish, the company has announced. The support has arrived for Alexa on Echo products and other devices that have the assistant built-in. Thanks to this support, developers now have the option of creating Alexa skills designed for Spanish-speaking users.
Politicians are always looking to ways to appeal younger generations, and that's led some of them to turn to video game streaming platform Twitch. We can now add US President Donald Trump to that list, as he used the platform to stream a campaign rally from Minneapolis last night. That was likely the first of many Twitch livestreams for the President, who already has a verified account.