There are two sides to Amazon's new Fire Phone. On the one hand is the technology, Amazon experimenting with face tracking and optical recognition. On the other is the price and AT&T exclusivity; many believed Amazon would try to shake up the phone industry with its pricing, not match it. I've spent some time with the Fire Phone today: read on for some first impressions.
Earlier this month, Hachette lobbed an accusation against Amazon, claiming the retail giant was meddling with its sales and causing book shipments to be delayed by many weeks. After weeks of rumbles over this, Amazon has confirmed the spat in a forum post, with the reason revolving around contract issues.
The folks at Amazon interested most in making certain they’ve got the largest cross-section of Android-based apps possible have let it be known that Pokemon TV has hit their device library. In the Amazon Appstore, users will be able to access Pokemon TV starting this week. This app will allow users to access a library of more than 700 episodes of Pokemon TV shows spanning 16 seasons.
The power of the tilt will be utilized in the first-ever Amazon smartphone if this weeks’ anonymous reports are to be believed. While most smartphones have a gyroscope sensor inside, their uses are relatively few - depending on the apps they choose to use, that is. Amazon’s smartphone is said to use the gyroscope to massive effect.
After a long wait, the anticipated Amazon refund for certain Kindle customers is arriving in applicable accounts today in the form of an automatic credit. Not everyone will be seeing a credit, with it applying only to those who bought digital books from select publishers between April 1, 2010 and May 21, 2012.
With a codename like "Project Aria", we wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon was also trying to kick out the SEO of Motorola/Google’s Project Ara while they’re at it. This week it’s been tipped that Amazon’s long-rumored smartphone is part of talks between the company and potential OEM partners for overseas distribution. What we’re also to understand today is that "multiple" United States-based cellular carriers are already onboard with the idea.
If you are the owner of a first generation Kindle Paperwhite digital reader; you may have been missing some of the features that owners of the second generation of that reader have been enjoying. Amazon has added in new features that will give the original Paperwhite some features that it has been missing. One of those features is Goodreads integration.
There are many people out there that use PayPal that have been hoping for a competing service to come to market for a long time to dethrone eBay's behemoth. PayPal doesn't have the best reputation with buyers or sellers today. Amazon has been tipped to be working on a Kindle-based point-of-sale payment service system for retailers.
The primary way that Amazon sells its products, like the Kindle tablets and eReaders, is via its massively popular website. You can buy those Amazon Kindle products in a number of retail locations via Amazon retail partners. Amazon is trying another method of selling its items via its own retail presence.
Fans of the Rockstar Grand Theft Auto series were excited last month when the game landed on the iOS platform. That meant that the game was available for iPhone and iPad gamers. The announcement that the game was available for the Apple devices left Android users in the cold. The Android version was originally expected to launch alongside the iOS version.
This week the folks at Amazon have released the first big update to their mobile operating system since the new wave of Kindle devices in Fire OS 3.1. This version of the OS is - as always - based in Android, but modified to make itself wholly Amazon-friendly. This update brings on new deep integration with Goodreads, Second Screen, and Cloud Collections for starters.
This week the teams responsible for pushing as many Kindles as possible this holiday season have hit upon a rather lucrative business: custom-made covers. What Amazon intends on doing here is offering up a service that would normally be done by a variety of 3rd-party accessory makers, doing the work themselves to make the whole business feel much more like a single package. In other words, prospective owners of a Kindle - or those looking to buy one as a gift - will see the competition as a bit less unique now that a Kindle can come with a cover with a photo of their child on it.
