Archive for: amazon
A leaked screenshot of a new Amazon Video product has been released. Amazon has recently acquired LoveFilm in the UK and it now seems as though they want to take on Netflix head on.
It seems as though Amazon plans to offer an unlimited video streaming service. Amazon is yet to confirm anything, it seems pretty clear what the company has in the works is making streamed content an add-on to its existing Amazon Prime service, which provides free two-day shipping on any products consumers buy from Amazon.
It could be a hugely compelling alternative to Netflix for a number of reasons. First, the $79 it costs to be a part of Amazon Prime is cheaper than $95 Netflix subscribers have to shell out. Amazon also has pockets deep enough to match Netflix on content spending, and may even be able to provide content Netflix doesn’t have.
It seems like a lot of gadget manufacturers are focusing on bringing out new models as fast as possible, without even building up stock in the meantime. The latest is Amazon and their Kindle product. The Amazon Kindle is expected to launch a third generation in September, which already seems to be on back-order.
The third generation Kindle was planned to be released on August 27th, with both a Wifi and 3G version. Currently, both WiFi and 3G versions of the new Kindle are now listed as “temporarily sold out” with new orders not likely to ship until September 4. If these pre-orders continue to come in in excess of Amazon’s manufacturing capacity, we may even see that date slip farther back.
Is this the right practice? Or should these gadget manufacturers be focusing on building up stock and then announcing pre-orders. Its of course very difficult to expect what demand a certain product is going to have, but this becomes a lot easier when it is the third generation of a specific product.
How many iterations of the Kindle do we really need? Does it really matter in a world where the iPad has reigned supremeon a variety of levels? While the Kindle reportedly does one thing really well, which is serve as an ebook reader, the Kindle fall short in many areas but it looks like another Kindle version is coming out…does graphite excite you? If you’re like me, probably not.
Still the Graphite Kindle DX, reportedly $380, combines everything you loved about past models – Whispersync book syncing, free 3G wireless, the largest selection of ebooks around, and a physical keyboard. The new graphite body may look sleek, but apparently the screen is 50% sharper then past releases.
Some of the other new features include:
- no glare
- slimmer
- faster downloads (less than 60 seconds)
- longer battery life (up to 1 wk on a single charge)
- social network connectivity
If you’re an ebook reader that does nothing else than function as an ebook reader, the new Graphite Kindle DX might be for you.
The headlines says it all folks! Amazon has been very hungry recently picking up Zappos earlier on and now acquiring internet fav, woot.com. Woot catapulted into popularity by offering a deal a day. Every day at midnight, a new offer was posted and the masses fought each other for the ability to purchase the item until inventory was sold out. Since those days, Woot.com has expanded to include, shirtwoot, winewoot, and kidswoot, just to name a few. All the properties were established to focus on different niche markets.
Amazon, in a reportedly $110 million dollar deal, has now officially acquired the company but nothing will change. Much like the purchase od Zappos, the company will be allowed to run as status quo, except that they will be under the Amazon.com banner. Interesting to note that both Zappos and Woot have been identified as having stellar customer service and now they fall under Amazon which is also noted as having just as good customer service.
It will be interesting to see where this marriage will go. All employees and CEO’s will remain in place, but in the past Woot has not been one to shy away from controversial products, such as handguns, as part of their deals of the day. So while their offices might be saying “Woot!” to the purchase, their audience will wait to see what types of things change, if anything, under this new regime.
Barnes and Nobles, who have been hanging on tightly to their Nook reader has finally decided to release an app on an Apple device, an move that Amazon was smart enough to do years ago with the release of their Amazon Kindle App. Purportedly the Kindle app does very well on Apple devices, and now with the iPad’s iBookstore, what type of reception will the BN app have on the iPad?
The BN eReader will stand up to some stiff competition in an already saturated market, but variety is the spice of life, right? It’ll be interesting to see how many people are swayed to this app and if habits will change from what they are already using currently.
In an excerpt from their announcement:
BN eReader for iPad is designed to offer an easy, yet sophisticated, customizable reading experience. Users can choose from multiple ways to view their library, including professionally designed themes with elegant and complementary text and page colors, as well as fonts; and instantly switch between portrait and landscape views based on personal preference. BN eReader for iPad users can further personalize their reading experience with unparalleled options: literally millions of colors for text, pages, highlights and links; eight typefaces and five text sizes; and a variety of margins and customizable spacing options.
What I see as a huge win for the app is the support of the Nook’s “LendMe” technology, which allows users to share certain eBooks with their friends. This is made easier with the integration of the iPad’s address book. The book loan is good for 14 days, which is more than enough time to introduce the reader to a new author, series, or genre which BN hopes will be enough to drive sales.
A similar app has been available on the iPhone and iTouch as of last year, but still so late to the game, I’m personally not aware of anyone using the BN app, with the majority opting to use the Amazon Kindle app instead. Do you have a preference and if so, are you a fan of the BN app?
ECwid is a web app which allows you to easily create your own store which you can integrate within your website in minutes. Basically, it’s like Amazon Associates (mostly because it’s powered by Amazon) except this has much better easy-to-use tools installed and is also easier to use for novice users when it comes to integrating your ecommerce store within your website.
Once you have created an account you just select what products you would like in your store, tailor the layout and colour scheme to your tastes and then click ‘Finish’. You’ll then be given HTML coding which you can copy and paste into a page on your website to embed the store. This will then act as your very own store on your website as though your developed and integrated it yourself.
The program also allows you to track invoicing, customers, accounts and other such important data to see how your store is getting on and how it can be improved.
The EBook Market is hotting-up very rapidly with every man and his dog looking to make a quick buck (pun intended) on this new way of reading. Amazon revolutionised eReaders but now ASUS have announced their DR-900 EReader at CeBIT today.
ASUS, who are rapidly making a name for themselves with low-end electronics such as netbooks, may well be the perfect candidate to bring EReaders down to an affordable level. This new model will have a huge touch screen (1024 x 768 pixels), WiFi with a 3G option, 4GB of internal memory and a great interface from the screenshots I’ve seen.
It will support numerous popular file formats such as PDF, TXT, ePUB and Mp3 (there is also a 3.5mm headphone jack). I think this will be a great device. We’re still waiting to hear exact prices and launch dates from ASUS. I would be surprised if it wasn’t out by late summer.
So school and college are starting back soon. Just a few short weeks, in fact. That means thousands, no millions, of young people will be met by costs that would normally have been put on daddy’s credit card. What makes this year worse is that there are few part time jobs around that would have normally paid for the laptops, textbooks, stationary and gadgets that are to be found in the typical student’s backpack. The situation is especially bad in Europe where students and those leaving school have led protests – even violent ones such as those in France and Ireland.
This is good news for Ebay, Amazon and the likes.
The sale of low-end student laptops online is rising. Why pay 600 big ones in store for the latest machine when you could have last year’s model that will satisfy all your needs for a quarter of the price? After all, when at college a decent word processer and internet access is all you need.
Other items which are making big sales in the ‘back to school rush’ are backpacks, art supplies, cameras, suitcases and technical equipment specific to certain courses such as design and engineering.
Here I stand tapping out this article on my phone beside Trinity College in Dublin as I’m away from my desk this week. Students walk by me with iPhones and Macbooks preparing their dorms for their third or fourth year in college. For this year’s freshmen it’s going to be Ebay all the way – in the opinion of this Crenk reporter at least.
There has been a lot of speculation about this for a long time, but Microsoft announced officially the pricing that is related with Windows 7 in retail and upgrade versions. And guess what? It will be cheaper than Vista.
The difference isn’t all that much with the original pricing in Vista, but still the operating system is different and I’m sure you won’t regret the money invested in this OS as you may regretted with Vista. Here’s the detailed pricing:
Retail Versions
- Windows 7 Home Premium – $199.99 – [Vista Home Premium - $249.99]
- Windows 7 Professional – $299.99
- Windows 7 Ultimate – $319.99 – [Vista Ultimate - $319.99]
Upgrade Versions
- Windows 7 Home Premium – $119.99 – [Vista Home Premium - $129.99]
- Windows 7 Professional $199.99
- Windows 7 Ultimate – $219.99 – [Vista Ultimate - $219.99]
But wait, there’s more. There are some more good news about pre-ordering Windows 7 and getting 50% discount over the pricing mentioned above.
Amazon and other sites are offering discounts for those that purchase their Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional versions before July 11th:
- Windows 7 Home Premium – $50.00
- Windows 7 Professional $100.00
Check Amazon Windows 7 site.
