Amazon’s new motoring show will be called ‘The Grand Tour’

At last, the new motoring show from Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond has a name: The Grand Tour. The former Top Gear trio signed for Amazon last July with the promise of more automobile adventures. We’ve known for some time that it would debut on Prime Video this fall, with at least three seasons premiering over as many years. But there’s never been a name — something Clarkson and the gang have frequently poked fun at — until now. Notably, The Grand Tour can be condensed to TGT or GT, an acronym similar to Top Gear’s own TG.

Today, Amazon also revealed that the show will be travelling around the world — hence the new name — and will have a studio audience on location, similar to the old Top Gear hangar. Only this time, the public will be hanging out in a giant tent, rather than a not-too-portable building. The BBC, meanwhile, is hard at work developing a new-look Top Gear with Chris Evans at the helm. The new season premieres later this month with a fresh set of co-hosts including Friends star Matt LeBlanc and motorsport pundit Eddie Jordan. You can get a taste through some early trailers.

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— The Grand Tour (@thegrandtour) May 11, 2016

Via: The Guardian

Source: Amazon

Computer vision is key to Amazon Prime Air drone deliveries

For all of Amazon’s grand plans regarding delivery drones, it still needs to figure out concepts we take for granted with traditional courier methods. Namely, figuring out how to drop off your latest order without destroying anything (including the UAV itself) during transit and landing. That’s where advanced computer vision comes in from Jeff Bezos’ new team of Austria-based engineers, according to The Verge. The group invented methods for reconstructing geometry from images and contextually recognizing environmental objects, giving the drones the ability to differentiate between, say, a swimming pool and your back patio. Both are flat surfaces, but one won’t leave your PlayStation VR headset waterlogged after drop-off.

The project’s Konrad Karner notes that the neural network is scalable and can run on “several thousand” computers in parallel to give the drones the instantaneous info they require for making safe deliveries. “The drone will not just see the world around it, but understand its properties,” Karn says. Helpful when all of the onboard tech in the world won’t help it communicate with or avoid the likely most common airborne object found flying at drone-approved altitudes: birds.

Source: The Verge

Amazon announces a simple way to put your videos on its platform

Amazon has spent the past few years emulating Netflix with its many streaming video offerings. Now with Amazon Video Direct (AVD), it’s taking a cue from Vimeo and YouTube by making it easier than ever to get your videos streaming, and most importantly, get you paid. You’ll be able to upload your own videos and choose exactly how you want people to access them with AVD. You could, for example, make them available to all Amazon Prime viewers, or just go the typical video on demand rental and purchase route. Alternatively, you can also make it open to all Amazon members with ad support, or create a whole channel available via subscription through Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program.

While Vimeo has carved a niche out for itself as a hub for independent video makers, Amazon has a major advantage in terms of reach and device support. The company also promises detailed metrics for seeing how your content is doing, including “minutes a title was streamed, projected revenue, payment history, or number of subscribers.”

You’ll get 50 percent of revenues from rentals and purchases, and 55 percent for ad revenue, Variety reports. Prime Video content will earn 15 cents per hour streamed in the US, and 6 cents every hour elsewhere (earnings are also capped at $75,000 per video). Amazon’s launch partners for the new program include Conde Nast, Machinima and Samuel Goldwyn films.

To sweeten the pot, Amazon is also kicking off the AVD Stars program, which will give video makers a chance to make bonus revenue from a pot of a million dollars, based on how much people view their content. Yes, that’s on top of the revenue the videos make on their own. Not surprisingly, Amazon is automatically enrolling creators who put their content on Prime Video. It’s unclear what the signup process will be like if you choose to go the standard VOD route. For now, it seems like a smart way to tempt people into populating Prime Video with content.

Source: Amazon

Amazon wins its first BAFTA with ‘Transparent’

Amazon doesn’t have the volume or breadth of exclusives to compete with Netflix, but it does have a few standout originals that are slowly winning mind share for Prime Video. At the BAFTA TV awards last night, for instance, the company took home the International category for Transparent. The show beat out Narcos, the drug-fuelled crime drama from Netflix, as well as Spiral and The Good Wife. Netflix had also been nominated in the Radio Times Audience Award for its documentary series Making a Murderer, but lost out to the BBC period drama Poldark.

It’s the first BAFTA Amazon has ever won. Transparent has picked up plenty of awards elsewhere, however, including two Golden Globes (best actor and best comedy), five Primetime Emmy Awards and one Screen Actors Guild Award. It’s widely considered to be Amazon’s best show, edging out fellow successes Mozart in the Jungle and The Man in the High Castle. The company has commissioned a slew of other series, but few have gained the traction or critical acclaim needed to change the public’s opinion of Prime Video. These awards are, therefore, an important way for the company to legitimise its efforts and attract new viewers.

Netflix, meanwhile, is still waiting on its first BAFTA. Beasts of No Nation came up short in February, while its occasional TV nominations — which include House of Cards and Orange is the New Black — have failed to win in recent years. Still, the selections are an acknowledgment of Netflix’s output and the strides it’s taken to compete with traditional TV broadcasters. With such a large catalog of shows, it seems inevitable that the company will eventually take home its own BAFTA. Maybe next year?

Source: BAFTA

Amazon promises to eliminate racial gaps in delivery areas

Just two weeks after a Bloomberg report revealed glaring racial gaps in Amazon’s same-day Prime delivery areas, the online retail giant has promised to eliminate those dead zones by expanding the service “to every zip code of the 27 cities where Prime Same Day delivery is currently launched,” Amazon said in a statement today.

The controversy started when Bloomberg’s analysis showed same-day deliveries were unavailable in predominantly black or Hispanic zip codes in at least six major cities including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, New York City and Washington, D.C.

The dead zones were brought to the attention of the National Black Caucus, which immediately began monitoring the situation and initiated an FTC investigation, while simultaneously calling on Amazon to take swift action. That outcry worked, apparently. As of today, Amazon has expanded to Roxbury, a largely African American neighborhood in Boston where the service was previously unavailable despite being surrounded by same-day delivery areas.

In a statement to USA Today earlier this week, Amazon claimed race was not a deciding factor in determining which neighborhood got the service, but pointed to a number of other factors including, “distance to the nearest fulfillment center, local demand in an area, numbers of Prime members in an area, as well as the ability of our various carrier partners to deliver up to 9 p.m. every single day, even Sunday.”