Amazon adds 4,000 items to its one-hour delivery service
For those of us who like to procrastinate, Amazon added 4,000 items to its Prime Now delivery service for the holiday rush. In addition to its selection of food items and household goods, the one-hour delivery option will now drop off baking supplies, wrapping paper and a smattering of last-minute gifts ranging from electronics to toys. Starting today, Prime Now customers in Manhattan can order beer, wine and spirits, just in case you show up to your office party empty handed. The one-hour delivery will cost you $8, but if you can wait another 60 minutes, there’s no extra charge.
For now, customers in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Seattle and Richmond are privy to the service. And in addition to the items available from Amazon and other local retailers, the service is constantly expanding its food delivery from local restaurants as well.
[Image credit: Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images]
Source: Amazon (Business Wire)
[Deal] Nexus 5X gets discounted $50 on the Google Store and Amazon
Only one month after its launch, the Google Nexus 5X has already begun showing deals. Through the end of the year, one can purchase the Nexus 5X at a discounted price on either the Google Store or Amazon.
The Nexus 5X was already an affordable device, but has now become even more affordable. Both the Google Store and Amazon are running the same $50 promotion, which will apply for both the 16GB and 32GB versions. The 16GB model now costs only $330, down from $380, and the 32GB version now costs $380 rather than the original $430 price tag. In addition, Best Buy is running a similar promotion on the handset. All prices are for the unlocked version, which are not linked to any carrier or contract agreement. Not a bad deal if you ask me. Our review of the Nexus 5X is coming soon, but for now, you can check out the specs overview here.
[Google Store] [Amazon]
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Nexus 5X gets discounted $50 on the Google Store and Amazon
[Deal] Get the Fire HD 6 Tablet for just £59 from Amazon UK
Giving a tablet as a Christmas present can serve dual purposes; on the one hand, it will make you feel good that you gave such a nice present, and on the other it will keep the recipient busy (quiet) for hours. You don’t have to spend the earth either because Amazon’s Fire HD 6 is a perfectly decent offering with decent features for its price. And, handily for this time of year, it has been discounted to just £59, giving a saving of £20.
For £59, the Fire HD 6 features the following specifications:
- Fire OS 5 “Bellini“
- 6-Inch HD IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution and 252ppi (Gorilla Glass protections
- Quad-core processor (2 x cores @ 1.2GHz + 2 x cores @ 1.5GHz)
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB Internal storage (4.5GB user)
- 2MP Rear camera
- VGA Front camera
- Mono speaker/microphone
- WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n
- Dimensions: 169 x 103 x 10.7mm
- Weight: 290 grams
- 3.5mm Audio jack
The Amazon Fire HD 6 isn’t the best tablet you can buy, but for £59 it’s a decent step up from the basic Fire Tablet (reviewed here) that is just £10 cheaper but comes with a display with a poorer resolution (1024 x 600). Amazon UK shows the Fire HD 6 as in stock and ready to be delivered by December 11th (if you are an Amazon Prime customer). Only the Black, Cobalt and Citron colours are eligible for the £20 saving, the White and Magenta options revert to the usual £79 price tag.
It should be noted that the Fire HD 6 does come with Special Offers, which means you’ll receive personalised offers on the bottom of the device, as well as on the screen saver. Luckily, if this annoys you, you can opt out for just £10 anytime afterwards. Does the Amazon Fire HD 6 tick your box? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Amazon UK
Come comment on this article: [Deal] Get the Fire HD 6 Tablet for just £59 from Amazon UK
Nexus 5X now $60 off: Google Store, Amazon, Best Buy!
Google is in the giving mood! After a brief price break for Black Friday, the Nexus 5X is back on sale, this time for a decidedly longer duration. From now until December 30th, the Google Store has taken $50 off the price tag bringing the 16GB model to $329 and the 32GB model to $379. Amazon and Best Buy are also in on the sale and have reduced their product prices as well!
Another potential present for smartphone shoppers at the Google Store is an extended return window. Purchases made from December 8th through December 25 can be returned through January 22, 2016. This applies to everything however, not just the Nexus 5X.
Notes on the Nexus
The Nexus 5X, made by LG Electronics, is the smaller of this year’s two Nexus smartphones, the other, pricer yet more powerful and potent being the Huawei Nexus 6P. Just as with Black Friday, it is only the LG variant which has received a discount, however those customers who went shopping the day after Thanksgiving ultimately got the better deal as said sale was for $80 off.
In our official review, we concluded that:
There is no doubt that the Nexus 5X is a worthy successor to the Nexus 5, but this device faces far harder competition that anything seen by the Nexus 5. While aspects like the really good fingerprint scanner, a far improved camera, and smooth performance are fantastic to see, it isn’t that difficult to find a worthy alternative either, depending on your needs.
Nexus 5X
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While everyone can appreciate a good deal, we suspect this prolonged price point might have to do with a sales trend favoring the Huawei Nexus, which was sold out upon its release at the Google Store. The Nexus 5X on the other hand, was readily available from day one.
Seeing Overseas
The retail prices of carrier Nexus 5X units in Japan is so expensive they are higher than the 6P hardware.
This sale is not limited exclusively to America however, as it appeared this morning here in Japan where the device – like in other territories – is significantly more expensive than it is in the United States. The return window component is also present, as it is in Google Stores around the world.
In Japan specifically, this is a rather surprising development given that Christmas is not observed here and relegated to a decorative event with a pretext for dating. Google is thus assuming citizens are going to be purchasing presents, though with New Years coming up – a holiday that is a major family event here – the gesture is still applicable.
To buy or not to buy?
Will this price break on the Nexus 5X encourage you to do some smartphone shopping? Is it a better value at the new reduced cost, or would you still preferentially prefer a a Nexus 6P? Leave us your comments below and be sure to let us know!
Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program brings other streaming services to one place
Amazon Prime customers will be getting even more benefits to their subscription. Amazon has just announced its new Streaming Partners Program where other streaming video providers can sell their service through Prime.
This is basically a one-stop-shop for most streaming services. Prime customers will be able to pay for other streaming services all in the same place. Also, they will get them at discounted prices for being Prime customers.
The first two companies that will offer their services are Showtime and Starz. Each are available for $8.99 a month after a free trial. Some other launch partners are A&E’s Lifetime Movie Club, AMC’s Shudder and SundanceNow Doc Club, Gaia, the Smithsonian, and more.
Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video at Amazon said:
“The way people watch TV is changing, and customers need an easier way to subscribe to and enjoy multiple streaming subscriptions. With the Streaming Partners Program, we’re making it easy for video providers to reach highly engaged Prime members, many of whom are already frequent streamers, and we’re making it easier for viewers to watch their favorite shows and channels.”
Also, there are other benefits like, latest episodes available simultaneous with broadcast, one Watchlist across all subscriptions, unified voice search and ASAP on Fire TV, and much more.
Amazon says this partnership with other streaming services will benefit them as well. They will no longer have to deal with billing, handling credit cards, or dealing with customers. The services will also be able to run on any device with the Amazon Video app installed.
Press Release:
Amazon Prime members can now add SHOWTIME, STARZ and dozens more video subscriptions to their Prime membership
Now, video providers can reach a new set of highly engaged viewers with Amazon responsible for driving subscriber acquisition
Prime customers benefit from free trials, self-service cancellation of any subscription and special Prime member pricing—subscriptions for SHOWTIME and STARZ are only $8.99 per month
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Dec. 8, 2015– (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today launched the Streaming Partners Program, an over-the-top streaming subscription program for video providers that enables them to reach tens of millions of Prime members. With the Streaming Partners Program, video providers have access to a highly engaged streaming audience, and viewers have a more convenient way to manage their streaming subscriptions.
The Streaming Partners Program offers many benefits for video providers. Amazon is responsible for:
- Driving all subscriber acquisition
- Making subscribing friction-free—credit cards are already on file
- Handling all customer service
- Managing all billing
- Managing credit card expirations
- Serving your content through high-quality, reliable streaming infrastructure
- Managing compatibility across hundreds of devices
The Streaming Partners Program offers many benefits for viewers, including:
- Free trials on all subscriptions
- Special Prime member pricing
- Latest episodes available simultaneous with broadcast
- Convenience of one account
- One Watchlist across all subscriptions
- Self-service cancellation of any subscription at anytime
- IMDb X-Ray integration
- Unified search and browse across subscriptions
- Unified voice search and ASAP on Fire TV
“The way people watch TV is changing, and customers need an easier way to subscribe to and enjoy multiple streaming subscriptions,” said Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video at Amazon. “With the Streaming Partners Program, we’re making it easy for video providers to reach highly engaged Prime members, many of whom are already frequent streamers, and we’re making it easier for viewers to watch their favorite shows and channels.”
“We’re excited to work with Amazon to offer our streaming service featuring all of our award-winning original series, plus our exclusive sports, news-making documentaries and blockbuster movies, to millions of Prime users,” said David Nevins, President, Showtime Networks Inc. “By marryingSHOWTIME with the powerhouse retail capabilities of Amazon, we continue to greatly expand our footprint, making sure our service is available to new subscribers whenever and however they want to watch us.”
“STARZ is excited to offer subscriptions to our premium hit shows like ‘Outlander’ and ‘Power,’ as well as our thousands of movies, to Amazon Prime customers,” said Chris Albrecht, CEO of Starz said. “This is a terrific product for customers to conveniently navigate their entertainment options quickly, easily and anywhere.”
Initial launch partners include: SHOWTIME, STARZ, A+E Network (Lifetime Movie Club), AMC (Shudder and SundanceNow Doc Club), Gaia, RLJ Entertainment (Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel, Acacia TV), DramaFever (DramaFever Instant), Tribeca Shortlist, Cinedigm (Dove Channel, Docurama, CONtv), Smithsonian (Smithsonian Earth), IndieFlix (IndieFlix Shorts), Curiosity Stream, Qello Concerts, FlixFling (Cinefest, Nature Vision, Warriors and Gangsters, Dox, Monsters and Nightmares), BroadbandTV (Hooplakidz Plus), DEFY Media (ScreenJunkies Plus), Gravitas (Film Forum, Daring Docs, Fear Factory), and Ring TV Boxing.
To explore the full set of premium content available to Prime members, visitwww.amazon.com/videosubscriptions. To become an Amazon streaming partner, visitwww.amazon.com/streamingpartners.
Today customers will also find a newly designed Amazon Video homepage making it easy for customers to find movies and TV shows available on Prime, available through the Streaming Partners Program, or available to rent or buy.
About Amazon Video
Amazon Video offers customers unlimited access to tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including award-winning Amazon Original Series, through Amazon Prime; monthly subscriptions toSHOWTIME, STARZ, and more; and hundreds of thousands of titles including new-release movies and current TV shows for rent or purchase.
The entire range of selection can be instantly accessed through the Amazon Video app on TVs, streaming media players, mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, and Fire tablets, or online atAmazon.com/amazonvideo.
Prime Video, included in Amazon Prime, enables Prime members enjoy binge-worthy TV shows including Amazon Original Series airing now such as the multi-Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated series Transparent, the breakout hit The Man in the High Castle, based on Philip K. Dick’s novel, the hour-long drama Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling books, the Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman comedy, Mozart in the Jungle, and the comedy created by and starring Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, Catastrophe, in addition to HBO favorites like The Sopranos, True Blood and Girls, and popular primetime series including 24, Downton Abbey, Extant, Falling Skies, Grimm, Hannibal, Justified, Orphan Black, Teen Wolf, The Americans, and Under the Dome. Prime members also have access to an exclusive collection of kids shows now airing including Amazon Original Series’ Annedroids, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and the Annecy, Annie and multi-Emmy Award-winning Tumble Leaf, as well as popular shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, and Blue’s Clues. Customers who are not already Prime members can sign up for a free trial at www.amazon.com/prime.
In addition to tens of thousands of titles to instantly stream on Prime Video, the Amazon Prime membership (www.amazon.com/prime) includes more than one million songs, more than a thousand playlists and hundreds of stations through Prime Music, unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, early access to select Lightning Deals, unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, and access to borrow from more than 800,000 books for Kindle owners–all for $99 a year.
About Amazon
Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit www.amazon.com/about.
Come comment on this article: Amazon’s Streaming Partners Program brings other streaming services to one place
Amazon now letting Prime users attach other video streaming services
Remember the livingroom? I remember mine. On cold winter nights, the whole family would gather around the television, and we’d sip hot chocolate and laugh at Budweiser commercials together. Legends say the livingroom is still somewhere in the house collecting dust to this very day, but we don’t go to the livingroom anymore. Now our entertainment comes to us: on our tablets, our laptops, our smartphones. Today, Amazon is bringing its Prime subscribers a bit of TV nostalgia by effectively bringing channels to video streaming.
Amazon has launched their “Streaming Partners” program, a system that unifies streaming video services and lets you switch smoothly between them through your Prime account. Like television channels, but streaming. The goal, it seems, is to get all of your video services together in one place, but upon release, it’s not quite there yet. Major players like HBO GO and Netflix aren’t available, which isn’t really surprising. Instead, Amazon is leaning on smaller services like IndieFlix and Qello. Starz, Showtime, and AMC also got into the action, which is a big plus.
See also: Sprint offering Samsung phone buyers a free year of Amazon Prime
Amazon looks to augment current streaming services in a number of ways. Search functionality that spans all attached subscriptions seems pretty useful, and Amazon’s “X-Ray” integration, which allows users to read about what they’re watching via IMDb in a sort of modern version of Pop-Up Video, will be incorporated into videos even outside the Prime video library. The megastructure of the Streaming Partners Program promises to let users manage payment for all of these services within a single interface, allowing them to cancel or subscribe to any of available services at the drop of a hat.
The full list of services available on launch is as follows, according to Amazon:
Initial launch partners include: SHOWTIME, STARZ, A+E Network (Lifetime Movie Club), AMC (Shudder and SundanceNow Doc Club), Gaia, RLJ Entertainment (Acorn TV, Urban Movie Channel, Acacia TV), DramaFever (DramaFever Instant), Tribeca Short List, Cinedigm (Dove Channel, Docurama, CONtv), Smithsonian (Smithsonian Earth), IndieFlix (IndieFlix Shorts), Curiosity Stream, Qello, FlixFling (Cinefest, Nature Vision, Warriors and Gangsters, Dox, Monsters and Nightmares), BroadbandTV (Hooplakidz Plus), DEFY Media (ScreenJunkies Plus), Gravitas (Film Forum, Daring Docs, Fear Factory), and Ring TV Boxing.
If you’re a Prime member and you want to get the full scoop on what this service can do for you, click the button below to head over to the Streaming Partners Program hub. Let us know in the comments what you think about Amazon’s latest improvement to video streaming.
Several Rovio games on Amazon Underground managed to triple revenue for developer
Amazon Underground has been gaining momentum since launch, and even big name developers can stand to benefit from putting their games on the service. Rovio, for example, published several big titles to Amazon Underground, including Angry Birds Rio, Angry Birds Stella, Angry Birds Space, and Bad Piggies, and saw their revenue triple for those titles just by being on Amazon Underground.
While Amazon makes the apps (and their in-app purchases) free for users, it also reimburses developers for every minute that the apps are used. That means that Rovio made some money off of users that probably wouldn’t have purchased anything to begin with, which is a pretty big deal in a time when monetizing mobile apps is extremely difficult.
Now to keep things in perspective, these apps tripled their revenue compared to what was previously being made in Amazon’s own App Store. That doesn’t include the revenue from the Play Store and Apple’s App Store, both of which are certainly bigger pools than Amazon’s fairly limited storefront. But Amazon’s Kindle ecosystem makes up a big enough portion of the pie that it was still probably a fairly profitable move for Rovio to make, and it might entice other developers to follow suit.
source: Amazon
Come comment on this article: Several Rovio games on Amazon Underground managed to triple revenue for developer
Jeff Bezos’ fourth tweet promises to #sendDonaldtospace
I’ve sent out plenty of Twitter replies to haters, but you’ll have that after 38,000~ posts. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is relatively new to the service, and as such he has used one quarter of his tweets in responding to a Donald Trump tweetstorm. Trump claimed Bezos’ ownership of The Washington Post is a scam, meant as a deduction to keep taxes down at his “no-profit” retail shop. Since Bezos, not Amazon, owns the Post and Amazon is (at least for the moment) profitable, this seems to be just another Trump statement that has little to no relationship with truth or facts of any kind. This evening Bezos fired back by bringing his third company Blue Origin into the fray, promising to reserve Donald Trump a seat. There’s no word on if that seat comes with a return trip.
Finally trashed by @realDonaldTrump. Will still reserve him a seat on the Blue Origin rocket. #sendDonaldtospace https://t.co/9OypFoxZk3
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) December 7, 2015
Source: Jeff Bezos (Twitter)
Amazon takes the wraps off new Fire HD 8 Reader’s Edition
Earlier today, Amazon took the wraps off its latest Android-powered tablet, the Fire HD 8 Reader’s Edition, which is available to pre-order from the company’s online store for $249.99 with shipments expected to leave the warehouse on Wednesday, December 9.
Unlike previous Fire models, the Reader’s Edition ships with a nifty Blue Shade feature that makes reading at night significantly easier. When switching to this mode, a filter to restrict exposure to blue light is applied to the display and the brightness is dimmed to an ultra-low setting to ensure that words are clearly visible.
All other hardware on board the Reader’s Edition is identical to the standard Fire HD 8, which means that it packs an 8-inch IPS display, a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 8GB/16GB of expandable internal storage and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera.
If you’re not entirely sold on Amazon’s newest addition to the Fire lineup, the online giant’s hoping a year’s free subscription to Kindle Unlimited will seal the deal. This will give users access to over one-million books along with thousands of audiobooks. Amazon’s also throwing in a free protective case, which is described as having the “look and feel of a real book cover”.
If you’d like to find out more about picking one up — hit the source link below.
Source: Amazon
Come comment on this article: Amazon takes the wraps off new Fire HD 8 Reader’s Edition
Amazon’s $250 Fire bundle will feed your reading habit
If you’ve been eyeing an e-reader for that special someone this holiday, Amazon has a new bundle that could do the trick. The online retailer announced what it’s calling the Reader’s Edition of the Fire HD 8. In addition to the reading gadget itself, the $250 price includes a year of books from Kindle Unlimited and a leather cover. If you were to pay separately, the Kindle Unlimited subscription alone would cost you $120 for 12 months.
Source: Amazon (Business Wire)
AIVAnet 