Amazon

Cable-cutters, rejoice: HBO shows arriving to Fire TV and Amazon Prime on May 21

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

No one can touch Amazon when it comes to the breadth and size of its content library and today's announcement just reinforces the notion. The online retail giant has cut a landmark and unheard-of deal with Home Box Office Inc. (HBO), an American premium cable and satellite television network that in my opinion has the best original TV shows anywhere.

Under the terms of the exclusive multi-year agreement, both Amazon Prime members and owners of the recently introduced $99 Fire TV set-top box will soon be able to stream HBO's old shows three years after they've aired and at no additional charge. Catch 22: HBO is reserving new shows for existing subscribers and you'll need to subscribe to Amazon's $99 per year Prime Instant Video service.

Still, this is huge. Firstly, you won't need an HBO cable TV subscription at all to stream the shows. And secondly, online-only subscriptions to HBO were previously non-existent. Now, Apple TV owners are able to access HBO content via the HBO GO app on their Home screen, but this requires a subscription with a cable or satellite provider and therefore doesn't appeal to cable-cutters...

Amazon updates Kindle app with new Table of Contents, X-Ray features

Cody Lee ∙ April 23, 2014

Amazon Kindle users will be happy to hear that the iOS client for the e-book service received a nice little update this morning. The release, which brings the app to version 4.2, brings about two substantial new features: Table of Contents and X-Ray Smart Look-Up, and other improvements.

The first new feature is fairly self-explanatory—customers can now access a book's table of contents from within the app—but the second is a bit more subtle. X-Ray Smart Look-Up will allow users to take advantage of Amazon's quick-referencing tool without leaving their current page...

Amazon’s smartphone said to feature unique, tilt-based gesture interface

Cody Lee ∙ April 22, 2014

According to a bevy of recent reports, Amazon is preparing to launch a smartphone. It's a tough market to try to bust into this late in the game—with Apple and Samsung taking home a large share of the profits already—but from what we've heard, the e-commerce giant is going to try to differentiate itself with unique features.

Today, following up its report from last week on a purported prototype of the Amazon phone, BGR has offered up some new details. Apparently, in addition to glasses-free 3D and head-tracking tech, the handset will also feature a number of motion-based gestures that can be activated by tilting the device in various directions...

Amazon combines Cloud Drive and Kindle documents, giving you 10GB combined free storage

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 16, 2014

If you own a Kindle, check your Amazon Cloud Drive: you should now have ten gigabytes of cloud-based storage, twice as much as before.

On Wednesday, Amazon emailed its Kindle customers to let them know their Kindle documents had been integrated with their Cloud Drive, resulting in a combined ten gigs of free Amazon Cloud Drive storage.

The welcomed change applies to Kindle customers only, who can now use their combined account to store not only Kindle documents, but photos, videos and other file types as well...

Amazon smartphone head-tracking and 3D UI detailed, possible device prototype leaks

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2014

As we told you this past weekend, The Wall Street Journal has it on good authority that the online retail giant Amazon is gearing up to launch its rumored smartphone with a 3D screen around September, after entering the crowded living room market with its own $99 set-top box, the Fire TV.

TechCrunch is now chiming in with new details regarding the handset's head-tracking capabilities that are thought to offer up some "limited 3D effects" via a few built-in gestures. Also, a scoop from BGR claims to show a prototype Amazon smartphone device that may or may not have entered in production...

Amazon revamps Cloud Drive Photos for iOS 7, adds Timeline and other new features

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 14, 2014

Amazon today refreshed Cloud Drive Photos, its free iOS app that lets you store, view and access photographs and video files in the company's cloud-based storage service, Cloud Drive.

The app's been bumped to version 3.0 and completely redesigned with iOS 7 look and feel in mind that promises to "bring enjoyment back to viewing photos and videos on the go."

On top of the new looks, Cloud Drive Photos 3.0 brings out a Timeline thing (more on that later) that looks great on the iPad, has a simpler navigation with new sorting features, boasts upload enhancements with improved background fetching and more.

The update is now live in the App Store so grab it while it's hot...

WSJ: Amazon preparing to launch 3D smartphone in September

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

The Wall Street Journal added its weight to speculation that Amazon is preparing to launch a smartphone. The outlet reported late yesterday that the e-commerce giant has been showing off prototypes of the handset to developers, and it plans to take it public later this year.

What's really interesting about the device is that The Journal says its screen is capable of displaying three-dimensional images without the need for special glasses. And it accomplishes this by using retina-tracking technology that's embedded into four front-facing cameras...

Fire TV companion apps, Second Screen and Remote, hitting iOS soon

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Tucked away as a side note in Amazon's Fire TV announcement last week is an interesting confirmation of a companion iOS app for the set-top box that's scheduled to launch later this year in the App Store.

The software will act as a second screen solution allowing Fire TV owners to fling Amazon TV shows and movies from their iPhone or iPad to the $99 set-top box, providing remote functionality with playback controls, support for Amazon's X-Ray technology that pulls media metadata from the web and more.

In addition to Second Screen, the official Fire TV app for smartphones and tablets will launch soon, providing virtual controls for touch-enabled games...

Amazon announces it’s passed Apple and Hulu in streaming video usage

Cody Lee ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Following the unveiling of its new Fire TV box last week, Amazon announced today that video streams on Instant Video nearly tripled over the past year. And according to a report from tracking firm Qwilt, the e-commerce giant has surpassed Apple and Hulu in streaming video usage.

The report doesn't mention how traffic for Apple and Hulu is being tracked, but it does show that Amazon experienced a 94% traffic volume increase of streaming video users in the last 12 months. In fact, in March, Amazon's Instant Video service was only topped by Netflix and YouTube...

Apple poaches VP of Amazon A9′s Search Technology group

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 27, 2016

Apple has made another high-profile hire, having poached Benoit Dupin, Vice President of Amazon A9′s Search Technology group, according to the executive's professional business profile on LinkedIn.

Benoit, who brings over fifteen years of international technology industry experience within a wide range of disciplines, has left Amazon to help Apple improve search features in its own mapping service, sources speculated on Tuesday.

He isn't the first Amazon executive to have left for 1 Infinite Loop. Back in October 2012, Apple hired away another prominent Amazon search technologist, William Stasior, who is now working with the Siri team...

Amazon Instant Video gets overhauled with iOS 7 styling

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 7, 2014

Amazon on Monday issued a new version of its Instant Video for iOS app. Available free in the App Store, the new Amazon Instant Video version 2.5 now finally features a brand new user interface on the iPhone and iPad which honors Apple's human interface guidelines for iOS 7 development.

Released initially for the iPad in August 2012 and later updated with iPhone UI, the app picked up support for background AirPlay wireless streaming to the Apple TV back in September 2013.

If you live in the Amazon cloud, Instant Video for iOS is your gateway to the world of Hollywood entertainment available on Amazon's video service. Today's facelift arrives after the online retail giant announced (and started selling on the same day) its own set-top box last week, the $99 Fire TV that does voice and runs games.

Read on to learn more...

Amazon unveils its Apple TV competitor: meet the $99 Fire TV set-top box

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 13, 2018

Amazon has just taken the wraps off its new media-streaming device designed to compete with the likes of Apple's $99 Apple TV hockey puck, Roku devices and other media-streaming boxes available to cable-cutters today.

It's rather predictably called the Fire TV in a nod to the successful Kindle Fire tablet brand, costs $99 and runs a forked Android version code-named 'Mojito'.

Powered by a quad-core processor with 2GB RAM and a dedicated graphics processor, the set-top box is capable of streaming full HD 1080p resolution video (1,920-by-1,080 pixels) and Amazon claims it's three times more powerful than the Apple TV.

It supports 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus surround sound via HDMI and optical audio-out, has dual-band, dual-antenna Wi-Fi, comes with a Bluetooth remote and ties into Amazon's vast ecosystem of digital content licensed from Hollywood majors and broadcasters.

I don't think Apple should be concerned because the Fire TV's user interface appears clunky (I even like Chromecast's better) and it's hard to see much that isn't already out there, though I have no doubt in my mind that the Fire TV is here to stay and tie existing Amazon customers even deeper into its ecosystem.

Read on for the full reveal...