Amazon

Amazon to Provide CD Buyers With Cloud-Based MP3s For Free (Update: It’s Just Launched!)

CNET is reporting that Amazon is planning to launch a reward scheme for CD buyers. When they purchase music in its physical form, they’ll also receive a digital copy, which they’ll be able to listen to via Amazon’s cloud music service. Update: The service is now live! See below for more details Codenamed “Auto Rip”,…

Canadians, rejoice! Amazon has finally graced you with its Prime service—including free two-day shipping—for $79/year.

The Ultimate Guide to 2013’s Science Fiction and Fantasy TV

This year marks a year of epic undertakings for the major TV networks, after a couple years of playing it safe. Syfy cranks out their long awaited MMO-meets-TV series Defiance, and ABC launches its crazy conspiracy drama Zero Hour. Also in store for 2013: a whole lot of new superhero shows, and Doctor Who’s 50th…

Turns Out That $100 Acer Tablet Is Actually $130

A few weeks ago, reports trickled down from the mount that Acer was prepping a $100 7-inch tablet with specs that were juuuussssssst decent enough to be usable. The Iconia B1-A71 seems to fit the bill. Except, well, for the bill. https://gizmodo.com/you-wont-be-able-to-buy-the-first-decent-100-tablet-5970992 The Iconia B1-A71 has a 1.2GHz processor, a 1024×600 display, 8GB of storage,…

Amazon Prime will get Pawn Stars, Dance Moms, and other fine programming, thanks to a new deal with A&E. [BusinessWire]

EBay’s Testing Two New Ways to Help Sell Your Stuff

As major online retailers are being shoved further into the physical realm to keep competitive, eBay’s doing everything it can to stay in the fray with the announcement of two new pilot programs. https://gizmodo.com/how-amazon-s-same-day-delivery-plan-will-kill-your-loca-5925387 The first comes in the form of a “selling assistant” who essentially acts as a consignment store with pick-up service—for 25%…

The Biggest Tech Screw-Ups of 2012

What a year for technology, what with all its tiny tablets and overhauled operating systems. But for every Nexus 7 triumph, a Nexus Q disaster reared its gruesome head. Here are the worst screw-ups the tech industry endured in 2012. Advanced warning: They’re not for the faint of heart. 9. SOPA The only reason SOPA’s…

Six Things Your Friends and Family Should Have Gotten You From Amazon

Finding the perfect Christmas gifts for your friends and family is a real challenge. And as you struggle to find things they might like, don’t forget they’re trying to do the same for you. So when you open those ugly earmuffs or the fondue pot they already got you last year, just smile politely and…

Amazon Sets Holiday Shopping Records Despite Making Half Of What It Made Last Year

On its peak day this holiday shopping season, Amazon sold an astonishing 26.5 million items at a rate of 306 items per second. And the honor of being the “#1 best-selling, most gifted, and most wished for product” goes to Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD. The release is chock full of wins for Amazon but take…

Amazon won’t sell a self-published memoir that has Star Wars in the title

I have a bad feeling about this. Just after we heard Amazon stopped selling someone’s novels because they contained the allegedly trademarked phrase “space marine,” the online book retailer has also pulled a memoir whose title mentions Star Wars. https://gizmodo.com/games-workshop-gets-someones-book-yanked-from-amazon-fo-5969092 Talking to Boing Boing, author Gib Van Ert explains: Amazon has decided to remove the…

The Most Exciting Audio Advancements of the Year

Changes in a speaker’s audio quality might not be quite as noticeable as a big jump in a screen’s pixel density, but the sound of a movie can have a much bigger effect on how you experience it. In short, good audio ain’t just for audiophiles. Here’s the sound technology that changed the aural universe…

Amazon Is Selling Stolen iPhones. Merry Christmas!

Gizmodo Twitter friend Ben Dreyfuss. bought his mom an iPhone for Christmas. Ben is a good son! Christmas morning: Mama D. tears open the package, finds a shiny aluminum bundle of joy, and then decides to set it up. One problem: When she called Verizon to activate the thing, they told her that her new…

Amazon’s Culling Its Reviews, Mostly The Fake Ones

When you’re trying to pick the right product to buy on Amazon, official descriptions and personal taste factor in, sure, but the deal-maker—or breaker—is often that review score, especially with books. The problem is, how do you know if they’re legitimate or not? Well Amazon is trying to help you out with that by getting…

Amazon’s Amazing Free Overnight Shipping: The Best Gifts

Behind on your holiday shopping? No worries. Amazon’s got free overnight shipping on hundreds of products through tomorrow. Here’s the best of what can still get to you—for free—before Christmas. http://amazon.com/freeshipping?tag=gizmodo08c-20 Quick note: Everything below ordered by tomorrow (12/22) at 11:59 AM PST will get to your house by end of day Monday, with free…

Is Amazon Working On Some Sort of “KindleCare”?

There’s been a (pretty shaky) rumor kicking around lately that Amazon might be trying its hand at a smartphone, and now there’s some circumstantial evidence that Amazon might be getting ready to push in another direction as well. According to GigaOM, Amazon might be getting into warranties. https://gizmodo.com/report-amazon-is-possibly-maybe-building-a-smartphone-5969121 The possibilty of Amazon launching some sort…

5 Ways Ereaders Are Still Better Than Tablets

The Age of the Ereader is drawing to a close. That’s the drumbeat this week, after iSuppli pegged the year-over-year decline of reader sales at a staggering 36 percent. It makes sense; why get a fuddy little Kobo when there are cheap Kindle Fires aplenty to be had? Turns out, plenty of reasons. Tablets are…

Amazon’s New Sitcoms Look Like They Might Actually Be Good

Amazon just took the lid off of a bunch of new, original series it’s taking to pilot, and surprise—some of them actually look really good. All Things D has the rundown on all six, and details about how they’ll be rolled out. Here’s the lineup, as told by ATD: Alpha House, about “four senators who…

Amazon Has Another Huge Security Hole

You may recall that Amazon was implicated as the weak link in the Mat Honan iCloud hack, wherein a gadget blogger had his entire online identity nuked from orbit because Amazon gave up the secondary identifying information necessary to issue a password reset over at Apple. (The last four of your credit card, incidentally.) I’m…

The Best Small Tablet

Big screens are nice. But sometimes the extra real estate isn’t worth the lack of portability. If tablets are considered mobile devices, they should be easy to take with you, right? That’s the idea behind a new class of small tablets with screens measuring roughly 7 inches diagonally. Over the last six months, some really,…

Penguin’s agreed with the DoJ to end pacts stopping it from lowering digital prices. Cheap Penguin ebooks FTW! [Reuters]