Commerce

Amazon and Brita’s Wi-fi Water Pitcher Automatically Buys New Filters for You

Amazon has teamed up with Brita to bring e-commerce straight into your fridge: Their new, internet-connected pitcher automatically orders fresh Brita filters as soon as you need replacements. Amazon and Brita’s new pitcher is now available to buy online today, simultaneously hinting at both how lazy humans are becoming, as well as how pervasive the…

Amazon has raised its free shipping minimum to $49 from $35. (A $25 order of books still qualifies for free shipping.) All the more reason to sign up for Amazon Prime. Contact the author at [email protected].

Are You Ready to Wear Clothing Designed by Amazon?

Many of us have bought clothes from Amazon, but we’ll apparently soon have the chance to by clothes by Amazon. That’s right. It looks like Amazon wants to launch its own line of shirts, pants, dresses, and so on. There may have been rumors about Amazon getting into the clothing market before, but WDD reports…

Scientists Discover a Boiling River of Amazonian Legend 

Deep in the heart of the Amazon, legends tell of a river so hot that it boils from below. As a geoscientist, Andrés Ruzo’s training told him the stories couldn’t be true. But that was before he saw the river with his own eyes. It’s incredible to think there are natural wonders on this planet…

What Would the World Look Like If Half of All Jobs Were Held by Robots?

Numerous intelligent people have now claimed that within the next few decades, robots will automate half of all existing jobs. Whether or not that will pan out—or whether you’re in the luckless 50 percent— will only be determined by time. But either way, what would that world look like? The latest robotic prophecy comes from…

Amazon Launches On-Demand Sommelier Service in Japan

Wine’s slowly becoming popular booze in Japan—it’s even closing in on sake in terms of consumption. So Amazon Japan’s starting a new service to meet the need: On-demand sommeliers who booze hounds can call for wine-buying tips. For free, Japanese Amazon users can now phone the tech giant, which’ll connect them with certified booze experts…

Amazon Echo Is Suddenly a Lazy Stoner’s Dream

If you smoke a lot of weed, it’s time you buy an Amazon Echo. This week, Amazon rolled out three major updates to its artificially intelligent speaker, which make it a fantastic tool for stoners: You can now order a Domino’s pizza, stream music from Spotify, and hail an Uber all by yelling commands at…

You Can Now Order an Uber From Amazon Echo

With pizza delivery and Spotify integration under its belt just this week, Amazon’s now adding Uber support to its Alexa-powered speaker. Starting today, you can can yell “Request an Uber,” or lots of other variations on that phrase, and an Uber you shall receive. We managed to quickly setup the service under the “Skills” tab…

Domino’s Super Bowl Stunt Lets You Yell at Alexa to Order Pizza

Amazon Echo’s added a lot of neat abilities since its launch in 2014, but this just might be the laziest of them all: Alexa can now order pizza. Mmm, delicious technological progress. As part of an Amazon-Domino’s PR schtickfor this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Alexa’s been outfitted to personally order pizza for you when asked. In…

Kindle’s Home Screen Is Finally Getting Updated

I’ve been using Kindles since ebooks were barely a thing, and while the hardware has come a very long way, the user interface has been lingering. At long last, the much-neglected homescreen is being fixed. The biggest improvement is a new homescreen, which highlights your most recent books and recommends new things you should buy…

Amazon Will Open Physical Bookstores Because Life Is a Practical Joke Played On Us All [Updated]

Amazon is working on plans to open hundreds of brick-and-mortar bookstores, according to a new report from CNBC. Yes, following in the footsteps of chains like Borders, Amazon apparently thinks that the future is in dead trees. Amazon already has one physical store that opened back in November. The Seattle store was dismissed as a…

Do Not Use Amazon Prime to Ship Bottled Water to Flint

Michael Moore says don’t send bottled water to Flint. The group that pushed to have Flint’s water tested in the first place says don’t send bottled water to Flint. But still, people are using their Amazon Prime accounts to send pallets of bottled water to Flint. Don’t do this. In addition to corporations trucking their…

Report: Amazon Wants To Kill Spotify

Did you know that Amazon Prime comes with a pretty crappy streaming music service? Maybe not, and Jeff Bezos reportedly wants to try again with a new standalone, Spotify-killing music offering. The kicker: Amazon can make it really easy to buy your favorite records, too. The New York Post reports that Amazon plans to launch…

This Amazon Customer Service Story Will Freak You Out

Over the weekend a story appeared on Medium that will make any Amazon user wince. According to customer Eric Springer, all a hacker needs to unlock your whole damn life is your name, email address, and a mailing address—and the mailing address doesn’t even have to be correct. Here’s the story: Four months ago Springer…

Amazon Will Refund You For That Hoverboard You Don’t Want Any More

Were you one of the many who bought a non-hovering hoverboard on Amazon this holiday season? If so, that was a silly thing to do. But don’t worry: You can get your money back and avoid becoming human tiki torch on two wheels. Amazon just agreed to offer hoverboards refunds to anyone living in the…

Inside Amazon Prime Air: Multiple Drone Models, Smart Flightpaths, 5-Pound Parcels

Amazon’s delivery drone service has been under development for some time. Now, in a big interview with Yahoo Tech, its vice president for global public policy, Paul Misener, has explained in more detail than ever how the scheme will work. While he did admit that the company hadn’t “priced out” how much drone deliveries would…

Amazon’s Next Delivery Method Is… Container Ship?

Amazon can send millions of packages every day, but its ability to shift products at volume may soon increase in an unexpected way: It’s getting into the shipping business. Flexport writes that the Chinese wing of Amazon has registered itself to operate as an “ocean freight forwarder” in the United States. That will allow it…

How to Watch President Obama’s Final State of the Union Address

The last State of the Union address by President Barack Obama will be delivered tonight, Tuesday, January 12 starting at 9:00 pm ET. According to the president himself, the speech won’t be the same old SOTU, and this year, there are more options than ever for how to watch it. Although it’s been easy to…

Report: Amazon’s About to Release a Portable Version of Echo

Amazon’s possibly dystopian Echo voice-controlled speaker might be coming in a new portable version soon, according to the Wall Street Journal. The new version of Echo will supposedly be charged on a dock, and it will only respond to voice commands after a button is pushed. The latter makes sense because the original Echo’s always-on…

The 2016 State of the Union Will Be Streamed by Amazon

The Obama administration has been remarkably proactive in using new technology to force people to pay attention to politics. Among other things, that’s meant a State of the Union livestreamed on YouTube for the last few years, and this time around, the digital options are even better. In a post on Medium, White House Chief…