Commerce

Amazon Is Bragging About How Much Frivolous Shit It Sold On Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day was a huge let down for consumers who were actually hoping to get a good deal on something they wanted. But for Amazon, the day was a resounding success, it brags in a press release. https://gizmodo.com/primedayfail-is-a-billion-times-better-than-amazons-pr-1718214152 “Amazon sold more units on Prime Day than on Black Friday 2014,” Amazon says. Impressive. Yet,…

#PrimeDayFail Is a Billion Times Better Than Amazon’s Prime Day

Disgruntled shoppers took to Twitter to lodge complaints under the hashtag #primedayfail while staring down sales of granny panties, shoe horns, and 55-gallon drums of lube. Amazon’s much-hyped Prime Day turned out to be just that—a lot of hype. Shoppers expecting sweet deals were disappointed by offers on a motley array of merchandise likened to…

The Shittiest Deals of Amazon Prime Day

All week, Amazon promoted its Prime Day sale as a “bigger than Black Friday” shopping bonanza. But today, a lot of the discounts look like they fell off a truck headed to a poorly regulated flea market for sad people held in a dumpster. Here are some of the turkeys of Prime Day: “Lighter Bro”…

Switzerland is Testing a Drone Delivery Service for Emergency Supplies

Long before Amazon drones begin zipping around American suburbs delivering everyone’s same-day air packages, we might get to watch unmanned aerial vehicles climbing the Swiss Alps to drop emergency medical supplies. Earlier this week, the Swiss Post and Swiss WorldCargo began jointly testing the practical use of delivery drones in the country’s rugged alpine terrain.…

Amazon’s 20th Birthday Party Will Bring “More Deals Than Black Friday”

Get your credit cards ready. Amazon says that it’s celebrating its 20th birthday with what it’s calling Prime Day, a massively discounted 24 hours of shopping which will feature “more deals than Black Friday.” The “global shopping event” will only be available to Amazon Prime customers, and even then it will only happen in he…

Amazon’s Review Policy is Creepy and Bad for Authors

Independent author and blogger Imy Santiago bought an ebook, read it, and posted a review on Amazon. Then things started to go wrong, according to her recent blog post, which has put Amazon in the crosshairs of another round of criticism from authors and reviewers. Santiago says that she received a notice that her review…

Amazon Might Pay Self-Published Authors Less Than a Cent Per Page Read

So, remember that new Amazon payment scheme that’s going to revolutionize self-publishing by dolling out royalties based on pages read rather than copies sold? Remember how that was going to reward authors who can keep readers hooked rather than folks who can crank out 500 page-tomes that nobody has the gusto to finish? There’s one…

You’re About to Start Finding Amazon’s Echo AI In Unexpected Places

Could Amazon actually win the race to build the most widely-used AI voice platform? As unlikely as it sounds, Amazon is pushing far harder than Microsoft or Apple to get its technology into the hands of other companies. Today, Amazon said it would make Alexa—the voice-controlled assistant that sits inside its Echo hardware—free to any…

​Amazon Echo Review: I Just Spoke to the Future And It Listened

It only took me a few hours to get cozy with my new assistant. “Alexa,” I barked at the nine-inch black cylinder on my coffee table, “Shut up.” The lights on top of the cylinder went dark; the embarrassing 90s music playing from its speaker cut out. “Alexa, what’s the weather?” I paused with anticipation.…

The Mr. Robot Pilot Was So Popular They Renewed the Show Before It Aired

The pilot for the new hacker drama Mr. Robot was officially posted online a month ahead of the TV series premiere (which was last night on USA) and netizens have spoken: Mr. Robot is so popular, the cable network ordered season 2 before the first episode had hit airwaves. The pilot was watched by 2.6…

Amazon has announced that some of its Prime Instant Video shows will be screened in high dynamic range. It’ll start with original series and Samsung SUHD TVs, but moew shows and devices should be supported soon.

Amazon Made Its Humans-For-Hire More Expensive, and Scientists are Angry

Amazon’s Mechanical Turk is a slightly bizarre service that outsources simple, repetitive tasks to strangers on the internet, often for laughably tiny sums of money. It’s popular among scientists as a means to carry out research; but recently, Amazon tweaked its pricing in a decidedly science-unfriendly manner. In case you’re unfamiliar, Mechanical Turk is an…

Amazon Will No Longer Sell Confederate Flag Merchandise 

As other retailers dropped similar merchandise, sales of Confederate flag-themed stuff skyrocketed 3000% in 24 hours on Amazon. But Amazon is pulling Confederate flag-themed merchandise from its online stores, a spokesperson confirmed today. After a white gunman killed nine black people in a racially motivated shooting in Charleston, South Carolina last week, debate over banning…

Anyone Can Buy Amazon’s Clever AI Assistant Echo Starting Today 

Remember Echo? The always-on, voice-controlled home hub that Amazon launched to great excitement seven months ago—and that Amazon would only allow you to buy if you were selected from interested Prime members? Today the company said it would make Echo a readily-available product for anyone who wants to buy one. What that implies about Echo’s…

Selling Erotic Ebooks Is Illegal in Germany Before 10pm 

Thanks to an old-fashioned law that treats ebooks like movies, online booksellers in Germany are eligible for a $56,000 fine if they sell erotic ebooks before 10pm. That means any young fraus desperate to buy sensual Clippy stories may have to wait until after dark if booksellers come up with a plan to comply. After…

Amazon Will Soon Start Paying Authors Based on e-Book Pages Read

What if we lived in a world where authors earned royalties not based on how many books they sell, but on how many pages we read? The idea, which would have been preposterous 10 years ago, is not only possible with modern technology, it’s something Amazon will be test driving this summer. Beginning on July…

There Are Now Over 12,000 Marvel Comics on the Kindle Store

Amazon has announced a new deal with Marvel that will see over 12,000 back-issue comic books available directly from Amazon’s Kindle store. Amazon acquired the comics download platform Comixology back in 2014, but the new initiative makes the Comixology app pretty much redundant if you use the Kindle Store. Now, you can download single issues—be…

Amazon’s Super Great Kindle Paperwhite Now Has a Super Great Display

E-readers are the bane of my existence. I like books. I like the feel of books. The weight of books. Hell, even the smell of books. But no e-reader has challenged my page-bound allegiance like this new Kindle Paperwhite. It’s a lot like the old Paperwhite to be honest, which we loved lots and lots,…

Report: Amazon Is Developing an Uber-Style Service for Package Delivery

Like Uber, but for delivering Amazon packages? In its ongoing effort to get packages to consumers as quickly as possible, Amazon may soon employ an Uber-like app that uses ordinary people as delivery drivers. The Wall Street Journal reports that the plan is known as “On My Way” and would involve using urban retail stores…

Amazon’s Building a Solar Farm in Virginia to Green Its Data Centers

If it’s good enough for Apple, it’s clearly good enough for Amazon. Bezos & Co. has announced that it’s channeling money into the construction and running of an 80 megawatt solar farm in Virginia. The plant—enough to power 15,000 U.S. homes each year—should be up and running by 2016. The energy it creates will be…