So Google Compute Engine is out, your move Amazon
Now that GCE is available to all — complete with by-the-minute charges and a new NoSQL database service, we eagerly await Amazon’s response. Make no mistake, there will be one. Read more »
Amazon earnings beat the Street, turns focus on original TV programming
Amazon delivered its Q1 2013 earnings report Thursday afternoon, beating analyst expectations. In its release, which comes a day after renewed reports of an Amazon set-top box, the company highlighted its original television programming initiatives. Read more »
The week in cloud: Bezos rationalizes AWS feature churn; OpenStackers cue up news
photo: Shutterstock / Gena96
Amazon’s chief vows to keep up the AWS feature race; OpenStack gets two more big backers as vendors cue up news for the OpenStack Summit. Read more »
Why a Warby Parker flagship retail store is a big moment for online brands (video)
photo: courtesy of Collin Hughes/Warby Parker
Warby Parker is opening up its first full-fledged store (beyond its showrooms) and is using sensors, Wi-Fi and other technology to understand how people use their retail space, and take that data and marry it with their online sales trends. Read more »
Book review: Former Kindle exec on Kindle flaws, Nook strengths and Google’s future in ebooks
In a new book, former Kindle exec Jason Merkoski examines where e-reading platforms are now and how they could change in the future. If you’re looking for secrets about Jeff Bezos, though, you’re in the wrong place. Read more at paidContent »
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos invests in Business Insider, leading $5M financing round
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has led a $5 million investment round in Henry Blodget’s website Business Insider, which lost about $3 million last year but has been increasing its audience rapidly. Read more »
This week in cloud: Amazon upsets Apple; NTT backs Cloud Foundry; cloud taxes in dispute
photo: Shutterstock / Gena96
Amazon is numero uno in consumer appeal, beating out even Apple and Google, according to Harris Interactive. Also, Cloud Foundry gets big backer in NTT and states reconsider sales taxes on cloud services. Read more »
Why Apple is the stumbling block in Amazon’s ebook transition
photo: Shutterstock / Stacie Stauff Smith Photography
As the ebook transition moves forward, Amazon should worry that Kindle is not going to be the device leading the revolution. Read more at paidContent »
Bezos: With ebook sales up 70% in 2012, Amazon has hit “transition” it expected
Amazon announced fourth-quarter and full year 2012 earnings report roughly in line with investor expectations Tuesday afternoon. Speaking of ebooks, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting.” Read more »
Does Amazon minus Amazon Web Services make sense?
photo: Barb Darrow
Amazon Web Services is, depending on who’s talking, the bedrock and revenue-generating engine for Amazon, or it’s a thin-margin sideline for the giant retailer. Either way, does it make sense for Amazon to spin it off a la EMC and VMware? Read more »
Amazon stock hits an all time high
Amazon stock is up, up and away yet again — here’s the latest news and a chart that shows the company’s gravity-defying growth. Read more »
Amazon’s cloud is bigger, more profitable than we think, report says
photo: Flickr/Will Merydith
In a new research note, Macquarie Capital contends that Amazon Web Services is not only profitable, it would be a $19 billion business if it were counted as a standalone entity. That’s not peanuts. Amazon, of course, isn’t saying boo. Read more »
From ClownCo to Video Star: Hulu beyond Jason Kilar
In some ways, it’s amazing Hulu has made it this far. As CEO Jason Kilar departs after months of rumors, here’s a look back at what a pioneering video distribution company has accomplished. Read more »
Amazon’s Jeff Bezos gets more kudos, but challenges loom
photo: Amazon
Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon 16 years ago, is the second-best CEO on the planet, according to Harvard Business Review’s latest rankings. Last month Fortune named him its Business Person of the Year. Read more »
Christmas Eve AWS outage stings Netflix but not Amazon Prime
photo: Flickr/Will Merydith
Big problems with Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Load Balancing service in its US-East data center nailed Netflix and Heroku on Christmas Eve and carried over into Christmas. Netflix competitor Amazon Prime Instant Video appeared to be unaffected. Read more »
How much did Adobe pay for Behance?
Earlier this morning, Adobe Systems, the San Jose-based creative software giant announced that it was buying New York City-based design-oriented community, Behance. Since then, many have been wondering how much did Adobe shell out? Now we have the answer. Read more »
This week in cloud: All Amazon all the time but Google gets its licks in
It was a frenetic week for cloud with Google touching off a storage price war on Monday. Amazon responded Wednesday and Google hit back on Thursday. Amazon Web Services announced a data warehouse and data pipeline service at its inaugural AWS: Reinvent show. Read more »
Jeff Bezos on the beauty of low margins and building a reusable space craft
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came to Las Vegas Thursday to chat about Amazon Web Services and other topics with CTO Werner Vogels at the first AWS: Reinvent conference. Read more »
Hey, Tim Ferriss: Book banning isn’t a marketing gimmick
Barnes & Noble won’t carry Amazon titles in its stores. But that doesn’t make Amazon author Tim Ferriss’s upcoming Four-Hour Chef “the most banned book in U.S. history.” Read more at paidContent »
Newvem makes its Amazon analytics available
Newvem has tested its analytics with customer data for 8 months and says its key finding is that customers need to hear how use of Amazon services will make them more profitable. Saving money is one thing, making money is better. Read more »
So that’s why BufferBox is so hot
Amazon is increasing the speed with which it is rolling out its Lockers across the country by partnering with retailers such as Staples and RadioShack. That attention is helping lift the fortunes of startups that want to take on Amazon — BufferBox being one of them. Read more »
Kindle Paperwhite is a big step forward for eReaders (Review & video)
photo: Getty Images / Spencer Platt
I spent a week testing Amazon’s new e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, which starts at $119. The verdict: The front-lit screen improves the reading experience all day long, not just at night, making this a big step up from the Kindle Touch. Here are my review and video. Read more »
What does iPhone have to do with robots?
It is hard to imagine that it has only been five years since the smartphone revolution started in earnest. The sensor driven modern marvels are not only redefining how we interact with the world, but they are also having unintended consequences. Like helping make cheaper robots. Read more »
The serious business of Kindle Serials
photo: Jenny 8. Lee
Serial fiction has existed online for awhile, but with Kindle Serials, Amazon hopes to reinvent the format, in part by offering all episodes for a flat price. Serials may require a different business model than Kindle Singles, and could require Amazon to invest more money upfront. Read more at paidContent »
My thoughts on 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, 2012 edition
Tablets (or any gadget) are supposed to be our companions for a long time. And in order to review them, you really have to live with them. So, after using the new Kindle Fire for about three days, all I can offer are my early impressions. Read more »
If Apple is all about the devices, Amazon is all about the services
In the wake of Amazon’s Kindle Fire announcement today, Unicorn Labs’ co-founder Mark Sigal offers his analysis of Amazon’s strategy and how it compares with other platform players, particularly Apple and Google. Read more »
Why e-readers evolved a lot today: Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Glo
With the releases of the Kindle Paperwhite and Kobo Glo today, we saw an evolution in e-readers. The devices don’t have more tablet-like features, but they should still provide much better reading experiences than older models. Read more »
Amazon’s Kindle Fire 4G bait and switch
Amazon is known for cutting its customers a deal on Kindle hardware, making its money back on services. The new LTE Fire, though, appears to be an exception. Adding 4G to your Kindle costs $130 plus a non-negotiable storage upgrade. Apparently 4G is for suckers. Read more »
Amazon’s Kindle Serials: Probably not the next ‘Great Expectations’
Serialized ebooks aren’t a new idea, but Amazon’s Kindle Serials combine a pay-once buying process and automatic downloads that could help the initiative succeed where similar efforts haven’t. Read more at paidContent »
Watch out tablet-makers, Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablets are hot!
Tablet makers: Amazon just put you on notice with several new products, all of which are low in price and high in content. The new Kindle Fire HD line brings high-definition to Amazon’s tablets as well as an innovative, but limited, 4G LTE plan. Read more »
Cloud strategy: Choose wisely
As executives contemplate the emergence of cloud computing, it’s important that they understand the questions they need to ask about why they’d adopt the new IT paradigm. Those deciding should consider the history and decisions made by Borders, the bookstore chain. Its execs chose poorly. Read more »
Making nuclear power with uranium scooped from the sea
Researchers at national laboratories are turning to the sea for a rich source of uranium for nuclear power generation, and they have come up with a super sponge material to do just that. Read more »
U.S. State Department withdraws Kindle contract proposal
In June, the U.S. State Department was close to a $16.5 million, no-bid deal with Amazon that would have provided Kindles to overseas programs. State has now withdrawn its request for proposal. It plans to “conduct additional market research” and open up to more vendors. Read more at paidContent »
Former Lovefilm boss: Netflix could have stormed Europe years ago
As it takes a hammering at home, Netflix is pinning its hopes on getting traction in Europe. But Adam Valkin, the founding CEO of rival video service Lovefilm, says that the US company could have owned the market if it hadn’t pulled out of a European launch in 2004. Read more »
Amazon disappoints investors with plunging profits
Amazon disappointed investors with its second-quarter earnings Thursday, reporting plunging profits and results below Wall Street expectations. The company reported $12.83 billion in revenue, up 29 percent over last year but missing estimates of $12.9 billion, and predicts an operating loss for Q3. Read more at paidContent »
How to deal with cloud failure: Live, learn, fix, repeat
Like it or not, sweeping software bugs are just part and parcel with operating the largest computing systems the world has ever seen. Although Amazon is already fixing the problems that caused its latest outage, this won’t be the last we see. Read more »
Ebook Bestsellers Breakdown: Self-published romance climbs the lists
Good way for a book to become a NYT bestseller: Have Jeff Bezos write about it on Amazon’s homepage. That’s what happened to Jessica Park, whose self-pubbed “Flat-Out Love” got a Bezos shoutout on June 18. This week, it hits the NYT ebook list at #25. Read more at paidContent »
State Department postpones Kindle press conference
On Friday the State Department announced that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos would hold a press conference to announce the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative this Wednesday, June 20. Now the event has been postponed until an unspecified “later date.” In the […] Read more at paidContent »
Hillary Clinton, Jeff Bezos to announce Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative next Wednesday
Amazon and the U.S. State Department have a deal: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will announce the global launch of the Kindle Mobile Learning Initiative on Wednesday, June 20 at a press conference in Washington, D.C. Read more at paidContent »
UK’s Waterstones will sell Amazon Kindle (sorry, Nook)
photo: HMV Group
UK bookstore chain Waterstones has signed an agreement with Amazon to sell the Kindle in its 300 stores and “launch new e-reading services.” The news is a blow for Barnes & Noble, which was rumored to be working with Waterstones on the Nook’s international launch. Read more at paidContent »
