UPDATE: Shortly after 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Amazon said that the affected services were fully recovered and operational. [More]
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Like That Game You’re Watching On Twitch? Amazon Will Now Sell It To You There
By 2.27.17
More than a year and a half after spending nearly $1 billion to acquire game-focused livestreaming service Twitch, Amazon’s finally doing something you’d have expected them to try sooner: Putting big “Buy” buttons on streams of some new games, so you can grab ’em while you’re watching ’em. [More]
Judge Blocks California Law Prohibiting IMDb From Publishing Actors’ Ages
By 2.23.17
After nearly two months of refusing to comply with a recently enacted California law that requires it remove information about actors’ ages and birthdays, Internet Movie Database (IMDb) received a bit of reprieve this week when a federal judge granted the company’s motion for an injunction, blocking the state from enforcing the new law. [More]
Amazon Hasn’t Turned Over Echo Recordings Related To Murder Investigation
By 2.23.17
Nearly two months after police investigating a homicide in Arkansas served Amazon with search warrants, requesting any information that may have been stored on an Echo speaker located inside the suspect’s home. They wanted to know if the device’s “Alexa” virtual assistant had recorded any evidence of the murder, but Amazon has thus far refused to turn this information over to authorities. [More]
Amazon Reduces Minimum On Free Shipping For Non-Prime Customers
By 2.21.17
Almost exactly one year after Amazon increased the free-shipping minimum on non-Prime customers from $35 to $49, the e-commerce giant has decided to revert back to the old $35 minimum. [More]
Amazon Files Patent For Parachuting Packages From Drones
By 2.15.17 — Updated: 2.21.17
Now that Amazon’s Prime Air delivery drones have made their first dropoff, it seems the e-commerce giant wants to make the process even more efficient: Instead of unmanned aerial vehicles landing to set a package on the ground, Amazon has cooked up an idea for fly-by deliveries. [More]
Amazon Wants To Get Into Your Underwear Drawer
By 2.10.17
Amazon has already been making moves to get into customers’ closets with the in-house apparel brands it launched last year, and rumors that it’s planning a new line of workout clothing. Now, Amazon reportedly wants to slip into something more comfortable: your underwear drawer. [More]
Here Are Your Discounts, Freebies, And Bagels To Celebrate National Pizza Day
By 2.9.17
What are your plans for National Pizza Day? What, you didn’t know that today was National Pizza Day? We can’t blame you, actually, but the non-event means that restaurants, rest stops, and even Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices have special promotions and deals going on that are meant to move more pizza. [More]
Amazon’s Supermarket Of The Future Could Have Just 3 Employees
By 2.6.17
Amazon’s latest forays into bricks-and-mortar businesses — the recently opened Amazon Go convenience store, and “click-and-collect” locations for online shoppers to pick up purchases — are intended to be staffed by as few people as possible. But can the company actually operate a full-size grocery store with just three humans? [More]
Netflix’s Original Shows Are More Popular Than Those From Amazon, Hulu
By 2.2.17
Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu all offer a good deal of original content — shows and movies that now compete for traditional TV for eyeballs and awards. But according to one recent analysis, one streaming service is doing a much better job of getting folks to tune into its original shows — mostly because it has so many of them. [More]
Amazon Signs 50-Year Lease On Air Cargo Hub In Kentucky
By 2.1.17
Sure, Amazon keeps saying that it isn’t interested in carrying freight for other companies even as it leases planes and invests in one of the companies it leases from. Now the company has signed a lease on a space similar in size to the air hubs of FedEx and UPS. [More]
Walmart Ditching $50/Year ShippingPass For Free Two-Day Shipping
By 1.31.17
Less than a year after its national launch, Walmart is pulling the plug on its $50/year ShippingPass subscription service that was intended to compete directly with Amazon Prime. In its place, the big box retailer plans to offer free-two day shipping on millions of products with a lower minimum purchase price. [More]
When This Company Ran Out Of Shovel-Sized Boxes, It “Got Creative”
By 1.30.17
As someone wise once said, if you don’t have a box that will fit what you want to ship, just figure something out. One of our very own Consumerist readers was the recipient of such necessity-driven creativity recently, when an item she’d ordered online showed up on her doorstep in, shall we say, unexpected packaging. [More]
Amazon Makes Boy’s Dream Come True With Visit To Phoenix Distribution Center
By 1.27.17
Though we may be used to the idea of summoning any product you want from anywhere around the world with the click of a button, the process that goes into making such a feat possible is a lot more complicated. And for an eight-year-old boy who spent a lot of time, while fighting cancer, thinking about how Amazon makes it all work, seeing that system up close and personal on a recent trip was a dream come true. [More]
Has Amazon Helped Indie Bookstores?
By 1.26.17
Bookstore chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble were among the first retailers to feel the sting of Amazon, with its vast variety of titles and speedy delivery times, not to mention its huge share of the ebook market. However, the online goliath doesn’t appear to be having the same diminishing effect on the number of independent bookstores. [More]
Your Star Trek Dreams Are Closer To Reality Now That Amazon Echo Responds To “Computer”
By 1.24.17
If you’ve ever stared longingly at your smart devices and wished they would respond when you’re doing your best Capt. Jean-Luc Picard impression, we’ve got some good news for you: Amazon has added “computer” to its list of words that will wake up its digital assistant Alexa on Echo devices. [More]
Amazon Adds Virtual Dash Buttons To Website, App For One-Click Ordering
By 1.20.17
If you’re the kind of person who already has enough clutter around without adding a bunch of plastic shopping dongles, Amazon thinks it has the solution for you: it’s adding virtual Dash Buttons to both its website and app so Prime shoppers can reorder common products with one click. [More]
4 Reasons Amazon Is Willing To Accept Food Stamps For Grocery Delivery
By 1.12.17
This year, some Americans participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, aka “Food Stamps”), will be able to pay for groceries online through Amazon, FreshDirect, and some supermarket chains. Given that food delivery services have thus far tended to cater to higher-income consumers, why are these companies — and in particular, Amazon — eager to accept SNAP payments? [More]
