Amazon | Gear Diary

Binders Full of Women, Bic Pens For Her, and Satire Product Reviews

Satire is probably my favorite form of humor. Everything and everyone are fair game, from products to Presidents. And with the speed at which social media and the Internet can move, it doesn’t take long for a Tumblr meme or Facebook page to get rolling. The latest trend: fake product reviews on Amazon.com. It started with Bic Pens, and now has spread to binders thanks to Governor Romney’s “Binders full of women” comment. But should Amazon let these spoofs stay live on the product pages? Context is key here. First, let’s look at the “BIC Pen For Her” reviews. Bic…

Editorials, Events

Did Amazon’s Kindle Announcements Out-Apple Apple?

My day job is in client facing sales and service, so I spend a great deal of time making sure I present my message correctly. First, we establish the basic facts. Then there’s a discussion of what they mean, implications, risks, etc. Finally, these all lead to the conclusion and (ideally) the implementation of whatever solution we think is best. While my presentations are far, far less flashy than a big tech announcement, I still like to see how companies hype up their products, especially since that showmanship does overlap with my own skills and job needs. Normally, Apple announcement…

Editorials

Where Amazon and Apple Part Ways…

Apple and Amazon have emerged as the heavy-weight market-movers in the personal tech space. They are both huge companies and major innovators and, on many levels, they take almost entirely different approaches. Here’s just one example. Last week Amazon announced a new Kindle and new (multiple) Kindle Fires. Pricing was beyond aggressive, because Amazon doesn’t look to make their money on the hardware. No, instead, Amazon uses the hardware to drive its products, both digital and tangible. Apple, on the other hand, makes their money on the hardware and the digital content that runs on them is, THEY claim, close…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Amazon Deal with Epix Brings Thor, Iron Man 2 and More to Prime Instant Videos!

As a member of Amazon Prime, I absolutely love the Prime Instant Video collection, finding it has a great selection that just keeps growing and growing in terms of the depth and breadth of movie and TV offerings. But there is always room for more – so I was thrilled this morning to hit the Amazon home page and see not one but TWO new deals: a movie deal with Epix and a TV deal with NBC Universal. From the Amazon home page, here is what they say about Epix: Great news for Amazon Prime members—we’ve just signed two big…

eBooks, Reviews

Babbel (and others) and the Advancement of Foreign Language eBooks

A lot has happened in the past few years in foreign language instruction. It’s a global world and thanks to the Internet, you can be taught a foreign language by native speakers from anywhere in the world. You can converse with them and other learners from the comfort of your own home with just a minimal investment in hardware and software. For a number of years there have been computer apps and, more recently, mobile apps that have dramatically improved and enhanced the instructional process, but they don’t necessarily replace the need for good instruction in basic grammar or other…

eBooks, Gear Bits, Outdoors

The Magic Bullet Against Showrooming Is in Running Shoes

Everyone in retail wants to bemoan “show rooming” or the tendency of shoppers to check products out in store, only to buy online. It’s a huge problem, and I am not the only person to point out that customer service can often make the difference between someone shopping in store versus hitting Amazon on their iPhone as they walk out the door. Runner’s World took a closer look at the statistics involved, and came up with some interesting conclusions. First, they looked at a survey that indicated the higher the discount online, the more likely shoppers were to not shop…

eBooks, Editorials

The Value, Or Lack Thereof, In A DVD Collection

Sarah and I are trying to downsize our personal belongings. I have amassed a ton of random movies and television shows thanks to my time at Borders, and Sarah has a bunch that have accumulated over time. However, we both realized last weekend that we haven’t touched our DVD player in months, we have no interest in a blu ray player, and most of our movie and television watching is through Netflix, Amazon Prime or iTunes. So what better way to begin trimming away our crap than by trading in our DVDs for cash or credit towards things we will…

News & Features

Sonos Adds Support for Amazon Cloud Player and… It is a Big Deal

Amazon is making some big moves with its Cloud Player music service. They recently improved the way the system works and now lets you scan your music in much the same way iTunes Music Match does. Now word comes that Sonos has added support for Amazon Cloud Player. As they explain, YOUR MUSIC. EVERYWHERE. FROM THE CLOUD TO YOUR COUCH. Import and securely store your entire music library in the cloud Search, browse and play every song, album and playlist in every room with the Sonos Wireless HiFi System Amazon MP3 purchases are automatically stored in Cloud Player, and you…

Gear Bits, News & Features

Amazon Instant Video Comes to the iPad!

Yesterday when we talked about Hulu coming to Apple TV, my comment was that if Amazon Instant Video was also available, I would no longer have a need for the Roku. Guess what? Amazon Instant Video is now available! Here is the description: Watch thousands of titles available from Prime Instant Video at no additional cost with an Amazon Prime membership and over 120,000 videos available from the Amazon Instant Video store by installing the Amazon Instant Video app. Download purchased and rented videos from Your Video Library for offline viewing on airplanes, road trips, or any time a WiFi…

Music Diary, News & Features

Amazon Launches ‘iTunes Match’ Like Update to Cloud Player!

Today on Twitter Amazon announced a significant update to its Cloud Player system, stating: We made some improvements to Amazon Cloud Player today. Have questions? Get them answered here: http://amzn.to/P53LPf Well … since it is Twitter there is little info provided. Here are the basics: Amazon Cloud Player is a service that enables customers to securely store music in the cloud and play it wherever they are on a Kindle Fire, Android phone, Android tablet, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, or PC. Amazon Cloud Player now has more benefits, including: •Faster music import for Cloud Player using scan and match…

How to Do It Yourself!

How to get Amazon Prime Streaming Media and Flash Content to Play on your Nexus 7

Amazon Prime Streaming “Ronin” on Nexus 7 Flash is dead…or is it? Although Adobe Flash is no longer support on the latest version of Android 4.1 (Jellybean), that does not mean you can’t enjoy the benefits of Flash content and movies. The move from flash-based content to HTML5 has been long underway but the truth is that the internet is still riddled with flash content including the one of the “King’s of Media”, Amazon Prime. Without Flash it is simply impossible to stream Amazon content to your new Nexus 7 tablet. When you go to the Play Store and…

Editorials

5 Reasons Why the $199 Google Tablet is a Terrible Idea … But I’m Getting One, Anyway

OK, so this was a post I started writing three months ago – when we first started hearing about a $199 Google Nexus Tablet. At the time I thought it was a bad idea – and we didn’t even know who was making it or what the specs might be like at the time! Now that we know that it is an ASUS device, with a footprint essentially similar to the Kindle Fire/Nook Tablet/Samsung Galaxy Tab/etc, with some decent sounding hardware compromises for the price, and the newly announced Android OS 4.1. And guess what – I am more convinced…

eBooks

Amazon to Offer the Entire Harry Potter Series Through PRIME Lending

Harry Potter arrived in ebook form earlier this year, which was exciting all by itself. At the same time, if you already purchased the HP series in book form, it can be hard to pony up again for the ebooks. Amazon has come up with a solution, by offering the entire series through their Kindle Prime Lending Library! From the press release: Read all of J.K. Rowling’s iconic Harry Potter series for free on your Kindle Kindle Owners’ Lending Library now includes more than 145,000 books, including over 100 current and former New York Times Best Sellers SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May. 10,…

Gear Bits

Is Amazon Spying on Me?

I know I buy a great deal from Amazon, but I am starting to think they have hidden cameras in my house! You see, back in January, I ordered a box of KIND bars for our trip to Costa Rica. We figured with all the flights, layovers, and bus transfers in our travel schedule, we would need snacks. As it turned out, we didn’t eat all of them, and I unearthed a bag of leftover bars while cleaning out my suitcase over the weekend. I stuck them in the pantry and promptly forgot about them. Until Monday, when I returned…

eBooks, Editorials

What’s Next for eBooks after the DoJ Settlement?

Today was a big, big day for eBook fans! The Department of Justice agreed with everyone who has been screaming for three years that the “agency model” was unfair, anti-competitive and anti-consumer. They settled with several publishers, though Apple and Macmillan are still fighting the DoJ in court. So, what did the settlement today do? And how will it impact the future of ebooks? Read on for my thoughts! The Settlement: I am going to defer to Wired here, as they quickly had an excellent breakdown of what the settlement states: Terminate its current contracts with Apple within seven days…

eBooks

Department of Justice Sues Apple and Several Publishers over eBook Prices

Huge ebook news this morning! The US Department of Justice has officially filed anti-trust lawsuits against Apple and Hachette Books, as well as some sort of legal action against MacMillan, Harper Collins, and Penguin. All of these charges are related to the Agency Model, where prices are set by the publisher and discounts at the retail level are disallowed. I am not surprised that it has come to this. All the publishers were very insistent they did not do anything wrong, and that it was purely coincidence that all of them developed the same exact pricing plan at the same…

Editorials, News & Features

Nokia Lumia 900 Has Botched Retail Launch, Yet Still Hits #1 on Amazon!

This past Sunday, my brother was visiting; he and my wife and I went for a long bike ride, taking a path around the local mall along the way … and noting that everything was closed. Because it was Easter. It just also happened to be the launch day of the Nokia Lumia 900, the de facto flagship phone of the entire Windows Phone line-up. There have been articles questioning the wisdom of an Easter launch, but none more pointed than the one from the New York Times: AT&T said last month that when Nokia’s new Lumia 900 phone went…

News & Features

Amazon Instant Video Lands on the Playstation 3!

One of the best things about the Kindle Fire and Roku for me is the Amazon Instant Video service tied in with my Amazon Prime membership. I love all of the available movies and shows, and made frequent use of them. Now Amazon is extending the reach of the service – to the Playstation 3! Here are some details: Good news — Prime Instant Video is now available on PlayStation 3. Since launching a year ago, we’ve more than tripled our library, including titles such as Sons of Anarchy, Downton Abbey, Lost, Glee, 24, Deadliest Catch, SpongeBob SquarePants, Office Space,…

News & Features

FREE Readability Android App Launches on Amazon AppStore

Readability was a small app that hoped to make browsing the web better by making it a more simple and streamlined reading experience, but ended up gaining notoriety for publicly taking Apple to task for the in-app purchase revenue sharing system. Now the app has finally arrived on Android, and is launching exclusively on the Amazon AppStore for Android, and for FREE! The app has gotten solid early reviews, and is definitely worth checking out. Here is the overview: Read on Your Terms Readability turns any Web page into a clean view for reading now or later on your computer…

News & Features

The Southern Foodie is a Must-Read Kindle Book

My parents were born and raised in New York. I was born in Summit, New Jersey. I grew up in a little place called Berkeley Heights, NJ. In other words, I am a North Easterner through and through. (Some would use the word “Yankee” to describe me.) Yes, I’m a northerner through and through and am happy to be back living in the Garden State. There was, however, a time when this Yankee lived in the South. Yes, I went to college in North Carolina and I even joined a southern fraternity that was founded on “December 21, 1865, at…

Editorials

I Prefer Amazon’s AppStore to the Android Market and Apparently I’m Not Alone

Do you want to know my #1 pet peeve with the Android Market? How unnecessarily difficult they make switching devices. I upgraded to a new Droid 4 last week and I STILL don’t have all of my apps set up yet. Contrast this with Amazon, where all of my apps were all ready to reinstall as soon as I logged into my account. The basic problem is that the Android Market doesn’t track apps for your account unless you spend money on them … which is perhaps the most idiotic thing I have ever heard about. This means trying to…