Commerce

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…

Buying something small and light on Amazon? It might ship for free—even if you don’t have an Amazon Prime subscription. [Bloomberg]

Amazon Lazy People Same-Day Delivery Service Is Now Free In 14 Cities

Amazon Prime subscribers will now get free same-day shipping on “over a million” items in 14 metropolitan areas. It’s practically Seamless for stuff. Amazon’s been tinkering with same-day shipping for a while now, and the free same-day offering is the natural evolution, especially as Walmart just launched its own cut-rate Amazon Prime competitor. There are…

HBO Go Finally Comes to Fire TV For Comcast Subscribers

Last year, Amazon’s excellent Fire TV got access to HBO Go, the crown jewel of VOD services. Or it did, assuming your cable provider was anything but Comcast. If you had Comcast, you were inexplicably screwed. No longer! It’s incredible that it took this long, but HBO Go is finally available on the Fire TV…

China Wants to Build a 3000-Mile Railway Through the Amazon

Not content with building massive new dams, railroads, and cities inside its own borders, China is backing hugely ambitious infrastructure projects all over the world. Its latest is a 3,000-mile long railway that will cut through vast swathes of the Amazon rainforest. The Guardian reports that Chinese premier Li Keqiang will advocate for the railway…

Amazon Is Using the Subway For Deliveries Just Like the Rest of Us

As much as Amazon hypes its cutting-edge drone delivery dreams, Jeff Bezos’ convenience-fetishizing empire is relying on a much older transit system to make most of its quick deliveries around Manhattan: The subway. Amazon’s Prime Now service offers delivery within the hour for an extra $8 charge for Prime Members. “In Manhattan, our folks bike,…

Walmart Challenges Amazon Prime with Its Own $50/Year Shipping Service

Except when treating employees like garbage, Walmart isn’t much of a trendsetter. Now, the mega huge big box store may be continuing its “me too” tradition according to a new report from The Information and the Associated Press, saying Walmart is working on a shipping service to rival Amazon Prime for $50 per year. The…

Amazon’s Drone Delivery Patent Just Feels Like Trolling At This Point

The idea of receiving your Amazon delivery from drone is fanciful. It’s a total impossibility for the foreseeable future, sure, but Amazon just scored a patent for drone delivery system anyway. Originally filed in September 2014 the USPTO just granted Amazon a patent for an “Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Delivery System,” in which UAVs are, ahem:…

Amazon Didn’t Really Eliminate Gender Taxonomy for Toys—Yet

A report that Amazon no longer sorts toys into “boy” and “girl” categories is currently sweeping the internet. It’s not exactly true, but it might be a sign that the change might be on the way. First, a breathless tweet earlier this week claimed Amazon no longer had separate sections for boys and girls toys:…