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Amazon Instant Video apps add seasons of popular shows from A&E, HISTORY, and Lifetime

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Following the launch of A+E Network’s dedicated iPad apps for A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime last month, Amazon announced in a press release today that it also licensed content for its Amazon Instant Video service. It sounds like Amazon is only getting access to old seasons of popular shows from the network, but any additional content will surely be welcomed by Android users taking advantage of the service through the Amazon Instant Video app on Google TV, Kindle Fire, or elsewhere.

Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a content licensing agreement with A+E Networks to add prior seasons of popular series from A&E, bio, HISTORY and Lifetime to the Prime Instant Video service…The deal with A+E Networks will bring Prime customers more TV episodes from some of their highest rated television programming including Pawn Stars, Storage Wars and Dance Moms, which are also available for purchase through Amazon Instant Video.

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Kindle Fire set record sales for Amazon on Black Friday

After reducing prices for the big shopping event known as “Black Friday,” Amazon said this morning that its Kindle Fire saw a record amount of sales of up to three times the previous record set. Amazon offered the base Kindle Fire at only £99, creating for an “incredible reaction” on Amazon.co.uk. The United States store surely saw similar numbers.

“In response to strong customer demand we included Kindle Fire in Black Friday deals week, dropping the price to just £99, and the reaction has been incredible. Customers purchased more than three times as many Kindle devices on Black Friday than on any other day in its history on Amazon.co.uk, and our previous record was impressive,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Kindle EU.  “This fantastic Kindle Fire offer runs until midnight, Monday 26th November, so customers still have time to snap up a Kindle Fire in time for Christmas.”

The full press release is below:


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Recent update to Acer C7 Chromebook enhances battery life to 4 hours

Since introducing the new Acer C7 Chromebook, Google updated its blog post on the Official Google Blog to note that a recent update to the device “enhances battery life to 4 hours.” This follows reviews of the device that mostly focused on the not-so impressive 3.5 hours of battery life Google originally announced.

Update 11/15: The latest update for the Acer C7 Chromebook enhances battery life to 4 hours. You should get this update when you open your computer for the first time. Thanks to auto-updates, you already have a better computer than the one you bought.

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Google TV update allows content purchasing from Google Play

The Google TV team pushed out an update today that lets folks buy and rent movies, music and TV shows from Google Play for their Google TV devices.

According to the Google TV blog:

Starting today more of the Google Play experience will come to your Google TV. Google Play Movies, TV shows, and Music will be rolling out to your Google TV over the next few weeks. You’ll be able to buy or rent content directly through the Google Play Store on Google TV, and purchases you’ve made on other devices will also be automatically available on Google TV. Google Play titles will also be discoverable through our TV & Movies app, which brings recommendations for shows and movies available on live TV and apps like Netflix, Amazon, and now Google Play.

Oh, and by the way, this update also allows developers to enable Google Play features like auto-updates, subscription billing, smart app updates, etc. Purchases made on other devices will be automatically available on Google TV, too.

So, the Google TV team is a little behind with this update, but better late than never…right? The update will begin rolling out tonight and extend over the coming weeks.


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Amazon Appstore for Android offers free copy of Alphabet Car app

The Alphabet Car app is free today on the Amazon Appstore for Android as one of the online retailer’s Daily Deal specials. The word game normally goes for $2.99, and it has a 4-star rating or higher on both Amazon and Google Play. Folks can even receive a complimentary $1 Amazon MP3 Credit with this download. One claim per Amazon account, however, until Dec. 31.

Check it out: Amazon | Alphabet Car by Animoca


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Amazon Kindle Event Liveblog

Update: Here’s the full presentation video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYi1jZXz9Kg&list=UULN8H0cLurGAUgwwufetV3Q&index=2&feature=plcp

 

That’s it folks!

3:00: The ‘big kahuna’ is a $499 LTE 32GB version of the 8.9 inch Kindle HD.  That’s exactly where Apple starts.

2:45 Bezos says Amazon wants to make money when people use its products. If someone puts it in a desk drawer, Amazon deserves nothing.

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A lot of social media ties to games. Cloud streaming etc.

2:30 Devices called the Kindle SD and HD 7 and 8.9 inch respectively.

Parental controls for more multiple children.Kindle FreeTime: You can set different time limits for different kinds of content for your kids. Books? Unlimited. Games and TV? Limited.

“Sometimes you invent for customers. Sometimes you invent for yourself.” Bezos has four kids. He knows about negotiation over screens.

2:20 First time I’ve seen Amazon bring out speeds and feeds.  Touting TI OMAP processor over Tegra 3 (as in Nexus 7) in floating point.  Lots faster. Means wicked fast page turning. MIMO dual antenna radios help get content faster.”41% faster than iPad, even faster than Nexus 7.”

2:15: Kindle Fire: “In less than a year, Kindle Fire is 22 percent of tablet sales in the US.” #1 best selling device on Amazon.com

$159 is the new price of th 7-inch version including longer battery life and more RAM and better performance.

New 8.9″ version 1920×1200

The 8.9-inch Kindle has Dolby Digital Plus – the first tablet to have this. Dual speakers vs. singular speaker on iPad.

“Customers are smart. Last year, there were more than two dozen Android tablets launched into the marketplace, and nobody bought ‘em. Why? Because they’re gadgets, and people don’t want gadgets anymore. They want services that improve over time. They want services that improve every day, every week, and every month.”

2:00 Keeping the $79 Kindle with new Black plastic. Adding more fonts and faster pageturns and knocking off $10: $69


Via Verge

1:45: Kindle Paperwhite: 8week battery life, 7.7ozs/ 9mm thick. Patented backlighting. High Re screen – 212ppi. Don’t call it Retina.

[tweet https://twitter.com/markgurman/statuses/243769411838816256]

1:42: Lights go down. Commercial from the game last night plays

[tweet https://twitter.com/nickbilton/statuses/243765633240662016]

1:40 So the first 10 minutes are over an nothing to show for it. only 110 more!

1:30 here we go…

1:20 BREAKING:

[tweet https://twitter.com/adamlashinsky/statuses/243761459065143298]

1) Amazon CEO will be present. 2) there will be demos. 3) amazon has prepared.

1:18: Mobile Nations peeped Amazon Board member and former Apple/Palm/HP hardware design guru Jon “Ruby” Rubinstein. He’s here to “learn”

1:15: 2 hours eh? This is going to be a helluva show.

1:00: I just want to say for the record that a Streaming TV product makes more sense than a Phone for Amazon.  That is all.

Show starts at 1:30PM ET folks.

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Samsung Galaxy S3 hits Amazon for $799 and up, ships June 1

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Samsung’s Galaxy S3 made its way to Amazon today with a number of listings for the device at $799 and others at $829 after being unveiled earlier this month. The device was slated for an international rollout towards the end of May, and the listings on Amazon are set to ship June 1. However, at least one seller noted an expected arrival date of “on/after 4th June 2012”.

The Galaxy S3 packs a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, 8-megapixel camera (1.9MP front camera), and quad-core 1.4Ghz processor. Following the launch, we got some early benchmarks of Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy device—as well as a few hands-on impressions from around the Web.


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Amazon reportedly to launch 9-inch Kindle Fire, to ship by midyear

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We heard about this before: AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski reported (via Pacific Crest analyst Chad Bartley) that Amazon will launch a 9-inch version of the Kindle Fire by mid year. Amazon will play off the wide success of its 7-inch version. With the introduction of a 9-inch Kindle Fire by mid year, analyst Bartley is raising his sales estimate f0r the Kindle Fire from 12.7 million to 14.9 million units shipped in 2012. Bartley reported:

We are raising our 2012 sales forecasts to 14.9 million from 12.7 million,” he wrote. “But we believe there is an upward bias, particularly from the new 7- and 9-inch models, which we expect to launch in mid-2012.”

We heard rumors in late 2011 that Amazon was to launch a 10.1-inch version to compete with the iPad. At any rate, we expect Amazon to announce a larger version at some point.

 


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Prime subscribers now getting Netflix-grade entertainment on their Fires and web: Is Amazon set-top box in the cards?

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In a bid to give Netflix a run for its money, online retailer Amazon announced on Wednesday a new initiative that will keep owners of its Kindle Fire tablet happy with an expanded selection of Hollywood movies that can be streamed to the device.

“Over the next several months” Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to enjoy thousands of television episodes from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT, and Logo thanks to a new licensing agreement with the entertainment conglomerate Viacom. This includes past seasons of popular shows such as “Jersey Shore,” “Chappelle’s Show,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “Yo Gabba Gabba,” “iCarly,” and more.

In addition to the Fire tablet, Prime subscribers can stream video to Google TV, Roku boxes, other certified devices, and of course the web. The Viacom deal will bring the total number of Prime Instant Videos to more than 15,000, still paling in comparison to over a hundred thousand titles available for rent over at Netflix. With that said, Amazon’s bolstering of its video content library could be an indication of an Amazon-branded set-top box, especially if it unbundle Prime Instant Videos from the Prime subscription and offer it as a standalone service.


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Amazon Kindle Fire Quick Review: Don’t call it an iPad competitor

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I’m just crossing 48 hours with the Kindle Fire and have a few quick observations that I think need to be brought to the surface on this great little device.

  1. It isn’t an iPad competitor any more than a Mercedes SUV is a competitor to a Toyota Prius.  A 7-inch tablet is an entirely different use case than a 10-incher.  At $199, it is more likely to take away iPod touch customers rather than iPad customers from Apple.  But mostly, Kindle people will be people who wouldn’t have considered an Apple tablet previously.
  2. The Fire isn’t a speed demon.  A few minutes navigating with the Fire is all it takes to realize that there are hiccups.  To me, it feels more sluggish than a Galaxy Tab 7 from last year, especially on CPU intensive stuff.  Amazon has done nice things with the interface and they should be congratulated on their virtual keyboard (it is one of the best I’ve used), but make no mistake, inside of this case is bargain basement components.
  3. If you are new to Amazon’s ecosystem, there isn’t a lot of content in there.  Getting some will be expensive.  In my family, my wife has the Prime account and our music in the Amazon Cloud is tied there as well.  That means any audio and video has to be purchased or brought over manually.
  4. The Kindle quickly became a Hulu Plus and Netflix player in our house – which the Barnes and Noble Nook can do just as well.  Or any Android tablet.
  5. The Silk browser wasn’t impressive.  It is slow, (probably more a processor thing here than a software thing).  I had more success with the Dolphin browser.
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Some Google Android Market apps installable on Kindle Fire

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Mashable reports that some Google Marketplace apps are installable on Kindle’s new Fire tablet. A user simply needs to head to the device settings pane and enable the “Allow Installation of Applications From Unknown Sources” option. Then, the user needs to install GetJar.com. The Kindle Fire won’t appear in the GetJar options for app downloading, so the user just needs to select another Android 2.3 tablet. Not all apps will install, and Mashable uses the example of the Nook app. Quite the irony.

We’re playing with Google Maps right now (below).  FYI Launcher apps don’t seem to work. It appears that the Kindle is about to be opened up bigtime for hacking in the next 24 hours….
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Hulu Plus lands in Amazon Appstore, only for Kindle Fire?

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As promised, Hulu Plus just hit the Amazon Appstore.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be able to be downloaded for any devices (including my Galaxy Tab 7) besides the Kindle Fire (check Android market for full compatibility list).  Strangely, even after “Whistper-synching” it over to the Kindle Fire, it hasn’t shown up.


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Woot! Motorola XOOM tablet is $339 today only

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From 9to5toys.com:

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Woot! via Amazon has the 32GB Motorola XOOM Android Tablet for $339.99.  That’s 32% off and the lowest price we could find for this refurbished item.

Andy Rubin told the audience at AllThingsD in Asia that the XOOM would be the first tablet to be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich later this year.
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Amazon terminates Affiliate advertising in California, but hints at ads

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Amazon Affiliate members in California got a rude awakening this morning when they received and email from Amazon telling them that all Affiliate programs would be terminated by September 30th.  This is in reaction to a proposed CA law that would tax Amazon purchases because Affiliate Account holders (workers) live and work in the State.

The whole thing is up for debate but we found the last sentence in the letter (whole thing pasted below the fold):

We are also working on alternative ways to help California residents monetize their websites and we will be sure to contact you when these become available.

We noted yesterday that Amazon was getting their own ad network, which would go head to head with Google and others.
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