From 9to5Toys.com
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Amazon just opened the floodgates to its forked-Android powered Kindles (7-inch only so far).
The original with some beefed up internals is just $159. The new HD version (which closely matches up with the Google Nexus 7) is $199 for 16GB and $249 for 32GB.
(Or you could wait a month and probably not hate yourself :P)
As always, we’ll be updating the list below as more notable apps and updates hit the App Store today:
Google Drive version 1.1.0: We already knew it was coming when Google leaked the update last week, but today we get all of the details with the update officially hitting the App Store. Included in version 1.1.0 of the Google Drive iOS app is the ability to create, collaborate and edit with Google documents. You will also now be able to create and organize new folders and documents, upload photos and videos from your device, and delete files from your Drive. Google said the updated app also includes a “Richer Google presentations with animations and speaker notes.”
– Edit Google documents with formatting and collaboration
– Edits to your Google documents appear to collaborators in seconds
– Richer Google presentations with animations and speaker notes
– Create a new folder or Google document
– Upload photos and videos from your device or a photo directly from your camera
– Move an item to a folder in your Drive
– Delete and remove files from your Drive
– Drive is now available in over 30 languages
Kindle for Mac version 1.10.3: The Kindle Mac App Store app received a nice update today that brings full sport for Lion gestures including panning and swiping, and support for Kindle Format 8 books. Amazon also performance for content that includes a high number of highlights and notes, and included support for Japanese and larger libraries.
The Wall Street Journal version 4.0: With this release of the WSJ app, the updating Now edition is finally available on the iPhone and you can now access archive downloads on demand for up to seven days. A full list of what’s new is below:
• WSJ is now available on your iPhone! Get the updating Now edition on your iPhone, with the latest news, market data and multimedia
• Faster downloads and improved performance
• More frequent news updates
• 7-day archive downloads on-demand
With this release of The Wall Street Journal app, we have made substantial changes to improve app performance. Please note: when you update to version 4.0, any full issues you have saved will be deleted. All previously saved individual articles will remain.
Before you update, you can go to saved issues and save individual articles to keep them going forward.
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Amazon has consistently bulked its Prime Instant Video service with many Hollywood studio and cable network agreements since the Kindle Fire launched last year, and now it is announcing a new multi-year licensing deal with EPIX studio in the United States.
The agreement adds thousands of fresh and old titles, as well as original programming, from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn Mayer Pictures, Liongates, and other EPIX partners. The beefed catalog more than doubles Prime Instant Video’s previous content offering, which provides instant, unlimited streaming to paid Prime members on the Android-powered Kindle Fire or other supported devices like the iPad.
A few of today’s content additions include “The Avengers”, “Iron Man 2”, “The Hunger Games”, “Transformers Dark of the Moon”, “True Grit”, and more. It is worth noting Amazon plans to hold a product launch event on Sept. 5 in Los Angeles; the glitzy location could suggest more content deals are coming down the pipeline.
The full press release is below.
Amazon, NBCUniversal Cable and New Media Distribution announced an agreement today that will bulk the online retailer’s Prime Instant Video selection with hundreds of award-winning TV episodes.
Amazon’s Instant Video touts 22,000 movies and episodes for Prime members to stream on the Android-powered Kindle Fire or other supported devices like the iPad. A few of today’s catalog additions include “Parks and Recreation”, “Parenthood”, “Friday Night Lights”, “Heroes” and “Battlestar Galactica”.
Check out the full story at 9to5Google.com.
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Just 24 hours after Hulu started popping up on Apple TV, we now see Amazon’s Instant Video Store in the App Store for iPad. It looks like a full app capable of not only streaming Prime content for free (with the$79 a yearl Amazon Prime membership, but the first month is free) as well as being able to download content for offline viewing. Also, Season Pass is available for TV shows, and episodes are available the morning after the show airs on TV. The app will also resume where you left off watching from Kindle Fire, PS3, PC, Mac, or hundreds of models of connected TVs and Blu-ray players with Amazon Whispersync.
Interestingly, no iPhone version yet.
I can confirm that Airplay only works for audio in streaming video so you can’t stream to an AppleTV, yet. Also, I am able to stream my purchased movies but offline downloading doesn’t appear to be working at the moment (update: 8 hours later, 1 movie has finished downloading).
Amazon’s Cloud Drive got updated just yesterday as well, but with the proximity to the Hulu announcement, we’re thinking this might be Apple’s move more than Amazon finally building the app. On the other hand, perhaps the $199 Google Nexus 7 is signaling a big shift – that Amazon doesn’t need to build its own hardware and it can just produce software for the variety of tablets out there.
A long-rumored refresh of Amazon’s Kindle Fire line was outed by Staple CEO Demos Parneros… More at 9to5Google.com
Almost a year after first debuting its cloud-based music service, Amazon released an iPhone version of the app today that provides access to most of the features offered in the Android and desktop versions. Not surprisingly, the ability to buy music from directly within the app is missing. Otherwise, you will be able to get access to all the music stored in your Amazon Cloud Drive and features such as creating and editing playlists, downloading for offline listening, and streaming over Bluetooth.
As noted in Amazon’s full press release below, on top of the automatic free 5GB of storage, it will offer a launch promotion providing “those who purchase any storage plan will receive unlimited space for MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files at no additional cost.”
Amazon Cloud Player App Now Available for iPhone & iPod touch
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Jun. 12, 2012– (NASDAQ:AMZN) – Amazon.com, Inc. today announced its Amazon Cloud Player App for iPhone and iPod touch is now available on the App Store. The app allows customers to stream or download music stored in Cloud Player to their iPhone or iPod touch, play music that is already stored on their device, and manage or create playlists.
“Customers tell us that they want access to all of their music, wherever they are, and on all of the devices they use,” said Steve Boom, Vice President of Digital Music for Amazon. “By bringing Cloud Player to iPhone and iPod touch, we now have the most widely compatible cloud playback solution available, giving our customers the ability to buy once and enjoy their music everywhere.”
Customers using the Amazon Cloud Player App can stream, download, and manage their music in the cloud, eliminating the need to download files before playing them. With this new app, customers have full access to their Cloud Player music libraries and also can seamlessly add playlists that are currently on their iPhone or iPod touch.
All Amazon customers automatically start with 5 GB of free storage to begin uploading their digital music library to Cloud Player, and for a limited time, those who purchase any storage plan will receive unlimited space for MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files at no additional cost.
The Amazon Cloud Player App is available for free from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch or at www.itunes.com/appstore.
Apple earned the top spot in a new corporate reputation study by Harris Poll (via TechCrunch). It awarded Apple with a corporate reputation quotient of 85.63, which is enough to displace a second-ranked Google with a score of 82.82. Only eight companies earned an RQ score of 80 or above that denotes “excellent reputation.” Apple’s achievement is even more noteworthy knowing Google ranked as last year’s most reputable corporation. Facebook and Intel did not appear on the list this year at all. As for Apple’s rise:
Apple’s current dominance is built on strong investments in its brand, predominantly through its products and services. This one-dimensional approach to building reputation has ultimately yielded high associations with all six reputational dimensions. Conversely, Hewlett Packard, which once out-ranked Apple, has headed in the reverse direction. Hewlett Packard’s slowly eroding reputation has been injured by negative perceptions on Ethics and Vision & Leadership dimensions, and its brand is beginning to feel the damage.
Beverages giant Coca-Cola (No. 3), online retailer Amazon (No. 4) and multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate Kraft Foods (No. 5) round out the top five. Apple ranked the highest in Financial Performance, Products & Services, Vision & Leadership and Workplace Environment—four out of the six key dimensions in reputation. Interestingly, Amazon.com rules the Emotional Appeal category, even though it lacks brick-and-mortar stores and has a limited human interaction with its customers…
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Amazon issued an update yesterday to the $199 Kindle Fire that is supposed to fix some of the mainstream problems, but we are still a fan of the Kindle-as-iPad-app that also got an update this morning.
Walter Isaacson signing books in Times Square | Photo: Tanner Curtis
We noted last week that Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography published by Simon & Schuster became Amazon’s best-selling book of 2011, but that included just sales of the dead trees version. Print sales do not, however, paint an accurate picture because Kindle e-books are now outselling hardcover and paperback editions combined, prompting Amazon to include Kindle books into the rankings.
The company this morning issued a press release stating that the biography of Apple’s late co-founder broke all records to become the best-selling book of 2011 – just 50 days following the October 23 release. It’s not just Amazon, the book also topped Customer Favorites chart on Amazon and is #2 on Audible.
The exclusive biography is also a top-seller in the Non-fiction category on Apple’s iBookstore, where it can be yours for fifteen bucks. It’s also available as a digital download from the Kindle store. It did not fare as well on Barnes and Noble however, only garnering a #34 ranking of NookBooks. Go past the fold for Amazon’s list of Top 10 best-selling books overall.
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Kinda neat. The voiceover quotes French writer François-Marie Arouet Voltaire.
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes property of all.
And then, Amazon adds its own cheesy part: From Kindle, the Fire is born. Talk about pun intended.
The new Kindle Fire tablet costs $199 and ships November 15.
Full 45 minute presentation below the fold…
Amazon today announced unlimited storage for music in its cloud drive. The catch is you have to upgrade your overall Cloud storage (also includes Docs, Pictures, movies, etc) to the 20GB plan which is $20 per year. Once you do that, you can upload “Unlimited” amounts of music and play it anywhere. So, this appears to be taking on Spotify, Google and Apple’s iTunes Match (though each service is slightly different).
Speaking of Apple, the Amazon Cloud web experience is now also optimized for the iPad. Full press release below:
From the Toys section:
Amazon has a small special Christmas gift for shoppers today: $2 in free music. Simply head here, click the Button and enter the Code “GIVEMP3S”. $2 will be automatically applied to your account. Use it to buy holiday music or send a small last minute gift to someone? MP3 Gift ideas here.