Amazon’s new CloudDrive app still leans heavily on web

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One of the nice things about storage services Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft SkyDrive is the ability to upload, browse and access files stored in the cloud from the Mac OS X Finder or Windows Explorer, as if they were files on your hard drive. Attempting to keep up, Amazon today expanded the capabilities of… Read More…

Spoiler Alert: Amazon takes heat over ‘Hunger Games’ ad

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If you saw the “Hunger Games” movie but haven’t bothered reading ahead in the books, you might want to keep your head down when you venture outside. An outdoor ad by Amazon.com for the Kindle shows the opening page of “Mockingjay,” the third book in the trilogy — revealing a number of plot twists from… Read More…

Architects describe Amazon’s proposed Seattle campus as an ‘urban room’ with ‘sun pockets’

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Amazon.com’s ambitious plans to erect three massive 37-story office towers in the Denny Triangle area of downtown Seattle isn’t about building a corporate campus, it’s about building a neighborhood. At least that’s the view of NBBJ’s John Savo, the architect for Amazon.com. In front of standing room only crowd Tuesday night at City Hall, Savo addressed… Read More…

Harry Potter arrives on Kindle

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Amazon.com has struck a deal with author J.K. Rowling to distribute all seven of the best-selling Harry Potter titles on the Kindle and via Kindle mobile applications. Interestingly, in order for customers to purchase a Harry Potter book they must first establish an account on Rowling’s ebook store, known as Pottermore Shop. All transactions then… Read More…

Amazon paying $775M for Kiva warehouse robotics company

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Amazon.com just announced an agreement to pay $775 million in cash to acquire Kiva Systems Inc., a maker of automation technology for fulfillment centers. Kiva makes robotic vehicles that zip around warehouses to deliver packages and other materials to workers, controlled by smart software designed to make distribution centers run more efficiently. Customers of Kiva include… Read More…

New evidence of Amazon’s ambitions to make original TV

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From Hulu to Netflix, it seems that every online video service is getting into original television these days, and new signs emerged overnight that Amazon.com is no different. Fortune reports that it spotted a LinkedIn profile for an Amazon executive named Joe Lewis, a veteran of 20th Century Fox and Comedy Central who listed his… Read More…

Actress’s suit vs. Amazon’s IMDb may have bigger impact on privacy

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A lawsuit against Amazon.com’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for disclosing an actress’s age could have a larger impact on the way online companies gather and use personal information. That’s the upshot of a New York Times article this morning, which digs into the case of the 40-year-old actress who sued Amazon.com’s Internet Movie Database (IMDb) for revealing her… Read More…

Amazon filing shows $558M loss for LivingSocial in 2011

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How much does it cost to bulk up and compete with the likes of Groupon in the daily deals market? Amazon.com’s annual Form 10-K filing, made public this morning, reveals detailed financial information about LivingSocial, the privately-held Washington, D.C.-based company in which Amazon is an investor. A footnote in Amazon’s filing gives this condensed statement of… Read More…

Amazon: Burning the book business or making it better?

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Bloomberg Businessweek’s cover story this week drills into Amazon’s effort to upend the book industry by moving into the publishing business. The piece by Brad Stone tells the story of Larry Kirshbaum, the former Time Warner Book Group chief who is now heading up the New York-based publishing efforts for the online retailer. It’s a good… Read More…

From e-book to bookstore: Amazon and Houghton Mifflin strike new distribution deal

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Amazon.com is increasingly expanding into the business of book publishing, and it has some formidable distribution mechanisms in the form of its own e-commerce site and Kindle devices. But what about people who prefer to pick up the ink-and-pulp versions in the local bookstore? Amazon Publishing’s East Coast Group this week announced a new licensing agreement with… Read More…