Once a modest online seller of books, Amazon is now one of the largest companies in the world, and its former CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the world’s most wealthy person. We track developments, both of Bezos and Amazon, its growth as a video producer, the popular Prime service, as well as its own hardware, which includes the Amazon Kindle e-reader, Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, and Amazon Fire TV streaming boxes.
The billionaire space race sure heated up yesterday with Amazon’s purchase of Globalstar. In response, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 54 new Starlink satellites in less than 24 hours via two deployments, while Jeff Bezos has only managed to launch a total of 241 Leo satellites in the last 12 months.
Since launching in 2024 with 48 Hyundai dealerships, we’ve seen Amazon Autos add used cars from Hertz and Ford, but now the Wall Street Journal says it’s active in over 130 cities with Kia, Mazda, Subaru, Chevrolet, and Jeep vehicles listed. According to the article, one benefit to Amazon, beyond the listing fee, is attracting carmakers and dealers as advertisers.
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[Wall Street Journal]
The new Leo (formerly Project Kuiper) antenna will enable air travelers bandwidth of up to 1 gigabit per second for downloads and 400 megabits per second for uploads on Delta, JetBlue, and any other commercial airlines Amazon signs up.
Still, Amazon isn’t close to meeting its deadline from the FCC to launch 1,600 satellites by July 2026, having recently requested a two year extension.
Their morning routine, per an unapologetic New York Times profile, which delivers on the premise that “unabashed rich-person exuberance is back with a Blue Origin bang:”
They don’t touch their phones. Instead, they begin each day by listing 10 things they’re grateful for — and they can’t repeat what they named the day before. From there, the couple drink their morning coffee in a sunroom and watch the sun rise: hers from a mug that reads “Woke Up Sexy as Hell Again,” his from one she got him that spells HUNK in symbols from the periodic table.
And because I know you’re gonna search for it: here’s the mug.
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Going ad-free on Prime Video now costs $4.99 per month, instead of $2.99. It also comes with “exclusive” access to 4K streams.
The Audible Story House will only be open during the month of May, featuring story “tiles” that visitors can use to sample audiobooks, along with seven “listening spaces” equipped with Sony headphones and Dolby Atmos surround sound. Here are some renderings of what the pop-up might look like:
As part of the tentative deal, Amazon will ship 20 percent fewer packages through the Postal Service, The Wall Street Journal reports. An earlier WSJ report had said that Amazon was looking to cut “at least two-thirds” of its postal volume with the USPS.
[The Wall Street Journal]
Kozic will focus on infrastructure at the well-funded startup, which Bezos leads with former Google exec Vikram Bajaj, according to the FT. Project Prometheus is focused on using AI to improve manufacturing. Kozic’s defection is the latest in a broader wave of AI talent reshuffling.
Via Amazon Luna, that is; EA Sports FC 26 is now be playable for Amazon Prime subscribers at no extra cost on recently-revamped Amazon’s cloud gaming service.
[Amazon Game Studios]
18 more films now support American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL), including Red One, Heads of State, Road House, The Idea of You, and more. You can view the full library of titles with ASL and BSL on Prime Video.
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The Financial Times reports that Amazon is in talks with Globalstar about an acquisition to help boost its low Earth orbit satellite business, but Apple’s 20 percent stake in Globalstar is forcing negotiations between the three companies.
OpenAI’s latest round of private investment has closed, with participation from Amazon, Nvidia, Softbank, and Microsoft, as well as $3 billion from individual investors, as it prepares for a potential IPO. This comes after it announced the end of its video generator Sora, and the announcement says it will focus on building a “unified superapp” with ChatGPT, Codex, browsing, and other agents all built in.
ChatGPT has 6x the monthly web visits and mobile sessions than the next largest AI app, while total AI time spent is 4x the next largest AI app and 4x all others combined. Search usage has nearly tripled in a year, and our ads pilot reached more than $100 million in ARR in under six weeks.
Now we know why Delta Airlines has been holding fast to its sluggish in-flight connectivity providers while seemingly everyone else has jumped into Elon Musk’s lap: it was holding out for Amazon Leo. Amazon’s still busy building out its satellite constellation so we’re talking 2028 before Delta can start offering the service on about 500 domestic aircraft.
Roughly 50 staffers at Fauna — the startup behind the three-and-a-half foot tall bipedal machine called Sprout — will now be joining the e-commerce giant. While Bloomberg reports that Amazon isn’t planning to deploy the robot in its operations, leaked documents have already revealed Amazon’s goal to replace 600,000 future workers with automation.
Amazon Leo, the company’s satellite internet initiative, says it’s on track to more than double its annual launch rate with over 20 missions, while shuttling more satellites to space per launch with new heavy-lift rockets. So far, Amazon Leo has deployed more than 200 satellites to its constellation, and its next mission is set for March 29th.
It’s the first European launch for Alexa Plus. It will be available for free during early access, then will cost £19.99 (about $26.50) a month, or free for Prime subscribers. The update should “feel genuinely British,” according to Amazon:
“Alexa Plus knows what a ‘cuppa’ is, will understand what you mean when you say you are ‘knackered,’ and knows that ‘it’s nippy’ means it’s chilly outside. It may even drop ‘you’re taking the mickey’ or ‘Bob’s your uncle’ into conversation.”
The Chinese e-commerce giant just launched Joybuy in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It’s built on top of its own logistics network and aims to compete with market-leader Amazon in tech, beauty, grocery, appliances, and homeware. According to CNBC:
While Joybuy is offering free same-day delivery for orders worth over £29, the company has also launched a monthly membership service called JoyPlus. This will cost £3.99 and give users unlimited free delivery. In comparison, Amazon Prime in the U.K. costs £8.99.
It was inevitable that, what is widely regarded as one of the worst
films ever made, would walk away with bunch of Golden Raspberries. War of the Worlds didn’t disappoint, taking home five awards for Worst Actor, Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.
Amazon has expanded its Alexa Plus personality styles with a new “Sassy” option. The chili pepper icon hints at this Alexa’s “unfiltered personality,” but don’t worry, Amazon is keeping the spice mild, with only “occasional censored profanity.”
Chris K.:
Programming your robot to swear then programming it to censor its own swearing is something
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Amazon will hold its annual Prime Day event in June instead of July this year, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. Sources told the outlet the sale will take place in “late June,” though Amazon has yet to confirm the exact timing of its multi-day shopping event.
Brief, Sweet, and Chill options launched in January for Alexa Plus, and now there’s also Sassy, an “unfiltered personality with razor-sharp wit, playful sarcasm, and occasional censored profanity.”
The clever comebacks-equipped voice is adults-only and requires additional verification checks, but it’s no Microsoft Tay, M3gan, or AIA. Where the Sweet version leads with “I’m radiating pure joy,” this one suggests mayhem and being “ready to wreck some things together.”
