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.
Jeff Bezos’ Leo service had an FCC deadline of July 30th to launch half of its planned 3,232-satellite constellation. To date it’s only launched 331. The waiver comes with conditions meant to incentivize Amazon to move quickly, which would be a lot easier if Bezos’ semi-reusable New Glenn rocket hadn’t exploded and destroyed its only launchpad.
There are over 330 Leo satellites already in orbit, but the 36 planned for the next Arianespace mission is still smaller than the 48 satellites Amazon was planning to launch on a Blue Origin rocket that exploded during testing last week. This batch of satellites will launch from a spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on June 17th.
Prime members in the US will have the chance to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day in select theaters on July 29th, two days before the movie is widely released stateside. Tickets will be available here, and you can sign up to be notified when they go on sale.
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That’s Dave Limp, Blue Origin CEO, commenting on New Glenn’s return to service after last week’s spectacular explosion that seriously damaged LC-36 — the rocket’s only launchpad. If the timeline holds it would be on the optimistic side of estimates and good news for NASA and Amazon who need the partially reusable, heavy-lift launch vehicle operational to meet their respective targets of returning to the Moon and competing with Starlink.
Following online backlash, Jorge Gutierrez announced that he will no longer be making the AI series Punky Duck:
My intent was to showcase artists, both new and seasoned, both inside and outside the studios, driving this new tech. My sincerest apology to those I upset. I promise to do better moving forward. Thank you for your patience with me. I will try harder.
Punky Duck was one of three animated AI series set to appear on Prime Video as part of Amazon’s GenAI Creators’ Fund.
Recently grounded after issues with its third mission, the New Glenn rocket intended to launch the NG-4 mission has suffered an “anomaly,” exploding at Cape Canaveral during a hotfire test just after 9PM ET.
Blue Origin said, “All personnel have been accounted for. We will provide updates as we learn more.”
That’s what Amazon exec Dave Treadwell told employees after the company shuttered an internal leaderboard tracking which staff members use AI the most, the Financial Times reports:
The decision came after the tool led some workers to assign AI agents — autonomous bots that can take actions on behalf of users — to carry out needless tasks in an apparent attempt to climb the rankings.
As computing becomes more expensive, employee “toxenmaxxing” reportedly increased costs at Amazon.
Amazon MGM Studios greenlit three shows as part of its GenAI Creators’ Fund, which gives producers access to the company’s AI filmmaking platform. The projects include Cupcake & Friends from BuzzFeed Studios; Love, Diana Music Hunters from former Nickelodeon exec Albie Hecht; and Punky Duck from animator Jorge R. Gutierrez.
All three shows will debut on Prime Video “at a future date.”
The ecommerce giant is now selling access to the tech behind its Alexa for Shopping assistant, giving other retailers — like Kate Spade — abilty to build their own AI shopping chatbot. Amazon says its AI shopping interface can offer personalized recommendations with images and pricing, as well as answer store policy questions.
Spider-Verse aside, it feels like Sony is just throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
According to 9to5Google, launching Amazon from the app drawer on certain Motorola phones briefly opens a browser redirect to insert an affiliate link, similar to Honey’s affiliate link hijacking. We’ve got a random Redditor sniffing out packets, a fashion influencer’s name used for some reason, and no comment from Motorola yet. 9to5Google has advice on disabling the app in the meantime:
Since this behavior is stemming from a pre-installed Motorola app, you can just disable it (Settings > Apps > search “Smart Feed” > Disable). As far as we can tell, this has no immediate impact on your device and, on our affected Razr Fold, it immediately stops the redirect.
Starting in June, your progress in ebooks and audiobooks will automatically sync to your StoryGraph account, including updating reading streaks, challenges, and book clubs. Kobo is also highlighting StoryGraph’s stat-tracking and recommendation algorithm, saying:
Kobo users can leverage StoryGraph’s sophisticated analytics to understand their reading habits better. From personalized recommendations based on your unique tastes to detailed charts about your reading moods and pace.
That’s according to Amazon’s President and CEO Andy Jassy — a cold, yet unsuprising take from the man who’s planning to replace 600,000 employees with robots by 2033. In this Bloomberg article, you can read more about how he’s overhauling Amazon to go all-in on AI.
We asked the company to clarify what’s going on here. Maybe there’s an explanation, but I know a lot of people wouldn’t put it past Amazon to pull a stunt like this.
The new black-and-white Kindle Scribe without a glowing display has been MIA since it was announced last September. But according to an updated listing on Amazon’s store, it will finally be available starting on June 10th at 10AM ET for $429.99, giving the recently-announced Remarkable Paper Pure some more competition.
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The home security company launched two new products today: the Ring Spotlight Cam (2nd Gen) at $169.99 and the Ring Floodlight Cam (2nd Gen) at $199.99. Both feature Ring’s Retinal 2K video resolution, bringing higher-res support to Ring’s base models.
Increased resolution provides clearer video and better zoom capabilities and feeds richer data into Ring’s AI features, such as Search Party, AI-generated text descriptions, and search history. The cameras will be available on June 3rd.
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Prime Video hasn’t mentioned how many episodes its ordered to adapt the Rebecca Yarros dragon-riding romantasy novels that are so widely beloved by BookTok, but Meredith Averill (The Haunting of Hill House, Locke & Key) will serve as showrunner and executive producer. An expected release date also hasn’t been announced yet.
[Amazon MGM Studios]
Mark your calendar for November 11th.
”Season Three takes place at the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron, as the Dark Lord seeks to craft the One Ring that will give him the edge he needs to win the war, bind all peoples to his will – and at last rule all Middle-earth,” according to a press release.
Bandai has given its new Science Saru-produced The Ghost in the Shell reimagining a July 7th premiere date on Amazon Prime Video.
As The Information reports, Amazon is considering offering a “hybrid” mode that includes responses from its Rufus chatbot in search results for some products. Rufus can suggest and compare products like shopping modes in ChatGPT and Gemini, but Amazon says it’s more helpful for some products than others, and won’t entirely replace regular search.
[The Information]
Amazon has reportedly discussed casting the President’s eldest son to replace him as host if they film new episodes. The show isn’t in active development yet, but it would be the latest example of Amazon cozying up to the Trump family since it spent $75 million on the Melania documentary.
[The Wall Street Journal]
The ecommerce giant confirmed that it will hold the deals event one month early this year, offering discounts to Prime members in 26 countries. Amazon hasn’t revealed an exact date for Prime Day yet, but rumors suggest it could occur in “late June.”
[Amazon News]
The day after opening up its relationship with Microsoft and Azure, OpenAI announced an expanded deal with Amazon that brings its latest AI models, Codex, and other tools to AWS.
Ben Thompson interviewed OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and AWS CEO Matt Garman and said it seems clear that “OpenAI’s focus is going to be on AWS,” particularly with an eye toward the new Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents setup.
The company is launching a new app for its AI-powered Quick assistant, which can write emails, connect to your calendar, and edit documents inside Zoom, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, and Slack. Amazon says Quick can connect to your local files, help you create custom apps, as well as provide alerts for missed emails and more.
There’s the way any good noir is meant to be consumed — in high-contrast monochrome below. And then there is a “True-Hue Full Color” that frankly sucks all the fun out of it and just serves to highlight the seams in the mediocre CGI.
