Amazon

A new report from Canalys today shares its prediction that smart speakers are on track for record growth and will be the hottest consumer tech items of 2018. Canalys believes that consumers will buy 56.3 million smart speakers in 2018, just shy of doubling from 2017 sales.

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Amazon Prime Video recently launched on Apple TV, but the streaming media player hasn’t resurfaced on the online marketplace yet. Now it looks like Apple TV may finally be going live on Amazon’s online store.

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Amazon launched its Music Unlimited service just over a year ago, adding to Apple Music’s competition in the streaming music space – and a major international expansion today sees it available in 28 new countries.

Amazon quickly followed its US launch by rolling out the service to Austria, Germany and the UK the following month, and Japan later. It subsequently matched Apple’s family plan and student deal, but today’s news will increase the pressure as it becomes available to many more users …

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Along with launching today’s Countdown to Black Friday 2017, Amazon updated its iOS app to include a new feature for the holiday shopping season called ‘AR View’. Leaning heavily on Apple’s own ARKit, this new feature allows customers to virtually place products in their home “allowing them to visualize the aesthetic” prior to purchasing. (Also Amazon is currently offering a $50 iTunes gift card for $42.50. That’s 15% off.)

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The latest version of the Amazon Kindle iOS app, rolling out from today, adds a new light theme to the existing dark one. Navigation has also been improved, the company aiming to provide single-tap access to your most frequently-used features.

But the biggest change is building GoodReads right into the app. Amazon first integrated the Kindle app with Goodreads back in 2014, but is now making it an integral part of the app, which the company says offers three benefits to readers …

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We learned earlier this year that the average smartphone user spends 2h 15m a day using apps, and new data suggests that more of this time than ever is spent using shopping apps.

App Annie data shows that time spent in digital-first retailer apps like Amazon increased by 44% year-on-year in the first half of 2017 …

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Amazon unveiled a host of new devices at a surprise event yesterday, and one of the company’s latest compelling products is the new 4K Fire TV. On the heels of the Apple TV 4K launch, let’s take a look at how the two set top boxes compare and what this could mean for the future of Apple’s offering.

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Amazon took the stage in Seattle this morning to unveil a handful of new devices ahead of the holiday season. Today’s announcement includes the all-new Echo and Echo Plus Smart Speaker, a smaller Echo Connect, two updated models of its Fire TV streaming media platform and more. It was a big day in Seattle, and we have all of the details for you down below along with pre-order information.

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Amazon today has announced a new feature that allows users to play, synchronize, and control music playback across multiple Echo devices with support for voice commands. The news comes ahead of Apple’s HomePod launch in December and Sonos likely unveiling a new smart speaker in October. Amazon has also announced new tools for developers.

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Apple has long recognized the importance of the student market, using education discounts to try to pull them into the company’s ecosystem with hardware purchases, and adding a student discount for Apple Music last year.

Apple knows that if you bring people on board as students, they have huge potential lifetime value once they leave college. Amazon Music Unlimited seems now to be realizing the same thing, with a student deal that matches the Apple one – and going even further for Prime Student members …

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Much like Apple, Amazon is now said to have a secret heathcare team working on electronic medical records and telemedicine. A new report from CNBC details the team, dubbed 1492 in reference to the year Columbus first landed in the Americas.

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As it continues to expand its own ecosystem, Amazon may have a new messaging app on the horizon. According to a new report from AFTVnews, Amazon is working a messaging app called Anytime that carries a strong focus on group communication.

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Over recent months, Amazon has quietly started rolling out a new in-house installation service that aims to offer installation of Alexa products, as well as other devices. The effort is detailed in a new report from Recode, drawing similarities to Best Buy’s Geek Squad installation and repair service…

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Apple’s unveiling of the HomePod at WWDC was little more than a preview, as the company remains tight-lipped on exactly how the Siri voice assistant will work on the device. Whilst the HomePod isn’t shipping until the end of the year, Amazon is launching its latest addition to the Alexa home AI product range later this week.

The $230 Echo Show launches on Wednesday, featuring a 7-inch touchscreen. The company posted a series of videos (watch after the jump) giving a first look at the UI in action, to show how the Alexa assistant will utilize the screen to display relevant information and respond to voice queries …

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When the Echo Show launches next Wednesday, Amazon’s smart speaker with a display will work with a number of smart home cameras including the August Doorbell Cam from day one. For comparison, Apple’s HomeKit smart home feature supports video cameras and doorbells but only one camera has hit the market with support so far.

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A new report from Strategy Analytics gives us a look at the current state of Wi-Fi speaker sales ahead of Apple’s release of its newly unveiled HomePod Siri speaker slated for this December. The report shows that Amazon with its push of Echo and other Alexa-enabled WiFi speakers was able to surpass shipments from Sonos that has mostly ruled the majority of the market since 2014.

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Whole Foods just removed its Apple Watch app from the App Store, making it the latest company to do so after Google, eBay, Amazon and others did the same earlier this year. Speaking of Amazon, the removal of the Whole Foods Watch app follows Amazon’s announcement that it will acquire the grocery store chain for $13.7 billion this week…

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Last week Recode reported that Amazon and Apple were actively discussing plans to bring Prime Video to Apple TV later this year, and now Buzzfeed is reporting that yes, really, it’s happening and the deal is now official. Amazon Prime Video for Apple TV is expected to be introduced on stage at WWDC next month and launch later this summer, according to the report.

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Amazon has officially announced its latest addition to the Echo family, the $229 Amazon Echo Show. Adding to its popular range of home virtual assistant devices, the Show combines the usual Amazon Alexa voice commands with a 7 inch touchscreen, displaying relevant visual content like weather reports and music lyrics in response to your voice queries.

It also features a camera to enable FaceTime-like video calls between friends and family. The Echo Show is up for pre-order now, available in white or black models, and is shipping to customers from June 28.

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