A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience
The Amazon 2nd Gen Echo Frames feature open-ear audio and hands-free access to Alexa. This smart eyewear allows you to discreetly make calls, set reminders, retrieve the news, listen to podcasts, and much more. In fact, you can also customize which notifications you receive to filter the important content.
Continue reading… “Amazon 2nd Gen Echo Frames feature open-ear audio and hands-free access to Alexa” 
An artist’s conception shows the human landing system that’s being developed by Blue Origin and its industry partners in the foreground, and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon cargo lander in the far background. (Blue Origin Illustration)
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin space venture is working on a landing system that could put astronauts on the moon by as early as 2024 — but it’s also keeping its options open to deliver a ton of cargo to the lunar surface a year before that.
Blue Origin’s chief scientist, Steve Squyres, outlined the current state of plans for an Amazon-like cargo delivery to the moon today during a virtual symposium presented by the University of Washington’s Space Policy and Research Center.
Amazon is lifting the hood on one of three custom-designed electric delivery vans it built in partnership with Rivian.
The new vehicle is 100% electric and features various technology such as sensor detection, exterior cameras that provide 360-degree views, Alexa voice integration, and more.
“We combined Rivian’s technology with our delivery logistics knowledge, and the result is what you see here-the future of last mile delivery,” Ross Rachey, director of Amazon’s Global Fleet and Products, said in a blog post.
Rachey noted that Amazon is working to build technology that supports physical charging infrastructure and “enhancements and optimization of our delivery stations.”
Amazon wants its palm recognition technology in stores, stadiums, and office buildings
Amazon is unveiling its own palm recognition technology today that will be used initially to turn your hand into a personal credit card inside the company’s physical retail stores. Amazon One uses the palm of your hand to identify you, using a combination of surface-area details like lines and ridges, alongside vein patterns to create a “palm signature.”
At first, this palm signature will be used in Amazon’s own Go stores in Seattle, and the company also plans to add Amazon One to other Amazon stores in the coming months. Amazon One usage will eventually extend beyond just palm-based payments. “We believe Amazon One has broad applicability beyond our retail stores, so we also plan to offer the service to third parties like retailers, stadiums, and office buildings so that more people can benefit from this ease and convenience in more places,” says Dilip Kumar, vice president of Amazon’s physical retail business.
A security drone is on the way from Amazon and it has more than few people asking questions about privacy. At the same time, tech enthusiasts seem to be pretty excited about this newest addition to the home surveillance marketplace.
Amazon’s smart home security division Ring has unveiled a new home security drone that will launch into the air and begin recording if it detects a suspected break-in. Dubbed the Always Home Cam, users will be able to access instantaneous streaming video once the drone launches.
Amazon hopes its Scout robots will carry packages autonomously the “last mile,” from delivery hubs to homes. – ROGER KISBY/GETTY IMAGES
The companies are backing bills in more than a dozen states that would legalize the devices. Some bills would block cities from regulating them at all.
IN FEBRUARY, A lobbyist friend urged Erik Sartorius, the executive director of the Kansas League of Municipalities, to look at a newly introduced bill that would affect cities. The legislation involved “personal delivery devices”—robots that, as if in a sci-fi movie, might deliver a bag of groceries, a toolbox, or a prescription to your doorstep. It would have limited their weight to 150 pounds, not including the cargo inside. And it would have allowed them to operate on any sidewalk or crosswalk in Kansas at speeds up to 6 miles per hour, the pace of a quick human jog.
Lawmakers and lobbyists say the bill was drafted with help from Amazon. In later testimony to a state senate committee, Amazon lobbyist Jennie Massey said the bill would allow devices like Scout, the company’s bright blue, six-wheeled robot, “to bring new technology and innovation to Kansas.” She noted that Amazon had invested $2.2 billion in Kansas since 2010, and that the company employed 3,000 full-time workers in the state.
Continue reading… “Amazon and FedEx push to put delivery robots on your sidewalk”
Amazon Global Online Stores Net Sales
Amazon is investing $100 million to help small businesses attract sales on Prime Day and during the holidays,
This is a key moment for Amazon to recruit SMBs because of the coronavirus pandemic and a rise in competition.
The etailer is investing $100 million to help small businesses boost their sales and customer acquisition efforts for Prime Day, which may occur in October, and through the holiday season.
It’s also on pace to invest $18 billion to help independent businesses make sales through spending on logistics, services, and other areas. It intends to work with 500,000 US small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that sell on its marketplace over the next 12 months to offer them its ecommerce expertise and other forms of support, as Amazon appears to be making a push to appeal to SMB merchants.
KEY POINTS
Continue reading… “Amazon wins FAA approval for Prime Air drone delivery fleet”
Amazon launching smart grocery carts that track shoppers’ items
Amazon is launching smart shopping carts at its Woodland Hills, California, grocery store in 2020.
Dash Carts are embedded with cameras, sensors and a smart display that automatically track a shopper’s order.
Similar to Amazon’s cashierless Go stores, Dash Carts allow shoppers to avoid checkout lines as they exit the store.
Amazon is launching shopping carts that track items as shoppers add them, then automatically charges them when they remove the grocery bags, allowing them to skip the checkout line.
The Dash Carts will roll out at Amazon’s new Los Angeles-area grocery store, which is slated to open this year, the company announced Tuesday.
Amazon’s ‘Drop In’ feature now works across the entire house.
Amazon Alexa users can now use the “Drop In” feature to talk with all of their Echo devices at once, Amazon announced on its blog. Previously, Drop In messages could only be sent to one other Alexa-enabled device at a time — a user with an Alexa device in the bedroom could “drop in” on a device in the kitchen and have a two-way conversation.
Now, you can use a device to send a message to all Echo devices in the house at once. This could be helpful with asking group questions like, “Does anyone want anything from the grocery store?” according to the Amazon blog. To start a group Drop In conversation, you can ask Alexa to “Drop In everywhere.”
Continue reading… “Now all your home’s Alexa devices work like an intercom”
The Woodland Park, New Jersey Fairway Market (pictured) is one the locations Amazon is targeting.
Amazon is on the prowl once again — and this time it’s eyeing a handful of supermarkets owned by New York City grocer Fairway Market, The Post has learned.
The tech juggernaut run by Jeff Bezos is bidding on four stores owned by the bankrupt Fairway in New York and New Jersey, including one in Brooklyn, home to a popular waterfront mega-market in Red Hook, sources told The Post.
The auction, which kicked off Monday and continued into Thursday, comes as the coronavirus brings the country to its knees, raising recession fears. But COVID-19 has also proven a boon for Amazon’s online ordering business as people hunker down at home.
Continue reading… “Amazon looking to buy four Fairway stores amid coronavirus chaos”
The first Amazon Go Grocery opens today in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district
Amazon is getting more serious about its brick-and-mortar retail ambitions with its first-ever Amazon-branded grocery store. The store opens today in Seattle’s Capitol Hill district, confirming reports from last year that Amazon was developing a more ambitious version of its cashier-less Go model. The new store, which The Verge toured late last week, is indeed modeled after a standard Amazon Go location, but it has been expanded to include a wide array of grocery items you’d find at, say, Amazon-owned Whole Foods.
In fact, the store does source a number of its items, including some produce and meat and other fresh food, from Whole Foods suppliers. It also carries Whole Foods’ 365 brand for certain items. But Amazon’s store offers other products, like Kellogg’s breakfast cereal and Coke products, that you won’t find at Amazon’s higher-end, organic-focused subsidiary.
Continue reading… “Amazon is expanding its cashierless Go model into a full-blown grocery store”