Looxcie
The Looxcie is a video recorder that is worn over the ear like a typical Bluetooth phone headset. In fact, it doubles as a phone headset, offering up to 10 hours of talk time, unless you record video, which is the real reason for its extra-large battery.
Continue reading… “The Looxcie Wearable Video Camera”
First shoes, now diapers. Amazon is reportedly about to announce on Monday the acquisition of Quidsi, the New Jersey-based ecommerce company behind Diapers.com, Soap.com, and, most recently, BeautyBar.com. Fortune’s Dan Primack, who broke the story from a maternity ward in Boston where his daughter was just born (no joke), puts the price of the all-cash deal at $540 million.
A year ago, Amazon bought online shoe retailer Zappos for $1.2 billion…
Continue reading… “Amazon Buys Diapers.com For $540 Million”
One of many new species discovered
More than 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates have been discovered in the Amazon over the past decade – a new species every three days – according to a new WWF report, Amazon Alive…
Continue reading… “New Species Discovered In The Amazon”
Health workers have given rabies vaccine to more than 500 people who have also been attacked. Some experts have linked mass vampire bat attacks on people in the Amazon to deforestation. The rabies outbreak is focused on the community of Urakusa in the north-eastern Peruvian Amazon, close to the border with Ecuador.
Continue reading… “Peru Battles Rabid Vampire Bats After 500 People Bitten”
Kindle books outsell hardcover books according to Amazon.
Amazon.com said Monday that growth in sales of its Kindle digital reader accelerated every month in the second quarter and that it’s selling more electronic books than hardcover editions. The pace of Kindle sales also has tripled since the Internet retail giant cut the price on the device to $189 from $259, Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement.
Amazon drops Colorado affiliates
Kristie McNealy blogs from her suburban Denver home about raising four children and health issues. Her husband, Rob, a floor installer, runs another Web site offering product reviews and advice on hardwood floors.
It’s not just for fun. Whenever someone clicks on a link to buy a book or product that their sites mention from an online seller, the McNealys get a commission. And if that customer comes back the next day to that same retailer and buys a television, they get a cut of that, too.
Continue reading… “Amazon Reacts to Colorado Law, Drops Colorado Affiliates”
Hundreds of geometric monuments unearthed deep in the Amazon may have been left behind by a previously unknown society, say scientists.
Archaeologists have found more than 200 earthworks shaped as perfect circles and squares, many connected by straight roads. They have dated one site to 1283AD but say others could be from as early as 200AD.
Hundreds of geometric monuments unearthed deep in the Amazon may have been left behind by a previously unknown society, say scientists.
Archaeologists have found more than 200 earthworks shaped as perfect circles and squares, many connected by straight roads. They have dated one site to 1283AD but say others could be from as early as 200AD.
The earthen structures or ‘geoglyphs’ can now be spotted against the treeless, savanna-like landscape and scientists have compiled an archive using Google Earth.
Continue reading… “Lost Amazon Civilization Revealed After Forests Cleared for Cattle Grazing”
E-readers were on display at in the Chinese pavilion at the Book Fair in Frankfurt
As makers of electronic-book readers jockey for position in the U.S., Japan and Europe, a similar but more challenging effort is unfolding in China. World-wide, about four million electronic-book reading devices were sold last year. The number is expected to jump to 12 million in 2010 and 18 million in 2012, predicts the U.S.-based market intelligence firm iSuppli Corp.
Continue reading… “China Is Forecast To Be World’s Largest eReader Market By 2015”
We’re still not about say the e-book reader industry has branched out beyond the infancy stage, but one of its flagship products certainly has reason to celebrate. Amazon has announced it’s hit some pretty big milestones with the Kindle. The two bullet points it’s currently touting loudest is that the reader has become “the most gifted item” in the company’s history — quite an achievement given the size of the online retailer, but what’s missing here is any quantitative sales data to give us even a ballpark of the number of units sold….
Nook
An early hint that Barnes & Noble’s brand-new Nook electronic reader is flashier than the Amazon Kindle comes when you first turn on the devices. On Kindle, you’re welcomed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. On the upstart Nook, an introduction is written by humor columnist Dave Barry. “Congratulations on your new Nook! We’re sure it will give you many years of trouble-free enjoyment until next week, when we come out with a newer version.”Barnes & Noble doesn’t need to introduce a newer Nook quite that fast, though the first version does feel unfinished and sluggish. Still, it has enormous upside and novel features.
Continue reading… “How The Nook Stacks Up To Kindle”
Amazon is shaking up retailers, both big rivals and small independent stores.
THE hum of 102 rooftop air conditioners and a chorus of beeping electric carts provide the acoustic backdrop in Amazon.com’s 605,000-square-foot distribution facility on this city’s west side. But the center’s employees can almost always hear Terry Jones. On a recent summer afternoon, Mr. Jones, an “inbound support associate” making $12 an hour, steered a hand-pushed cart through the packed aisles and shouted his location to everyone in earshot: “Cart coming through. Yup! Watch yourself, please!” Mr. Jones explained that he was just making his time at Amazon “joyful and fun” while complying with the company’s rigorous safety rules.
Continue reading… “Is Amazon Becoming the Wal-Mart of the Web?”
Sony’s Reader
Paper books may be low tech, but no one will tell you how and where you can read them.
For many people, the problem with electronic books is that they come loaded with just those kinds of restrictions. Digital books bought today from Amazon.com, for example, can be read only on Amazon’s Kindle device or its iPhone software.
Continue reading… “Sony To Begin Selling eBooks In The Digital Standard ePub Format”