Tag: amazon

Quote of the Day, Oh F*CK No edition.

And I say this as somebody who uses Amazon to publish my books.

Amazon Sidewalk is a shared network that helps devices like Amazon Echo devices, Ring Security Cams, outdoor lights, motion sensors, and Tile trackers work better at home and beyond the front door. When enabled, Sidewalk can unlock unique benefits for your device, support other Sidewalk devices in your community, and even locate pets or lost items.

Click the link above to see what Amazon products you suddenly don’t want in your house. Although a quick-and-dirty rule of thumb there would be anything with the word ‘Echo’ in the product name.

Amazon buys MGM for 8.5 billion…

…presumably. The antitrust folks are already starting to go a little pop-vein on the subject, and while such issues are beyond the scope of this blog now they’re still there. And understandably: with MGM’s library Amazon can compete in the Streaming Wars, and it’s in an unique place for selling you physical stuff while it’s giving you access to said library. I don’t know how much that’s worth, but it’s probably worth something.

Other than that, my earlier opinion stands: meh. Somebody’s gonna buy MGM’s library, and I already have Amazon Prime.

You ever get one of those feelings that an Amazon shipping disaster is unfolding…

…even as you’re watching, but nobody’s listening to your polite warning? Short version: I got that con in two weeks, I ordered books to sell for it a week ago, they’re saying the books will show up next week. So far, so good. A week is fine, it’s plenty of time for me to prep the books for transport to the con.

Continue reading You ever get one of those feelings that an Amazon shipping disaster is unfolding…

Amazon looking to buy MGM.

Because the world of our youth is gone. Like dust in the wind…

Chatter that Amazon (and other tech and media giants) have been sniffing around MGM has circulated for some time. But sources indicated that Amazon’s interest in acquiring the studio has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill. The deal is said to be being orchestrated by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich, whose Anchorage Capital is a major MGM shareholder.

(Via GeekTyrant) The offering price is reported 9 billion, which coincidentally also answers the question Just how much money is MGM’s library worth, anyway? Despite the melodrama above, I’m actually more or less unbothered by this. More accurately, I recognize that the current model of as-close-to-endless-copyright-as-we-can-manage requires that all streamable movies and TV shows will end up being owned by some corporation — and I already have Amazon Prime. So shine on, you crazy diamond.

Is your Android device acting up?

The latest update is making some phones go weird with Amazon and/or Google. That link has details about how to undo the update until there’s a fix. I don’t know how common it is: I only know about it because a buddy of mine had a problem with one of my Facebook links to the Amazon site and let me know I might of had a virus (I do not)…

Star Wars and LotR news.

Some interesting stuff. First off, there was a suspiciously-comprehensive leak to TheOneRing.net which confirms that Amazon’s LotR series is set in the Second Age, which means Rings of Power, maybe the Fall of Numenor, all that good stuff. The good news here is the map that came along with the leak, which looks like it was checked by somebody who knows when Mordor was founded (it is not named on the map). That’s a little thing, but they got it right, so I’m just the tiniest bit more hopeful now.

Speaking of hopeful: an open-world Star Wars is coming, and it’ll be by Ubisoft and not the GA… excuse me, I mistyped that. Clearly I meant ‘EA.’ Ubisoft has its own issues, but I can’t quite believe that the company would blow up inhabited planets… no, wait, I’m mixing up EA/GA again. Sorry about that!

Oh, hey, today’s Prime Day.

Well, today and tomorrow. I grabbed a couple of movies that I’ve been meaning to grab (The Gentlemen and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood), which makes this a banner Amazon Prime Day for me. I was kind of astounded, in fact. There’s quite a bit that Amazon does very, very well — but I’ve never been impressed with their ability to do a mass sale. I dunno; maybe the algorithm needs more tweaking. Or the AI in their cloud isn’t reliably at full sapience yet.