Amazon

Buzz Out Loud 732: Make family, not phone

An amusement park in the U.K. thinks you'll have more fun if they confiscate your smartphone. I think I would not go to that amusement park. I don't care if they say I'll have more fun-- I don't trust them with my iPhone. Also YouTube and Viacom are spatting again, and Brazilian beetles might lead to photonic computing! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 732

Why Friday audio sucked

What we just learned about Windows 7 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9952067-56.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9951638-56.html

First pictures from Mars Phoenix lander … Read more

InfoTech 100 best performing tech companies (BusinessWeek)

BusinessWeek sorted through the financial results of 30,500 publicly traded companies to rank the tech players on four criteria: shareholder return, return on equity, total revenue. It's worth a look to see how well consumer technology companies are doing and how important telecom remains in the global technology economy.

Here are the top five:

Amazon Apple Research in Motion Nintendo Western Digital

InfoTech 100

Buzz Out Loud 726: Dueling banjos at dawn (VIDEO)

Here is the video for today's episode of Buzz Out Loud. Check it out!

Gadgettes 90: The 'No Way' Episode

Some items make us go "No Way!" Others make us go "No Way?!" That question mark makes all the difference in the world. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 90

The KickTrack http://medgadget.com/archives/2007/12/baby_kick_counter.html

Fusion man soars above Swiss Alps on Personal Jet Wing http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14/ photos.rocketman/index.html

Japan plans face recognition cigarette vending machines http://dvice.com/archives/2008/05/japan_plans_fac.php

Analyst: Amazon.com’s Kindle to generate $750 million by 2010 http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9945112-1.html… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 726: Dueling banjos at dawn

Somehow today's show ended with Jason Howell challenging Paul Shaffer to a duel at Shalin's suggestion. We don't know. It's Friday. In other news, Cox and Comcast are the biggest BitTorrent blockers in the world, we spoil the entire plotline of Battlestar Galactica (sorry!), and we get deep inside the jDome. Plus: VIDEO! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 726

Note: We are making a change to our podcast feed system on Monday, May 19. However, you do not need to subscribe to a new feed. One important thing to know: If you have your … Read more

Add MP3 clips to your Web page with Amazon widget

Amazon released a new MP3 Clips Widget today that lets you build playlists with 30-second samples from any of the 5 million+ songs on Amazon's MP3 store, then embed those playlists in any Web page. The process is brain-dead simple: first you run a search of song titles or album titles against Amazon's database, then select from the results. Second, choose the size of the widget. Third, select from a list of 15 popular blogging and personal home page sites (Blogger, Yahoo 360, and so on), or paste the code directly into your page, as I've done … Read more

Amazon invests in Animoto

Amazon has invested an undisclosed amount in Animoto, a site that enables people to easily create videos from their photos and music.

This is the first big investor for Animoto. Previous funding has come from friends and family.

Animoto.com, which launched in August, has more than 160,000 registered users, with 7.5 percent of them paying a $30 annual fee to be able to create longer videos. The company also has a Facebook application, which launched in March and has more than 750,000 users.

The Amazon funding doesn't exactly come as a surprise given the links … Read more

Analyst: Amazon.com's Kindle to generate $750 million by 2010

Calling it the iPod of the book business, CitiGroup analyst Mark Mahaney says the Kindle e-book reader will generate three-quarters of a billion dollars for Amazon.com in less than two years.

That should account for up to 3 percent of Amazon's business. See his chart and reasoning here.

His calculations assume that unit sales will grow from 189,000 by the end of this year to 2.2 million units in just two years. By then he assumes the price of the device will be just below $300. Mahaney also points out that Amazon does have the largest … Read more

Amazon to collect N.Y. sales tax; Overstock drops out

New York's expansive new online sales-tax requirements are drawing mixed responses from major e-tailers that haven't previously collected such fees in the Empire State.

Despite a pending lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality, Amazon.com has said on its Web site that it still plans to abide by the law and add sales tax to orders shipped to New York when the mandate kicks in June 1.

But online outlet store Overstock.com wants nothing to do with collecting the new tax, according to reports at the Affiliate Tip blog and The New York Times.

A few weeks … Read more