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Amazon Black Friday Deals: From now until Cyber Monday

Amazon are now offering two extra days on their Black Friday deals, which means that the sales will now run on to Cyber Monday. That means that Amazon is offering extra days, deals and savings. Their Black Friday deals page is now live. Read more

OLPC XO give 1 laptop, get 1 now live on Amazon

Amazon have now begun to take orders for the OLPC Give 1 Get 1 program, this is now the second time that the program has been run. The small green XO laptops allow people to donate one of these mini-laptops to a child in developing countries for free. Read more

eBRIDGE ePortal Connects with Amazon

BURLINGTON, Ontario, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — eBRIDGE Software, the leader in accounting software integration solutions, is pleased to announce the launch of its ePortal service for Amazon. The launch of this service delivers on the eBRIDGE commitment to continually advance ecommerce integration solutions for the SMB market Read more

New Kindle e-book reader could match iPod sales

The kindle e-book reader which is aimed at students from Amazon, it going to unveil a larger screen model, as well as an upgrade on the base model, which we could see in September, the source said that the new model will have a lot better screen and be much thinner, as well as an improved interface which before a lot of users found annoying, one insider said that the jump in quality of the new version is similar to that of the leap between the first iPod mini and the new latest version.

Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon has talked very highly of the Kindle and it seems soon we will be able to see if the Kindle does live up to all the hype, the original device which went on sale just over a year ago is said to have sold 280,000 units, this was just a ballpark figure releases from Techcrunch report. Any new venture which has put in $100 million or so in revenue a year is not to be ignored, figures based on the Kindle selling for $399 although its dropped to $359 not so long ago.

We have never seen a Kindle in fact heard of anyone owning one, although a report from Citicorp analyst Mark Mahaney suggests that the Kindle could match the first year sales of the iPod. The one amazing thing with the Kindle is that ability to download any book and some newspapers and subscription within seconds wirelessly when for Amazon, it’s also said that Amazon will lower the price to $299 or in some reports as low as $249.

Source: businessweek

Searching for Bigfoot: rival Amazon and Fifth Avenue for traffic

There are smart businessmen and then there are extraordinary businessmen. One example is the creators of Skype who sold the VOIP program to eBay within a few years of creating it and made billions.

This kind of success does not happen often but when it does its amazing. We are possibly looking at another pair of businessmen as clever as the Skype creators (maybe even more clever)

Searching for Bigfoot is a basic looking website that could have been made by a child at first look, but this very site could rival Amazon and Fifth Avenue for traffic and profit within months.

Following the Bigfoot press conference yesterday we were not amazed at what was said, the part that impressed us was the way Matthew Whitton and Rick Dyer marketed their Bigfoot find.

Their baseball caps featured the URL searchingforbigfoot.com, and they have admitted their aim to make as much money as possible from this find.

They did not call the police or Animal Rescue, but instead dragged Bigfoot’s five hundred pound body back to their pickup truck…they have a business plan and are far from hikers.

The Bigfoot press conference was yesterday, but these businessmen already have a site up titled shopping for bigfoot. You’re able to buy a range of products with the Bigfoot theme.

So what’s next? Bigfoot food chain maybe. Read more on CNet.

Apple maintains Music Sales Lead

The latest figures are in from NPD MusicWatch, and they confirm that Apple iTunes is beginning to dominate music sales in the US. Earlier this year, they surpassed music sales by Wal-Mart and these latest stats show that iTunes remains the leading U.S music retailer, with Amazon starting to also climb the charts.

Amazon rose from fifth place to fourth due to two main reasons, the first being that online CD sales are not dipping as fast as those at high street stores, and secondly the fact that Amazon was now gaining sales from its newly launched digital music store, Amazon.mp3.

A quote from the NPD predicts that Apple will continue to enjoy more success, “We expect Apple will consolidate its lead in the retail music market, as CD sales continue to slow,” claims Russ Crupnick who is a entertainment industry analyst for the NPD group.

This latest story is further evidence that the music industry is more reliant on online sales than ever before, I wonder just how many of you use iTunes regularly to purchase your music, before previously going outside to retail stores to buy, the convenience of it all is basically enough to tempt most of us to purchase tracks online these days.

Here is the chart of Music sales in full:

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart
3. Best Buy
4. Amazon
5. Target.

Source: Read

Dollar decline boosts Amazon overseas sales

Not all businesses are suffering from the current credit crunch, Amazon.com Inc., who are the worlds largest Internet retailer have reported a better than forecast second-quarter profit.

Many Amazon customers have been purchasing items such as flat-panel TVs and jewelry, and Amazon have said that it is because of the decline of the dollar that has boosted their overseas sales.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos managed to double Amazon’s net income thanks to some great promotions, such as free shipping and lower prices in the hope of enticing customers who do not have as much money to spare.

Amazon.com shares rose 8.6 percent yesterday to $76.58; this is a stark difference as their shares earlier in the year reported a 24 percent drop.

A forecast for full-year sales look set to be as much as $20.1 billion. It looks as though the idea of buying online is more of an attractive offer to people now. Firstly you save money purchasing items online, also you do not have to waste fuel going to a store to pick up an item.

Source

Amazon Outage: Why it went down?

The web has been going crazy with the news that amazon.com has been down, the outage seemed to only last around an hour and both the UK and US domains seem to be working fine now. What we heard was customers of Amazon’s UK Web site took advantage of a pricing error and this included getting a 44-disc set of hit US drama West Wing for just under £18.

Some Amazon customers reported that surge in traffic caused the site to slow down considerably, amazing for a massive brand like Amazon, but I guess we all have our limits.

Krunker reported “Uh oh.. Is something wrong over at Amazon? The site has been suffering outages for the last 40+ minutes or so. If you go to www.amazon.com right now, you’ll probably see a “http/1.1 Service Unavailable” message like the one above. Hmm.. what’s going on Amazon?”.

We also heard from tmcnet.com about the Amazon downtime, they said the UK’s Daily Express reported this “For two hours, the entertainment giant was advertising massive discounts on several DVD box sets including a 44-disc set of hit US drama West Wing for just £17.97. Amazon customers who were lucky enough to stumble across the amazing offers went into a buying frenzy, snapping up multiple purchases of West Wing, Family Guy, Sopranos, Desperate Housewives and Will and Grace”.

Looks like Amazons sales are going to be up today, did you get any good deals?

Canon Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera now releases June 15th on Amazon

Bad news for those who want their hands on the Canon Rebel XSI 12MP Digital SLR Camera, the bad news is that the date has been pushed back to June 15th instead of the expected April release.

We all thought the Canon Rebel XSI was going to be released sometime in April after seeing an Amazon link stating this but hey we was wrong, we have now seen on the Amazon site information saying these exact words “Availability: This item will be released on June 15, 2008. Pre-order now! $899.95 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.

Now we are not sure if this is true or Amazon have just made a mistake, but if this new June 15th date is real many will say that is a lifetime after wanting the Canon Rebel XSI 12MP DSLR for so long.

Update: The good news is, it seems Amazon is the only place with the release being delayed, you should be able to get this camera worldwide right now (Apparently).

Source - Amazon

Google App Engine Analysis: in depth look

So the Google App Engine is finally here, and the first thing that you will need to know is that it is solely aimed at Amazon Web Services. As Google are better at these kinds of things, it will not be long before Amazon users will jump ship and go over to using the Google App Engine.

What gives this new application an advantage? well Ars Technica aims to give you that answer with their in depth review.

They found that Google’s API has access to the storage capacity and processing power of Google’s servers and this is very clever as when Google developed this software, they gave developers the ability to create web page applications which have been programmed with Python code, and you can then upload it and run it on Google’s servers.

It’s not all good, Ars Technica said “The downsides to this program are fairly apparent. First, developers must write all of their code in Python. While Python is a great dynamic language with a robust standard library, and over 15 years of active development, there will be some prospective users who would rather deploy their code in a different language.” Check out their full review here

The Google App Engine really is a great application; why not give it a try and tell us what you think just visit Google

Google App Engine: What is it?

So Google have now launched their new App Engine, but what is this new application cloud service all about. This new platform is much different to what we are used to from Amazon cloud app, the Amazon version is a more refined application,

What is different about the Google App Engine is very easy to use and will integrate to all of your other Google services. This is a limited program in the way of the development style, however maybe in the future Google will improve things. However one thing is certain, this piece of software will be very reliable.

Source – Mashable

Gibson sues over Guitar Hero: Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon, GameStop & Toys R Us

You may have heard the news “Gibson sues Guitar Hero”, but more to the point is the fact that Gibson filed a federal lawsuit on Monday claiming that Toys “R” Us, GameStop Corp, Amazon.com, Kmart, Target Corp and Wal-Mart should stop selling the Guitar Hero game.

Gibson Guitar Corp has taken this action because they feel the Activision Guitar Hero game is violating a patent they hold. The start of March 2008 saw video game publisher Activision file a lawsuit in California that asks a federal judge to declare the game does not violate the musical virtual-reality patent from 1999.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has helped Activision see a 90% increase in sales for quarter 3 that ended December 31st. Now with Gibson’s lawsuit asking Activision to stop selling the game until they get a licence under the patent…they will not take that laying down. Why has it taken so long for this lawsuit to happen and would the success of Guitar Hero have something to-do with it?

Source: Read

Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1 download official: Boxed version on sale 19th March

Oh yes it is finally here and official, you can as of today get your hands on Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1, you will be able to download SP1 as of today or get boxed copies from Amazon (Details Below).

The exact date was a little scare of when we would get to see the real SP1, well now you can rest your mind easy. The details below are definitely showing that you can get the 3 different boxed versions of Microsoft Windows Vista with SP1.

The boxed versions will be ready for release tomorrow (19th March).

Microsoft did drop the price of Windows Vista Ultimate (Full), Windows Vista Ultimate (Upgrade), and Windows Vista Home Premium (Upgrade) to $319, $219, and $129, but what is interesting is the fact Amazon are selling these products as of tomorrow (19th March) and the software prices range from -

Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1 Upgrade - $94.99

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 Upgrade - $194.99

Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 - $299.99

Pre-order Sigma DP1 on Amazon for $799.99

Last month we were teased by full specifications of the Sigma DP1 from their website, if that made you want this camera then now you may be glad to know you can pre-order on Amazon for $200 less than the list price, that works out at just $799.99 Read more

Kindle Handheld Outreaching Expectations

The CEO of Amazon claims that the Kindle Handheld is doing really well. He has described the e-booker reader as “outpacing our expectations,” and that it is doing so well that they are facing Read more