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UPS, FedEx Ruined Some Christmases

Companies apologize after getting swamped by online rush

(Newser) - When it comes to delivering gifts, UPS and FedEx were lousy excuses for Santa this year. Both carriers suffered widespread delays that left many customers leaving IOUs under the tree, NBC News reports. Both companies explained that they'd simply underestimated the flood of online shopping orders coming their way—...

Google's Next Big Investment: Robots

Company turns to Android guru Andy Rubin

(Newser) - Amazon isn't the only big Internet firm in the robotics game : Google is at work on some literal androids. As part of the effort, it has quietly bought up seven US and Japanese tech companies in the past half-year, the New York Times reports. The company is hoping to...

We Spent More Online Yesterday Than Ever Before

Online sales jumped 21% this Cyber Monday compared to last year

(Newser) - Black Friday may have been a bit of a retail disappointment , but Cyber Monday certainly wasn't. Online sales were up 21% compared to last year, according to IBM figures as reported by the Wall Street Journal . (No media outlets seem to be reporting a final figure, but Cyber Monday...

3 Things That Could Ground Amazon Drones

For one thing, they can't find your door, writes David Axe

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos wants Amazon's "Prime Air"—in which drones would make deliveries to your door —to zip packages to buyers in as few as five years. But at Reuters , David Axe isn't so sure the drones will ever get off the ground. First, the project...

Pitfall of Working for Amazon: Mental Illness?
Pitfall of Working for
Amazon: Mental Illness?
investigation
Nov 25, 2013 6:55 AM CST

Pitfall of Working for Amazon: Mental Illness?

BBC investigation finds fulfillment center conditions could increase risk

(Newser) - It's just about that most wonderful time of the year: for holiday shoppers, and for Amazon, which CNN last month reported would be hiring 70,000 seasonal workers to beef up the staffing at its more than 40 US fulfillment centers. Last year, thousands of these workers were converted...

A Supercomputer You Can Afford: What Is Watson?

IBM making a smarter version of our robot overlord available online

(Newser) - Bar trivia contests will never be the same. IBM will today announce a plan to make a more powerful version of its famous Watson supercomputer available online at a sliver of what access to the system has cost, the New York Times reports. Of course, the goal isn't really...

Walmart Tries to Look Cool in Silicon Valley

Has foosball tables, conference room named after Justin Bieber

(Newser) - Amazon has left Walmart in the dust in the online shopping game, so now the big-box store empire is playing catch-up, rapidly expanding its presence in Silicon Valley. To do so, the company is trying to replicate a hip Bay Area start-up environment, reports the New York Times : Walmart's...

Amazon Unveils Thinner, Faster Kindles

Pundits think they're a 'real threat' to iPad

(Newser) - Amazon unveiled a pair of new tablets today that could cement its position as Apple's main competitor in the tablet market. The new Kindle Fire HDXes, available as a 7-inch tablet for $229 and an 8.9-inch tablet for $379, are thinner, lighter, faster, and come with higher resolution...

What WaPo Thinks of Bezos After 2 Days With Him

Soon-to-be owner charms journos

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos has spent two days at the Washington Post getting to know his new acquisition, and giving its staff a chance to get to know him. The staff verdict: Thumbs up, reports the New York Times . They appreciated the Amazon founder's sense of optimism and long-range plans to...

Bezos on Washington Post: I'm 'Not a Magician'

Amazon CEO gives first interview since acquiring the paper

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos gave his first interview since buying the Washington Post today, and he gave it to, well, the Washington Post . Here are some highlights:
  • "We've had three big ideas at Amazon," Bezos explains: "Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. If you replace '
...

Amazon Lost $120K a Minute During Outage

Cause isn't certain

(Newser) - Amazon was down for as long as 45 minutes in the US and Canada yesterday, VentureBeat reports, and while the cause isn't clear, the company certainly lost a lot of money while it was offline. Reports differ on how long the site was down ( Reuters says 15 minutes;...

Amazon's Funniest Fake Product Reviews

Uranium, horse masks, lady pens, and more

(Newser) - Satirical Amazon product reviews have become a long-running meme and an unintended drawcard of the site (remember all those hilarious Mitt Romney-inspired binder reviews? ). Now Amazon itself has embraced the phenomenon by posting a collection of its own favorites. Some highlights:
  • BIC Cristal For Her Ball Pen: "I
...

Can the New Post Become the Netflix of News?
Can the New Post Become
the Netflix of News?
OPINION
Aug 8, 2013 1:55 PM CDT

Can the New Post Become the Netflix of News?

Ken Doctor wants the online news business to innovate

(Newser) - Now that Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, Ken Doctor at Bloomberg has some requests. For starters, "wouldn't it be great to be able to find stories on a news site?" he writes. News site search is generally unbelievably incompetent. And why isn't there a way to...

Good News, WaPo: Working for Jeff Bezos Is Awesome

Henry Blodget thinks this is a very good thing for the venerable paper

(Newser) - Jeff Bezos is a major Business Insider investor, so in the wake of the Washington Post buy , Henry Blodget has been fielding a lot of questions on what it's like to have the Amazon founder holding the purse strings. The answer? "It's great," Blodget writes . "...

Washington Post Sold to Amazon CEO for $250M

Jeff Bezos buys paper for $250M

(Newser) - The Washington Post has the scoop on ... its own sale. In an indulgently long report, the paper reveals it will be sold to Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos for $250 million in cash, after 80 years of ownership by the Graham family. The Post reports that its operating revenue...

You Think Walmart&#39;s Bad? Amazon Is Worse
You Think Walmart's Bad?
Amazon Is Worse
OPINION
Jul 30, 2013 1:12 PM CDT

You Think Walmart's Bad? Amazon Is Worse

And the government is backing this 'monopoly': Daniel D'Addario

(Newser) - If you're one of those people indignantly boycotting Walmart, you may want to step away from the free shipping and low, low prices and boycott Amazon, too. It's even worse than Walmart when it comes to companies that employ "many deplorable practices," writes Daniel D'Addario...

Amazon Might Doom Itself With Own Success

Evan Hughes: Killing traditional bookstores will harm company in long run

(Newser) - Amazon seems unstoppable right about now, thanks in part to court decisions like this one . On top of that, Barnes & Noble is reeling , as are brick-and-mortar bookstores in general. But Amazon better hold the celebration, because if it puts traditional bookstores out of business, it's only going to...

Apple Guilty of E-Book Price-Fixing: Judge

Court rules company conspired with publishers to jack up prices

(Newser) - The verdict in the Apple e-book price-fixing trial is in: the company did conspire with publishing companies to push up prices, says a federal judge. "The plaintiffs have shown that the publisher defendants conspired with each other to eliminate retail price competition in order to raise e-book prices, and...

NSA Mess Boosts Sales of One Book 6,021%

That book, of course, is Orwell's '1984'

(Newser) - All the furor about real-life Big Brother-esque surveillance has a lot of people reaching for the fictional version. As of this morning, Amazon sales of George Orwell's 1984 had jumped 6,021% in 24 hours, NPR reports. The dystopian classic is now No. 164 on the online bookseller's...

Amazon Begins Push to Be Your Supermarket, Too

Company expanding AmazonFresh project, which delivers food

(Newser) - Amazon plans to expand a grocery-delivering experiment in Seattle to metro areas across the US through 2014, reports Reuters . If successful, AmazonFresh could mean seriously bad news not only for supermarket chains such as Kroger and Whole Foods, but delivery services such as FedEx and UPS, writes Alistair Barr. Delivering...

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