amazon

Who's got the best Black Friday laptop deals?

Taking a peek at the big Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, there are plenty of big-screen TVs and cameras, but not quite as many laptops. That's surprising, because based on the extreme interest readers expressed for Walmart's $298 Celeron-powered Compaq laptop earlier in November, we suspect a lot of people will be looking for laptop bargains during the holiday weekend.

Industry watchers say many of the deals this year aren't particularly exciting, so you may have to dig a little deeper to find a bargain. Here are a few of the Black Friday laptop deals we spotted … Read more

Amazon assembles Justice League of loyalists for holiday PR

Amazon has enlisted a half dozen of its most dedicated (addicted?) reviewers to act as holiday gift experts this season. They'll be responsible for providing gift picks, tips, and other advice regarding their favorite products available on the mega-retail site.

Putting a "real people" face on holiday shopping is key for Amazon in a season full of thin wallets and nervous spenders: research firm eMarketer just lowered its projections for online holiday shopping. Many of the tips provided by Amazon's reviewers, for obvious reasons, deal with cost-cutting recession strategies.

Amazon has offered customer reviews since 1995, … Read more

E-commerce posts first ever year-over-year decline

Update at 1:38 p.m. PDT, with additional details from the ComScore report.

Online shoppers put a stranglehold on their wallets in the first several weeks of November, marking the first historic decline in e-commerce sales, according to a ComScore report released Tuesday.

Market researcher ComScore said online shopping declined 4 percent during the first 23 days of November, compared with a comparable time period last year.

During the first 23 days of the month, ComScore said online retailers rang up a total of $8.19 billion in sales.

For online retailers, growth in e-commerce sales had been steadily … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 860: Close Enough for Nuclear War

On today's show, we learn that there's little difference between nuclear war and horseshoes, at least in the "close enough" department. Also, a new segment: This Week in Cooley! Plus, a flurry of online news including mobile scheduling for your TiVo, the travesty of the teacher and the porn pop-ups, and Chrome is the king of speed! Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 860

Cooley debriefs: - Just drove in in the new 370Z with SynchroMatch transmission. http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10102550-48.html

- From iPhone to Bold: how it's going, why I did … Read more

Amazon's Kindle 2 now slated for early next year?

Last month Boy Genius Report got its hands on some photos of what appeared to be the Kindle 2, so speculation was rampant that Amazon would release a new Kindle for the holidays. However, Amazon has continually denied it would have a new Kindle in 2008, and it seems clear that no new device is imminent. Today, though, Crunch Gear, which put out the original rumor on the Kindle 2, is now saying that it has it on good authority that the Kindle 2 will show up early next year.

Crunch Gear's founder Michael Arrington writes, "It was … Read more

Neuros Link: Supports video on demand

If you just purchased a Neuros Link and you can't find the video you're looking for on Hulu or any other free streaming video Web site, don't fret: there is one more place you can access videos, but it will cost you. The Neuros Link supports Amazon.com video rentals, allowing you to select from thousands of titles ranging from 99 cents to $5.99 per rental.

According to a Neuros representative, there is no update necessary or installation of any kind. You simply go to the site create an account, if you don't already have … Read more

Amazon Start-up Challenge yields a winner: Yieldex

Amazon.com's Web Services division announced Thursday that it wrapped up its second annual Web Services Start-up Challenge and awarded Yieldex, a company that specializes in forecasting online-advertising inventory, with the top prize of $50,000 in cash, $50,000 in Amazon Web Service credits, and an opportunity for an investment offer from Amazon itself.

According to Amazon, it chooses the winner based on "the originality of their idea, marketplace need, and their implementation of Amazon Web Services." Only those companies that use Amazon's infrastructure can enter the company's contest.

Yieldex, which won the challenge … Read more

Does the mainstream care about DRM?

A new report suggests that Apple and three of the "Big Four" record labels are in talks to bring DRM-free tracks to iTunes, and once and for all do away with copy protection on the world's largest music store.

I applaud the companies for finally coming together and trying to remove draconian policies while adapting to our changing times, but this news even surprises me a bit.

To me, the bigger news here is not that Apple is trying to bring DRM-free tracks to iTunes--it needs to, thanks to Amazon.com's DRM-free store--but rather that iTunes is an unbridled success, even though DRM abounds on the service.

Any tech lover will tell you that buying songs from Amazon is preferred. After all, why would anyone want to support DRM? And although demographic data isn't readily available, I don't think it's much of a stretch to say Amazon's customers have a heavy population of individuals that are knowledgeable about tech and realize that buying copy-protected tracks only hurts us over the long term.

iTunes customers are entirely different, though. Unlike Amazon customers, I think the majority of iTunes customers are mainstream consumers that don't possess strong tech knowledge, and they're more concerned about convenience and impulse than doing what's best for consumers. After all, if they really cared about what the Recording Industry Association of America is doing to us (and the artists, by the way), they wouldn't buy songs from iTunes, would they?… Read more

Amazon launches artist stores

If you're a gearhead and have a bunch of MP3 players from different companies, the Amazon MP3 Store is your best source for buying music downloads. It's the only store in which all tracks are unprotected MP3s, meaning they can be played on any player and in any software. (Microsoft's Zune Marketplace is getting close, but you need to download and install the Zune software to access that store, while Amazon is accessible from any browser.)

Yesterday, Amazon took a step toward making its store a place you might actually want to spend some time, rather than … Read more