prime

How Apple's courtroom win affects you

Monday's tech news roundup translates the Apple v. Samsung legalese:

Apple won the patent case against Samsung late Friday, but the battle between the two biggest smartphone makers is not over yet. The jury in San Jose, Cali. found Samsung products infringed on Apple's patents, such as rounded edges and pinch-to-zoom. The jury decided that Samsung should pay $1.05 billion to Apple in damages.

Next up: the judge has to decide if she wants to change the amount for damages, Samsung is expected to appeal, and Apple will ask for an injunction to ban selling Samsung products … Read more

Amazon about to start a new Fire

Friday's tech news roundup can ease symptoms of Gadget News Overload:

Looks like a new Kindle is on the way. Amazon's making an announcement on Sept. 6 in Santa Monica. We're expecting to hear about a new Kindle Fire with a camera and volume-control buttons, and it could have an improved display.

But be prepared for a rush of new gadget news over the next two weeks. When iPhone season nears, every device maker wants to get their news out before the iPhone steals all media glory. Here's a quick list of what's coming up: … Read more

Amazon-NBCU deal expands Instant Video content

"Battlestar Galactica" fans, rejoice.

Amazon said today that it has struck an expanded content licensing deal with NBCUniversal and New Media Distribution, increasing its offerings by hundreds of TV episodes to Prime Instant Video users.

Subscribers can now watch back episodes of "Parks and Recreation," "Parenthood," "Friday Night Lights," "Heroes" -- and of course, "Battlestar Galactica" -- through the service.

Amazon's Brad Beale said the retail giant will "continue to invest heavily in our content selection for Prime members."

Prime Instant Video has more than … Read more

Instacart aims to be the Amazon Prime of grocery delivery

In cities like San Francisco, shoppers have a number of ways to order groceries online for home delivery. But one startup there thinks that by mimicking Amazon's Prime service and selling subscriptions for unlimited free delivery, it can change customers' behavior and generate a great deal more orders.

Instacart, a current Y Combinator company that came out of stealth mode earlier this month, has been letting users in an invite-only beta buy groceries with quick delivery through its iPhone app for some time. One-hour delivery costs $10, while three-hour delivery runs $4.

Now, CNET has learned, the company has … Read more

iTunes vs. Amazon: What's the best video service on the iPad?

The future of TV, movies, and home entertainment feels like it's changing by the day, thanks to the impact of the digital revolution. Netflix is the top dog thanks to its $8 subscription streaming service, but your viewing choices are severely limited. For a la carte, pay-as-you-go services, Apple's iTunes has been the default choice for many when it comes to buying, renting, and viewing videos. Splitting the difference was Amazon's Instant Video: it offers a diverse library of pay-per-view TV shows and movies, plus a subset of "free" content for subscribers to the company'… Read more

Prizefight: Google Nexus 7 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire

It's a Prizefight punchout! Google brings its own 7-inch tablet, Nexus 7, to compete against Amazon's Kindle Fire in the competitive $199 tablet market. Will the Kindle Fire stand a chance against the new upstart from Google?

The Nexus 7 brings a fierce Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor, more RAM, and the latest version of Android with Jelly Bean. Amazon has built a powerhouse ecosystem for content consumption, and that's before you factor in Amazon Prime membership.

Who do you think deserves to be the Prizefight King of the Ring? Is it Google's Nexus 7 or … Read more

Fringe benefits to Amazon Prime

Streaming you the top Friday headlines with the latest in 2D technology:

Amazon scored a licensing deal with Warner Bros. to offer more shows for Prime streaming, including West Wing and Fringe. Amazon Prime continues to step up the competition with Netflix. Prime costs $79 a year, which works out to be less than a year's subscription of Netflix.

The fight between Viacom and DirecTV is finally over. The 20 million subscribers of DirecTV can now access 17 Viacom channels, including MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. On July 10, DirecTV turned off 26 Viacom channels over a payment dispute … Read more

Amazon Prime licenses 'West Wing,' other Warner Bros. shows

Managers of Amazon's Prime video service just got their hands on the critically acclaimed "West Wing" as well as other shows from Warner Bros. Television.

Amazon said today that the licensing deal with Warner also includes such shows as "Dark Blue," "Fringe," Alcatraz," and "The Whole Truth."

An Amazon spokeswoman said that it will offer "West Wing" and "Fringe" exclusively to Prime customers through the summer, and that later they will be available for viewing to non Prime members on Amazon Instant video.

These shows, which … Read more

Search for prime numbers or torture your CPU with Prime95

You remember the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Well, that's sort of the story of Prime95, too. This mild-mannered mathematics software lets users participate in GIMPS, the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search. This online project uses the distributed power of many networked PCs (like yours) to search for immense Mersenne prime numbers. Prime95 lets users donate processing power to the nonprofit research project. In the hot hands of overclockers, though, Prime95 becomes an instrument of torture, running stress tests that pinpoint weak links in your system. How you use Prime95 determines its behavior.

Prime95's setup wizard … Read more