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Friday, October 22, 2021
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Amazon Video Lets Users Save Offline Content To MicroSD

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Amazon Video Update Lets Users Download Shows And Movies To External Storage

Users of Amazon Video can now turn their phones into mobile cinemas.

Amazon brings a new update to its Amazon Video Android app. Before the update, Amazon Prime members could use the app to stream video on mobile. Amazon Video comes with the option of downloading television shows and movies for later offline viewing.

In regards to video streaming on the mobile medium, Amazon has its fair share of competition. Both Netflix and Hulu, for example also have solid video streaming apps, each with different features. Each app actually comes with its own set of features that the others do not currently have, making choosing the right video app for mobile more of a personal preference rather than a choice of popularity or exclusivity.

Netflix had in the past stated that video download for offline viewing was an option that they were working on. However, it would seem that Amazon managed to beat them to it.

One Of The Best Perks Of Amazon Video

With Amazon Video, users can download content made available both from the Amazon Prime subscription as well as individual Amazon purchases.

After some quick testing, Amazon Video’s download feature demonstrated that it could behave quite well. Over Wi-Fi, the download is as fast as the connection and phone modem allow it to be. In regards to storage, however, the video files do feel 10 to 20 percent larger than they could have been for their resolution.

Nevertheless, after its latest update, the Amazon Video Android app now does have the settings option which lets users set their MicroSD card as the default target for downloading shows and movies through the app.

After appointing the SD card as their preferred storage, users will be able to download as much content as their card allows.

The Amazon Video app is currently only available to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, and Japan.

July may prove to be the most popular month for Amazon of this year. On July 12th, Amazon Prime had its second Prime Day, where Amazon Prime users (or users who tried out Amazon Prime free for 30 days) had special discounts on a very large selection of products.

Considering most phones and smart devices today allow for MicroSD cards up to 256GB, Amazon Video users have the option of saving entire seasons of their favorite shows for offline view.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia.

Jeff Bezos shows off Amazon Prime Air, drone delivery for the future

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amazon-prime-air Jeff Bezos has been known for his outlandish claims and ideas, ten years ago the Amazon CEO said everyone would be reading on tablets and now he has shown off a new idea on how to deliver products through Amazon in under thirty minutes, with the help of the Amazon Prime Air drone.

Drone is a complex word, for some it means those small RC helicopters, for others it looks like the future of surveillance, military and security. Both are true in their ways, but Bezos’s drones are built just for the customers who want shipping in under thirty minutes from their local Amazon warehouse.

Amazon Prime Air would work on the assembly line of packaging, after the warehouse staff grab the package it goes on a small line to the drone, which then picks it up, gets the location and takes off to the skies, mapping out its route to make sure it doesn’t hit air traffic.

Bezos did say this would not be available until 2015 when the FCC approves drone flight and then Amazon would need to do R&D to make sure the drone would not drop on someones head and make sure they have the mapping information, down to where the buyer wants the drone to land to deliver the package.

Reasons for Amazon Prime Air to exist include the fact it takes almost no energy, being electric. Compared to a big truck shipping most parcels today, it will help the urban environment exponentially. The drone is also much faster and can ship a parcel as soon as it comes in the Amazon warehouse.

Dominos have also shown how pizza could be delivered in the UK with their drone service. Both are exciting ideas and even though people may feel better getting their pizza from a human rather than a drone, it is all about time, cost and efficiency, three things drones deliver.

Amazon in talks with HTC about smartphone partnership

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amazon-phone

In a bid to release an Amazon smartphone, the e-commerce giant has been in contact with Taiwanese company HTC, to try and draw together a smartphone fitted with Fire OS and HTCs design aesthetic.

Amazon has had a partnership with Foxconn for their Kindle Fire tablets and used their own design principles, but for the smartphone they may look to HTC for the hardware schematics and focus on building a smaller version of Fire OS.

Reports say Amazon has been locked in talks since June this year with HTC about the smartphone and they have still to reach a decision, even though previous reports say Amazon will announce the phone sometime next month.

HTC has always been a company ready to try out new platforms, they were one of the first with Nokia to test out Windows Phone and became the only partner for the Facebook Home Android launcher, both have not fell in their favor.

Nobody quite knows what Amazon is planning with the smartphone, we may see something competitive in the high-end market with a low-end price or a new 3D smartphone with four retinal cameras and facial recognition, personalised to your eyes.

Whatever Amazon is preparing to do, we expect the killer feature here to be the price. Amazon has been known to extend far beyond the usual, offer free shipping for a full year for only $75 and putting the Kindle Fire into an iPad dominated market.

There is a report circulating that Amazon will offer this smartphone for a one-time price ($199/299) and the user has to sign up for a two year Amazon Prime membership, but this one comes with LTE, calls and texts benefits bundled.

This move would be huge for two reasons, one is a lot of people have Amazon Prime and would love a $199 smartphone and two is this would increase Amazon Prime members in the long term.

 

Amazon has no plans to launch a free smartphone this year

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amazon-kindle-phoneRecently, a rumor started circulating about Amazon preparing to launch a free smartphone, one that would be offered to various buyers for free with some kind of Amazon Prime subscription model, allowing the company to gain revenue and loyal customers.

An anonymous Amazon executive has replied back to the rumor, saying it is untrue and Amazon has no plans to build a smartphone this year, nevermind launch one with a free payment model.

Amazon has been a pioneer when it comes to trimming down the cost of tablets, with the original Kindle Fire the first real Android tablet to look away from the iPad and try to establish new ground the seven-inch market, for a cheaper price.

The idea of a free phone does not seem that insane when it is Amazon developing it and we are surprised to see this rumor has no bite, although the Amazon responder may just be covering the tracks – this could still be a thing that is going to happen.

We expect Amazon would lodge in something, it may not be an Amazon Prime membership, even though this would be the obvious candidate. If Amazon were to sign every buyer up for a two year Prime membership, not only would it be golden in long term userbase, but it would bring about $150 for each buyer, enough to almost cover the cost of the smartphone.

This could be more functional with a tablet, in our opinion. With a tablet, there is no carriers to get in the way (unless they go down the 4G route) and tablets are normally cheaper to make, we believe Amazon still makes $30 profit on each Kindle Fire sale.

Amazon is definitely looking into the mobile business, the company has made an extensive push with the Kindle e-readers, taking up most of the market share. The Kindle Fire is still one of the best selling tablets on the market, now they could have the best selling smartphone, if it is something unique.

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