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Walmart tests two-day shipping to compete with Amazon Prime (updated)
A key advantage that Amazon has over other online retailers is the free two-day shipping included with a Prime subscription. According to The Wall Street Journal, retail giant Walmart wants in on the e-commerce and quick shipping game as well. The company was already testing the concept with its ShippingPass option that handled three-day shipping for those willing to pay $49 a year. Now, starting Thursday, those members will get two-day delivery for the same price. Of course, that's half of what Amazon's $99 annual Prime subscription costs. Amazon's plan includes other extras, though, like streaming streaming music, video and more.
Amazon promises to eliminate racial gaps in delivery areas
Just two weeks after a Bloomberg report revealed glaring racial gaps in Amazon's same-day Prime delivery areas, the online retail giant has promised to eliminate those dead zones by expanding the service "to every zip code of the 27 cities where Prime Same Day delivery is currently launched," Amazon said in a statement today.
Amazon offers NBC's Seeso comedy service as a streaming add-on
NBC's Seeso comedy streaming service has been available to all since January, and now Amazon Prime members are getting easy access. The online retailer added NBC's lineup of comedy TV shows and movies, which includes new episodes of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and Late Night with Seth Myers the day after they air. You'll have to shell out an extra $4/month for Seeso on top of that Prime subscription, but doing so puts the comedy library alongside your other Amazon videos.
Amazon Fresh expected to launch in the UK this month
Although Amazon UK has made a small foray into the world of groceries, it has yet to fully take on Britain's supermarkets with the launch of its Fresh service. That could soon change, however, after The Grocer got wind that the company has already begun servicing a small number of customers from its east London depot. It's also apparently told suppliers to begin deliveries within the next couple of weeks.
Valve will ban Steam cheaters via their linked phone numbers
Valve knows that players cheating on Steam is a serious problem, and it's taking action to address that in a few new ways. One is offering a matchmaking service for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that's only for folks who've linked their phone number to their Steam account, for two-factor authentication purposes, dubbed "Prime." Any cheating inside that space will result in your number being banned. The next step takes the previous one further and goes platform-wide. Because cheaters tend to have multiple Steam accounts (but typically one phone number), any account associated with a phone number flagged for by Valve Anti-Cheat will be banned for three months. Boom.
Amazon locks top games behind a Prime paywall (updated)
Update: Some of the UK listings are starting to switch back, suggesting the Prime block was a mistake. At the time of writing Grand Theft Auto V remains Prime-only in the US, however. Our original article follows below. For many, Amazon is the go-to place to buy video games. Now, the company is using that influence to incentivise Prime by requiring a subscription for select game orders. As VideoGamer reports, this applies to top titles such as FIFA 16, Far Cry Primal and Battlefield Hardline on both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the UK. Similar restrictions are also live in the US -- we've spotted the Amazon Prime label on Grand Theft Auto V, for instance. The requirement is only in place, however, if you want the order to be fulfilled by Amazon. At the moment, you can sidestep the problem by selecting a third-party merchant on the site instead.
Amazon brings one-hour Prime Now deliveries to Leeds
Amazon has further extended its Prime Now delivery service to parts of Yorkshire, offering one-hour shipping in Leeds and two-hour in windows Bradford, Wakefield and Huddersfield. It comes just a week after the online retailer launched in Surrey and ensures it now covers many of the UK's biggest cities.
Amazon Prime Video is now a standalone monthly service
You no longer need to pay $100 in one shot to get a year of Amazon Prime. The retail giant now offers a monthly option for its full Prime service at $10.99 per month, with the option to cancel at any time. More interestingly, it broke out its Prime Video service for $8.99 a month if folks want streaming but don't need free shipping, music streaming and other perks. With the service, Amazon appears to be making a concerted effort to take on Netflix, which recently increased its price for new users from $8.99 to $9.99.
Amazon's one-hour Prime Now deliveries come to Surrey
Over time, Amazon has widened the availability of Prime Now to cover a number of major UK cities. One-hour deliveries are happening in London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester, but now the company has turned its focus to one of the most populated counties in the south east: Surrey. From today, customers in Camberley, Lightwater and Aldershot can grab a one-hour slot for £6.99 or choose to wait an additional hour to get their order delivered for free.
Amazon Prime same-day delivery expands to 11 more US cities
You know what's better than free two-day shipping? Free same-day shipping, and folks in 11 more US metro areas can now take advantage of Amazon's speedy delivery times. Prime members in Charlotte, Cincinnati, Fresno, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, central New Jersey, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Stockton, and Tucson are now privy to free same-day shipping on over a million items. For those keeping track at home, the latest additions bring the tally to 27 cities for the online retailer's quick delivery. There is a $35 order minimum, so you'll want to keep that in mind if you're hoping to receive something before the end of the day.
Postmates adds 'free delivery' subscription for $10 a month
Attempting to bring the delivery fight to Amazon, Postmates is launching Plus Unlimited, a delivery subscription service that costs ten bucks a month and gives both customers and companies using it free delivery on all orders over $30. The delivery startup is also celebrating 1 million deliveries a month -- so there's definitely some demand. There's no service fee if you're paying monthly, and the company is promising no surge charging when all of a sudden, everyone in your neighborhood wants a burger.
Amazon's 'The Fashion Fund' follows Vogue's design competition
If you're a fan of Project Runway, Amazon has a new show that may pique your interest. The online retailer announced the 10-episode unscripted series The Fashion Fund, a show that chronicles the selection process designers face for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. For the uninitiated, a committee, led by Vogue's Anna Wintour and CFDA Chairman Diane von Furstenberg, selects 10 designers each year to go through a 4-month competition to win cash and a mentorship from a pro in the fashion industry.
Amazon paid $15 million for Woody Allen's untitled new movie
After shelling out $10 million for Manchester by the Sea at Sundance, Amazon spent big on another film. The online retailer nabbed North American theatrical and streaming rights to Woody Allen's upcoming untitled film for the sum of $15 million. We already knew Amazon had secured the rights, and now we know what it cost. That's three times what Sony paid for Irrational Man, a movie that eked out a mere $4 million at box offices in the US. This new Allen film stars Steve Carell, Jesse Eisenberg, Blake Lively and Kristen Stewart, but little else is known about it.
Amazon pushes its free shipping minimum to $49
Amazon has increased the minimum price of an order that qualifies for free shipping from $35 to $49, unless you're buying more than $25 worth of books. The last time that the cost went up was the back end of 2013, when it was bumped by $10 from $25 to $35. Of course, shipping is free if you opt to pay $99 a year for Prime, which has whip-fast shipping as well as music and video streaming. As well as pushing people toward the paid service, TechCrunch points out that Amazon has been feeling some pain of late. In its latest financials, the company reported that its logistics costs had increased by nearly 33 percent in a single year. So, really, we're all paying the price for our insatiable lust for instant deliveries.
Amazon inks deal with Mattel for American Girl TV specials
If your little one is a fan of Mattel's American Girl dolls, you may want to consider a Prime membership. Or at least make sure yours doesn't expire anytime soon. Amazon announced a deal today with the toy maker for production of four live-action specials based on the brand's characters. What's more, the online retailer has the option to produce "multiple seasons of episodic content," too. This means that in addition to the popular dolls making an appearance in the specials, the dolls could star a new kids series on the way as well.
The world's largest prime number has 22 million digits
A computer at the University of Central Missouri has calculated the world's largest prime number, coming in at 22,338,618 digits and surpassing the previous record by nearly 5 million digits. Prime numbers are an important component in computer encryption, though this one is "too large to currently be of practical value," according to the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, a group dedicated to discovering rare prime numbers. The new number is called "M74207281."
Get an Amazon Prime subscription for $73 this weekend
Making Mozart in the Jungle free to watch this weekend isn't the only way Amazon is celebrating those Golden Globe wins. Starting tonight at midnight ET and running through 11:59 PM local time on Sunday, Prime memberships will cost $73 for new customers, down from the regular $99 annual rate. In addition to two-day shipping on a truckload of items (like soda in glass bottles), the subscription also gets you Prime Music, Photos and Video. There's the recently-added 20-percent discount on games and those handy Dash buttons, too. Opting in gives you access to Amazon's other original series like Man in the High Castle and Transparent as well. [Image credit: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Amazon]
Watch Amazon's 'Mozart in the Jungle' for free this weekend
To celebrate its two Golden Globe wins, Amazon is letting you watch its original series Mozart in the Jungle for free this weekend. Starting tomorrow at midnight ET, you'll be able to stream the show without a Prime membership until midnight Sunday local time. During the awards ceremony this week, the show won Best Musical or Comedy Series and Gael García Berna won Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy Series. This brought Amazon's Golden Globe win total to four following Tranparent's wins in the same categories last year. [Image credit: Trae Patton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images]
Amazon Prime gives you 20 percent discounts on new games
If you're a big video game fan with an Amazon account, there's a real chance that you have a few games on pre-order. Wouldn't it be nice if you could get a break on those games without waiting for a special promo or (gasp) dealing with a traditional retailer? You can after today. Amazon has started a discount program that gives you 20 percent off of newly released (within 2 weeks) and upcoming games if you're a Prime subscriber. It's a bit like similar options at Best Buy and GameStop, but you're getting a bunch of extra services beyond gaming -- you can catch up on Mozart in the Jungle while you're waiting for Uncharted 4 to ship.
Amazon UK brings one-hour Prime Now deliveries to Manchester
With Christmas less than two weeks away, Amazon wants to be there for UK customers who are likely to leave their festive shopping until the very last minute. After its recent expansion in Newcastle, the online retailer has rolled out its Prime Now service in Manchester and surrounding areas, allowing Prime subscribers to get one-hour deliveries for £6.99 or two-hour shipments for no extra cost.
