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Hands-on with Amazon’s Fire phone, the newest portal into its ecosystem

Jun19
by on June 19, 2014 at 1:20 am
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

Amazon_2014_114
During today’s launch event, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told the audience that the media was constantly asking him when his company would build its own phone. I’ve been in briefings with Bezos and yes, this line of questioning has actually happened. Today, he answered that question. The Fire phone is a such a part of the Amazon ecosystem that it has a hardware button to help you add items to your cart. Even AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega joked that he had to keep the phone away from his family so they wouldn’t purchase items with the Fire and OneClick purchasing….

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Asia Pacific-focused HotelQuickly now lets customers book rooms one day in advance

Jun19
by on June 19, 2014 at 1:00 am
Posted In: Apps, Around the Web

HotelRoom
HotelQuickly, the Asia Pacific-focused last-minute hotel booking app which launched last year, is broadening its focus to allow users to book rooms the day before their check in. The app works with hotels in 12 different countries, in the same style as HotelTonight — offering hotels the chance to sell their unused inventories, and enabling customers to buy discounted stays. Previously, the window for booking a room ran from 08:00 AM to 04:00 AM the same day, but now bookings can be made the day before check-in. In addition, the re-designed app has added filters to sort hotels by price and third-party…

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What will your business look like in 2030?

Jun18
by on June 18, 2014 at 7:38 pm
Posted In: Analysis and Opinion, Around the Web, Entrepreneur, How-To's

business man roof deck
Ilya Pozin is a serial entrepreneur, writer, and investor. He is the founder of online video entertainment platform Pluto.TV, social greeting card company Open Me, and digital marketing agency Ciplex. The year is 2030, and you’re walking into the front doors of your company. What will it look like, what functions will your employees be performing and how will you stack up against the competition? You might not be considering the future, but remember that 25 years ago, only 15 percent of US households had a personal computer. While 73 percent of online adults currently have a social media account, social media barely existed 15 years…

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Amazon’s new Firefly scanning service can recognize art, TV shows, phone numbers, URLs and more

Jun18
by on June 18, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

amazon-firefly
Alongside the launch of the Fire Phone, Amazon announced Firefly, a new service for identifying products and information out in the real world. Of course, Amazon will also help you find links to purchase those items when relevant. As the debut device for Firefly, the Fire Phone will include a dedicate button that you can press to quickly scan an item. Firefly will recognize phone numbers, UPC, bar codes, URLs, books, TV shows, art and more. Amazon claims that the service, which builds on Flow OCR technology it already has in its mobile apps, can recognize more than 100 million…

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a couple of laughzillas on a blue diamond background

Amazon’s new Firefly scanning service can recognize art, TV shows, phone numbers, URLs and more

Jun18
by on June 18, 2014 at 6:32 pm
Posted In: Around the Web, Gadgets

amazon-firefly
Alongside the launch of the Fire Phone, Amazon announced Firefly, a new service for identifying products and information out in the real world. Of course, Amazon will also help you find links to purchase those items when relevant. As the debut device for Firefly, the Fire Phone will include a dedicate button that you can press to quickly scan an item. Firefly will recognize phone numbers, UPC, bar codes, URLs, books, TV shows, art and more. Amazon claims that the service can recognize more than 100 million products. A demo by CEO Jeff Bezos showed Firefly recognizing the audio from…

This story continues at The Next Web

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