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Source: Amazon STEM Store It announced today by  Amazon  that it now has a new  store . The new store is fully focused to only sell STEM toys and games.  This new shop features a wide variety of items that are designed children of all ages, in a context where children can learn and develop science, technology, engineering and/or math-related skills. At the on-line shop products include from Snap Circuits and LEGO .  Furthermore, some products such as  Classic Wooden Abacus  and  littleBits Electronics  are even available. This new shop from the influential giant Amazon will certainly promote and encourage  STEM toys in educating children throughout their learning stages in their lives. The STEM toy site is live now at Amazon New Shop . Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

Aspiring Technology Entrepreneurs Can Now Join Entrepreneurship Courses and Earns Credits from Amazon. An interesting opportunity for any Entrepreneur that may be thinking of starting their business, by having an idea with the most appropriate skills can really help the path to success.  In this context, there is an offer via a partnership between Amazon Web Services and the online education portal EdX  . The offer comprises of $1,000 in credit for completing one of two courses. The courses are in Entrepreneurship 101 or 102 at EdX. In order to take advantage of the offer Entrepreneurs are required to pass the courses, which in turn will entitle them automatically with $1,000 in credit to spend on processor time and/or storage in Amazon’s cloud. Furthermore, Entrepreneurs also receive extra bonuses which might be more relevant for those with software code development experience for administrating infrastructure, and instructor led training with web classes on using ...

The eCommerce giant that is Amazon , has plans to open delivery collection points at London underground stations it has been reported. In a context where it was announced by London Mayor Boris Johnson that  almost all ticket offices on the London Underground transport network would close by 2015 . Where the argument is that technology can offer a good alternative if not better in place of manned ticket offices and thus saving many millions in terms of financial savings. With this mind, it seems only natural eCommerce is the main driver for innovation, savings and convenience.  In anticipation of the new space to be made available to the public at key locations of the transport network, Amazon  is in talks with Transport for London to potentially use the closed ticket offices as “drop off” points for its customers deliveries, by offering strategic flexibility and convenience on its service. The Amazon offering was first reported by the FT . It then followed...

The  Amazon App Store  is only currently present in seven countries, nevertheless its near future plans are to being available worldwide very soon. Following a recent published Research , this app store is experiencing considerable growth and does have a bright future where Google and Apple didn't experience this kind of growth in their initial development stages. Currently the overall App paid market (including music) is being evaluated where its worth is estimated to be around $30 billion in just five years. As a result software companies are seeing this market as a place not to be missed regardless of the publication store between Microsoft, Apple, Google Play or Amazon store . The platform leader for free apps is the Google Play store, where Apple store is the leader for paid apps. The advantage of the Amazon store is that most its users tend to purchase apps and items including its popular and rich library of e-books.   This analysis also follows on a recent...

The web giant  Amazon  is creating its own virtual currency for its users, it was shortly  announced  the new feature that will be available for owners of the  Kindle Fire  by allowing purchases on in-app dedicated Amazon functionality linked to the Amazon Appstore . The full public service starts in May only in the U.S. for the time being, where following our sources, Amazon is to promote the virtual currently by engaging directly its individual customers with special offers with an investment total of around  tens of millions of dollars to be distributed and converted as virtual currency as Amazon coins. It then follows, that Amazon customers will be able to pay and purchase for apps or in-app with a choice of their current credit cards or with the new  Amazon coins . However the new virtual currency cannot be used to pay for subscription services. An interesting opportunity for software developers is that they will be able to receive 70 perce...

Amazon has today launched its own a  MP3 store  which allows for iPhone and iPod users to purchase digital music. The way it works nevertheless, is that iPhone users are required to purchase using the Safari Web browser, as a result the process does involve further steps than via the traditional iTunes. Furthermore, the new MP3 store and its mobile site is built based on HTML5, thus purchases can be made on the dedicated site at  Amazon . It was stated by  Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music  that: " Since the launch of the Amazon Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch, a top request from customers has been the ability to buy music from Amazon right from their devices... For the first time ever, iOS users have a way do that. " Feel free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

Amazon  continues to be the largest on-line retailer, it then follows that now has a new service for music lovers. It is called Amazon AutoRip, this new service has new unique benefits to its users, namely giving free access to MP3 versions of music tracks from around 50,000 albums. Furthermore, it offers its users the capability of receiving digital copies of CDs that have been purchased on the Amazon store. In this context, users that have previously purchased music from Amazon are also entitled to claim and receive a CD copy. This is currently a differentiating factor when comparing with  Apple and Google on capabilities, as a way to leverage music attractiveness on its store. Nevertheless, Amazon historically was the first store to have made available music directly from the cloud via the  Cloud Player , however currently is far behind Apple  iTunes , and other service providers such as  Google and Spotify  are catching on....

The cloud service from Amazon  S3  designed for web developers now has a simpler service for users that wish to host static websites  at a highly competitive price. It has been possible to host static websites at Amazon cloud storage service since over a a year ago , however now there is a simpler service so that users can utilize the cloud service to host static websites processed with S3 by adding root domain hosting with  Route 53 DNS service. The way it works is that there are no monthly subscription fees, simply a fee payment to Amazon’s related to the storage and bandwidth of the static website. One advantage of hosting a website on Amazon is that there is no need to keep constantly updating a content management system including plugins. Previously users had to use services such as wwwizer , with this new update, users can now simply create a S3 bucket without the ‘www’ website addressing, then select “redirect all requests to another host name” wh...

It has been announced by European Union regulators the end to an antitrust investigation relating to e-book pricing allegations. As a result, the regulators have accepted assurances and a settlement by publishers such as Apple that pricing concerns will be addressed and facilitated for eBooks publishers such as Amazon , among others. Following this decision, it now follows that eBooks retailers such as Amazon will be permitted to sell cheaper eBooks, thus able to provide prices lower than direct competitors. EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, stated: " The commitments proposed by Apple and the four publishers will restore normal competitive conditions in this new and fast-moving market, to the benefit of the buyers and readers of e-books" . Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

Amazon announced yesterday, a new web retail service named  Amazon Pages . This new capability for retail web businesses allows them to have a customized e-store which is independent from Amazon 's main site. It then follows that businesses which after having their own registered Page can then access  Amazon Post  which is a social media dashboard incorporated into Pages and linked to Facebook, furthermore it includes  Amazon Analytics . Amazon has provided a guide for Businesses to register their Pages, of which the guide provides also information on how to design pages via a simple site-building tool resulting in a custom webpage. This new functionality and service provision are free for Businesses to use, nevertheless users are required firstly to submit an application to Amazon for subsequent service approval.  Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

As Amazon is preparing to launch  Kindle Fire in Europe , it follows that today   Amazon  has made  available  its dedicated Android phones Appstore for major countries in Europe, although with some name tweaks in some countries.    The way it works is that users will have custom recommendations based on their preferences and usage patterns, also a capability to add reviews, furthermore a one-click payments, including media statistics published on Amazon’s GameCircle . Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

The UK, can now benefit from Amazon daily deals , as a new dedicate website in the UK has launched. Today, however is only available to people living in London that have subscribed to email morning alerts on today's deals. The new service called  AmazonLocal  for the UK, allows people to subscribe to email alerts on daily offers, however these offers will be customized to where you live. As a result, money saving deals will be posted via email every morning relevant to where you live. Furthermore, reward points will also be awarded on purchases .  Nevertheless at present this new service is only in operation for London. This service has been in operation in the US since last year. Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.

It is now possible to rent paper textbooks directly from Amazon. This follows on the context, where Amazon already does rent Kindle editions of textbooks , nevertheless the choice available on as ebooks is quite limited. When it comes to textbooks, most people prefer to have a paper version as it allows them to make handwritten notes on pages among other flexibilities. The second hand market for textbooks seems to be a growing market due to economic factors and educational considerations. The paper textbooks being available on Amazon will be in the range of $30 to $60 which can be rented for as long as an educational college or University semester. Amazon counts these rentals as 130 days, however it can be extended by 15 days, but only on one occasion. The other benefit from Amazon textbooks rentals is that Amazon returns include free shipping. It is anticipated that this service will be available also in the UK sometime soon. Feel Free to add your comments to this post, th...

Following a recent report, it appears that Amazon UK now sells more ebooks in the UK, than traditional paperback and hardback books.  It seems that Amazon is continuing on its sales pattern for digital books, where was it was first noted and acknowledged where it first happened over a hear ago in the US . The statistics are interesting as Amazon stated the it is selling 114 ebooks for every 100 printed books in the UK.  In this context, it follows on  Amazon’s Kindle Fire  new capability where the media tablet, is now capable to process international app ebooks sales. Subsquently, most ebook producers are pleased with this announcement as it allows them to better market their ebooks with a wider and global source of revenue. Feel Free to add your comments to this post, thank you.