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Reggie Fils-Aimé says Amazon once asked Nintendo to break the law

2026-05-03T11:24:27-04:00

Way back in the DS days, Nintendo decided to stop selling to Amazon. During a recent lecture at NYU, former Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé said it was because Amazon was seeking preferential treatment that would have hurt its relationship with other retailers, and potentially broken the law.

The two sides have since made amends, and you can buy a Switch 2 through Amazon. But for a long time, Nintendo consoles had been largely unavailable on the site. In the 2000s, Amazon aggressively expanded beyond books and tried to undercut everyone on price. According to Fils-Aimé, Amazon wanted to undercut even Walmart and was looking …

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Amazon’s built-in AI price history expands to show the entire last year

2026-05-01T13:56:52-04:00

Amazon's built-in price tracking feature now allows you to see how much a product's price has changed over the past year. To use the feature, open the Amazon app and select the "Price history" button next to the item's price, or ask Amazon's AI assistant Rufus.

The expansion comes just weeks ahead of Amazon's annual Prime Day event, which California Attorney General mentioned in his "price fixing" lawsuit against the retail giant. In the lawsuit, Bonta accuses Amazon of pushing other companies to raise the price of their products at other retailers in the days leading up to its annual deals event. Bonta also claims Amazon "bullied vendors t …

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Pentagon strikes classified AI deals with OpenAI, Google, and Nvidia — but not Anthropic

2026-05-01T10:22:45-04:00

The Pentagon has struck deals with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Nvidia, Elon Musk's xAI, and the startup Reflection, allowing the agency to use their AI tools in classified settings, according to an announcement on Friday. At the same time, the Defense Department has left out Anthropic - which it previously used for classified information - after declaring it a supply-chain risk.

This builds upon deals with OpenAI and xAI, which have already reached agreements with the Pentagon for the "lawful" use of their AI systems. A report from The Information suggests Google has struck a similar agreement. As noted by The Wall Street Journal, Mi …

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Amazon’s color screen Kindles are finally getting a system-wide dark mode

2026-04-28T12:32:12-04:00

Dark mode will soon be available for all parts of the Kindle Colorsoft’s UI. | Image: Amazon

Most modern Kindle devices with a black and white E Ink screen offer an alternate inverted dark mode with white text against a black background across their entire user interface. Today Amazon has announced the same feature is coming to the Kindle Colorsoft and Kindle Scribe Colorsoft that instead feature color E Ink screens, which could previously only invert the pages of ebooks. The software update introducing the system-wide dark mode to Colorsoft devices "will be rolling out to readers worldwide" in the coming weeks, and available for download through Amazon's website.

While dark mode will be available system-wide for every section of t …

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Amazon snaps up Oprah Winfrey’s podcast

2026-04-27T09:33:18-04:00

Oprah Winfrey's video podcast, Book Club, and Favorite Things are headed to Amazon, according to reports from The New York Times and Variety. Starting in July, The Oprah Podcast will get new episodes twice per week, instead of once, debuting across Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Audible, and Fire TV channels.

The show will still appear on YouTube and other streaming platforms, but it will join Amazon's library of celebrity-helmed shows under its Wondery brand, including New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, and Baby, this is Keke Palmer. Last year, Amazon split up Wondery, keeping its creator-led show …

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Here’s how Amazon’s price fixing allegedly drove up prices everywhere

2026-04-22T02:34:49-04:00

On Monday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed the evidence of alleged price-fixing by Amazon. The state filed a request to the Supreme Court in February for a preliminary injunction to stop Amazon's behavior while the lawsuit it originally filed in 2022 proceeds, and is now making that 16-page document available, "largely unredacted." It lays out how Amazon allegedly schemed to raise other retailers' prices ahead of Prime Day, or worked with its vendors to make sure items available at a discount elsewhere were suddenly out of stock and unavailable for the lower price.

In response to a request for comment from The Verge, Amazon …

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A giant cell tower is going to space this weekend

2026-04-17T09:13:28-04:00

This weekend's scheduled Blue Origin rocket launch is rather momentous. Success would signal an end to SpaceX's monopoly on reusable orbital launch vehicles, and set up a three-way race to make that "No Service" indicator on your phone disappear forever.

On Sunday morning, Jeff Bezos' massive New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch with the first-stage booster that launched and landed on the program's second mission last November. It's a critical test, because cost-effective booster reuse is what's made SpaceX's Falcon 9 so dominant.

Amazon desperately needs a reusable rocket of its own to accelerate its Leo launches. Without one, it's onl …

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Amazon’s new Fire TV Stick HD is its ‘slimmest ever’

2026-04-15T10:58:11-04:00

Amazon has taken the wraps off a new Fire TV Stick HD that it says is its slimmest yet. At $34.99, the device offers a design that Amazon says is 30 percent thinner than the previous generation, along with the ability to power it directly through your TV's USB port.

The new design eliminates the need to use the Fire TV Stick HD with a separate wall adapter, making it easier to travel with. But if your TV doesn't have a USB port, Amazon notes that you can still power the new Fire TV Stick HD with a USB-C cable and a wall adapter.

The streaming stick comes with the revamped Fire TV OS, along with support for Wi-Fi 6 and Blueto …

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Prime Video is bundling Apple TV Plus and Peacock for a limited time

2026-04-15T16:18:52-04:00

A new bundle on Amazon includes both Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus for $19.99 per month, rather than the $29.98 per month it would cost to buy each individually. Amazon says the bundle is only available for "a limited time," but all users in the US can sign up for it, even without an Amazon Prime subscription.

The same bundle is already available directly from Apple TV and Peacock at the same price, with the option to choose a cheaper plan that includes Peacock with ads. But just like Comcast's Xfinity StreamSaver bundles, this is another example of competing giants in entertainment and tech teaming up to reach every possible custome …

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Apple and Amazon are teaming up to challenge Starlink’s smartphone ambitions

2026-04-14T10:03:08-04:00

Amazon has made a deal to buy Globalstar's low-Earth orbit satellite network for $11.57 billion, snapping up its spectrum licenses, operations, and assets to combine with its upcoming Leo internet satellite constellation. Apple owned 20 percent of Globalstar, and as a part of the deal, Amazon will continue to support satellite services like Emergency SOS for iPhones and Apple Watches, and develop future services that connect them to its Leo satellite network. The deal is currently scheduled to close in 2027, pending approval by regulators.

Globalstar currently provides direct-to-device services to the iPhone and Apple Watch. That's differen …

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