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Amazon Expands Video Collection

By RD Bentley on August 19, 2011 in

Amazon Instant Video Now Offers Customers More Than 100,000 Movies and TV Shows

SEATTLE, Aug 18, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) —

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Amazon Instant Video now offers customers more than 100,000 movies and TV shows, including new releases and classic favorites, available to purchase or rent on an à la carte basis. In addition, Amazon Prime members can now watch more than 9,000 movies and TV shows included at no additional cost with their Prime membership.

With Amazon Instant Video, customers can rent or purchase new release movies starting at just $3.99, stream popular TV shows the day after they first air, and access their purchased video content from a cloud-based video library on any compatible device. Movies and TV shows from Amazon can be viewed on a Mac, PC or directly on a TV with any of the 300 compatible models of Internet-connected TVs, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes from partners including LG, Logitech, Panasonic, Roku, Samsung, Sony, Tivo and Vizio.

“We are focused on offering our customers the very best selection and are always working to expand our already extensive list of great video content,” said Steve Oliver, director of video at Amazon. “The 100,000 titles on Amazon Instant Video range from new hit blockbusters to old favorites, with more than 15,000 of those titles available in HD, and popular TV shows available the day after they first air. On top of that, Amazon Prime members have the added benefit of unlimited, commercial-free, instant streaming of more than 9,000 Prime instant videos at no additional cost.”

Prime members now have access to more than 9,000 Prime instant videos at no additional cost

Amazon Prime is a membership program that gives customers unlimited free Two-Day Shipping with no minimum purchase for only $79 a year. Millions of items are eligible, including books, home and garden products, electronics, video games, clothing, accessories and beauty products. With Prime instant videos, free trial and paid Amazon Prime members in the U.S. also have unlimited instant access to more than 9,000 movies and TV shows at no additional cost.

For more information on Amazon Instant Video, visit www.amazon.com/instantvideo.

For a full list of Amazon Instant Video compatible devices, visit amazon.com/watchontv.

For more information on Amazon Prime and Prime instant videos and to start an Amazon Prime free trial, visit amazon.com/primevideos.

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth’s Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon’s own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

Amazon and its affiliates operate Web sites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.cn, and www.amazon.it. As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.

SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.

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Steve Jobs Biography Due Nov 21

By RD Bentley on August 17, 2011 in

Whether you’re a fan of the Cupertino empire or not, there’s no denying that Steve Jobs is one of the most authoritative business pioneers of our day. The Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc (NYSE: AAPL) has an estimated networth of $8.3 billion. Some techies may tend to forget that Jobs is Disney’s largest individual shareholder at 7%, and is also a member of Disney’s Board of Directors.

Many would consider the highlights of Jobs’ career to be the commercial that presented the Apple Macintosh Computer to the world and unquestionably the famous introduction of the Apple Macintosh on January 24, 1984. Not to mention his more recent products that have gained him worldwide notoriety, and forever changed the consumer electronics market.

Jobs traditionally wears the trademark black long-sleeved mock turtleneck made by St. Croix, Levi’s 501 blue jeans, and New Balance 991 shoes. One of his favorite cars is a silver 2006 Mercedes SL 55 AMG, of which has no license plates on it.

Steve Jobs is a very complex individual and his personal life is full of complications. Steve was adopted and raised by Paul and Clara Jobs. Steve’s biological parents are Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah Jandali. Abdulfattah “John” Jandali was a political science professor and is of Syrian descent.

After Jobs was given up for adoption by his biological parents, the couple had a daughter named Mona and decided to raise this child. John, the father of Steve Jobs, said the complications arose because that Joanne’s father didn’t want her to marry him. After her father died, the two got married. By then of course, Steve Jobs had settled in with his adoptive parents.

Mona Simpson (surname after a stepfather) is a well-known novelist and UCLA professor of English. Steve Jobs and his biological sister Mona would not meet until both were grown adults.

Talk about perplexity! On August 28, 2008, Bloomberg erringly published the obituary of Steve Jobs.

Steve has his fans too. I ran across one story where a fan remembered a phone call from Steve. It’s a very good moment that reflects the dedication of the man.

The biography will be the product of three years worth of exclusive interviews, with bestselling author Walter Isaacson. Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He is the former Chairman and CEO of Cable News Network (CNN) and managing editor of Time Magazine.

The book — Steve Jobs: A Biography is expected to cover the entire life of Mr. Steve Jobs. It was originally going to be released on March 6, 2012. However, according to The New York Times, the book is now set to be released on November 21, 2011.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

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Latest Job Trends

By RD Bentley on August 16, 2011 in

Do the research first with Indeed, because it is the #1 job site worldwide. Here are the latest job trends.

Job Trends

1. HTML5
2. Mobile app
3. Android
4. Twitter
5. jQuery
6. Facebook
7. Social Media
8. iPhone
9. Cloud Computing
10. Virtualization

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Hello Moto From Google

By RD Bentley on August 15, 2011 in ,

 

Here’s a bit of encouraging news for the stock market today. Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has announced that it will acquire Motorola Mobility for $40.00 per share in cash, or a total of about $12.5 billion, a premium of 63% to the closing price of Motorola Mobility shares on Friday, August 12, 2011.

Larry Page, CEO of Google, said, “Motorola Mobility’s total commitment to Android has created a natural fit for our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers. I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.”

This is no doubt a strategic move for Google to better position itself in the “cell phone wars” against Apple and Microsoft. The news was quite a surprise on a “Merger Monday”.

Larry Page explicates:

We recently explained how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” and it is currently looking into the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.

Motorola Mobility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: MMI), is headquartered in Libertyville, an affluent northern suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

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Is The Internet Killing Music And Film?

By RD Bentley on August 14, 2011 in

We’ve all read it time and time again, from the exasperated complaints of singers to the mundane babblings of newspaper writers. They all say the same thing: the internet is killing show business. A closer examination of the facts strongly disputes what others have said about the subject.

While it is hard to deny the fact that piracy does exist, music is still very much a thriving business. In the past, the options were extremely limited. You had commercial record shops, private record shops, and the big box stores.

The increase of variety may have changed things a bit. Once upon a time, you would have to purchase the entire album to listen to the one song you really wanted to hear. Currently, you can download individual songs on demand. This may have shifted the scale, but consumers are faring much better.

Services such as YouTube, Grooveshark, and Pandora offer a tremendous variety of music choices, and on the surface it would appear that they have influenced music sales. However, there are typically distractions that prevent one from enjoying the total listening experience (i.e. annoying advertisements, excruciatingly slow download speed, and undesired adaptations of songs).

If you examine Google docs, you’ll immediately notice that music and film sales have increased annually, despite what the critics have been telling us year after year. Statistics tell a different tale.

A professional writer from Mediamorphis has argued that the music industry has expanded yearly.

A quality movie will have no problem attracting scores of film goers. James Cameron’s Avatar beat out the director’s previous motion picture, Titanic, to become the highest-grossing film worldwide. The film earned $26,752,099 on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend. This is no chump change.

Who says that crowds aren’t going to movies these days? A film that is currently climbing up the charts is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. The concluding movie in the celebrated Harry Potter series is already the highest grossing film of them all, coming in as the third highest-grossing film worldwide.

Some movie enthusiasts prefer to stay at home and watch the flick on a digital streaming format, a DVD, or Blu-ray. With the rising price of gasoline, finding entertainment without leaving the house is becoming a very appealing option to cash-strapped families. Yep, they’re still watching.

The bottom line is, the age of the consumer has finally arrived. There are simply more options and more niches than there have ever been.  The anamolies that we call music, film, and entertainment —  they are very much alive indeed. LLAP

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Image: zirconicusso / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Angst Grows Over Wildly Swinging Oil Prices

By RD Bentley on August 12, 2011 in

“I am not convinced that these price increases were necessary or reflected true market conditions,” Senator Jay Rockefeller announced recently, as was quoted in the Washington Post.

This takes place with the background of a recent investigation conducted by the Federal Trade Commission, due to wildy fluctuating swings in crude oil prices. Price fixing and price manipulation is a nationwide problem in the United States, and this is inflicting pain every time overstressed Americans pull into a gas station.

When a man with the last name of Rockefeller inquires about oil price manipulation, there is inherently something incredibly wrong with the system. For those that are not familiar with Senator Jay Rockefeller, he is a very respected Congressman of West Virginia.

It is a paradox when you have a man with the stature of Senator Rockefeller questioning the practices of the oil industry. Rockefeller is a great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, and he is the only family Democrat in a Republican dominated world. The Rockefeller family fortune is estimated to be as high as 10 billion U.S. dollars.

Goldman Sachs received a $40,000 fine because of a “violation of a serious nature” but “no evidence of intentional ma­nipu­la­tion of the market” was to be found. This is only show and tell, while the anger continues to mount in America.

The USEIA gives one an idea how much oil is imported, how much oil is exported, and the nature of the oil industry in general.

Here’s what adds to the controversial aspect of the matter. The establishment is always talking about a lack of oil supply. But then you go to CNN Money, or Fortune as some prefer to call it, and you find out that there is a plentiful supply of oil on hand. In fact, there may be record levels of oil available for consumption. With the economy falling apart, less people can afford to travel as much. They’re staying at home to save money.

The whole thing  just doesn’t make any sense. With nearly everybody becoming internet savvy these days, it is getting harder and harder to pull the bluff on the American people. The folks sense that there is something very wrong with the notion of hedge funding on a commodity that is desperately needed. It is such a secretive business that even the so called experts are scratching their heads, unaware of the underhanded deals that take place daily.

What Americans are increasingly aware of is this — when the price of gas goes up, it has an effect on the price of everything else. From heating oil to groceries and everything in between. There’s also a more hidden agenda that comes to mind and is equally as cunning.

The spreading effect of the price increase. A store owner is aware of the topic of rising gas prices and how it will suddenly become an agent for everything else to become uber expensive. It’s not only gas price gouging that takes a grip on the economy, it often trickles down to other necessary commodities.

It’s really hard to differentiate supply and demand from dishonest business practices. It’s difficult to understand how inflation could become a problem when you stop and look at the price of groceries right now. Just what is your definition of inflation?

Through the combination of lobbying and legislative efforts, hedge funders and bankers have placed themselves into being the unwanted middlemen in a virtually invisible empire. It’s not just a question of legality, it’s also a question of morality. How can you justify a few hundred or thousand people getting unbelievably rich at the vast expense of a whole nation?

Despite the grand idea of supply and demand economics, even too-big-to-fail banks like JP Morgan are bidding on contracts holding 30 million barrels of strategic petroleum. It may be this is the reason why gas prices explode at a flip of a wrist.

The statement reverberates — “I am not convinced that these price increases were necessary or reflected true market conditions.”

A more grandiose statement needs to be  echoed — Just what is going to be done to stop the monopolization of crude oil, if anything? Where’s the beef?

8/12/11
WTI Crude Oil: $85.30

Image Credit:

Image: Sura Nualpradid / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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Kindle: Read Free Books On Your Computer

By RD Bentley on August 12, 2011 in

For bookworms (like myself) that like to explore and seek new adventures online, there is an app to better enjoy the pleasure of reading. I wanted to try something different so I thought I’d try the Kindle Free Book Collections department.

The first thing I did was go to the Kindle Store and download Kindle for PC, which was located on the upper left side of the page. It was a painless event. The Free Book Collections page has value.

These options allow one to go to library pages and read the book in the Kindle format.

Personally, I felt that reading with the Kindle on the PC was smooth and effortless. The font was big, there was no scrolling up and down the page, and all I had to do was click on an arrow to go to the next page. It felt like a book.

The obvious advantage of the Kindle is mobility. This allows one to lounge on the couch and read, to go outside in the garden with reading material, or take the Kindle along while waiting at the doctor’s office. The Kindle will go two months with a single charge. This is a very convenient feature for sure.

For now, I’m just experimenting with the concept. Do you have a favorite website that offers free books to read?

Free eBooks List

1. Project Gutenberg
2. LibriVox
3. Open Library
4. Archive.org
5. American Libraries
6. ManyBooks.net

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Dave And Boris Watch The Flames

By RD Bentley on August 10, 2011 in

It seems as though the media in the U.K. are blaming the unrest on the “thugs” in the street. While none of us think that rioting is truly the answer, is this the consequence of inequality?

While having a look at the Guardian newspaper, I am much more intrigued by the comments than the piece itself. The title: Riots and the righteous: now comes the game of blame.

Now over 1,000 people arrested, and eight of those arrests were public disorder using social media. Four dead due to the uprisings. On Tuesday night there were 16,000 police on duty. Tragedy.

Here’s something interesting. Iran has condemned the police in the U.K. Tehran has accused the British government of double standards over human rights. Ouch. And Iran isn’t the only country bashing England and Prime Minister David Cameron. theAtlanticwire report points at other countries taking their shot — Libya, Bahrain, Zimbabwe, and China.

All are aware of the Mark Duggan shooting.

The comments go on and on about the other looters. You know, the bankers, hedge fund managers, and the financial empire within. Their looting is legal and they will not spend any jail time.

It’s not as if the Bullingdon Club members have ever done anything like this at all. Cameron’s youthful involvement with mischief of the like?

The Boys from Bullingdon go way back.

It’s not hard to say which looters made out with the most loot. Enough said.

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Urkel Does Cry Baby

By RD Bentley on August 9, 2011 in

Urkel is back baby! Steve Urkel is really groovin’ in his new video “Cry Baby”. Do The Urkel Dance! Well, actually I think it’s Cee Lo Green doing the singing from his album called The Lady Killer (Deluxe Version). Isn’t he one of the judges on the singing TV show The Voice?

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US Debt Crisis 2011 Causes Panic

By RD Bentley on August 8, 2011 in

In the year of 1929, the United States witnessed the most devastating stock crash in its history. The hopes and dreams of many investors were crushed on “Black Thursday”, October 24, 1929. Desperate citizens would spend a lifetime trying to offset the catastrophic losses. Unfortunately, some never did fully recover.

William C. Durant, a pioneer of General Motors and Chevrolet, was one of the players that lost a great deal in the stock crash. Durant had amassed a fortune from getting credit and creating investments that became very profitable. The stock crash of 1929 was the one gamble that Durant miscalculated severely. After making millions in the car industry and suddenly losing it, he would spend the remaining part of his life managing a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan.

The famous comedian Groucho Marx of the Marx Brothers lost virtually all of his savings in the following week after Black Thursday. Groucho was grieved by his financial losses. However, Groucho would always have a joke about it.

Roger Babson, a noted economist, had forewarned investors about the financial storm that was to come. On September 5, 1929, Babson gave a speech saying, “Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific.” Babson was indeed correct. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted as much as 12.82% in one day during the crash.

Stocks plunged 512 (4.31%) points on Thursday last week, and 634 points (5.55%) today. The stock drops are starting to resemble the crash of 1929. Economists are trying to refrain from total alarm, but the stock market earthquake is shaking  the ground in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere around the world.

The opinion is strongly shared in Europe that the political division in the United States is incurable. A writer of Der Spiegel summed it up: “The U.S. is a country where the system of government has fallen firmly into the hands of the elite.”

Noam Chomsky, emeritus professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. shared the same theme as can be read in Truthout: “Corporate power’s ascendancy over politics and society – by now mostly financial – has reached the point that both political organizations, which at this stage barely resemble traditional parties, are far to the right of the population on the major issues under debate.”

Chomsky’s expressed view is exactly what the majority of Americans have asserted, and they are very upset with the way government is being run in Washington. A recent Washington Post poll discovered that 80% of Americans are dissatisfied with the way federal government is being handled. After several weeks of wrangling over the debt ceiling, now the market has dropped precipitously. The carnage continues.

The motto that stockholders are now chanting is sell, sell, sell. The world has lost confidence in President Barack Obama and a dysfunctional government in Washington.

Has the panic of 2011 finally set in?  “Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific.”

Photo Credit:

Image: thephotoholic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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