Amazon Admits It Priced Its Smartphone Too High

Amazon Admits It Priced Its Smartphone Too High

An Amazon executive admitted that the company priced its smartphone too high, Fortune's JP Mangalindan reports.
"We didn’t get the price right," Amazon senior vice president of devices David Limp told Mangalindan. "I think people come to expect a great value, and we sort of mismatched expectations. We thought we had it right. But we’re also willing to say, ‘we missed.’ And so we corrected."
Amazon's Fire phone originally cost $199 but the company shot the price down to 99 cents after only a few months. In its most recent earnings call, the company admitted that it took a $170 million hit and had $83 million worth of unsold phones.
Amazon's phone boasts 3-D effects and a camera mode that can automatically identify real-world objects, but it was widely seen as a bit of a flop at launch. Limp says that several software updates since July have fixed some problems users had with the device. Despite the financial hit the smartphone caused, Amazon plans to keep working hard on the Fire phone, taking its usual long-term approach.
"When you’re taking risks, they’re not all going to pay off," Limp says. "Those are the facts." 

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Wearing the Microsoft Band, the next big thing in fitness tracking

Wearing the Microsoft Band, the next big thing in fitness tracking

David Pierce

The Verge

 

I've been wearing it for two hours, and I'm still acutely aware that it's there. This is the first and most unavoidable thing you should know about the Microsoft Band: it's big, and it's heavy. It's not an object with a strap, like a smartwatch or a Fitbit; there's technology in every part of this rigid rubber band. It's not terribly uncomfortable, per se, it's just there. I don't think I'll ever stop noticing it.
The Band is, of course, Microsoft's first fitness tracker, the physical actualization of the company's grand plan to be the source of all the world's health data. The Band is part of the plan, but it's not the whole plan; the whole plan involves cross-platform apps, a machine-learning system that turns your data into "insights" about how to live better tomorrow, and a vast ecosystem of hardware and software developers collecting data and delivering insights. The Band is the first device, but it won't be the last, not even from Microsoft.

The Band looks and feels a bit like a prototype, a relatively unadorned wristband with a clever sliding clasp (so you can change how it fits without taking it off) and a 1.4-inch, 320 x 106 display on the front. There are two buttons below the display: one for waking the device, and the "action button," which you use to scroll through data or start and end a workout. I quickly paired it to my iPhone 6 via Bluetooth, downloaded the beautifully minimalist Microsoft Health app, and was off. It automatically started tracking my steps and heart rate, funneling the data back to the app every time I hit sync.

The hardware needs some work, but the software is already solid

Everything you do on the Band lives in a series of icon-sized tiles, off to the right of the screen. One screen shows me email, text, and phone call notifications (which seem to be stored until you look at them all). The next has my calendar, run information, and sleep data. You side-scroll through everything, only seeing a little at a time: I can't imagine doing very much with the Band, other than wearing it and letting it do what it does. Plus, contorting my hand to read the horizontal screen is already growing a little tiresome. It feels a little better on the underside of my wrist, but I don't really like banging a screen onto every surface I touch either. On the other hand, the interface is zippy and smooth, and the screen is very responsive; the hardware isn't terribly impressive here, but the software certainly is.

The Band is clearly a workout device

There are a few basic settings and a lot of notifications hidden among the tiles, but the Band is mostly a workout tool. I scrolled to the run icon, tapped the action button, turned on GPS, and was off. Doing the same with workouts was easy; I even downloaded a 14-minute ab workout to the Band and set out to get ripped. It worked well, tracking my movements and vitals, except that I don't know what a V-Up is. I'm pretty sure it's not "stand awkwardly and stare at your Band for eight sets of 20 seconds," but that's what I did. The Band did its job admirably, I just didn't do mine.

Throughout it all, notifications were coming in — text messages, emails, calls — and vibrating my wrist powerfully enough that there's no way I'm going to miss it. I couldn't do much other than dismiss them, since the Band doesn't connect to Siri the way it does Cortana on Windows Phone, but leaving my phone across the room is certainly nice.

I've only just scratched the surface of what the Band and Microsoft Health can do. We'll be reviewing the Band in much more detail in the coming days, but a couple of things are already clear. The Band is very much a first-version device, one that will benefit tremendously from refinement and improvement in the coming years. (Not to mention all the ways other developers will find to improve on the experience.) And much more excitingly, it's a remarkably powerful gadget. It knows my steps and my heart rate and Starbucks card information. It knows I'm doing a sit-up, it knows I'm not doing a V-Up, and it knows who's calling me. And it's going to do much more than that really soon.
Now for a nap. Let's see how that goes.

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Taylor Swift Thanks Her Fans in Times Square!

Taylor Swift Thanks Her Fans in Times Square!

Taylor Swift  new album 1989 is basically the best thing to have ever happened to music fans and Swifties everywhere – all of the songs are amazing and Taylor has been killing it on social media lately promoting the album. She’s also been doing appearances to spread the word, including hanging out on the set of Good Morning America today!

Tay hit up Times Square with the show to perform for and thank her fans, and the whole place was flooded with Swifties. “Thank you Good Morning America, thank you to everyone who filled Times Square, thank you New York. #TS1989,” Taylor wrote on Instagram.

We’re sure the concert was amazing, because how could Tay ever not be? 

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Shailene Woodley Reveals Her Biggest Fear

THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON

Actress Shailene Woodley from The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent appeared on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson and spoke about her biggest fear. While Shailene has to travel in the air a lot for work, her fear of flying keeps getting worse and worse - oh no!

Shailene spilled to Craig that she always thinks the plane is going to go down during her trips - such a scary thought! However, Craig was quick to assure Shailene that her fear is irrational as statistically speaking flying is very safe!

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Selena Gomez Will Have The First Wax Figure At Madame Tussauds Orlando

SPLASH NEWS

Great news for Selena Gomez fans! A wax figure of the Rudderless star is heading to the brand new Madame Tussauds location coming to Orlando, Florida.

Selena's wax figure will be the very first celebrity wax sculpture to be featured at the location when it opens to the public.

The new Madame Tussauds Orlando location is opening in early 2015. It's unclear if Selena has already posed for her wax figure measurements. Stay tuned!

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Zayn Malik's Hair is Officially Long Enough to Tie Back In a Ponytail

TUMBLR

First there was a quiff. Then there was a collection of headbands. Now, Zayn Malik's hair has officially grown long enough to tie back in a casual low ponytail. The singer showed off his new 'do while promoting One Direction's new album, "Four" with the band.

Niall Horan seems fascinated by it, and so are we!

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Ariana Grande's Sentimental Ring From Her Grandparents

Ariana Grande's Sentimental Ring From Her Grandparents

Ariana Grande's grandfather sadly passed away in July, but Ariana just received a new sentimental present from him. Ariana was gifted a gorgeous ring from her grandmother, made complete with one of her grandfather's pearls in it.

Ariana's grandmother told Ariana the ring came straight from her grandpa. Ariana Tweeted to fans about the new piece of jewelry:

"Nonna had a ring made for me with the pearl from grandpa's tie pin. She says he told her in a dream it'd protect me."

Our thoughts are with Ariana, who is still grieving over the loss of her grandpa.

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Meredith Swift’s Most Adorable Moments!

Meredith Swift is probably one of the most famous cats on this planet. Not only does she get to hang out with Taylor Swift all day, but her adorable little face is ALL over the Internet! With Tay constantly posting videos of Meredith, we have all come to know and love little Mer and her human-like personality! Check out these totally ah-dorable GIFs of Meredith that will have you wanting to steal her away from Tay!

Just look at that posture!

Seriously, though…what cat drinks from a faucet! LOL!

Talent must run in the family.

She even knows good music, LOL!

Even though she is a cat, she TOTALLY has the puppy face down.

PERFECTION.

Down she goes!

LOL!

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Taylor Swift & BFF Karlie Kloss Are Beautiful New York Knicks Cheerleaders

Taylor Swift & BFF Karlie Kloss Are Beautiful New York Knicks Cheerleaders

Taylor Swift looks up at the scoreboard during a game between the New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday (October 29) in New York City.

The 24-year-old singer was joined court-side by her BFF Karlie Kloss and Ben Stiller while cheering on the home team, who was defeated by the Bulls by a final score of 104 – 80.

“Karlie and I had the time of our lives at the Knicks game tonight. See you tomorrow bright and early on Good Morning America!” Taylor wrote onInstagram.

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Taylor Swift Is Donating the Proceeds to "Welcome to New York"

Taylor Swift hasn't shied away from her love of New York City — she even wrote "Welcome to New York" about it! — and now she's giving back in a major way. The singer announced on The View that all the proceeds from the song will be going to NYC public schools.

“I love it here," she said. "I love it so much...I don’t think I told anybody this before, but the fans were wonderful enough to make it No. 1 on iTunes. It’s selling really well — which is good, because I’m donating all of my proceeds to New York City public schools.”

The "Shake It Off" singer was recently appointed the Global Welcome Ambassador of New York, so it's only fitting that she's giving back. We think this is super-cute! And because the song is so popular, it is obviously going to raise a lot of money for the school system.

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Find Out Why New Yorkers Are Calling Taylor Swift "Obnoxious"

Taylor Swift has been very vocal about her love for NYC lately (she even wrote a song about it), but what do other New Yorkers think about her constant gushing? The singer recently opened up on the Late Show With David Letterman about the whole ordeal and admitted that they love her obnoxious behavior.

"Any time I talk to anyone or any time I do an interview, I'm like, 'You don't understand. You have to go there now. You have to go to New York. Just drop what you're doing, and go there. It's amazing. It's the greatest place ever,'" she said. "And I guess the city picked up on that. They're like, 'She's the most enthusiastic, obnoxious person to ever love New York. She loves it with like 18 exclamation points afterward, underlined.'"

Taylor even admitted that she wasn't paid to write "Welcome to New York," she just loves the citythat much.

"When I love something, I'm very, very vocal about it," she explained.

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Apple Watch Will Need Juicing Daily, Says Tim Cook

Apple Watch Will Need Juicing Daily, Says Tim Cook

Natasha Lomas

TechCrunch

Apple fans hoping Cupertino’s reality distortion field was going to do magical things to the battery life of its forthcoming Apple Watch had better reset their expectations to something far more average: the wrist computer will likely need charging daily according to Apple CEO Tim Cook. So, in other words, much like other high end smartwatch wearables already on the market.

And indeed, much like the mechanical watches of yesteryear which needed winding daily.
“We think people are going to use it so much you will end up charging it daily,” said Cook, speaking in an on stage interview at the WSJ:D live conference — and attempting to put a positive spin on the disappointment of another daily recharging routine.

So, on the plus side, if you end up not using your expensive Apple Watch very much at all you might not need to recharge it every day. Er, great!

Battery life continues to be a serious bugbear for wearables. And indeed an ongoing pain-point for smartphones — although one that typically passes without much comment from Apple.
Instead the company routinely shaves a few millimeters off its handsets every year, thereby squeezing the amount of on board battery real estate in the interests of being able to announce an ‘even sleeker’ iPhone. (When most users would probably cry tears of a joy for an iPhone with a fatter battery.)
While smartphone users are largely resigned to the daily charging grind (and/or keeping a spare battery pack close by) it’s a pretty big ask for a secondary device to also need juicing daily. Especially one that’s worn on the wrist.

The Apple Watch competes for wrist space with far less smart watches that nonetheless have far superior battery lives — being good for years of use. Or indeed having automatic mechanisms that are powered by the movement of the human body so never need recharging. For all its smarts, a smartwatch that prematurely runs out of juice and reverts to a blank slab of glass is going to feel pretty dumb in comparison.

The Apple Watch has a magnetic induction charging mechanism — using a magnetic connector that attaches to the back of the device. Whether that familiar magnetic tug will help lessen the friction of daily charging an expensive wrist-worn wearable remains to be seen.

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