Ben Fox Rubin

Amazon’s Prime discount at Whole Foods is coming to 10 more states

Amazon on Monday said it’s rolling out its Prime membership discount at Whole Foods stores to 10 more states. Starting Wednesday, Prime members will be able to receive a 10 percent discount on sales items at Whole Foods stores in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii, Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Louisiana and Mississippi. The discount …

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Asus Project Precog could be the future of laptops (The 3:59, Ep. 409)

On this podcast, we talk about: Asus revealing the new no-keyboard, double-screen Project Precog prototype laptop. Apple’s Safari getting more privacy features to block online trackers and cookies. ZTE reportedly getting a lifeline to bring back its business. Now playing: Watch this: Asus Project Precog could be the future of laptops (The… 4:38 The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and …

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Apple Watch’s Siri watch face getting smarter

This story is part of WWDC 2022, CNET’s complete coverage from and about Apple’s annual developers conference. Apple has some new features for its Siri watch face on the Apple Watch. The Siri watch face, first introduced last year, brings a handful of the voice assistant’s features right up front on your Apple Watch, providing your calendar, reminders and commute times. …

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Amazon banned this shopper. Then he outsmarted them

We’ll call him “Mark.” About three years ago, Mark got an email from Amazon saying, “We noticed that a number of your orders have been returned.” It was the start of a rocky relationship with the world’s biggest e-commerce company. Several months later, Mark got banned from Amazon for making too many returns. But after a lot of trial and …

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Inside an Amazon warehouse that ships your supersized purchases

Rich Hanna stands amid a seemingly unending series of long gray metal shelves loaded with a random assortment of items, including trash barrels, stacks of Kibbles ‘n Bits dog food, a stuffed-animal chipmunk sealed in a plastic bag, an LED-glowing underwater stool for a pool and a 35-pound tube of Safe Paw Ice Melter. That’s just the start. “You wanna …

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Amazon’s new Marketplace Appstore connects sellers to software

Amazon is creating another app store, but it’s not for consumers. Instead, the online retail giant will for the first time put its seal of approval on a bunch of third-party apps intended for professional sellers with its new Marketplace Appstore. It launches to sellers starting Monday, the company said. CNET reported on plans for the app store earlier this …

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eBay works to create an e

I walked to a corner of eBay’s office in Manhattan to find a sign that read “Store of Ben.” Just behind that sign, the e-commerce company set up a small model store filled with a bunch of items it thought I’d likely jump at buying, including Philadelphia Eagles gear, Batman toys, PlayStation and Sonos gadgets, and even children’s books for …

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Whole Foods sales items get even cheaper for Amazon Prime members

Amazon on Tuesday introduced a new 10 percent discount on Whole Foods sales items. But you’ll need to be a Prime member to get the deal. The company said it will also start offering “weekly deep discounts on select best-selling items” for Prime members, too. The savings are only available in Whole Foods’ Florida stores and they’ll come to Whole …

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Apple seeks to ‘take disability out of the equation’

Austin Pruitt, a two-time US Paralympian, walked me over to a racing wheelchair that he set up for a stationary workout routine. Pruitt has cerebral palsy from the knees down, which forces him to walk slowly, but he’s able to compete on the world stage by racing in a wheelchair. He said he used to set up a bunch of …

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Walmart snags majority of India’s Flipkart for $16 billion

Walmart’s making another big bet on e-commerce, agreeing on Wednesday to shell out $16 billion for a majority of India’s Flipkart. Flipkart — which sells electronics, large appliances, mobile phones, apparel and more —  has the largest e-commerce players locally since its launch in 2007, with local rivals like Snapdeal helping draw more customers into online shopping. The deal for …

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