One of the first things to greet you at the Boxed warehouse floor in Union, New Jersey, is a four-story-tall gray robot employees call the Opex. It doesn’t have any arms and legs — it looks more like a massive metal-and-glass briefcase. Inside its glass-encased belly are 1,400 gray bins filled with 700 kinds of …
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The new ZTE Axon M, which has two screens that fold out into one, probably won’t be your next phone. But, its design points to a potential future that’s more interesting than today’s lineup of rectangular phones, and instead offers foldable, rollable and stretchable devices. On today’s podcast, we talk about the pros and cons of this type of phone …
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Facebook is great for showing off your kids and pets. Instagram is great for showing off your vacation. And Venmo is great for showing off your purchases. Venmo now wants to lean into its status as one of the few places online where it’s acceptable to talk up your latest spending habits. The PayPal-owned money-transfer service said Tuesday that starting …
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These days, Amazon vacuums up most of the attention when it comes to retail innovation. Voice commerce? Check. Drone delivery? Check. Automated warehouses? Check. But more than any other rival this year, Walmart seems to be challenging Amazon with aggressive efforts meant to show that it, too, is dreaming up new ways for people to shop. At The Wall Street …
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Fidget spinners, sarcasm, Sunny D. These are the hip, cool things teens know and love. Now they can add another item to that list: Buying from Amazon. The world’s biggest online store said Wednesday it has created a new feature for families, allowing moms and dads to give their teens more autonomy to purchase goods on Amazon while still under …
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Voice shopping with Walmart and Google is officially here. The world’s largest retailer in August said it would start offering a chunk of its inventories for sale on the Google Express shopping site and app, as well as on the Google Home smart speaker through voice shopping. Timed to Google’s hardware launch event Wednesday, Walmart said customers can now start …
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Big, expensive crystal home-decor pieces aren’t for everyone, or even most people. But for the few who are on the market for items such as crystal vases and bowls, shopping may have gotten a bit easier. Mastercard and Swarovski said Monday they’ve teamed up to create a new virtual-reality shopping app for browsing through a virtual home filled with crystal …
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Amazon said Wednesday it’s reviewing its website after a British TV station found the company may have been helping people buy bomb-making ingredients through its “frequently bought together” feature. The report from Channel 4 News said Amazon’s site would recommend customers buy together combinations of elements required for making crude bombs. In one instance, Amazon cued up a recommendation for …
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The Amazon devices team used to make devices. Now, they make different shaped houses for Alexa. The e-retailing giant on Tuesday unveiled a new Fire HD 10, Amazon’s first tablet to include a hands-free mode for accessing Alexa, the company’s voice assistant. To entice shoppers into buying the new tablet, Amazon also added a faster processor, increased the battery life …
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One of the strangest eBay auctions of the year will end tonight, with the seller in a jail cell. Of course, anyone following the life of Martin Shkreli, popularly nicknamed “Pharma Bro,” may not be all that surprised by the situation. Enlarge Image Shkreli’s listing as of Friday afternoon. eBay, Martin Shkreli Shkreli, a pharmaceuticals entrepreneur who rose to infamy …
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