After a year of hype and anticipation, Amazon picked not one, but two locations for its HQ2 project. The world’s largest online retailer on Tuesday selected Long Island City in New York City’s Queens borough and National Landing (a new name for the Crystal City neighborhood) in Arlington, Virginia, outside Washington, DC. The picks, which …
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Microsoft wants its tech to be used for good, not evil, the company’s CEO said. Satya Nadella, speaking Monday at the Wired25 conference in San Francisco, noted that the tech industry has a responsibility for how its technology is used. “We start from saying, look we want to take tech and empower the world with it,” Nadella said. “Our responsibility …
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Some companies may be rethinking their US Defense Department contracts, but Amazon’s not one of them, CEO Jeff Bezos said Monday. Bezos, speaking at the Wired25 Conference at the SFJazz Center in San Francisco, said he will continue to support the US Defense Department. Earlier this month, cloud computing rival Google pulled out of the bidding for a $10 billion Pentagon contract …
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Amazon on Tuesday said it will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour in the US, a response to mounting pressure over its wages and its treatment of warehouse workers. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to lead,” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. …
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Amazon has donated $1 million to the Wikimedia Endowment, a fund supporting Wikipedia, the e-commerce giant said Tuesday. The gift was intended to support Wikipedia and its nonprofit parent Wikimedia, which Amazon relies on for answers on its Alexa voice assistant. It was Amazon’s first ever to the free online information and education organization. “We are grateful for Amazon’s support, …
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Amazon has removed a number of books espousing neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology after a study revealed such paraphernalia available on its site. The Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy found listings for “baby onesies, toys, children’s Halloween costumes, flags, clothing, and jewelry emblazoned with nazi, neo-nazi, white nationalist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, and …
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Amazon raised the price of its Prime memberships in the US by 20 percent, but so far that isn’t harming renewals. That’s according to Amazon finance chief Brian Olsavsky, who said on an earnings call with reporters Thursday that Prime renewals are “looking really, really good” despite the price hike. Last week’s Prime Day sale also brought in a single-day …
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US Rep. Keith Ellison on Tuesday raised concerns about “a staggering amount” of neo-Nazi and white nationalist books and e-books being sold on Amazon and asked the company to remove them. Citing a new study by the Partnership for Working Families and the Action Center on Race and the Economy, the Minnesota Democrat mentioned in a letter to CEO Jeff …
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Apple is apparently looking to steal a page from Amazon’s playbook. The iPhone maker is tinkering with the idea of a single subscription offering that would combine its music service, original TV shows and magazine offerings, The Information reported Wednesday. The idea bears a striking resemblance to Amazon’s Prime service, which offers subscribers access to music, movies and TV shows, …
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During my first few minutes visiting Toronto last month, I walked along the waterfront, where a scene unfolded that was so picturesque I wondered if I’d stepped onto the set of a cheery Toronto tourism video. Laughing children ran around and played baseball at Ireland Park. People jogged or rode bicycles along bike trails by red-and-white-striped streetcars humming along Queens …
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