Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and VP Greg Heart believe they have the answer to reducing the amount of damage caused when you drop your phone in the future, filing a patent for a damage avoidance system that uses mini-airbags and jets of gas to better protect your mobile should it unintentionally strike a surface. The patentis described as “a system and method for protecting devices from impact damage is provided. Prior to impact between a surface and a device, a determination of a risk of damage to the device is made....

Amazon Cloud Drive now has unlimited space for music and support for the iPad, thecompany reported this evening. Users of Cloud Drive start with 5GB of free storage, and now for $20 a year, users can buy 20 GB of file storage and unlimited, unmetered space for MP3 storage. Without the paid plan, the service can still be used to store all Amazon MP3 purchases for free and won’t count towards the quota....

The ruthless war between the world’s leading video-on-demand companies reached a climax when the Amazon acquired the legendary Hollywood studio MGM (Metro Goldwyn Mayer) in a deal worth US$8.45 billion. The sale of MGMon May 26 followed more than six months of negotiations. The American studio known for its roaring lion had been weakened by major financial difficulties before the pandemic. The prolonged closure of movie theatres was the final nail in its coffin....

Unveiling its latest Kindle e-reading and tablet devices last week, Amazon introduced a number of new hardware and software features to further cement its place as the world’s top bookseller and seller of e-books. TheKindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3Gsaw Amazon bring touch-support to its e-reader, slimming the device down and making it lighter for owners but it seems thatwasn’t the only thing that was cutfrom the new e-reader after Amazon confirmed that Touch 3G owners will not be able to use the Kindle browser to visit their favourite websites....

Amazon today crippled the Kindle lending service,Lendle, by revoking the startup’s API access. Wecovered Lendle last month, a service that enables Kindle users to lend books to other users they don’t personally know. The service makes use of the Kindle’s own legitimate lending feature, and simply facilitates lending for a greater network of people. Services like Lendle depend on Amazon’s API to facilitate the purchase and lending of books, and as such are at Amazon’s mercy as to whether their business should survive or die....