Amazon has updated its Cloud Drive Photos for Android app with a new feature that that will automatically save photos stored on a users’ phone to Cloud Drive.

The web giant said that auto-save was the most highly requested feature from users since the app launched back in November. The latest version also includes some other key features, such as the ability to take photos directly from the app.

Users can also now select multiple files for upload, download or deletion, as well as view the status of an upload and download. There’s also the option to pause, resume and cancel uploads and downloads. In addition, the latest version comes with improved storage monitoring, letting users view their current usage and receive low-storage notifications.

Cloud Drive Photos lets users securely store photos taken with their device in the Amazon Cloud for easy access. Users get 5GB of storage for free, before having to pay for additional storage. Prices for extra storage start at $10 (£6) a year for 20GB.

Once uploaded to the cloud, photos are available for access on Kindle Fire device, Android phone or tablet, or on the Web. Cloud Drive Photos for Android is available for download from the Amazon Appstore and Google Play.

Meanwhile, Amazon this week also had some good news for its mobile app developers. The company announced it is now providing developers with Adobe AIR native extensions, for free, to use with in-app purchasing and GameCircle APIs.

Those who create mobile games using Adobe’s tools can use these extensions to quickly add in-app purchasing for virtual goods and GameCircle for leaderboards, achievements, and Whispersync for games. The new AIR native extensions are available now as part of the Amazon Mobile App SDK. Users will need AIR to use the extensions.

by Angela Moscaritolo

Internet retail giant Amazon has denied claims that a computer hacker infiltrated its systems and leaked the details of more than 600 UK users online.

A hacker, going by the name Darwinare, posted usernames, contacts details and home address of 628 people on text-sharing website Pastebin on Saturday, claiming they belonged to Amazon customers.

The data has now been removed from the site.

The contents of the Pastebin data dump has been verified by OZ Data Centa, a website that lets users check their email addresses against ones leaked through data breaches, as containing valid email addresses.

In a post on social networking site Twitter, Darwinare – who appears to be a supporter of hacking group Antisec – said the alleged breach had not been motivated by a personal grudge.

“I just found [an] opening and exploited it,” the hacker wrote. “So don’t worry. Others will get the same [too].”

However, in a statement to IT Pro, an Amazon spokesperson denied that any attack had taken place.

“There has been no compromise of Amazon’s systems and this is not information from our database,” the spokesperson stated.

By Caroline Donnelly

Apple Insider has reported that Amazon has pulled a homepage advertisement that slammed the iPad mini, after discovering that its jibe was factually incorrect.

Earlier this week, Amazon posted a spec comparison between the iPad mini and Kindle Fire HD on its homepage. It touted the Kindle Fire HD’s “stunning display,” and said the Kindle Fire HD had a higher pixel density (216 PPI) than the iPad mini s (163 PPI), the ability to watch HD films, and dual stereo speakers instead of the mono ones on the iPad mini.

Not so fast, Amazon. When the first iPad mini reviews began circulating, it was revealed that the new tablet actually has stereo speakers — an upgrade from former models, all of which sport a single mono speaker.

The ad hit Amazon’s website Monday, 29 October, but was removed two days later. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As TUAW noted this week, Amazon also neglected to mention some features the iPad mini has but the Fire HD does not, including a rear-facing camera, a 64GB model, a 3G/4G LTE option, and 275,000 of Apple’s tablet-optimised apps.

The iPad mini starts at £269 for the 16GB Wi-Fi version, while the Kindle Fire HD costs £159 for a similarly equipped device. Customers in a hurry to start browsing their tablet may have better luck with Amazon; Apple’s new products now have a several-week wait time.

by Stephanie Mlot, 01 November, 2012

Amazon’s latest offering, the Simple Workflow Service, has finally been released in order to help customers build resilient, scalable applications with ease.

The company claimed that the new facility will be well-equipped to handle multiple aspects that any customer will ever need – whether it’s for the usage of a sophisticated data analytics programme, the need to automate business processes for insurance and/or finance applications, or even the smooth management of an efficient cloud infrastructure management service. Amazon SWF has a built-in mechanism that makes it possible to enforce a coordination amongst all processing phases from within the same application.

Using a simple API that can be implemented by using codes written in virtually any language, API is also compatible with Amazon’s EC2 platform.

“With Amazon SWF, developers can now easily coordinate distributed application components across on-premises and cloud environments using their choice of programming languages,” Reto Kramer, General Manager at AWS Application Connection Services said in a statement from My Host News.

“By relying on Amazon SWF to handle the coordination of distributed task execution, developers can now focus on building the differentiating aspects of their applications and leave the undifferentiated heavy lifting of building and managing workflow engines to AWS,” Kramer added.

Zappos says credit card and payment data was not exposed

Cyber-attackers have struck Zappos, the Amazon-owned fashion e-retailer.

The company has reset the passwords of 24 million customers and asked them to choose new ones.

It said names, email addresses and other personal information may have been exposed, but not full credit card numbers.

Though significant, other attacks have been larger. In 2010 a US court convicted a hacker of stealing details from more than 130 million cards.

Zappos, which was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn, started out as an online shoe retailer but now sells clothing and accessories.

It was sold to Amazon for more than $1bn (£650m) in 2009.

In an email to staff sent on Sunday and posted on the company website, Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh said: “We were recently the victim of a cyber-attack by a criminal who gained access to parts of our internal network and systems through one of our servers in Kentucky.

“We are co-operating with law enforcement to undergo an exhaustive investigation.”

Mr Hsieh added: “We’ve spent over 12 years building our reputation, brand, and trust with our customers. It’s painful to see us take so many steps back due to a single incident.”

Scrambled

Following the attack the company wrote to its 24 million customers asking them to choose new passwords for zappos.com and any other site where they may have used the same or similar password.

The email said the attack had potentially exposed the name, email address, billing and shipping address and phone number of customers.

It also warned that “the last four digits of your credit card number (the standard information you find on receipts), and/or your cryptographically scrambled password (but not your actual password)” may have been exposed in the attack.

However, in his message to company staff Mr Hsieh stressed that the credit card and payment database had not been accessed.

Amazon has announced itself as the first online vendor to support the common system for storing and streaming films that the Hollywood industry is pushing.

Known as ‘UltraViolet’, the new platform will allow consumers to buy movies and store them on a central account. From there users can login from a variety of devices and stream it straight to them. This is certainly a step in the right direction for the film industry which has focused itself in the past on making customers re-buy movies in new formats.

However, consumers who like to own a physical or digital copy of what they’ve bought and store it locally, may find this new system less useful.

“The best movie and TV service for consumers is the one that provides them with the broadest choice possible,” said Amazon’s vice president of digital Media, Bill Car, in an announcement at the Consumer Electronics show (CES). It’s hoped by both Amazon and the unnamed studio behind the partnership, that the involvement of the online retailer will help increase exposure and uptake of Ultraviolet, which Business Week reports has been doing poorly since its launch in October.

The platform has received some support from other retailers, with Best Buy Co. and Cinema Now both being part of the consortium behind it – though neither has actually begun using the system.

Those involved with UltraViolet aren’t messing around, as some of the latest films added to the service haven’t been out of cinemas for long. They include the latest Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie, Contagion, The Thing remake and Cowboys and Aliens. However, some are a little less up to date including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, One Tree Hill: The Complete Collection and The Underworld Trilogy.

Scorpion King 3 is on there too. Yea I know, but it’s got Ron Perlman, so you know it’s gonna be bada*s.

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is not only attracting customers, but also some trouble from Apple. Apple already filed a suit against Amazon over the use of the phrase “App Store.” On Wednesday, Apple expanded the suit by adding another claim that focuses on “false advertising” related to the online retail giants latest tablet.

Apple filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. This new complaint alleges that since September when Amazon launched their tablet, the company changed their “Amazon Appstore for Android” moniker to “de-emphasize” the phrase “for Android” in ads for the device.

The new complaint includes screenshots of Amazon’s website and reads “Amazon’s use is also likely to lessen the goodwill associated with Apple’s App Store service and Apple products designed to utilize Apple’s App Store service by associating Apple’s App Store service with the inferior qualities of Amazon’s service,” as reported by CNET.

Amazon’s Android based Kindle Fire, recently made its way to the tablet market, has been seen as a tough competitor for Apple iPad which is currently dominating the market. The very low price of Kindle Fire is a factor that makes it a threat for Apple. Kindle Fire is priced at $199, whereas most other tablets are $500.

The Amazon Kindle Cloud Reader has been expanded to Firefox Web browser. So, from now on readers, can enjoy Kindle books on Mozilla’s browser with the HTML 5 based Web application.

The Kindle Cloud Reader made has been available for Apple Safari and Google Chrome since early August and now it is available for Mozilla Firefox version 6 and above.

Director of Amazon Kindle, Dorothy Nicholls, stated that, “Instant access to your books in the browser, combined with a beautifully designed and feature-rich HTML5 application experience, has made Kindle Cloud Reader the best launch we’ve ever had for a Kindle app,” as reported by PCMag.

Nicholls also added, “Customer response to Kindle Cloud Reader has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Now book lovers can read directly on the browser irrespective of being online or offline and without the need of any installation or downloading. The cloud reader syncs automatically with Kindle apps to provide fast reading facility, PCMag reported.

Amazon is expanding with many new offerings for the global market. For example, at the beginning of this very month, the company unveiled the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library that allow readers with a Prime membership and also Kindle e-readers an opportunity to borrow e-books for free.

Source: Erica Thinesen