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Google is working on standalone hardware for the home that will integrate the web giant's search and voice technology, according to a report Wednesday by Recode.The device, which is going by the inteal name "Chirp," is said to resemble Google's OnHub wireless router. Such a device would likely make Google's familiar search command "OK Google" available throughout your home, a growing market for the web giant and its rivals.The device is seen as a competitor to Echo, Amazon's inteet-coected wireless speaker wrapped around a digital personal assistant named Alexa.Chirp is unlikely to launch at Google's I/O developers conference next week but is expected to debut sometime this year, Recode repo...

Amazon is once again stepping into Google territory -- this time by taking on YouTube.If you ever dreamed of having your videos seen by Amazon Prime subsribers, now it can be a reality with Amazon Video Direct. The service lets anyone upload their video, and creators have the option of offering the video for free, charging for it, or putting it into Prime. Watch CNET Update to get the details, and also lea about changes coming to Periscope. If you rather consume your video entertainment in a headset, one Reddit user explains how to play old Virtual Boy games on Google Cardboard: CNET Update delivers the tech news you need in under 3 minutes. Watch Bridget Carey every afteoon for a breakdown ...

Amazon, which already has a sizable media empire, wants to expand even more -- this time with videos. Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images Amazon wants to become the next YouTube by creating a new open platform called Amazon Video Direct. But will it get there? We also hit on eBay coming to 1,600 FedEx Office locations and a San Francisco Bay Area company's plans to deliver blood and vaccines in Rwanda via drones.The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought to you by CNET Executive Editor Roger Cheng (currently on parental leave), Senior Writer Ben Fox Rubin and Producer Bryan VanGelder. Get ready for AmazonTube (The 3:59, Ep. 42)...

Amazon says it will eliminate gaps in coverage that excluded predominately minority neighborhoods. David McNew/Getty Images Amazon will fill gaps in its same-day delivery service, according to Bloomberg, responding to criticism the service excluded some minority neighborhoods, The online retail behemoth pledged to expand its Prime Same Day Service to all zip codes in the 27 cities in which it's offered, according to an Amazon statement obtained by the Congressional Black Caucus and seen by Bloomberg. "We are still figuring out the details and procuring last mile delivery for each of these zips, but we should have 100 percent coverage shortly," the statement was quoted as saying. Amazon also ...

Enlarge ImageAmazonFresh brings the veggies, milk and bread to you. Josh Miller/CNET Amazon will soon expand its fresh food delivery service to customers in the UK, according to the Guardian.The new service could begin delivering fresh food in London starting this month. In February,...

Enlarge Image"Alexa, where's my wallet?" Sarah Tew/CNET So you've misplaced your wallet or your keys once again. Soon, Amazon's Alexa voice assistant may be able to help you unearth them.Launched last June, Amazon Echo is a wireless speaker tha...

Jeff Bezos isn't shy about spending, but Amazon still posted its most-profitable quarter yet. EPA/Corbis Amazon, a company known for spending like a drunken sailor, appears to have sobered up. At least for now.The world's largest online retailer on Thursday reported unexpectedly strong sales and eaings in the first quarter, blowing out analysts' projections and driving shares up more 12 percent after hours. The report marked Amazon's fourth-straight profitable quarter and Amazon's best-ever quarterly profit yet.This was not business as usual. After typically posting razor-thin (or nonexistent) profits for years despite skyrocketing revenues, Amazon may finally be making good on Wall Street's...

Xiomara Blanco/CNET Amazon's trying to make it easier to keep your kids entertained. FreeTime Unlimited -- a subscription based service with content previously tailored to children from three to eight years old -- now has over 13,000 videos, educational apps, games, and books. And starting today, the service will include offerings appropriate to kids ages 9-12. To help you sort through it all, Amazon also aounced the FreeTime Smart Filter that you can tailor to your own child.The new titles will include games like Monument valley and Sonic the Hedgehog. Older kids will also have access to TV shows such as Star Trek, iCarly, and Superman the Animated Series and books like The Witch of Blackbi...

The restaurant service is part of Amazon's Prime Now, which delivers goods and food to customers in two hours or less. Richard Levine/Demotix/Corbis Amazon's latest culinary stop: San Francisco. The e-retailer aounced Tuesday that it has expanded its free, one-hour restaurant delivery service to 33 ZIP codes across the city, partnering with more than 115 local restaurants, including Big Chef Tom's Belly Burgers, The Monk's Kettle and Nick's Crispy Tacos.The Seattle company's restaurant service is now in eight US markets, with these food deliveries available only to Amazon's Prime members within the Prime Now mobile app. The service is powered by local couriers that partner with Amazon. Still...

Amazon took its first legal action against allegedly fake reviews last year. Corbis For budding novelists looking to stand out, the website PaidBookReviews.org offers a package of 100 book reviews on Amazon for the low price of $2,200.The website was one of five sites Amazon sued Friday in Washington state court, part of the online retailer's year-long campaign to snuff out networks of fake reviews on its site. The company has filed three separate lawsuits since last April, targeting more than 1,000 alleged fake reviewers. Several sites Amazon sued have already shut down, and an Amazon spokeswoman said Monday that the suits have helped the company obtain information to go after people not di...

Waing: Watching Sean Coery as James Bond may make you shpeak with a Coery-like acchent for daysh. MGM If you're a fan of James Bond and you've got Amazon Prime, May is the greatest month. "Goldfinger," "Diamonds are Forever" and "Live and Let Die" are just some of the Bond movies that go online at Amazon in May. One of my favorite movies when I was a kid hits Amazon in May as well: "Vice Versa." Starring Judge Reinhold and Fred Savage, who trade places as father and son, it screams "80s movie." I'll watch it again as an adult to see if it holds up.Other standouts include "When Harry Met Sally" and Steven Soderbergh's debut feature "Sex, Lies and Videotape." New TV series come later in the mo...

US tech giants are definitely feeling the Be. Google was the No. 1 employer of donors to Beie Sanders' campaign, according to analysis of findings released by the Federal Elections Commission, racking up in excess of $250,000.While the search giant clinched the top spot for employees who donated to the Democratic candidate's campaign, it was joined by other tech mainstays Microsoft, Apple and Amazon, which rounded out the top five.It's a stark contrast to Hillary Clinton, his competitor in the Democratic race, and Donald Trump, the current Republican front-ruer, who both have financial groups and unions populating their donor lists.Still, it may seem odd that Google employees, among the best...

Kids' show "Tumble Leaf" is among a handful of award-wiing original shows from Amazon. Amazon There goes the streaming neighborhood.After years of Amazon Prime Video being hidden within the broader Prime service for $99 a year, the e-commerce company finally made the streaming-video service a standalone option. That could spell trouble for streaming-video leader Netflix.We also talk about Apple apparently stopping support of its Quicktime video player on Windows and the science of farts.The 3:59 gives you bite-size news and analysis about the top stories of the day, brought to you by CNET Executive Editor Roger Cheng (currently on parental leave), Senior Writer Ben Fox Rubin and Producer Bry...

In the immaculately appointed Club Room at the upper-crust Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan, the luxury clothing e-retailer Moda Operandi was holding the first trunk show of its kind.There, amid the brown leather couches and low-lit Edison bulb chandeliers, the small boutique seller presented cotton wrap tops and ruffle trench coats from the brand Tome with a little help from Amazon, an online retail giant more often associated with diapers than high fashion.In new type of partnership for Amazon Payments, which lets people use their Amazon logins to make purchases on other websites, Moda will allow customers to pay in its stores (or trunk shows) without having to swipe a card or etch a signatur...

One word: Drones. Ben Fox Rubin/CNET Amazon's free same-day delivery service for its Prime membership customers just expanded to 11 more metro areas, the company said Wednesday, with the service now in 27 total metro areas in the US. The new cities are Charlotte, Cinciati, Fresno, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Stockton and Tucson. The online retailer said more locations in the existing service areas of Central New Jersey, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles and San Diego were also added.The same-day delivery service, which first rolled out in May last year, comes at no additional cost for customers paying $99 aually for an Amazon Prime membership, so long as tho...

Amazon could be working on a suy idea. Sarah Tew/CNET Amazon plans to start selling a new Kindle e-reader that's thier than previous designs, thanks to a rechargeable, removable case. That's according to a Wall Street Joual report Tuesday, which came out just a day after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said his company will reveal a new top-shelf Kindle next week.More interestingly, the report mentioned that Amazon is also working on a case for its Kindle e-reader that can be charged by solar power. However, the company isn't likely to release it in the immediate future, the publication said. Amazon declined to comment on the report.The e-reader market has been on the decline since around 2011, with m...

Attention all bookworms: The next top-shelf Amazon Kindle e-reader is about to arrive.Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Monday revealed in a tweet that the new Kindle is "almost ready," with details coming next week.Likely to coincide with Bezos' tweet, the whole current line of Kindle devices went on sale on Amazon.com for the company's Prime membership customers, with the price for the current top-tier Voyage dropping to $150 from $200.Heads up readers - all-new, top of the line Kindle almost ready. 8th generation. Details next week.— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) April 4, 2016The e-reader market has been on the decline since around 2011, with more customers tuing to more versatile tablets instead. Howev...

Amazon is trying to get more people to shop with the company even when they aren't on Amazon.com.In hopes of growing its young Amazon Payments business, the Seattle e-commerce giant on Monday introduced its new Global Partner Program, which provides tools and support for Amazon Payments to e-commerce services companies, such as Shopify, that help manage retailers' websites.The program itself is another behind-the-scenes effort by Amazon to keep up growth in its payments platform, which started in 2013 and allows customers to make purchases around the Web using their Amazon log-ins. Amazon remains a very small player in payments. For instance, the number of customers that have used the Pay wi...

Someone in America probably wants all four of these buttons, right? Amazon Buying more Doritos at the simple push of a button sounds like an awfully dangerous idea. Let's hope Amazon knows what it's doing. Last year, the e-retail giant introduced Dash buttons, which are small, Inteet-coected buttons that people can click to purchase household goods like paper towels or detergent. That aouncement was just before April 1, 2015, and some reporters wondered if the concept was a joke. Guess who's laughing now! To mark the first aiversary of these tiny buttons, Amazon on Thursday unleashed dozens more of them, tripling the current lineup to surpass 100 different buttons. The new buttons include Ar...

Hey Siri, thanks for the smaller phone, but how about an Echo-like smart speaker?Thursday's a big day in tech. Apple's iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro go on sale. Also available are the latest products in Amazon's Echo family of smart speakers, the portable Amazon Tap and speaker attachment Echo Dot.For many of you, it's Amazon's products, and its digital voice assistant Alexa, that are the bigger draw. That's because the Pringles can-shaped Echo speaker has been a surprise hit thanks to its ability to let you ask about the weather, play NPR news, set reminders, add items to your grocery list and even order pizza for delivery.Your home is increasingly tuing into a battleground for tech giant...