Amazon Prime Air drones revealed on 60 Minutes, aim to deliver in half an hour (video)

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Amazon Prime Air drones revealed on 60 Minutes, aim to deliver in half an hour (video)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to 60 Minutes to reveal the company's latest delivery method: drones. In what is likely a cunning reminder of the e-tailer's upcoming Cyber Monday sales, these bots will apparently be capable of delivering packages up to five pounds (86 percent of orders are apparently less than that), with the aim of getting them to your house in under half an hour. The system is called Prime Air and the octo-copter drones, which wait, ready to deliver, at the end of conveyor belts, have a range of 10 miles. As Amazon puts it, "Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations" and Bezos himself added in the TV segment that it won't be before 2015 at the very earliest. While it sounds like they''ll take their time to get here (if they ever do), we've at least got a video of the drones in action -- it's right after the break.

Filed under: Internet, Alt, Amazon

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Source: Lance Ulanoff (Twitter), Amazon

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Misfit Wearables releases Shine Android app, outfits Bluetooth 4.0 devices with activity-tracking prowess

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Misfit Wearables releases Shine Android app, outfits Bluetooth 4.0 devices with activity-tracking prowess

Until now, the dapper stylings of Misfit Wearables' Shine activity tracker have eluded the Android faithful for logging steps, calories and sleep. The outfit has announced a version of the Shine app for devices running Google's OS (4.3 and later) that also sport Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to be used alongside the aluminum-clad gadget. This bit of software allows users to sync the $120 clip-on wearable, set goals and monitor visual summaries of their progress. Now that Misfit's mobile software is no longer iOS only, the holiday shopping list for those looking to quantify daily routines just got a bit more crowded.

Filed under: Wearables, Software

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Source: Misfit Wearables

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How would you change Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon?

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How would you change Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon?

We have to admit, we've been looking forward to this week's How Would You Change entrant for quite a while. Having reviewed a carbon fiber notebook ourselves, your humble narrator was very curious to see how Lenovo's ThinkPad Carbon X1 fared out in the real world. In the hands of our reviewer, the only real objection we had was its high cost, not to mention a battery life that didn't blow us away. But what did you think? We imagine plenty of you grabbed this hardware with both hands, so pop into the comments section and share your experiences with it.

Filed under: Laptops, Lenovo

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Weekly Roundup: Moto G and Nike FuelBand SE reviews, Smartphone buyer's guide and more!

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Weekly Roundup: Moto G and Nike FuelBand SE reviews, Smartphone buyer's guide and more!

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Filed under: Misc, LG

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Amazon unveils Prime Air drones on 60 Minutes, aims to deliver in half an hour (video)

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Amazon unveils Prime Air drones on 60 Minutes, aims to deliver in half an hour (video)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took to 60 Minutes to reveal the company's latest delivery method: drones. In what is likely a cunning reminder of the e-tailer's upcoming Cyber Monday sales, these bots will apparently be capable of delivering packages up to five pounds (86 percent of orders are apparently under that), with the aim of getting them to your house in under half an hour. The system is called Prime Air and the octo-copter drones, which wait, ready to deliver, at the end of conveyor belts, have a range of 10 miles. As Amazon puts, "Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take some number of years as we advance the technology and wait for the necessary FAA rules and regulations" and Bezos himself added in the segment that it won't be before 2015 at the very earliest. While it sounds like they''ll take their time to get here (if they ever do), we've at least got a video of the drones in action -- it's right after the break.

Filed under: Internet, Amazon

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Source: Lance Ulanoff (Twitter), Amazon

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Weekly Roundup: Moto G and Nike FuelBand SE reviews, Smartphone buyers guide and more!

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Weekly Roundup: Moto G and Nike FuelBand SE reviews, Smartphone buyers guide and more!

You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Filed under: Misc, LG

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Sony suspends PlayStation promo code support following network trouble (update)

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Sony suspends PlayStation promo code support following network trouble (update)

Sony's PSN woes aren't over just yet. The company has temporarily stopped taking PlayStation promo codes following a surge in traffic on the gaming service; for the moment, money cards and game vouchers won't work. There's no estimate for when code redemption will return. It's easy to see the potential causes, however. Between the weekend, the PlayStation 4's European launch and a big discount on PlayStation Plus subscriptions at Amazon, there's guaranteed to be a deluge of PSN activity -- Sony may have unintentionally created a perfect storm.

Update (12/1/13): According to the PlayStation Europe Blog, Sony is "continually increasing the availability of the voucher redemption functionality," so you should see it soon if it's not on your system already. The next step, which we should hear more about tomorrow, is to switch on the What's New activity feed and Live Item in the Content Information Screen for users outside North America.

Filed under: Gaming, HD, Sony

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Source: PlayStation Community Forums, PlayStation Blog

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