Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin to Launch SpaceX's Falcon 9-Like Rocket

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is gearing up for the maiden flight of its powerful New Glenn rocket, which is designed to compete with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets.

Notably, its been after over a decade of development that Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is finally set to launch its New Glenn rocket.

As of now, Blue Origin has conducted 28 launches in total. Out of these, 27 launches have been successful. The company has primarily focused on suborbital flights with its New Shepard rocket, but the upcoming New Glenn rocket aims to expand their capabilities into the orbital launch market.

This launch marks a significant milestone for Blue Origin as it aims to challenge SpaceX's dominance in the commercial space launch sector.

Key Points:

Launch Date: The New Glenn rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Sunday, January 11, 2025, at 1 a.m. EST.

• Update: Due to the Sea state conditions which are unfavorable for booster landing Blue Origin is shifting its New Glenn-1 launch date by one day to no earlier than January 13.

Rocket Specifications: The New Glenn rocket stands at 321 feet tall and is powered by seven methane-burning BE-4 engines, generating a combined 3.8 million pounds of thrust. The first stage is designed to be reusable.

Payload: The rocket will carry a Blue Origin-designed spacecraft called Blue Ring Pathfinder, which can host or deploy multiple satellites in different orbits.

Landing Attempt: The first stage booster will attempt to land on a custom-built ship named Jacklyn, stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

SpaceX has dominated the commercial launch market with its Falcon 9 rockets, launching 134 Falcon-family rockets in 2024 alone.

If successful, the New Glenn rocket could position Blue Origin as a strong competitor in the commercial space launch sector.

So far, Blue Origin has conducted 28 launches in total. Out of these, 27 launches have been successful, showcasing a strong track record.

Rockets Involved in Launches

1. New Shepard: This is Blue Origin's suborbital rocket designed for space tourism and research missions. It has been successfully launched multiple times.

2. New Glenn: Blue Origin's first orbital-class rocket, named after astronaut John Glenn. It is designed for heavier payloads and aims to compete with SpaceX's Falcon rockets.

3. Charon: The first experimental rocket, named after Pluto's moon.

4. Goddard: Named after the American rocket pioneer Robert Goddard, this rocket was used for early test flights.

This launch marks a significant milestone for Blue Origin as it aims to challenge SpaceX's dominance in the industry.

Jeff Bezos Pledged $60 Million To Improve Plant-Based Meats and Sustainable Protein

Jeff Bezos, through his Bezos Earth Fund, has pledged an initial investment of $60 million to support the development of sustainable, plant-based meats. This initiative aims to improve the quality, availability, and nutritional content of alternative proteins. The investment will also establish several Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, which will focus on overcoming major technological barriers in the production of plant-based and cultivated meats.

This move is part of a broader commitment made by the Bezos Earth Fund to distribute a total of $10 billion by the end of the decade to address the climate crisis, with a specific focus on food transformation. The fund's vice chair, Lauren Sánchez, emphasized the urgent need for innovation to make the global food system sustainable, highlighting that feeding 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food while protecting our planet will require significant innovation.

The investment will establish several Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein focused on major technological barriers to the production of plant-based and cultivated meats, including reducing cost, increasing quality, and boosting nutritional content.

A chef plates a dish of sustainable protein. With the Bezos Earth Fund's recent $60M initiative to launch the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, such meals could soon become a staple, balancing our planet's health with our nutritional needs. (Photo credit: Rocío Lower / Bezos Earth Fund)

Bezos Earth Fund Vice Chair Lauren Sánchez made the announcement earlier this week, and highlighted an urgent need for innovation in making the global food system sustainable.

"We need to feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food throughout this century while protecting our planet. We can do it, and it will require a ton of innovation" said Sánchez.

This initial pledge of $60 million has been committed to improve the quality, availability, and nutritional content of alternative proteins like plant-based meat. This investment is part of a broader initiative by the Bezos Earth Fund to transform the food system and combat climate change by promoting sustainable food production and consumption.

The fund's investment will help establish several Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein, which will focus on overcoming technological barriers in the production of plant-based and cultivated meats. The goal is to reduce costs, increase quality, and enhance nutritional benefits, thereby making sustainable protein options more accessible and appealing to a wider population.

This move aligns with the growing market for plant-based meats and the global shift towards more environmentally friendly and sustainable food sources. It's also a response to the urgent need for innovation in the food industry to feed a growing population in a way that protects the planet.

 
The Bezos Earth Fund is a philanthropic initiative established by Jeff Bezos with a commitment of $10 billion to fight climate change and protect nature. The fund aims to disburse this amount by 2030, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It supports various environmental projects, including conservation efforts, climate science advancements, and the development of technologies to monitor human impact on nature.

The fund operates on ten guiding principles and seeks to drive systemic change by investing in big ideas that can lead to transformational progress in the environmental movement. It emphasizes collaboration across countries, companies, individuals, and philanthropies to address the climate crisis. 

Additionally, the fund has made significant investments in initiatives like protecting 30% of the planet by 2030 and supporting the Justice40 initiative, which aims to direct 40% of certain U.S. federal investments to disadvantaged communities.

Space Tourism: Jeff Bezos To Send Civilians To Space, Offering A Seat In Online Auction

Amazon Inc founder Jeff Bezos-founded aerospace manufacturing and sub-orbital spaceflight services company, Blue Origin LLC, has announced that it would start selling tickets for suborbital flights to the edge of space. 

The first flight of "New Shepard" rocket is scheduled for July 20, and Blue Origin is auctioning off one single ticket to the highest bidder. Named after astronaut Alan Shepard, the second man and first American to go to space, New Shepard is Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital rocket system designed to take astronauts and research payloads into space.

The rocket is designed to carry up to six tourists per flight.

The online auction will be held in three parts -- The first phase, from May 5 to May 19, allows people to bid any amount on the website. After May 19, the bids will be unsealed, and on June 12, Blue Origin will hold a live auction to determine the winner.

On July 20th, #NewShepard will fly its first astronaut crew to space. We are offering one seat on this first flight to the winning bidder of an online auction. Anyone can place an opening bid by going to https://t.co/6DpTdTxo36. #GradatimFerociter pic.twitter.com/jBMFYX7xHg

— Blue Origin (@blueorigin) May 5, 2021

The winning bid amount will be donated to Blue Origin’s foundation, Club for the Future, to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM and help invent the future of life in space.

It is to be noted that whoever places the winning bid won’t be the first tourist in space as Dennis Tito, a wealthy American businessman, became history's first space tourist. He reportedly paid $20 million for a seat on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to be the first tourist to visit the International Space Station (ISS).

Traders to Protest Against Amazon Chief Bezos' India Visit

Traders across the country will on January 15 stage protest against Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who will be visiting India this week, CAIT said on Sunday.

The traders' body alleged that his visit was to build a "false narrative" that e-commerce major is empowering small traders through its portal.

Bezos is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and officials, besides industry leaders, according to sources.

Confederation Of All India Traders (CAIT) has been claiming that Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart offers deep discounts and engaged in unfair business practices.

In a statement, CAIT described Amazon and Flipkart as "habitual offenders" of policy and law, claiming that they were destroying the e-commerce and retail trade eco system of India through predatory pricing, deep discounting, exclusivity and preferential seller system.

The traders' body has also sought an audience with the Prime Minister, prior to his meeting with Bezos, to apprise him about the "sinister game and evil design of Amazon business game which has already destroyed business of lakhs of small traders in the country".

The traders across the country will observe January 15 as National Protest Day, under which Bezos visit will be strongly opposed by gathering of traders by holding Halla Bol Rally and Sit-In in different cities of all states of the country," CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said. PTI RSN

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Visiting India Next Week; To Discuss Regulatory Issues

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos will be visiting India next week and is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and officials, besides industry leaders, according to sources.

The top executive will also attend SMBhav – an event focussing on small and medium businesses in India - that is slated for January 15-16 in the capital city.

When contacted, Amazon declined to comment.

Amazon, which has seen significant growth in its business in India, has also witnessed protest from a section of traders in the country who claim that e-commerce giants including Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart offer deep discounts and engage in unfair business practices.

Last year, the government had tightened rules for e-commerce marketplaces with foreign investment. These rules barred such platforms from offering products of sellers in which they hold a stake and banned exclusive marketing arrangements among other clauses. Following this, Amazon restructured its joint ventures to ensure compliance.

Bezos is likely to discuss regulatory issues in his meeting with the government officials.

He is also slated to engage with SMBs during the SMBhav event. The event - which will focus on discussions around how technology adoption can enable SMBs in India - is slated to see participation from industry experts, policy makers, solution providers and Amazon leadership. PTI SR

Jeff Bezos Unveils "Blue Moon", A Lunar Spacecraft to Take Humans to the Moon's Surface by 2024

It was in September 2000, when Amazon Inc founder Jeff Bezos founded aerospace manufacturing and sub-orbital spaceflight services company Blue Origin LLC, with aims to develop a variety of technologies, with a focus on rocket-powered vertical takeoff and vertical landing (VTVL) vehicles for access to suborbital and orbital space.

In an event on 9th May, Bezos revealed the mock-up of spacecraft named "Blue Moon", which will land on lunar surface by 2024. Blue Origin, the company, has been working on Blue Moon spacecraft for the last three years, since well before US vice president Mike Pence announced the directive for NASA to send humans to the moon in 2024.

"It’s time to go back to the Moon, this time to stay," Bezos said at the end of the event. A new lunar lander is a necessary first step.



Designed for use on the Blue Moon mission by 2024, Blue Moon is essentially a robotic space cargo carrier that runs on Hydrogen and can make cargo deliveries to the Moon. Built to deliver science payloads, moon rovers and even astronauts to the lunar surface, the spacecraft can also deploy small satellites into lunar orbit as a "bonus mission" on the way.

Blue Moon is planned to be capable of delivering 4,500 kg (9,900 lb) to the surface of the Moon and can also be used as cargo vehicle to support NASA's outer space activities, or transport payloads of ice from Shackleton Crater, an impact crater that lies at the south pole of the Moon, to support space activities.



The first projected mission for Blue Moon would be a 2024 lunar south pole landing. It is proposed that a series of landings could be used to deliver the infrastructure for a Moon base.

In his speech in the event, Bezos also make a strong suggestion of mining water from lunar ice deposits, as well as potentially harvesting solar power to the moon.

"I think what he was able to do was to show that the lander has multiple capabilities, that it’s kind of a Swiss army knife,” says Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. It will be able to carry rovers, ascent vehicles to launch off the surface of the moon, and maybe even mining equipment," he said.

Sources - Blue Origin, New Scientist, Space.com

Amazon May Buy 10% Stake in India's Future Retail That Owns 'Big Bazaar'

After losing Flipkart to Walmart, US-based e-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly in talks with India’s largest brick-and-mortar retail company Future Retail, to acquire a stake.

Future Retail, which is the retail arm of Kishore Biyani-led retail & FMCG giant Future Group, owns physical retail stores such as Big Bazaar and Easy Day.

This development was first reported by FactorDaily, which said, quoting sources, that Amazon is looking to pump in roughly $600 million for a 10% stake in the company.

Quoting a second source, the report further said that the possible deal values Kishore Biyani owned Future Retail at about $6 billion (Rs. 40,872 crore). Amazon might end up spending about $500-600 million to acquire the stake in Future Retail -- which has a market cap of $4 billion and is listed on the bourses.

According to an another daily news website, Kishore Biyani and Jeff Bezos had a one-to-one meeting earlier this year to explore a possible deal.

Biyani visited Seattle around January or February to meet with Jeff Bezos, post which executives from Seattle came down to Mumbai to meet with Kishore Biyani and his team. However, discussions had been put on hold after that.

Reportedly, both -- Amazon and Future Retail-- wanted to wait for the Walmart-Flipkart deal to be over and then make the announcement of possible Amazon-Future Group deal thereafter, and then take things forward.

Future Retail is a listed company with a market cap of over Rs 26,000 crore and has over 900 stores across the country. Kishore Biyani, who has largely been known to criticize e-commerce players, has also made some unsuccessful attempts earlier at e-commerce with Future Bazaar, Big bazaar Direct and the acquisition of FabFurish, all of which were eventually shut down.

Post Walmart-Flipkart deal, the grocery market in India is expected to heat up in the coming months with BigBasket, Grofers, Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm Mall and Future Group lift up their strategies to capture the market.

As a matter of fact, Future Group is currently testing an app for online delivery groceries for EasyDay members through a subscription service on the lines of Amazon Prime. Interestingly, another Indian FMCG player -- Adani Wilmar, the company that markets ‘Fortune’ brand of food products in India, is also planning to enter the online grocery sales business with a new e-commerce portal and app called ‘Fortune Online’.

For Amazon, a deal with Biyani-led Future Retail will help the US giant to expand its capabilities in the same omni-channel category. Amazon, through its Amazon Direct and Amazon Fresh services has been looking at entering the grocery segment in India. A deal with Future Retail will also help it have an offline presence and give it access to the large customer base of Future Group.

In the past, Amazon has invested in brick-and-mortar retail companies. In September 2017, it had bought a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop for Rs 175 crore, which was earlier acquired by Future Group for Rs 655 crore, in 2016.

Earlier this year, Future Group has acquired Snapdeal's logistics arm Vulcan Express, for Rs 35 crores.

Amazon May Buy 10% Stake in India's Future Retail That Owns 'Big Bazaar'

After losing Flipkart to Walmart, US-based e-commerce giant Amazon is reportedly in talks with India’s largest brick-and-mortar retail company Future Retail, to acquire a stake.

Future Retail, which is the retail arm of Kishore Biyani-led retail & FMCG giant Future Group, owns physical retail stores such as Big Bazaar and Easy Day.

This development was first reported by FactorDaily, which said, quoting sources, that Amazon is looking to pump in roughly $600 million for a 10% stake in the company.

Quoting a second source, the report further said that the possible deal values Kishore Biyani owned Future Retail at about $6 billion (Rs. 40,872 crore). Amazon might end up spending about $500-600 million to acquire the stake in Future Retail -- which has a market cap of $4 billion and is listed on the bourses.

According to an another daily news website, Kishore Biyani and Jeff Bezos had a one-to-one meeting earlier this year to explore a possible deal.

Biyani visited Seattle around January or February to meet with Jeff Bezos, post which executives from Seattle came down to Mumbai to meet with Kishore Biyani and his team. However, discussions had been put on hold after that.

Reportedly, both -- Amazon and Future Retail-- wanted to wait for the Walmart-Flipkart deal to be over and then make the announcement of possible Amazon-Future Group deal thereafter, and then take things forward.

Future Retail is a listed company with a market cap of over Rs 26,000 crore and has over 900 stores across the country. Kishore Biyani, who has largely been known to criticize e-commerce players, has also made some unsuccessful attempts earlier at e-commerce with Future Bazaar, Big bazaar Direct and the acquisition of FabFurish, all of which were eventually shut down.

Post Walmart-Flipkart deal, the grocery market in India is expected to heat up in the coming months with BigBasket, Grofers, Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm Mall and Future Group lift up their strategies to capture the market.

As a matter of fact, Future Group is currently testing an app for online delivery groceries for EasyDay members through a subscription service on the lines of Amazon Prime. Interestingly, another Indian FMCG player -- Adani Wilmar, the company that markets ‘Fortune’ brand of food products in India, is also planning to enter the online grocery sales business with a new e-commerce portal and app called ‘Fortune Online’.

For Amazon, a deal with Biyani-led Future Retail will help the US giant to expand its capabilities in the same omni-channel category. Amazon, through its Amazon Direct and Amazon Fresh services has been looking at entering the grocery segment in India. A deal with Future Retail will also help it have an offline presence and give it access to the large customer base of Future Group.

In the past, Amazon has invested in brick-and-mortar retail companies. In September 2017, it had bought a 5% stake in Shoppers Stop for Rs 175 crore, which was earlier acquired by Future Group for Rs 655 crore, in 2016.

Earlier this year, Future Group has acquired Snapdeal's logistics arm Vulcan Express, for Rs 35 crores.

Amazon's 1 Month Gain is More Than Reliance Industries' Total Market Value

E-Commerce giant Amazon has added nearly $99 billion in market capitalization in a span of one month alone, which is more than total market value of India's most valued & richest Indian-controlled company Reliance Industries Limited. Amazon.com share price has been continuously surging since October last year, following which the fortunes of founder and CEO of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos, breached the psychological mark of $100 billion in 2018.

Between 13 Feb - 12 March, Amazon's share price has surged from $1414.51 to $1598.39. Amazon's market value also surged 14.8% from $671 billion on February 12 to whopping $770 billion on March 12. On the other hand, as at the time of writing this article, Reliance Industries market cap is Rs 570,435.32 crore or ~ $83.67 billion (compare it to Amazon's $671 billion). Market capitalization is the aggregate valuation of the company based on its current share price and the total number of outstanding stocks. It is calculated by multiplying the current market price of the company's share with the total outstanding shares of the company.

It is to be noted here that, while Amazon Inc is a 24 year old company, Reliance Industries is relatively old with 41 years of its existence. In other words, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was 13-year-old teenager when Reliance Industries was founded in 1977.

Related Reading - Story of Jeff Bezos Who’s Now Seeking Ideas To Donate His Money

In last one year, Reliance is also ramping up quickly but not as fast as Amazon. Shares of Reliance Industries have been on a rising spree since February 2017, taking the last one year’s gains to over 70%. This January, Reliance Jio, the telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, turned profitable for the first time and making it one of the few or probably the only startup to become profitable within just 17 months of its launch.

Reliance Industries was ranked at 25th position across the world, on the basis of sales, in the ICIS Top 100 Chemicals Companies list in 2012. In India, the Reliance Industries is the second most valuable brand.

Amazon, on other hand, is the largest Internet retailer in the world as measured by revenue and market capitalization, and second largest after Alibaba Group in terms of total sales. Going forward, It is the fourth most valuable public company in the world, the largest Internet company by revenue in the world, and the eighth largest employer in the United States.

Technically speaking, business models of Reliance Industries and Jeff Bezos-led Amazon are different in nature of operations and the counter-party to which they cater to. Reliance Industries is primarily involved in petrochemical products, textile, telecommunications etc, while Amazon is essentially a new-age tech company involved primarily in e-commerce across the world along with internet services, cloud infrastructure services, consumer electronics as well as robotics. And now, with acquisition of Whole Foods Market for $13.4 billion in 2017, the company has also entered brick-and-mortar retailer.

To recall, early this year it was reported that Amazon, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, is all set to sell locally made food items in India as last year it got $500 million Indian government approval for food retailing in the country. Notably, Reliance Industries will give head to head to Amazon in food retailing as it is also reportedly planning to make entry into India’s online grocery market by linking manufacturers, kirana stores and corner shops to its Reliance Jio customers and mint money. In fact according to industry veteran T V Mohandas Pai, Reliance Retail will pose the biggest challenge to both Amazon and homegrown Flipkart, due to its wider reach and tremendous penetration of Reliance Jio.

It may also be recalled that a panel of venture capitalists at the 2017's Silicon Dragon event in New York City picked Amazon as a leader in the future tech landscape. Considering Amazon and Flipkart are currently going head to head in the Indian e-commerce market, this global recognition can really raise the former’s stake in the Indian subcontinent.

Via - Financial Express

Story of Jeff Bezos Who's Now Seeking Ideas To Donate His Money

Jeff Bezos has carved his name in the global business world with humongous success across diverse sectors. The Amazon founder and CEO who briefly became the richest person in the world recently when his net worth sped past that of Bill Gates began his entrepreneurial journey when he was still in high school. Apparently, Bezos started showing the first signs of being a problem solver and a go-getter early on in his life when as a toddler he successfully ripped apart his crib by using a screwdriver just because he wished to sleep on a real bed.

In June this year, the current second richest person on earth took to twitter seeking ideas for a philanthropic strategy that would "be helping people in the here and now - short term - at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact." It was a welcome change to see that an entrepreneur of his stature was seeking public's help to figure out how to give away some his fortune that he has accumulated over the years.



Here's how Bezos grew on to become the world-class entrepreneur that we know today.

First Business: Bezos first venture was a summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders called the Dream Institute. He started the business while in high school.

Education and First Job: The New Mexico born and Miami raised boy did his Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 1986. Upon graduating from the place, Bezos got job offers from top firms like Intel and Bell labs, but instead of lapping up these lucrative offers, he decided to walk on a less trodden path and took up a job at a startup named Fitel.

From First Job to Last: After starting his first job at Fitel, Bezos worked at a couple of companies for a short while before becoming hedge fund D.E. Shaw’s youngest Vice President in 1990. Within four years of graduating, Bezos had achieved the mean feat of becoming a VP of a popular hedge fund.

How the Amazon Journey Started: When Bezos was still working at the Wall Street, internet and its insane potential caught his attention. He did his homework and realised that the World Wide Web was growing at an insane rate of 2,300 per cent in a year in 1994, a figure which only moved upwards in the coming years. The figure tempted him to research 20 possible product categories which would have a universal need online and decided upon books. He eventually quite his promising job at Wall Street in 1994 to pursue his entrepreneurial calibre and started on a journey what we today call as Amazon.

Initial Years Of Amazon: The journey of global ecommerce superpower Amazon started 23 years ago in a garage as a book selling company. Since the company didn't have much space to itself, it held most of its meetings at a Barnes & Noble nearby the garage. Initially, the company had a ritual where every time someone made a purchase a bell would ring, and everyone would gather around to see if anyone personally knew the customer who had made the purchase. After just a few weeks, the bell was ringing so often that they had to stop the ritual. Eventually, the company grew and Bezos launched Amazon.com in 1995.

First Taste of Success for Amazon.com: Within a month of its launch, Amazon was selling books to people in all 50 US states and in 45 countries around the world. The company then grew to become public in 1997 and is continuing its success story even today. After going public, the current biggest ecommerce company on the planet started expanding its business from being just books specific to other categories such as electronics etc., a move which worked wonders for the company.

Amazon's Continues its Success Journey: Recently, a panel of venture capitalists at the recent Silicon Dragon event in New York City picked Amazon as a leader in the list of companies that would be leading tomorrow's tech landscape. The panel's decision to pick Amazon to lead tomorrow's tech landscape didn't surprise many as Amazon's recent decision to buy Whole Foods Market Inc., a 465-store chain selling natural and organic groceries, for a jaw-dropping $13.7 billion, including net debt gave us a preview of what the global e-commerce giant is capable of doing.

According to David Teten, managing partner of HOF Capital, the one-time online book seller has assets that no other company can come close to even touching. Erik Lassila, managing partner of Peakview Capital, who also voted Amazon as the future tech leader also added that Amazon is not only helping to solve the problem of handling the last mile of deliveries, but the company is also into drones.

Amazon and India: In the past four years that Amazon has been India, it has made it quite clear that the Indian subcontinent is its most important market outside the US. This is mainly due to the fact that it lost out on a chance to make a mark in China courtesy its homegrown e-commerce giant Alibaba driving it out of its country. This is why the online retail giant turned to Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, India.

If one would think rationally, one would observe that even though Flipkart is currently number one in Indian e-commerce market, it is Amazon which has a broader ecosystem in the country when it comes to the various ways people interact with it. For instance, Flipkart has nothing to offer to compete with Amazon’s Prime Video service. This is not to say that Flipkart has never tried. The homegrown giant did launch a music download service with its digital store Flyte a few years ago but ended up shutting it down within a year of its operations.

Amazon had recently announced that it would continue its investment streak in the Indian subcontinent in expanding infrastructure and bringing in innovative solutions to better consumer and seller experience as it aims to overthrow Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart from its throne and become the number one e-commerce website in the South Asian country.

Bezos' Ventures Aside From Amazon: Jeff was one of the first persons to see Google's potential and invest in it in 1998. Two years later in 2000, he started his spaceflight company Blue Origin which aims to help anybody go into space. Two months ago, Bezos announced his plans to sell $1 billion worth of stock in the e-commerce giant every year in order to help Blue Origin stay competitive with Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the two companies continue with their efforts of pioneering privatised space transportation, both for the tourism and commercial industries. In 2013, he purchased The Washington Post for a whooping $250m. Bezos purchased the popular 140-years old newspaper when it was facing years of decline. Within three years of him purchasing the newspaper, Bezos changed the fortunes and outlook of the company and it is now a profitable company.

Story of Jeff Bezos Who's Now Seeking Ideas To Donate His Money

Jeff Bezos has carved his name in the global business world with humongous success across diverse sectors. The Amazon founder and CEO who briefly became the richest person in the world recently when his net worth sped past that of Bill Gates began his entrepreneurial journey when he was still in high school. Apparently, Bezos started showing the first signs of being a problem solver and a go-getter early on in his life when as a toddler he successfully ripped apart his crib by using a screwdriver just because he wished to sleep on a real bed.

In June this year, the current second richest person on earth took to twitter seeking ideas for a philanthropic strategy that would "be helping people in the here and now - short term - at the intersection of urgent need and lasting impact." It was a welcome change to see that an entrepreneur of his stature was seeking public's help to figure out how to give away some his fortune that he has accumulated over the years.

Here's how Bezos grew on to become the world-class entrepreneur that we know today.

First Business: Bezos first venture was a summer camp for fourth, fifth and sixth graders called the Dream Institute. He started the business while in high school.

Education and First Job: The New Mexico born and Miami raised boy did his Bachelor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 1986. Upon graduating from the place, Bezos got job offers from top firms like Intel and Bell labs, but instead of lapping up these lucrative offers, he decided to walk on a less trodden path and took up a job at a startup named Fitel.

From First Job to Last: After starting his first job at Fitel, Bezos worked at a couple of companies for a short while before becoming hedge fund D.E. Shaw’s youngest Vice President in 1990. Within four years of graduating, Bezos had achieved the mean feat of becoming a VP of a popular hedge fund.

How the Amazon Journey Started: When Bezos was still working at the Wall Street, internet and its insane potential caught his attention. He did his homework and realised that the World Wide Web was growing at an insane rate of 2,300 per cent in a year in 1994, a figure which only moved upwards in the coming years. The figure tempted him to research 20 possible product categories which would have a universal need online and decided upon books. He eventually quite his promising job at Wall Street in 1994 to pursue his entrepreneurial calibre and started on a journey what we today call as Amazon.

Initial Years Of Amazon: The journey of global ecommerce superpower Amazon started 23 years ago in a garage as a book selling company. Since the company didn't have much space to itself, it held most of its meetings at a Barnes & Noble nearby the garage. Initially, the company had a ritual where every time someone made a purchase a bell would ring, and everyone would gather around to see if anyone personally knew the customer who had made the purchase. After just a few weeks, the bell was ringing so often that they had to stop the ritual. Eventually, the company grew and Bezos launched Amazon.com in 1995.

First Taste of Success for Amazon.com: Within a month of its launch, Amazon was selling books to people in all 50 US states and in 45 countries around the world. The company then grew to become public in 1997 and is continuing its success story even today. After going public, the current biggest ecommerce company on the planet started expanding its business from being just books specific to other categories such as electronics etc., a move which worked wonders for the company.

Amazon's Continues its Success Journey: Recently, a panel of venture capitalists at the recent Silicon Dragon event in New York City picked Amazon as a leader in the list of companies that would be leading tomorrow's tech landscape. The panel's decision to pick Amazon to lead tomorrow's tech landscape didn't surprise many as Amazon's recent decision to buy Whole Foods Market Inc., a 465-store chain selling natural and organic groceries, for a jaw-dropping $13.7 billion, including net debt gave us a preview of what the global e-commerce giant is capable of doing.

According to David Teten, managing partner of HOF Capital, the one-time online book seller has assets that no other company can come close to even touching. Erik Lassila, managing partner of Peakview Capital, who also voted Amazon as the future tech leader also added that Amazon is not only helping to solve the problem of handling the last mile of deliveries, but the company is also into drones.

Amazon and India: In the past four years that Amazon has been India, it has made it quite clear that the Indian subcontinent is its most important market outside the US. This is mainly due to the fact that it lost out on a chance to make a mark in China courtesy its homegrown e-commerce giant Alibaba driving it out of its country. This is why the online retail giant turned to Asia-Pacific’s fastest-growing e-commerce market, India.

If one would think rationally, one would observe that even though Flipkart is currently number one in Indian e-commerce market, it is Amazon which has a broader ecosystem in the country when it comes to the various ways people interact with it. For instance, Flipkart has nothing to offer to compete with Amazon’s Prime Video service. This is not to say that Flipkart has never tried. The homegrown giant did launch a music download service with its digital store Flyte a few years ago but ended up shutting it down within a year of its operations.

Amazon had recently announced that it would continue its investment streak in the Indian subcontinent in expanding infrastructure and bringing in innovative solutions to better consumer and seller experience as it aims to overthrow Indian e-commerce leader Flipkart from its throne and become the number one e-commerce website in the South Asian country.

Bezos' Ventures Aside From Amazon: Jeff was one of the first persons to see Google's potential and invest in it in 1998. Two years later in 2000, he started his spaceflight company Blue Origin which aims to help anybody go into space. Two months ago, Bezos announced his plans to sell $1 billion worth of stock in the e-commerce giant every year in order to help Blue Origin stay competitive with Elon Musk’s SpaceX as the two companies continue with their efforts of pioneering privatised space transportation, both for the tourism and commercial industries. In 2013, he purchased The Washington Post for a whooping $250m. Bezos purchased the popular 140-years old newspaper when it was facing years of decline. Within three years of him purchasing the newspaper, Bezos changed the fortunes and outlook of the company and it is now a profitable company.

Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos Is Now World's Richest Person

After enjoying the title of world’s richest person for four consecutive years, Microsoft's founder Bill Gates has been dethroned from the position by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this year. Bezos raced past Gates after a rise in the share price of Amazon was registered ahead of the list's latest results due on Thursday.

According to real-time billionaires index compiled by Forbes revealed that the increase in Amazon's share price helped in increasing Bezos’s fortune to $91bn, while Gates with 1 bn less was left behind on the second position with a total of $90bn in wealth. Forbes calculated their wealth on the basis of the share prices of their respective companies. Statistically speaking, based on Bezos's current value, his stake is two times that of carmarker Ford.

While Bezos ended up dethroning Gates at the end, the picture was quite different during the start of the year. Bezos was way behind Gates on the list at fourth position, with investor Warren Buffett and Amancio Ortega, who founded Inditex, the company behind retailer Zara increasing the distance between Bezos and Gates on the list. But, it seems, Amazon's good run helped not only decrease the distance between the Amazon founder and Microsoft founder on the list but also helped Bezos in making history by knocking Gates of the numero uno position.

53-years-old Bezos has acquired a reputation in the business world for being low profile person. Not a fan of unwanted camera op, the New Mexico born has spent some of the wealth he has earned over years to buy the famous the famous Washington Post and invest capital in exploring the field of space travel through Blue Origin, a company founded by him seventeen years ago.

Bezos started Amazon 23 years ago in 1994 when he expanded his garage book store into a full blown online product store. The company, which is credited for playing a crucial role in starting the online shopping trend, now makes up for about

He founded Amazon in 1994 when he sold books from his garage in Seattle before expanding into a huge range of other products and capturing the global rush to shop online. Amazon now accounts for about 43 per cent of everything that is sold online in the US. Recently, it was revealed that a whopping 64 million people have signed up for Amazon's Prime service, which gives access to free, one day deliveries and video streaming.

Amazon has had a good year shares wise. The company shares have climbed up the charts like never before and have made the company worth more than $500bn. Amazon's increasing value has had a direct impact on Bezos’s wealth as he owns 17 per cent of the company. In addition to Amazon, Bezos's other investments include Twitter, Google, Airbnb and Uber.

According to Forbes, which started with its billionaires index in the year 1987, Bezos would not have been on the top today if Gates had not given away so much of his wealth in charity. It also revealed that Gates has been the richest person in the world for more than half the 30 years it had been in the business of tracking wealth of billionaires.

Considering there’s just a $1bn gap between Bezos and Gates, it remains to be seen if Bezos is able to cement his position on the list as Gates had achieved for the last four years. It wouldn't be that hard a task considering the pace at which Amazon is expanding into spheres other than retail. It is now into selling computing services, groceries and making television shows etc.

11 Startup News To Know This Week [26 June - 1 July]

If you have missed the happening of startup world, here is the recap for you. Mentioned below are the 11 news which made headline during this week.

On-Demand Startup Jugnoo Becomes First Profitable Company

Jugnoo, which initially began its journey as auto-rickshaw aggregator has become the first company in India in on-demand space to become profitable on an Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) basis.

The hyperlocal startup, which offers a diverse range of services like rides, ready to eat meals, restaurant food delivery, grocery and business to business delivery has leave behind its competitors and is still on a spree to invest huge bucks in the market without being able to drive out any sufficient returns. The company’s total revenue recorded for last quarter was Rs 11.5 Crores which has grown by an impressive 15 percent.

Hyderabad’s ISB To Incubate 50 Startups; Launches Virtual Startup Incubation/ Acceleration Unit

The Indian School of Business ( ISB) has launched the facilities for its virtual startup incubation and acceleration arm DLabs in Hyderabad. For this year, ISB has set an aim of incubating at least 50 companies. The virtual incubation program took birth two years ago in 2015 and has recorded the mentoring of 32 startups till now. Established in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, the virtual incubation program will now come under ISB’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), which aims to foster a vibrant ecosystem for the creation and growth of enterprises.

12 Startups Receives Grant From Karnataka Government

Karnataka Government has announced the grants of Rs 3.18 crore to 12 startup companies in the state. The startups, identified by the Karnataka Department of Information Technology and Biotechnology, specialise in a wide range of specialities, skills, and industries, such as agriculture, biotech, security, communications, and robotics. The startups are selected on the grounds of the application of the technology, practicality, feasibility and innovation. Here is the detail information about the selected startups.

China’s Guizhou Open Doors For Indian Entrepreneurs

Good news for Indian startups. The Indian government and Nasscom have recently entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with China’s Guizhou, a mountainous province located in southwest of the country to encourage Indian entrepreneurs to set up their businesses in China.

Commenting on the MoU signed between Guizhou and the Indian government, Nasscom, Sun Zhigang, Guizhou’s governor said that Indian businesses coming here could take advantage of the favourable policy environment, availability of resources and convenient transportation facilities in order to spur the growth of their startups/businesses.

Cisco’s Chairman Announces $70 Mn Fund for Indian Startups

Cisco’s executive chairman, John Chambers has revealed that the global network giant has launched a $70 million fund dedicated exclusively for Indian startups. He further shared that the booming Indian Startup ecosystem has got him so excited that he might even consider investing some money of his own in the ecosystem in the near future.

Cisco’s relationship with India goes way beyond the $70 million startup fund. 22 years ago in 1995, the US-based company that is widely acknowledged for revolutionising the world of digital networks set up its second world headquarters in India, its largest outside its home country, United States.

Incubators, Co-Working Space For Startups In Every Parliamentary Constituency

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Commerce and Industry Minister has written a letter to all Members of Parliament (MPs) to consider setting up co-working spaces/incubators for startups in their constituency under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme Fund (MPLADS).

In the letter Sitharaman said the ‘Startup India’ initiative of the Government of India envisions building a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation in the country and empowering Startups to grow through innovation and design. She said the Government has been making all-out efforts towards realizing the vision of the Startup India Mission.

Uber Launches UberEATS in Delhi, NCR

Uber has launched the UberEATS service in Delhi, NCR starting with Gurugram. Partnering with over 300 restaurants, consumers can now order their favorite food at the tap of a button. To successfully scale the business across the region, Faiz Abdulla has been appointed as the General Manager for UberEATS in Delhi.

UberEATS will give local restaurants in Delhi, NCR a reliable delivery option, effectively expanding their capacity and reach to be able to service a whole new network of potential customers. In addition to that, hundreds of delivery partners in the region will now also have access to more flexible earning opportunities.

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos To Invest More In India

Amazon plans to continue to invest in India in order to march closely with competitors in the country who are pouring in billions in funding. It's been four years since Amazon entered Indian market and unlike China the company has been able to gain ground over local competitors like Flipkart and Snapdeal. India is now Amazon largest market in the World outside the US.

This is interesting to see that inspite of the fact that CEOs of Indian startups crying foul over US-based companies doing business in India PM Modi still held meeting with tech CEOs of US companies demanding to invest more in Indian market.

Israel’s OurCrowd To Fund Indian Startups; Joins Hand With LetsVenture

OurCrowd has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with LetsVenture, India’s marketplace for startup funding. As part of this partnership, OurCrowd will offer curated deals to Indian investor syndicates managed by LetsVenture, as well as showcase Indian startups on OurCrowd’s platform, giving selected Indian startups access to accredited investors globally and to business development opportunities.

OurCrowd and LetsVenture will be also be collaborating on an ‘India Fund’ to invest in Israeli, Indian and global startups. The investment into this fund would primarily be from family funds and HNWIs in India and OurCrowd’s global network of accredited investors.

First Government Owned Co-working Space For Startups In Mangaluru

Indian government to launch first government-owned co-working space for startups in Mangaluru. The initiative is being led by Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Industry Minister as part of the Member of Parliament Local Area Development scheme. With this initiative, government wants to create space for hardware development and experimentation with readily available 3D printing equipment. Co-working space will offer cutting-edge technology such as 3D printing along with new-age digital infrastructure, such as high-speed Internet.

TO THE NEW Designs, Develop Startup India Hub’s Web portal and App

TO THE NEW, a Noida-based leading digital technology company has designed and developed the web portal and mobile applications for Startup India Hub, an initiative by Invest India, the official Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of the Government of India. Recently launched by government’s Invest India and commerce ministry, Startup India Hub is our country’s first digital platform developed to boost the startup ecosystem and facilitate investments into India.

Amazon To Invest More In India, Announces Jeff Bezos

As Indian PM is on the US tour, tech Giant Amazon plans on continuing to invest in India in order to march closely with competitors in the country who are pouring in billions in funding.

According to a news report in TechCrunch, following a meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington on Monday Bezo said in a tweet that he is excited to keep investing in the country.

Terrific meeting with @narendramodi. Always impressed, energized by optimism and invention in India. Excited to keep investing and growing. https://t.co/xhQ58dik3y

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) June 25, 2017

This kind-of-announcement was done at time when Indian PM is on trip to US and hold a meeting with almost all CEOs of tech companies based out the US including Amazon CEO & founder Jeff Bezos. While back home in India, e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Uber's Indian competitor Ola is crying for "level playing field" for Indian startups instead of giving head-on competition.

This is interesting to see that inspite of the fact that CEOs of Indian startups crying foul over US-based companies doing business in India PM Modi still held meeting with tech CEOs of US companies demanding to invest more in Indian market.

Sachin Bansal, executive chairman of Flipkart, the country's largest ecommerce company said earlier this year that, "We have the opportunity to build great internet companies from India, but we need to create a fair playing field. If we are able to create that level playing field, Indian companies will have significant advantages".

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, MakeMyTrip chief executive Deep Kalra also supported Sachin Bansal on this issue as he said, "I'm totally with Sachin on the level playing field. Foreign companies do need to fulfil conditions, like two-factor authentication. There are companies who do not have to pay service tax, because they are not domiciled in India. Their servers and legal entities are somewhere else, but they are servicing Indian customers".

Its been four years since Amazon entered Indian market and unlike China the company has been able to gain ground over local competitors like Flipkart and Snapdeal. India is now Amazon largest market in the World outside the US.

An year back, Jeff Bezos said the company would invest $3 billion to expand the Amazon India business after initially investing $2 billion in 2014. In April, the CEO hinted that it would invest more in the Indian unit, noted the report.

India's internet market has a population that’s projected to reach between 450 million to 465 million this summer. While China and the U.S. are the leaders in eCommerce spending around the globe, India is forecasted to increase to $48 billion by 2020

Indian radio taxi providers filed complaint against Uber taxi booking app

Uber - the taxi booking app has run into some serious trouble in the country. The other radio tax providers of India have complained that the app is violating the Indian laws. The San Francisco based startup was also caught in a similar controversy in the United States and Europe sometime ago.

In a complaint filed to the Reserve Bank of India, the Indian radio taxi providers which include Mega Cab, Meru Cab and Easy cabs, have alleged that the San Francisco based startup has involved into some Foreign exchange violations.

According to The Association of Radio Taxis, the American firm, which is also among the fastest growing startups in the world, is in gross violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the RBI mandate on credit card transactions in the country.

Uber is backed by Google and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and is currently valued at some $ 18 billion (approx Rs.1.1 lakh crore).

There is a great amount of fear and competition among the taxi drivers all around the globe as the American firm is growing at a pace that they couldn’t ever imagine. The taxi drivers have also complained that the San Francisco based stores credit card details on its system.

According to the complaint, Uber is not following the two stage credit card authentication mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. It is doing so by using an international payment gateway.

According to the complaint, once a customer makes use of the Uber taxi service, the firm takes the full payment from the passenger which is then routed in a foreign currency to Uber BV, which is based in Netherlands. Uber later remits back around 80% money to the driver’s Indian account. This is done through wire transfer from the United Sates based Wells Fargo Bank.

The association of Radio Taxis in its complaint also alleges that the payment should not be carried out through an international payment gateway since the American firm is just a facilitator for the transaction to be carried out between the customer and drivers, who are both citizens of India and two Indian citizens, cannot do business in a foreign currency.

Indian radio taxi providers filed complaint against Uber taxi booking app

Uber - the taxi booking app has run into some serious trouble in the country. The other radio tax providers of India have complained that the app is violating the Indian laws. The San Francisco based startup was also caught in a similar controversy in the United States and Europe sometime ago.

In a complaint filed to the Reserve Bank of India, the Indian radio taxi providers which include Mega Cab, Meru Cab and Easy cabs, have alleged that the San Francisco based startup has involved into some Foreign exchange violations.

According to The Association of Radio Taxis, the American firm, which is also among the fastest growing startups in the world, is in gross violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the RBI mandate on credit card transactions in the country.

Uber is backed by Google and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and is currently valued at some $ 18 billion (approx Rs.1.1 lakh crore).

There is a great amount of fear and competition among the taxi drivers all around the globe as the American firm is growing at a pace that they couldn’t ever imagine. The taxi drivers have also complained that the San Francisco based stores credit card details on its system.

According to the complaint, Uber is not following the two stage credit card authentication mandated by the Reserve Bank of India. It is doing so by using an international payment gateway.

According to the complaint, once a customer makes use of the Uber taxi service, the firm takes the full payment from the passenger which is then routed in a foreign currency to Uber BV, which is based in Netherlands. Uber later remits back around 80% money to the driver’s Indian account. This is done through wire transfer from the United Sates based Wells Fargo Bank.

The association of Radio Taxis in its complaint also alleges that the payment should not be carried out through an international payment gateway since the American firm is just a facilitator for the transaction to be carried out between the customer and drivers, who are both citizens of India and two Indian citizens, cannot do business in a foreign currency.

New Amazon Fire 3D Phone - An inside look

Putting all rumors to rest that were doing rounds of the markets for months now, Amazon finally ventured into the Smartphone market by launching Amazon fire 3D Phone on Wednesday. Amazon with its Smartphone aims at providing its user with a good experience rather than just fashionable hardware.

Amazon has worked hard to make the tangled chords of the earphones a history. The fire Phone will have earbuds with flat cords and magnets which will clasp them together, thus getting rid of the ages long tangled chords problem.

3-D Display

The phone comes armed with a unique 3D interface called Dynamic Perspective. It can make you feel as if you’re looking out of the window into another world by adding the depth effect to the image on display. The Dynamic perspective works well on the maps app. It even gives a different touch to the games.  It lets you take a character’s viewpoint by moving your head to look around. Whether it’ll be gimmicky eyesore or go-to feature is yet to be seen.

Access menus, shortcuts, and useful information with tilt, swivel, and peek. It thus allows you to have one-handed reading with auto-scroll, scan long web pages or read entire books without ever having to touch the screen.

According to Jeff Bezos, in the Dynamic Perspective feature, the phone is just redrawing the image 60 times per second and to make this possible, the phone has four front-facing infrared cameras that tell where the user’s head is even if two of them are covered by your fingers.

Audio and Object Recognition

The phone comes with an amazing Firefly feature. The phone can catch the tune playing in the background and direct you to it on Amazon using this feature. It can even tell you where you can buy a particular book by just taking the snap of the photo of the book. The phone even lets one snap phone numbers, bar codes, email addresses and more. The feature was first introduced by Sony but Amazon's fire Phone also comes equipped with audio recognition.

Firefly recognizes over 240,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels. Firefly uses X-Ray, powered by IMDb, to show information on actors, plot details, and related content.

Camera

The phone comes packed with a normal 13 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera with a fast five-element wide aperture f/2.0 lens for crisp, beautiful images. To counteract shaking as one takes shots, the phone also has image stabilization. The phone also offers unlimited storage of photographs taken from the phone through its Cloud Drive service. The phone also has four front-facing infrared cameras for making Dynamic Perspective work.

Scan and take action from the home carousel

In carousel mode, you can scroll, scan, and take action without opening the app or leaving the carousel. Scan and delete emails, see your next appointment, find recent photos, access most visited web sites, and more, right from your home screen carousel.

Performance

A 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, combined with 2GB of RAM, enables faster app launch times, quicker website load times, and smoother multi-tasking. Also an Adreno 330 graphics processor delivers the performance and fluidity needed for immersive gaming, video, and more.

Fire phone delivers up to 285 hours of standby time, up to 22 hours of talk time, up to 65 hours of audio playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback.

Free Prime Membership

The company is also providing the fire Phone buyers with a free Prime Membership. AT&T has been named the exclusive carrier for the phone. The fire Phone will be available from July 25 at $199 for 32GB model and $299 for the 64GB model. The people who were going to subscribe to Prime services will be able to save $99 by purchasing the fire Phone. Prime Membership provides unlimited video and music streaming, free books from Kindle Owner’s Lending and a guaranteed two day delivery among other services.

In India it will soon to be launched till end of August this year and price would be around Rs.40,000.

Other Specifications

The fire Phone has a screen size of 4.7 inches which is larger than iPhone but smaller than some of the leading Android Smartphones in the market. This screen size will be perfect for one-handed use.

The phone also comes equipped with the auto-scroll feature like the Samsung Galaxy phones which lets the user scroll down books or articles just by tilting the phone.

New Amazon Fire 3D Phone - An inside look

Putting all rumors to rest that were doing rounds of the markets for months now, Amazon finally ventured into the Smartphone market by launching Amazon fire 3D Phone on Wednesday. Amazon with its Smartphone aims at providing its user with a good experience rather than just fashionable hardware.

Amazon has worked hard to make the tangled chords of the earphones a history. The fire Phone will have earbuds with flat cords and magnets which will clasp them together, thus getting rid of the ages long tangled chords problem.

3-D Display

The phone comes armed with a unique 3D interface called Dynamic Perspective. It can make you feel as if you’re looking out of the window into another world by adding the depth effect to the image on display. The Dynamic perspective works well on the maps app. It even gives a different touch to the games.  It lets you take a character’s viewpoint by moving your head to look around. Whether it’ll be gimmicky eyesore or go-to feature is yet to be seen.

Access menus, shortcuts, and useful information with tilt, swivel, and peek. It thus allows you to have one-handed reading with auto-scroll, scan long web pages or read entire books without ever having to touch the screen.

According to Jeff Bezos, in the Dynamic Perspective feature, the phone is just redrawing the image 60 times per second and to make this possible, the phone has four front-facing infrared cameras that tell where the user’s head is even if two of them are covered by your fingers.

Audio and Object Recognition

The phone comes with an amazing Firefly feature. The phone can catch the tune playing in the background and direct you to it on Amazon using this feature. It can even tell you where you can buy a particular book by just taking the snap of the photo of the book. The phone even lets one snap phone numbers, bar codes, email addresses and more. The feature was first introduced by Sony but Amazon's fire Phone also comes equipped with audio recognition.

Firefly recognizes over 240,000 movies and TV episodes, and 160 live TV channels. Firefly uses X-Ray, powered by IMDb, to show information on actors, plot details, and related content.

Camera

The phone comes packed with a normal 13 MP rear camera and a 2 MP front camera with a fast five-element wide aperture f/2.0 lens for crisp, beautiful images. To counteract shaking as one takes shots, the phone also has image stabilization. The phone also offers unlimited storage of photographs taken from the phone through its Cloud Drive service. The phone also has four front-facing infrared cameras for making Dynamic Perspective work.

Scan and take action from the home carousel

In carousel mode, you can scroll, scan, and take action without opening the app or leaving the carousel. Scan and delete emails, see your next appointment, find recent photos, access most visited web sites, and more, right from your home screen carousel.

Performance

A 2.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, combined with 2GB of RAM, enables faster app launch times, quicker website load times, and smoother multi-tasking. Also an Adreno 330 graphics processor delivers the performance and fluidity needed for immersive gaming, video, and more.

Fire phone delivers up to 285 hours of standby time, up to 22 hours of talk time, up to 65 hours of audio playback, and up to 11 hours of video playback.

Free Prime Membership

The company is also providing the fire Phone buyers with a free Prime Membership. AT&T has been named the exclusive carrier for the phone. The fire Phone will be available from July 25 at $199 for 32GB model and $299 for the 64GB model. The people who were going to subscribe to Prime services will be able to save $99 by purchasing the fire Phone. Prime Membership provides unlimited video and music streaming, free books from Kindle Owner’s Lending and a guaranteed two day delivery among other services.

In India it will soon to be launched till end of August this year and price would be around Rs.40,000.

Other Specifications

The fire Phone has a screen size of 4.7 inches which is larger than iPhone but smaller than some of the leading Android Smartphones in the market. This screen size will be perfect for one-handed use.

The phone also comes equipped with the auto-scroll feature like the Samsung Galaxy phones which lets the user scroll down books or articles just by tilting the phone.

A marketplace for local services by Amazon.com Inc

If some rumours doing round the market are to be believed, Amazon.com Inc is all set to launch a marketplace this year for local services. The marketplace would provide local services like babysitters, handymen etc.

Amazon will ape its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh model by gauging demands and testing logistics before launching it nationwide. Amazon Fresh before expanding its horizons to San Francisco and Los Angles was tested for one year in Seattle.

This move taken by Amazon can be seen as a direct target at various consumer review sites like Angie’s List Inc and Yelp Inc etc as well as Lowe’s Companies Inc and United States home improvement chains home Depot Inc. All these forums have invested in methods to connect people with local painters, plumbers, and other service providers.

Amazon for the very first time will venture into the services frontier. All this while, it has mainly concentrated on selling products and expanding from books and novels to consumer goods, media and groceries.  Local services are a big and growing market but it has been difficult for the marketplace companies to earn profits since each offering has to be tailored made for each region and city.

Rumours also suggest that Amazon has contacted a lot of service companies directly and many startups in San Francisco and Seattle that already link customers to various service providers through their own mobile Apps and websites, in the recent months.

A marketplace for local services will extend Amazon’s role as a middlemen for third party vendors, which would make for 40 % of Amazon’s sales. The quality of the services sold by Amazon will be backed by its “A-to-z Guarantee”. The same guarantee is being currently used by the company on its website to certify the products being sold by third party vendors.

Venturing into the local services has been an aim of Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive for many years. In fact, he had himself invested in Pro.com which helps its customers in searching contractors and then estimating the total costs of home repair and improvement projects. Pro.com was a Seattle based startup founded by Matt Williams, former Amazon Executive.

 

A marketplace for local services by Amazon.com Inc

If some rumours doing round the market are to be believed, Amazon.com Inc is all set to launch a marketplace this year for local services. The marketplace would provide local services like babysitters, handymen etc.

Amazon will ape its grocery delivery service, Amazon Fresh model by gauging demands and testing logistics before launching it nationwide. Amazon Fresh before expanding its horizons to San Francisco and Los Angles was tested for one year in Seattle.

This move taken by Amazon can be seen as a direct target at various consumer review sites like Angie’s List Inc and Yelp Inc etc as well as Lowe’s Companies Inc and United States home improvement chains home Depot Inc. All these forums have invested in methods to connect people with local painters, plumbers, and other service providers.

Amazon for the very first time will venture into the services frontier. All this while, it has mainly concentrated on selling products and expanding from books and novels to consumer goods, media and groceries.  Local services are a big and growing market but it has been difficult for the marketplace companies to earn profits since each offering has to be tailored made for each region and city.

Rumours also suggest that Amazon has contacted a lot of service companies directly and many startups in San Francisco and Seattle that already link customers to various service providers through their own mobile Apps and websites, in the recent months.

A marketplace for local services will extend Amazon’s role as a middlemen for third party vendors, which would make for 40 % of Amazon’s sales. The quality of the services sold by Amazon will be backed by its “A-to-z Guarantee”. The same guarantee is being currently used by the company on its website to certify the products being sold by third party vendors.

Venturing into the local services has been an aim of Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive for many years. In fact, he had himself invested in Pro.com which helps its customers in searching contractors and then estimating the total costs of home repair and improvement projects. Pro.com was a Seattle based startup founded by Matt Williams, former Amazon Executive.