• Amazon revealed plans to build Gilroy, California data center were first submitted in 2020
• Gilroy citizens have accused the city council of inadequate communications concerning the development
• The 438,500-square-foot data center occupies a 56-acre chunk of farmland 30 miles south of San Jose

Citizens of Gilroy, California, have expressed dismay at the building of an Amazon data center, which they say they were not informed of - and when one resident attempted to lodge a complaint, she was told that comments on the plans were closed in 2024 – long before most citizens were even aware of the planned installation.

Occupying a 56-acre area of farmland between a Walmart and a local shopping center, the Amazon project appears to have been quietly pushed through using obfuscation and clever use of 45-year-old planning laws.

Amazon has apparently made provision to divert wastewater to the data center, and donated money for local spending. Meanwhile, the city mayor has responded to the concerns by likening the water-and power-hungry Amazon data center to a food distribution center that was also recently approved.

Opposition and sponsorships

Utilizing the old city zoning rule – originally intended for industrial development along a freeway – has enabled the data center to proceed into full development without planning scrutiny from residents. However, the apparent collaboration between Amazon and the Gilroy city council and mayor has not gone unnoticed, with opposition organized against the project.

One of those organizers, 21-year-old college student Landon Sepulveda, indicated to the Wall Street Journal that there was a trust issue between the population and the city administrators. “These processes were not enough for the citizens of Gilroy to do anything about it. We’ve elected them to tell us, and we shouldn’t have to watch over their shoulders.”

Another citizen, elementary school teacher Coleen Crew, told a recent council meeting “Many if not most residents first learned about this project after construction had already begun.”

Amazon and the Gilroy council have been at pains to highlight the advantages of the deal, citing jobs, tax revenue, and that solution to concerns over water use. Amazon has also donated $1 million for a new city fire truck, and donated money to non-profits and the city’s annal Gilroy Garlic Festival.

Mayor Bozzo and AWS

Responding to public dismay over the development, Mayor Greg Bozzo has highlighted an “opportunity to change the way that we do business in Gilroy. We’re adapting to the times.”

Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services’ VP of economic development Roger Wehner claims the project “followed standard approval processes.” He added: “We’ve since met directly with residents and hosted an open house to hear feedback and answer questions.”

The challenges and advantages of data centers seem to be the modern day equivalent of opposition to nuclear plants from 50 years ago. While the data center’s continued construction seems inevitable, and Amazon has made some generous provisions, it is disappointing that the city’s residents were not informed of the development – and that might be the biggest problem here.

Another month, another stacked list of 4K Blu-rays. August 2026 looks to have some big releases coming, but I’ve decided to narrow it down to my top four picks, all of which I’ll be hoping to get in to test as part of our monthly Blu-ray Bounty feature. This is where we test the best 4K releases from each month, looking at each disc’s picture and audio quality to see how it can give your home theater a chance to flex its muscles.

4K Blu-ray is my most used source for testing the best TVs and best soundbars. It offers uncompressed audio and a higher bitrate over 4K streaming, resulting in better picture quality. Not only that, but I’m a collector myself and I’m always adding new discs to my personal collection.

Last month, in my July 2026 most anticipated list, I picked Hard Boiled, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Hairspray (1988) as my most anticipated discs. I got to test three of these in the July 2026 Blu-ray Bounty, and they all proved to be excellent, with special mention for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie which is in my opinion reference-level quality. Unfortunately, Hard Boiled was delayed in arriving, but I’ll be sure to give it a try and let you know what it’s like!

As I’m based in the UK, the following picks are based on 4K Blu-rays set for release in August 2026 here. Just in case the disc is already out in your region, or yet to be released!

Project Hail Mary (Amazon MGM Studios)

An adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Project Hail Mary follows the story of middle school science teacher Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling), who wakes up on an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there. The movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who also directed The Lego Movie and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, and were both involved in the production of the Into the Spider-Verse movies.

I’m expecting Project Hail Mary to look superb in 4K. There are plenty of high-contrast shots both in and outside of the Hail Mary that should demonstrate deep blacks balancing with bright highlights. There’s also scope for some seriously bold colors, as well as crisp textures, with 3D-like textures in both people and environments, such as the intricate textures of the various parts and consoles of the Hail Mary ship.

With a Dolby Atmos soundtrack included, I’m anticipating plenty of height effects in action. With the wide scope of the ship and space setting, there should be opportunities for the Dolby Atmos mix to showcase plenty of detail and texture, as well as a chance to hear some accurately mapped sound as well, as Grace moves around the Hail Mary.

Release date

• US - August 11
• UK - 10th August

Troy (2004) (Arrow Video)

Loosely based on Homer’s Iliad, Troy tells the story of the decade-long Trojan War. When Paris (Orlando Bloom) runs away with married Queen Helen (Diane Kruger), the latter’s husband and king Menelaus of Sparta (Brendan Gleeson) declares war on Troy, which is led by Hector (Eric Bana). Meneluas sends a unified Greek army, led by Achilles (Brad Pitt).

Where I think Troy will really shine is with its audio. While there’s no Dolby Atmos soundtrack on this disc, there is a DTS-HD 5.1 MA mix and I’ve been finding more fantastic-sounding 5.1 MA mixes every month. With large scale battles that should deliver plenty of detail and power, along similar lines to discs I’ve previously reviewed such as Kingdom of Heaven and Gladiator II, Troy could end up as another brilliant-sounding disc that could really push a surround sound system.

This 4K restoration is not only presented by Arrow Video, whose 4K Blu-rays are always superb, but is restored from the original 35mm and presented in Dolby Vision. There’s a lot of bold visuals in Troy, including the beautiful environments, vibrant colors and detailed costumes that should look stunning when restored in 4K.

Release date

• US - August 18
• UK - 17th August

West Side Story (1961)

Based on the 1957 stage musical of the same name, West Side Story is inspired by Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and tells the story of young lovers Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood), who are embroiled in the gang war for the Upper West Side between the Jets (Tony’s former gang) and the Sharks (of whom Maria’s brother Bernardo is the current leader).

With Dolby Vision HDR support, this 4K disc of West Side Story should look fantastic. Not only is there the vivid colors of the 1950s aesthetic, but there’s plenty of high contrast scenes at night, where dark and bright tones create a nice dynamic range. This 4K disc is presented by Altitude, who released the Some Like It Hot 4K I tested earlier this year and if that disc is anything to go by, this 4K disc should be fantastic.

The musicals I’ve tested, such as Wicked and The Sound of Music, have often sounded excellent, especially when Dolby Atmos is supported. West Side Story also supports an Atmos soundtrack, so I’m expecting iconic songs such as ‘Maria’ and ‘Somewhere’ to sound their very best. With an Atmos soundtrack, there’s also scope for detail, such as the shuffling and movement of dancers during choreography to add that extra layer of immersion.

Release date

• US - September 11 (Import)
• UK - 31st August

Mars Attacks! (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment)

Directed by Tim Burton, Mars Attacks! follows the arrival of aliens to Earth, where they meet the President of the United States James Dale (Jack Nicholson). After a first-contact meeting goes awry, the Martians begin to attack Earth. The movie features an all-star cast including Glenn Close, Annette Benning, Pierce Brosnan, Michael J. Fox and more.

As with all of Burton’s movies, I’m expecting very vibrant colors, such as those I saw in Edward Scissorhands. Mars Attacks! has a very gaudy, almost 1960s aesthetic in places that is sure to generate some lovely pop on screen, especially as Dolby Vision is also supported. I’ll be curious to see how the CGI of the aliens holds up, but after seeing 1982’s Tron on 4K, which made the dated graphics look decent, I have high hopes.

A Dolby Atmos soundtrack is featured on the 4K disc and other than the iconic ‘Ack’ sounds the Martians make, there’s plenty of great audio throughout this movie that could sound great in Dolby Atmos. The sounds of the Martian’s ray guns should draw some nice detail, explosions should generate some hefty impact and bass and there should be nice height effects in action too.

Release date

• US - August 11
• UK - 31st August

August 2026 highlight 4K releases

Below is a select list of 4K Blu-rays set for release in August 2026. Both UK and US releases are featured, with release dates noted. Release dates may vary by region, with some titles yet to be announced for some regions, or they may already be available in others. 4K Blu-ray is region-free however, so you should be able to order from anywhere.

August 3/4

• Talladega Nights
• The People vs Larry Flint
• School on Fire
• The Devil Wears Prada 2 (UK)
• Once Upon A Thief (UK)

August 10/11

• Project Hail Mary
• Mars Attacks! (US - UK: 31st August)
• Barbarian
• Clear and Present Danger
• Michael
• JFK
• Sing Street

August 17/18

• Troy
• Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (UK)
• Popeye (1980)
• Flight
• Nightcrawler
• Last Tango in Paris (UK)
• Hunt for the Wilderpeople (UK)

August 25/26

• The Pink Panther (1963) (UK)
• Disclosure Day
• Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (US)
• Practical Magic

August 31

• West Side Story (1961) (UK - September 11, import)
• The Abominable Snowman

• Amazon's Claude Sonnet project cost $1.8 million, 860% over budget
• The overspending remained undetected internally for nearly five months straight
• A financial auditing tool project exceeded its budget by $541,000

Amazon has confirmed an internal Claude Sonnet deployment intended for matching author details with product listings ballooned far beyond its planned budget.

The Financial Times found the project ultimately cost the company $1.8 million, marking an increase of 860% over the original allocation.

The overspending went undetected for roughly five months, raising fresh questions about how closely Amazon tracks its growing AI expenditures internally.

Mounting costs across multiple projects

Amazon's Claude-related overspend was not an isolated incident within the company's broader push toward deploying autonomous coding agents across various internal teams.

A separate project meant to build a financial auditing tool reportedly exceeded its budget by $541,000, compounding concerns about unchecked automated spending.

Another logistics-focused initiative, designed to shorten delivery times across Amazon's broader distribution network, incurred an additional $134,000 in unplanned costs.

Company insiders explained that mistakes once considered trivially cheap have grown catastrophically expensive as token-based pricing models replaced older subscription arrangements.

This shift coincides with AI agents gaining broader autonomy, allowing errors to multiply quickly before human reviewers noticed the growing financial damage.

Amazon pushes back on the narrative

In response, Amazon issued an internal statement acknowledging ongoing experimentation while disputing characterizations of these incidents as routine business practice.

"As with any new technology, we're experimenting, learning and improving how we use it, including how we drive cost efficiencies," the company said.

The company further stated that isolated examples portrayed as business as usual do not accurately capture how its teams actually apply AI tools.

Amazon's quarterly revenue exceeds $181 billion, meaning the disclosed AI overspending accounts for less than 0.1% of one month's earnings.

This pattern of AI-driven cost overruns follows earlier troubles at AWS, where automated coding bots triggered several unexpected service outages this year.

Amazon responded to those outages by restricting AI agent permissions rather than granting them access equal to senior engineers overseeing similar tasks.

The company also discontinued an internal leaderboard once used to track employee AI usage, as rising costs prompted a reconsideration of that approach.

Executives across the industry continue framing AI spending as a necessary investment despite growing evidence of inconsistent returns.

Amazon's continued experimentation with AI-driven coding tools comes despite skepticism from other corners of the tech industry regarding its actual business value.

Uber's chief technology officer, whose company also operates a substantial logistics network, has publicly stated no clear connection exists between heavy AI adoption and successful software delivery.

This skepticism stands in contrast to Amazon's own internal messaging, which frames the company's approach as ongoing experimentation rather than a fully validated cost-saving strategy.

Some analysts now argue that unchecked automation could quietly erode profit margins long before leadership notices meaningful financial impact.

For a company of Amazon's scale, these overruns remain financially minor, though they suggest oversight gaps that smaller companies may struggle to absorb.

• Amazon plans to launch 5,105 satellites to support new mobile networks
• The filing with the FCC highlights voice, data, emergency services, and Internet of Things support
• Amazon Leo already has over 390 satellites in orbit, enough to launch the plans ahead of the full deployment

Amazon has confirmed its “low Earth orbit” (LEO) satellite network has submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to deploy a constellation of 5,105 satellites which will provide voice, data, messaging, emergency services access, and Internet of Things support for under the Amazon Leo Direct-to-Device (D2D) project.

The application follows Amazon’s merger with Globalstar, acquiring the US satellite telecommunications company’s operations, infrastructure, and global licenses and authorizations.

This step into orbit will see Amazon Leo’s existing satellites work alongside the Globalstar HIBLEO and C-3 satellite constellations, kicking off early D2D project support ahead of approval for the full network of comsats.

High-speed, low-latency

Much like Starlink, the Amazon Leo network is intended to bridge the connectivity gap between cities and remote communities. It aims to deliver high-speed, low-latency broadband for domestic and enterprise markets, as well as governments, with consumers gaining connectivity via the Leo Nano, Leo Pro, and Leo Ultra high-performance antennae. Meanwhile, mobile devices with satellite-capable chipsets can connect to the satellites without an additional antenna.

Apple iPhones and Apple Watch models are also supported, under a previous agreement to collaborate with Apple. Amazon Leo already delivers data for Emergency SOS, Messages, Find My, and Roadside Assistant to iPhones.

Other partnerships have also been announced that feed into the D2D project. “Telecom operators like Vodafone, DirecTV, Herotel, and Australia’s National Broadband Network [...] it plans to continue working with mobile network operators and other partners to deliver on its long-term vision for space-based connectivity.”

Beyond offering connectivity to remote locations, D2D can enable data support for global fleet management, remote operations for supply chains, and IoT connectivity.

Amazon Leo’s satellites

Following initial deployment in 2025 with 80+ launches with Arianespace, Blue Origin, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance, Amazon Leo is aiming at 5,105 low Earth orbit satellites. These units are connected using optical links, capable of high-speed data transfer, with secure gateways networked across the planet, with fiber connectivity.

The D2D satellites are intended to operate across five orbital “shells” – essentially five groups that share the same altitude and inclination. Three shells will cover the mid-latitude, one shell will cover the high-latitude, and the fifth providing coverage for “near-polar” zones. Mid-latitude zones are the world's most heavily populated regions (North America, Europe, parts of Asia, and southern/central Africa) while the high-latitude coverage aims to deliver high speed internet to the Arctic and sub-Arctic circles.

With increasing demands for mobile data, not just for remote working but also Internet of Things applications, Amazon Leo could prove to be the solution that facilitates home and workplace automation around the world – assuming, of course, that it gets that FCC approval.

• Hidden AI debts are attracting fresh scrutiny across America's biggest technology companies
• Massive data centre spending is testing investor confidence like never before
• Meta reportedly carries the largest off-balance-sheet obligations among the five companies

An investigation by Nikkei Asia has claimed five of America's largest tech companies are reportedly concealing huge debts outside their official financial statements.

Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle together account for roughly $1.65 trillion in liabilities missing from their public balance sheets.

That figure exceeds the $1.35 trillion these firms officially disclosed last quarter, with Meta alone holding roughly $420 billion off-balance-sheet.

Echoes of Enron

Analysts have begun drawing direct parallels to Enron, the energy trading company whose 2001 collapse remains a cautionary tale in corporate finance.

Like Enron once did, these tech giants rely on special purpose vehicles, essentially legally separate subsidiaries, to keep debt off their books.

Such arrangements can make a company's financial reporting appear far healthier than the underlying reality actually supports at any given moment.

This accounting structure remains legal when applied correctly, although critics argue it can complicate efforts by investors to measure overall financial exposure accurately.

“The accounting treatment itself is in fashion,” technical accounting consultant Tom Selling told Bloomberg.

“But what if one of these companies was a house of cards and was propping itself up with this accounting treatment? To me, that’s the risk.”

The warning has encouraged renewed scrutiny of corporate reporting practices across the technology sector, particularly among the companies named in the investigation.

This scrutiny comes as firms continue spending heavily to expand the computing capacity required for increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence systems.

Mounting financial pressure

To remain competitive in the AI race, these companies are committing enormous sums toward massive, long-term data center construction projects.

The scale of planned data center spending across the entire industry has reached levels rarely seen in corporate history.

Whether these massive infrastructure bets eventually pay off financially remains genuinely uncertain, given how quickly the technology and market keep shifting.

Nikkei Asia notes many of these firms are also issuing new shares to raise additional funds - but issuing new equity in this manner risks diluting existing shareholders and could gradually erode investor confidence over the coming months.

Such dilution could also leave these companies even more exposed should the broader AI bubble eventually deflate or burst suddenly.

Investor unease could deepen further if the industry fails to generate enough real demand to justify this data center spending spree.

Notably, four of the five companies named in the investigation are scheduled to report second quarter earnings within the coming weeks.

Given how much rides on these coming disclosures, markets and analysts alike will be watching each earnings report closely.

Whether these tech giants ultimately resemble Enron or simply pursue an aggressive yet financially sound growth strategy remains genuinely unclear for now.

• Plans to triple application fees and apply a price-per-foot on coastal cable installations have been announced by Oregon
• Oregon state planners believe the new structure could raise $1 million per new cable laid
• Protecting the coastline has become a political priority in recent years

Oregon has announced plans to introduce a payment structure for service providers laying undersea cables off the coast of the Pacific state.

Currently, the low-tax and zoning incentives on offer make Oregon a particularly attractive location for tech companies including Microsoft and Amazon, and with major data centers (such as Google’s Dalles installation) demanding increasing data infrastructure, state officials believe a new pricing arrangement is overdue.

Oregon Department of State Lands is making the proposal, which seeks to completely restructure the pricing around undersea cables, which has been fixed at $5,000 since 2001.

Price per foot levy

Even by tripling application fees, Oregon will still be a more affordable alternative for service providers upgrading or adding undersea cables than both California and Washington.

The payment structure under consideration covers fees for applications and compensation “for undersea infrastructure located on submerged and submersible land within Oregon’s territorial sea.”

Currently, new application fees are $5,000, with the proposed new fee set at $15,000. Renewal applications are set to increase from $5,000 to $7,500, with a new encroachment application fee, also set at $7,500 (this describes any building or development on any state-owned land that restricts its usual purpose).

Cables up to three inches in diameter have been assigned a $3-per-foot basic annual fee, with conduits charged at $7.

But how might these fees be applied to any new cable installations? Some calculations based on the Amazon Bitfrost cable project, which determined that a total of $1,450,380 was due for two decades, which would be funneled into Oregon’s Common School Fund.

These fees are a revision of an earlier, more expensive set of proposals, and while the Amazon Bitfrost project example may seem high, it is a literal drop in the ocean compared with the budgets required to lay cables across the Pacific – somewhere in the region of $400 million.

Corporate responsibility

Oregon is also proposing new rules that govern how much information companies submit in applications. This covers everything from decommissioning outdated cabling to outlining responses to earthquakes (such as an anticipated Cascadia Subduction Zone event, which is believed to be overdue).

Various challenges to how companies operate off the coast of Oregon have arisen in recent years, such as a Meta subsidiary attempting to install new cabling at Tierra Del Mar in 2020. This abandoned project resulted in a pollution incident with 6,500 gallons of drill fluid dumped in the ocean and a pair of sinkholes appearing the following year.

The fees are expected to be introduced in January 2027.

• Prime Video and Netflix are planning new AI-generated homepages
• Netflix revealed its 'GenPage' tests ahead of a new Prime Video report
• Viewers aren't convinced that homepages are moving in the right direction

You're about to see a lot more generative AI in your streaming apps: Netflix has posted details of testing that it's doing with generative AI on its homepage, while Reuters reports that Amazon Prime Video is set for an AI-driven overhaul as well.

Starting with Netflix, the company has revealed it's working on a way of using generative AI to do a lot of the heavy lifting on the app homepage. That includes figuring out which recommendations each user should see, adapting to feedback and user behavior over time, and combining movies, shows, games, podcasts, and live events in the best way.

It starts with a prompt — "Given everything we know about this user and this request, what homepage should we generate to maximize user satisfaction?" — and Netflix seems pleased with the results. There are still some issues to work on though, like the AI model not knowing much about a movie or show that's only just launched.

User engagement increased in Netflix's internal testing, with the new 'GenPage' AI model applied, and recommendations became more relevant more quickly. What's more, the time needed to render the homepage went down. This is still in its early stages, and Netflix hasn't said when this will come to users or in what form, but it's now in the pipeline.

AI 'front and center' on Prime Video

On to Amazon, and a new Reuters report says Amazon boss Jeff Bezos has personally decided that Prime Video will act as a showcase for AI in the near future, and that an upcoming homepage redesign will put AI "front and center".

That's according to people "with direct knowledge of the matter", so don't take this as confirmed just yet. The homepage overhaul project is apparently known as 'Lighthouse', and is said to be envisioned as a way of claiming some of the AI spotlight from rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic.

We don't get too many details on what this is going to look like, but film and TV recommendations are going to have more AI injected into them, Reuters says. The AI will also be better at learning the personal preferences of viewers over time, and responding to voice commands.

You might see tiles on the homepage such as 'action movies from the 1980s', for example. The report doesn't give any indication of when this overhaul might start rolling out, but it's apparently already being tested with a select number of users in a variety of forms.

Our AI-driven interface future

With two of the big streaming giants apparently now committed to homepages controlled by AI, the next question is what users might make of it. There's so much to watch on each platform that some kind of filter or algorithm is needed, but is this AI-focused approach the right way to go about it?

Past homepage overhauls perhaps give us some clues: A major Netflix redesign rolled out last year was met with many online complaints, but the company's internal data showed that it was working, so it stayed in place. At the time there was speculation that more AI was on the way, and it seems that's now the case.

"I don't know if I'm alone," writes one Redditor, "but I hate the concept of 'personalizing' my content. No offense to anyone but AI so far has not been good at predicting anything about me... I personally do not want software to think for me."

The reactions to Prime Video's upcoming AI overhaul seem similarly downbeat. "This seems completely unnecessary," comments one user, while several suggest the move might even be enough to tip them into canceling their Prime Video subscription.

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025): Two-minute review

I've used the 2024 release of the Kindle Scribe (2nd generation) for two years and I've loved every minute of it. I didn't think there was a better E Ink display to write on (and read on for that matter) and I definitely didn't think it could be improved. Yet that's exactly what Amazon has done with the 2025 (3rd generation) Kindle Scribe with frontlight.

The epaper display is still one of the best to read and write on, but it looks even brighter and, indeed, it is bigger, with 11 inches of screen real estate to use. That's fantastic for note-taking and drawing, but unnecessary for a device that also doubles up as an ereader.

Despite the additional height, the 3rd generation Kindle Scribe is both marginally thinner and lighter than its predecessor, but it is hard to hold in the hand for long periods of use — I constantly felt the need to place it on my lap or a table even when reading, but more so when jotting notes. Moreover, the lack of a broad bezel means it's very easy to trigger a page turn as the thumb rests so close to the edge of the display.

The thinner chassis is solidly built, although there's still no waterproofing (as is the case on most digital notebooks), so be careful if you decide to use it by the pool, the bath or the kitchen sink. And definitely keep it away from the sea's salty water to avoid corrosion.

The new stylus is also redesigned and, while it might feel too smooth for some users, I adore it! It never slipped once, even with sweaty palms, and, personally, gave me one of the best writing experiences I've had on a digital notebook (with the exception of the ViWoods C1 ceramic stylus possibly). Additionally, the magnetic hold to the side of the device is the strongest I've seen to date on any such device.

The homescreen interface has been refreshed and is quite practical in my opinion, and renaming the previous Notebooks tab to Workspace kinda makes sense to me. There are a few new features here: a handful of fresh templates in Workspace, a Smart Shapes feature that some users might find useful and, importantly, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive connectivity for seamless cloud transfer of files. There's even AI-enable search that can trawl through handwritten notes to give you a concise summary to answer your query.

What I'm struggling with is justifying its high price tag. While everything is now a lot more expensive, the extra screen real estate and handful of new features don't go a long way in explaining the significant price increase over its predecessor but, then again, the base model now has double the storage at 32GB and it sure is a very fast performer.

As someone who's extensively used reMarkables and Boox alternatives, I think the 3rd generation Kindle Scribe definitely gives its competitors a run for their money. I'd still only consider picking it up when discounted and only if you don't already have a previous Scribe and are embedded in the Amazon ecosystem.

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: price and availability

• First announced October 2025 in the US; available to buy since December 2025
• Released in the UK and other select markets in early 2026, available in Australia since mid 2026
• List price: from $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$849

The 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe is expensive — at a starting price of $499.99 / £449.99 / AU$849, it's $100 / £70 / AU$200 more than its predecessor's entry cost, but it does go some way in justifying the increase.

Firstly, as I've already mentioned, the entry model now has 32GB of storage compared to 16GB, plus the display is 11 inches (previously 10.2 inches). There are a few new software features that make it a better digital notepad compared to the 2nd-gen Kindle Scribe from 2024, but it's still hard to justify paying full price when color E Ink devices don't cost much more.

That said, color E Ink isn't where it should be in 2026 and I wouldn't recommend the $629 / £569 / AU$999 Kindle Scribe Colorsoft over this monochrome sibling.

On the other hand, the reMarkable Paper Pure, which also offers 32GB of storage, but a 10.3-inch screen and a minimal interface that's not conducive to reading is a lot cheaper with a starting price of $399 / £359 / AU$629. Even the 64GB Boox Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi is cheaper at $449.99 / £429.99 / AU$729.

I would still recommend the 3rd-gen Kindle Scribe if you want both a reading and note-taking device in one, but perhaps consider picking it up when it's discounted, which it invariably will be during a major sale, more so once Amazon discontinues the 2024 edition (which it invariably will).

However, if you already own the 2024 version, I wouldn't recommend the 3rd-gen as an upgrade as you won't miss much. And as long as it's available to buy, the 2nd-gen is definitely better value even at full price.

• Value score: 3.5 / 5

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: specs

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: design and display

• 11 inches of beautiful, bright E Ink Carta 1300 screen real estate
• Sturdy, premium build, but slim bezels can be an issue
• Thinner and lighter than previous generation, with newly designed Premium Pen

It might not seem all that different from the previous two Kindle Scribes, but the 3rd-gen model with frontlight is a different beast, at least physically. As already mentioned, it's now a little taller thanks to an 11-inch display, but it's ever-so-slightly thinner (5.4mm vs 5.7mm) and lighter than the second-generation Scribe (400g vs 433g).

How Amazon has managed that is beyond my understanding, but it's a welcome change as it helps negates a little bit of the hand and wrist fatigue the extra height adds during handheld use over longer periods of time.

That, sadly, is exacerbated by the fact that the broader bezel from the previous generations is no longer there beside the screen where your thumb could rest. Now, all four sides are surrounded by even yet narrow bezels that can trigger a page turn if your finger or palm even remotely touches the edge of the screen. It's something you can get used to but, even then, I think all the new 2025 Kindle Scribes are best used while on a table or desk, or your lap.

Other than that, the Kindle Scribe still looks like a premium device with a very sturdy build, despite being thin and light, with minimal embellishments for a clean look. Unlike the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, though, the 3rd-gen model only comes in the usual Graphite (previously called Tungsten) variant, and I do wish another chassis color was available. You're also not going to get any waterproofing here like with the other Kindles.

What I'm thrilled about, though, is the new stylus. Amazon has redesigned the Premium Pen, which is now a white, smooth-bodied styls with a slightly sharper nib that adds better control to marking on the screen. The smoothness of the pen's body might make it harder to hold for some users, but I didn't have any issues with slipping, even if my palms ended up being sweaty for whatever reason.

Better yet is the magnet that attaches the pen to the side of the tablet, which is arguably the strongest I've come across on any such device. Even without a case, the Pen has never come off inside my bag when taking it in or out of a pocket. And I do mean never — it has shifted in angle, sure, but not completely fallen off. That's just my experience, though.

You still get an eraser on the top and the customizable shortcut button, as well as five spare tips in the box. What you don't get is the aforementioned sleep case, which you will need to purchase separately, but there are options galore directly from Amazon and third parties.

As much as I would love to wax lyrical about the stylus, it's the 11-inch E Ink Carta 1300 display that's the star of the show here. It was already fantastic on the 10.2-inch 2024 Scribe, but now it just seems a touch better.

I'd like to say it's because of the 100nit peak brightness that makes it look nicer, but even with the LEDs dimmed, it's the cleanest, almost-white display I've used on an epaper tablet that still manages to seem like paper. In fact, I much prefer it over the duller-looking E Ink Kaleido 3 display on the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

The flush screen is protected by a top layer of glass that also has an anti-glare coating. You also get the standard 300ppi resolution which, despite being spread over a larger area, still renders text and writing in sharp clarity, and it's arguably one of the most responsive screens on an epaper device to date.

• Design & display score: 4.5 / 5

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: Software

• Refreshed homescreen setup which is cluttered with Kindle Store recommendations
• Cloud service access is very welcome
• More writing tools but not necessarily of note (pun not intended), but new a AI feature could prove useful

It's not a complete makeover, but the homescreen setup on the top of the 2025 Kindle Scribes is different to what was previously on the older models. There's easy access to what Amazon is calling a Quick Note — just tap on it and it opens up an empty notebook for you to start writing on — beside which is a single column of your recently opened items (now called Jump Back In) that were previously arranged horizontally.

By default, the Quick Note takes up more than half the left side of the screen, but it can be shrunk by tapping double arrows, which then separates your recently opened items list into two columns, thus adding more, whether that be notes or ebooks.

I like this setup better as it's a quick glance at a fair few recently opened items, rather than you needing to scroll horizontally, plus you can see what you wrote in the Quick Note without needing to open it.

Below this section is a whole lot of what I think is clutter but some users who are embedded in the Amazon ecosystem would appreciate. These include the Recently Added items list, followed by new-feature intros and several Kindle Store recommendations based on your reading habits, which is what I really detest — it just feels like overkill and I much prefer Kobo's homepage which looks neater to me.

While the bottom navigation menu still has four items, the previous Notebooks tab is now called Workspace and it has a few extra templates that I personally couldn't find much use for. I would have loved a dedicated journal template but... oh well. Otherwise, everything else is carried over from before, with limited pen and brush options that artists perhaps won't be very happy with.

The biggest improvement here (across all three 2025 Scribes in fact) is the addition of Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive support. As someone who uses the former, it's made file transfer a lot easier than using the email sharing option that has previously been the clunkier norm.

There is, however, a caveat when it comes to PDFs: you can't actually mark them up after exporting them if you need to do so. The only way to reflect changes is to export the file and open in Google Docs to edit. Despite that, I still think access to cloud services is a huge improvement and I hope Amazon rolls it out to the older Scribes as well.

Also new is a feature called Smart Shapes that you can access from the stylus menu in a note — if you need to create, say, flowcharts, you can roughly draw a circle or triangle and it will automatically get converted into a proper (or neat) shape. It's not something I personally found useful, but I think it could be for students, teachers and scientists.

The AI-powered handwriting conversion and summary creation tools from the previous generation is available here, as are the ebook annotations (Active Canvas) and side-margin notes from before, but AI search in your notes is new. It allows you to enter a keyword or phrase and all your notes, including handwritten ones (uh-huh, that's different, innit?) will be scanned to give you an AI-generated summary. It's another feature that I don't see everyone needing, but if you have a copious amount of notes on the same subject (like I occasionally do), it can be handy.

I should note that all this software improvement takes up a heck of a lot of storage. For example, when I looked into the Device Options on my 3rd-gen Scribe and Colorsoft units, I only had about 22GB and 21GB of usable storage respectively out of 32GB. This is still a good amount, but 11GB is still a heck of a lot of space to give up for power users who might want to store a lot of ebooks, audiobooks and documents on the device. To put it into context in another way: there was a time when 8GB storage was the norm in an ereader, meaning the Scribe software wouldn't even fit into an older ereader!

Software score: 4 / 5

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: User experience

• Despite its size, it's one of the best screens to read on
• New stylus writes wonderfully, although writing and drawing features are still comparatively limited
• Handful of new templates added for note taking

I have a few Kindle devices at home, including three of the 2024 releases, and yet I'm not really a Kindle fan because of how much the user interface forces you into the Amazon ecosystem.

However, the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe with frontlight has come very close to changing my mind — I am willing to put up with the homescreen clutter because of how good reading and writing is on that glorious E Ink display. It's hands down the best epaper tablet I've tested in 2026 (it's a delayed review as it wasn't released in Australia, where I'm based, until June this year).

Reading

As I've already said, the 300ppi resolution looks a little better on this Scribe than it did on the previous generation because Amazon has optimized the display very well to render text in sharp clarity.

I've seen some users complain that the Scribes don't look as good as the Paperwhite, but it's important to keep in mind that the 7-inch Kindle has less surface area with the same amount of pixels as the 11-inch version, so the pixel size on the larger device will be slightly bigger. And that makes a difference, but not so much that it stands out. You have to look really carefully to see that kind of difference.

I am a big fan of the ambient light sensor on the display, which means the screen automatically dims or brightens up depending on whether I'm indoors or outdoors, or how bright or dark it might be around me. In other words, it automatically gives me a pleasing brightness for nighttime reading.

The larger screen makes it an ideal choice for comic book fans but, then again, color makes them more enjoyable while you'll be reading them in grayscale. The bigger screen, however, is fantastic for those who prefer larger fonts, so you aren't turning pages after a few sentences and, thus, conserving a little battery.

The Kindle font support is still not as good as flexible as on a Kobo or a Boox device. For example, sideloaded EPUBs added to the device via the Send To Kindle platform render well, but I found a few MOBI files that didn't open as expected but work perfectly fine on my Kobo Libra Colour.

I am, however, very grateful for Amazon's cloud storage where anything in your library previously added to older devices are accessible on any new Kindle.

Writing & drawing

I didn't think Amazon could better the writing experience from the previous-generation Scribe, but lo and behold, a redesigned stylus has achieved just that. As I've previously stated, the pen is the real hero when it comes to epaper writing tablets and the white Premium Pen with a slightly sharper nib glides very well over the glass and yet has just the right friction.

Then again, a pen choice is very personal and some users might prefer more friction, which is understandable. Personally, my experience was perfect, allowing me very good control over the marks I made in a note.

What I'm not necessarily too enthused by are the limited writing tools. I think Kobo's Advanced Notebooks are still a better option compared to what Amazon offers on the Scribe, although Android devices give you even more features and tools if you think you'd need them.

While there are some new templates for notes, I think their use would be very limited to select users, and I would have much preferred if Amazon had, instead, added more pen options. I may not be able to draw to save my life, but I can see how this limitation might affect artists. For everyday doodling, my colleague Lance Ulanoff finds the Kindle Scribe better than his iPad for drawing, especially when outdoors.

Writing and drawing limitations aside, the physical experience of putting words down on the 2025 Scribe is par excellence and, for that, I can't deduct too many marks.

User experience score: 4.5 / 5

Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) review: Performance

• The fastest Kindle yet, with page turns barely visible (unless animated)
• Absolutely no ghosting, even with image-heavy ebooks
• Battery life takes a small hit compared to previous generation

Amazon doesn't reveal what hardware components it uses under the hood of its devices — all we know is that there's a quad-core chip with an indeterminate amount of RAM — to keep things ticking along, but whatever there is sure makes the 3rd-generation Scribe the fastest Kindle yet.

In fact, I think I might go so far as to say it's arguably the fastest ereader and epaper writing tablet I've tested to date. I make that claim based on my recent Boox Go 10.3 (Gen II) Lumi review that I was testing at the same time the Amazon device and, despite being a 2026 release, was so significantly slower than the 2025 Scribe, specifically in terms of page turns.

On the Scribe, you can barely discern a page turn, unless you have the animation turned on of course. Several times during my two-week test period with the Scribe I didn't even think a tap registered until I saw the words on the new page. The time I did notice a blip was when the device was doing a full refresh.

Like its predecessor, there's absolutely no ghosting here, whether you've got image-heavy or word-heavy books. Not even a faded mark appears overlaid on notes, and I do wish Boox would learn how to achieve that.

Battery capacity is another spec that Amazon doesn't reveal, but it does say that it can last up to 12 weeks on a single charge when used for about 30 minutes a day. It's definitely doable, but I think battery life on the previous 2024 edition was slightly better. Potentially more LEDs (another spec that Amazon doesn't reveal) to power a larger display could be the main culprit here, but it doesn't take too much of a hit in comparison.

In my use case, with up to four hours of reading and about 30 minutes of writing each day saw the battery nearly empty in five days. That's with the ambient light sensor on, so no manual brightness adjustments were made and that does put pressure on the battery. Sleep timer was set to 30 minutes and Bluetooth was off, although Wi-Fi was always on. Similar use with the 2024 Kindle Scribe saw the battery drain in approximately seven days for me with the same settings.

Recharging, however, seems to be remarkably quick on the 2025 version of the Scribe with frontlight, with my unit taking just about 20 minutes to top up from 21% down when plugged into a 60W wall charger. That's with the screen switched off, though. If I charged it while the device was in use, it took close to two hours via the same adaptor and USB-C cable.

On the other hand, my Kindle Scribe Colorsoft drains even quicker and takes a heck of a lot longer to recharge.

• Performance score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025) with frontlight?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

The 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe with frontlight is easy to recommend and, for some users, it might even justify its high price tag. For anyone else, know that there are alternatives to consider, and they'll actually save you a little cash even at full price.

How I tested the Amazon Kindle Scribe (2025)

I sadly had the 3rd-generation Kindle Scribe for just two weeks for this review, but I ensured I spent as much time as I could with it. As I've previously mentioned, I spent an average of 4-5 hours with it each day during that time, sometimes more, both reading and writing.

I was able to access my existing library as soon as I signed into my Amazon account, but I also uploaded some new EPUBs using the Send To Kindle web platform. I also connected the Scribe to my Google Drive account to transfer a couple of PDFs to the device, but I also saved select notes to the cloud, which automatically upload as PDFs with handwriting (no automatic text conversion takes place, but you can manually trigger that on the Scribe if you wish).

I tried the Smart Shapes feature and used the new AI search to test if it would be able to summarize my own review notes for me, which is successfully did. Handwriting conversion was also tested, albeit using a colleague's scrawl (I hate to admit but I can't scribble chicken scratchings no matter how hard I try).

Kindle Unlimited and Audible were also accessed on the device, and I was able to pair a JBL Bluetooth speaker for listening.

Learn more about how we test devices here at TechRadar

[First published July 2026]

• Amazon's gaming boss thinks ballooning hardware prices could push more hardcore gamers towards cloud streaming services
• He argued that the price of consoles increasing by 'six, seven times' would mean some gamers become 'priced out of the market'
• He thinks the RAM crisis, and rising prices, will not be 'going away anytime soon'

Amazon GM of gaming Jeff Gattis thinks the rising cost of consoles and PC components could push more hardcore gamers towards cloud streaming, via services such as Amazon's own Luna.

In a recent interview about the service, I asked whether Gattis anticipates cloud gaming becoming a more popular option for core players as traditional systems become much more expensive.

"Yeah. I wouldn't have said that 18 months ago, and I will say our business model is not really predicated on this this massive shift where everybody turns in their consoles and PCs and comes over to cloud" he said.

"But gosh, when you start to see the prices of the Steam Machine and the rumors of PlayStation and Xbox. As you get to $1,000, $1,500 hardware [...] you're going to see more people that are priced out of the market. They're going to consider other technologies".

Gattis, who previously led platform and subscriptions at Xbox, went on to share an anecdote to illustrate just how much prices have risen.

"I was telling somebody the other day that when I was back at Xbox a couple of years ago, we had our Series S console on discount [for a] holiday. I think it was about $199. To think in a span of two to three years we've gone from $200 to what's likely going to be six, seven times that price.

"I understand it's a it's a RAM crisis, it's worldwide, but I don't think that's going away anytime soon."

He was, however, careful to clarify that hardcore gamers moving to the cloud isn't a core part of Amazon's strategy: "It's not our strategy to accelerate that, but it's a nice tailwind if it does happen, and it's realistic to think that it might."

The comments come as Amazon rolls out a Fire TV update that gives Amazon Prime subscribers the ability to stream games like Fallout 4 or Fortnite from directly within Prime Video via Luna in a bid to get more eyes on the service.

• Amazon says emissions rose 16% in 2025, purchased electricity emissions up 34%
• Projects are using renewable energy matching and lower-carbon materials
• Data center PUE continues to improve, but Google does it better

In its 2025 Sustainability Report, Amazon revealed its absolute emissions increased 16% to 80.9 million tonnes, meaning that one single company now generates as many emissions as an entire country – New Zealand (77.8 million tonnes in 2024).

The company blamed AI for creating unprecedented energy demand, causing emissions to rise significantly in 2025, but it argues long-term investments in renewable energy and data center efficiency keep it on track for its 2040 net zero goal.

However, this is Amazon's largest annual emissions increase since it launched its net zero Climate Pledge, and its data center expansion plans continue to develop.

Amazon's emissions continue to grow – 2040 net zero goal remains realistic

Although AWS revenue grew 20% in 2025, Amazon noted the amount of CO2 per dollar of revenue actually grew 3% year-over-year – though this figure, known as carbon intensity, is still 38% lower than 2019 before aggressive AI-fuelled data center expansions.

But while data centers have certainly caused energy consumption and carbon emissions to rise, the company's biggest contributor is actually its supply chain. Around three-quarters (76%) of its total emissions now come from its supply chain, up 20% year-over-year.

Despite the 34% increase in emissions from purchased electricity, those emissions only account for around one-twentieth (5%) of Amazon's entire carbon footprint.

Amazon also noted that 80 new renewable and carbon-free energy projects in 2025 brought its overall capacity to 42GW across 712 projects, with 61 of its construction projects last year using lower-carbon materials.

But with a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) score of 1.14, its data centers fall short of Google's 2024 figure of 1.09.

• AWS wants to help customers deploy agentic AI at scale
• New FDE organization backed by $1 billion in AWS funding
• BMW and Lyft are early success stories

Amazon Web Services has announced plans to spend $1 billion deploying engineers in customer workplaces to help them build and deploy their own AI systems.

The dedicated AWS Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization focuses on getting organizations up and running with agentic AI quickly before making customers self-sufficient so that engineers can depart at the end of the project.

Frontier AI VP Francessca Vasquez explained many of the engineers are already behind many of AWS' own AI services, hinting at the expertise that customers can get access to.

AWS to forward-deploy engineers to speed up AI rollout

"Along with agentic systems running in their own AWS environment, they gain lasting AI skills, workflows, and patterns they can use to innovate independently," Vasquez wrote.

FDEs will collaborate with business leaders, engineering teams, security teams and other relevant workers to build AI systems and integrate AI agents into existing infrastructure, rather than just provide no-action consultancy services.

The project marks the next stages of artificial intelligence, focusing on agentic AI rather than generative AI. Customers who sign up to the program will get to explore automation tools, autonomous AI and industry-specific applications rather than just basic chatbots.

Amazon says it's doing this because access to models and model capability are no longer barriers to adoption – instead, organizations are struggling to actually implement them at scale.

Prior to the creation of this FDE organization, Amazon's engineers had already been deployed to BMW where they reduced service disruptions across 23 million connected vehicles, and to Lyft where they helped resolve driver support issues 87% faster.

The Allen Institute, Cox Automotive, the NBA, the NFL, Ricoh and Southwest Airlines are already early customers for the new FDE team.

It's been another packed week of technology news, and TechRadar has been covering all of the stories that matter: the Prime Day deals, the Apple price hikes, new devices from Oura and Sonos, and plenty more besides.

If you haven't been able to check in regularly on our site, this weekly ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up is here to get you up to speed. You can browse through the headlines that matter below, and click the links for the full articles.

Get yourself comfortable and review the past week below, and we'll be back again this time next week for another ICYMI summary.

7. We scoured the Prime Day deals

You may have noticed that it's been Amazon Prime Day this week — it's now spread across multiple days of course — and the TechRadar team has been busy searching across every Amazon category to bring you the best deals: we've found discounts on TVs, laptops, headphones, smartwatches, smart home gadgets, tablets, and plenty more besides.

No matter what you're in need of tech-wise at the moment, our US and UK round-up pages have a variety of deals that will fit, and a lot of these discounts are genuinely substantial — and many are still going. Together with the latest prices and links for each product, we've also included our expert tech advice in each case, so you know exactly why which offers are worth pursuing.

• Read more: We're tracking the best Prime Day tech deals live — 121 biggest discounts on Apple, Samsung, Kindle, Sony, and more

6. We reviewed the Oura Ring 5

The Oura Ring 5 is a substantial step up from its predecessor: it's slimmer, lighter, and more durable, as well as offering extra battery life — and according to our review, you might even forget you're wearing it. Oura has managed to refine the device's appearance so it looks like a normal piece of jewelry, even with the cutting-edge sensors inside it.

"It's easily the most stylish and accurate smart ring around," our review states, though it's not perfect, and there's that usual Oura subscription fee to consider if you want to access most of the tracking features. If you're wondering whether the Oura Ring 5 is the right wearable upgrade for you, then we'll tell you everything you need to know below.

• Read more: Oura Ring 5 review — a luxury smart ring for discreet everyday wellness tracking that's (almost) easy to forget you're wearing

5. Meta revealed its cheaper smart glasses

Meta has treated us to a bumper crop of new smart glasses, starting at $299 / £269 / AU$599 and developed in partnership with EssilorLuxottica. We've got all the details here, including how they feel to wear, and a rundown of the design and color variations you can pick from — you certainly can't complain that there isn't enough choice in this batch.

We've also got comments from Meta CTO and Head of Reality Labs Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth, who outlined the company's vision of a smart spec future, and said "it's pretty easy to make glasses that don’t look good, it turns out". That seems to be a humorous dig at some of Meta's rivals in the space, but see what you think of the new Meta Glasses range.

• Read more: 'Our goal is to reach every corner of the market': Meta CTO Andrew 'Boz' Bosworth on the new $299 EssilorLuxottica Meta Glasses

4. We reviewed the latest Sonos speaker

The Sonos Era 100 SL wireless speaker is more affordable than the Era 100 that launched before it, but as our detailed review will tell you, Sonos has been able to pull this off without making too many compromises. Most importantly, the quality of the sound doesn't drop even though the price does, so you still get a top-tier listening experience.

Our review takes you through every aspect of the Era 100 SL speaker, from how easy it is to set up initially, to the sort of performance you can expect from it — with London Grammar and DJ Shadow included in the artists whose music we used for testing — and there's praise for "quality sound", "great connectivity", and "iconic design" along the way.

• Read more: 'A better price for the same performance': I reviewed Sonos' cheaper Era 100 SL wireless speaker, and was shocked at how few concessions were made to make this a bargain

3. The Steam Machine got an official price tag

It's been a long wait for the Steam Machine, but we're nearly there, and now know that the starting price is set at $1,049 / £879 / AU$1,609, and we can thank the price inflation driven by the RAM crisis for that. If a Steam Machine is still within your budget, you'll be able to put in an order from June 29, more than seven months after it was first announced.

If you don't think that's good value, then we've put together a guide to building your own Steam Machine alternative below. You get full control over the budget and the specs of the components you choose, and it can be a lot of fun too (as we can say with confidence given the years of PC building experience on the TechRadar team).

• Read more: Disappointed by the Steam Machine’s official price? Build your own mini gaming PC instead with these deals

2. Apple revealed its painful price hikes

Speaking of the RAM crisis, it just hit Apple too: the company has racked up the pricing on many of its products, including iPads, MacBooks, and even the HomePod. The recently launched MacBook Neo, for example, now has a starting price of $699 rather than $599 in the US — a not inconsiderable rise of $100 or 17% in a single jump.

We've got all the details of how much more expensive each Apple gadget is now, with these price increases effective immediately on the official Apple Store. We've also got some ideas about where you can still find these Apple products at their original prices from third-party retailers — though you'll have to move fast to grab them.

• Read more: Apple just delivered the worst kind of news: price hikes across many of its major products (even the Neo) — and yes, RAM prices are to blame

1. GTA 6 pre-orders finally went live

After two substantial delays, GTA 6 is finally going to go on sale on November 19, and you can get your pre-orders in now for the PS5, the Xbox Series X, or the Xbox Series S. You've got a $79.99 / £69.99 Standard Edition and a $99.99 / £89.99 Ultimate Edition to choose between, and we've got links for you to all the top US and UK retailers right here.

We're also going to keep an eye out for any bundles that these stores are offering, meaning you can pick up the game and a console at the same time — so check back often if you're interested. It's exciting that pre-orders are now live for what could be the video game of the decade, and we only have five more months to count down until launch day.

• Read more: GTA 6 pre-orders live — bundles arrive, while almost all major US and UK retailers have stock

• Amazon is hiring 11,000 new workers, mostly new graduates and interns
• Garman says they're more impressionable and willing to adopt AI
• Willingness to learn could be more important than existing skills

Amazon CEO Matt Garman has confirmed the company's plans to hire 11,000 interns and new grads this year despite an ongoing internal push for AI tools.

The news comes around six months after the company warned that 16,000 workers would be losing their jobs, with Garman's cloud business hit hard.

With the latest news, the company looks to be refocusing human resources instead of getting rid of human workers altogether as business priorities change and new opportunities open up.

Amazon to hire 11,000 workers in the same year it laid off 16,000

Speaking with Casey Newton of Platformer in a YouTube interview, Garman explained that white-collar jobs are changing as a result of AI, but they're not being eliminated. He compared AI to Excel spreadsheets, which dramatically increased productivity for accounting and finance work.

"If you look at what your job was two years ago, and what your job is going to be in two years, it's going to be vastly different," he said.

Garman also noted a shift in where humans bring the most value – writing code itself is becoming less valuable, but engineers are still important reviewing AI-generated code, understanding business requirements and designing systems with the AI-generated code.

As for why the company is hiring junior workers specifically, Garman acknowledged that they're among the cheapest labor to hire, but they also learn company culture faster and can embrace AI more positively than older generations.

The CEO previously said that replacing junior employees with AI was "one of the dumbest things I've ever heard."

Without hiring graduates today, companies risk creating a long-term skills gap in the future because they have nobody to train into senior and experienced engineers, he added.

He implied that recruitment is becoming more about a willingness to learn, not the skills that have already been mastered, but the interview ultimately confirmed the continued value of human workers.

• Big Tech was hit with $3.5B fines over three years, Surfshark found
• Many were fined for using personal data unlawfully
• Enforceability remains a key challenge

Major tech companies have already been hit by fines totalling $3.5 billion for using vast amounts of users’ personal data to train their AI models, raising hopes that the days of AI operating in a regulatory vacuum might be coming to an end.

The figures come from Surfshark, one of the best VPNs on the market, which recently analysed 10 AI-related sanctions imposed on the usual suspects — Anthropic, Meta, Google, Clearview, Apple, Amazon, and OpenAI — between 2022 and 2026.

Disturbingly, nine out of ten fines were imposed for using users’ personal data — including biometric data, copyright-protected content, facial images, and children's voice recordings — without user consent or legal authorisation.

AI violations: which company misused our data the most?

According to Surfshark’s study, Clearview AI was the first, in 2022, to be fined a total of around $46 million for collecting facial images for its facial recognition database.

But the pace picked up in 2024, with five new separate fines imposed on Google, OpenAI, Meta, Clearview, and Amazon.

The size of the fines has also increased substantially, signalling a positive shift from regulatory warnings to severe financial consequences. In 2024, Meta was fined $1.4 billion for collecting users’ biometric data without consent, followed by Anthropic in 2025 with a record $1.5 billion for training its AI models using pirated books.

On a different note, the $250 million fine imposed on Apple in 2026 for AI misleading marketing practices might signal that current AI advertisement tactics might also soon become a thing of the past.

"This could be only the beginning," says Dr. Luis Costa, research lead at Surfshark. "The overarching trend suggests that accountability is catching up with innovation, and the industry must re-evaluate both how it builds AI and how it markets it."

While regulations and authorities seem to be starting to catch up and match their punishments with Big Tech's wrongdoings, the findings continue to raise serious questions about the risks users face when using these AI platforms.

"Firstly, the scale of unauthorised data collection is unprecedented: 90 per cent of AI-related fines imposed since 2022 relate to the use of data without the necessary consent," Costa explains.

"Second, this harvesting often targets highly sensitive, unchangeable data, as seen in Meta’s $1.4 billion biometric settlement and Amazon’s fine over children’s voice recordings," he adds.

It also remains alarming that many companies fail to adequately inform the public about how their sensitive data is used, leaving consumers oblivious to the fact that their personal information is permanently baked into commercial AI models.

Better enforceability is needed

Additionally, while these fines may seem exorbitant, it is worrying that the financial impact of such punishments rarely acts as a deterrent to these large technology companies, whose market capitalisation runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

In its research, Proton previously found that the $7.8 billion in privacy and competition fines imposed on Big Tech in 2025 could be collectively paid by these firms in less than a month.

However, Costa argues that the issue is more complex and regulators might be working toward targeted changes. "First, regulators are escalating the financial stakes, shifting toward massive penalties like Anthropic's $1.5 billion and Meta's $1.4 billion settlements."

Additionally, a major challenge right now is actually enforceability — particularly as some companies have already been exploiting loopholes to avoid paying fines. Clearview AI, for example, managed to avoid paying $105 million in fines imposed by four different European regulatory authorities by arguing that it did not fall within European jurisdiction.

"Even if these early fines are manageable for tech giants, their real value lies in establishing the firm legal precedents that will govern how AI must operate in the future," Costa concludes.

• Alexa+ has turned a little scary in one household
• A simple counting task enabled a creepy voice
• Some other users are reporting similar bugs in the AI

If you're already worried about the potential dangers of AI chatbots, this one probably isn't for you: an Amazon Echo user has reported Alexa+ "breathing and making guttural sounds" while engaged in the supposedly innocent task of counting to 40 (in Spanish).

There's video evidence on Reddit (via Android Authority), and it's pretty spooky to listen to — so only click the play button if you're sure you want to hear a disembodied AI-generated voice that sounds somewhat possessed.

According to the user who posted the video, they asked Alexa+ to count up to 40, which prompted the strange sounds. It's not an ideal response, especially as there were two five-year-old kids listening who just wanted a simple countdown.

Apparently, the original poster was then able to get the same thing happening on a separate Amazon Echo in another room. "Needless to say, the Alexas in my house are now unplugged and I've reported the whole thing to Amazon," they report.

A little bit too expressive

While it's possible that some kind of user error or AI fakery has produced this video, it's odd that it would happen on two different devices — and there's at least one other user in the Reddit thread saying they've experienced something similar.

It's almost certainly down to a bug in Alexa+: the new and upgraded AI assistant is intended to be more conversational and more expressive, and in this case it seems to have gone too far (in the same way that AI chatbots can introduce hallucinations and tangents when writing out text).

When pushed, Alexa+ itself said that "something in my environment" must have caused the glitch, though it's not clear what that something might be. Perhaps it's the ghost of Alexa past, which Alexa+ has now replaced.

The Reddit reactions describe the speaker as "haunted", "terrifying", and in need of an exorcism, though the fix is likely to be no more complicated than a tweak to the Alexa+ AI model from Amazon's side.

• Check Point Research warns Prime Day (June 23–26, 2026) is fueling a surge in malicious Amazon‑themed domains
• 6,843 domains registered Dec–May; nearly 10% flagged malicious/suspicious, with June showing 1 in 13 domains risky
• Shoppers urged to avoid Google searches for Amazon, verify URLs, and treat “too good to be true” deals with caution

Thousands of new domains were registered in the weeks and months leading up to Amazon Prime Day, most of which are malicious and created to steal consumer data and possibly money. This is according to a new report from Check Point Research (CPR), in which the security outfit warns about Prime Day being the perfect storm for every cybercriminal.

Amazon’s Prime Day is set to take place between June 23 and 26, 2026. During these four days, thousands of retailers in 25 countries will offer great deals on their goods and services, creating one of the biggest retail events on the planet. Consequently, they’ll also be creating one of the biggest cyberattack events on the planet, as well:

“Major retail moments bring together the three ingredients’ attackers exploit most: a globally trusted brand, time-limited urgency, and massive purchase intent at scale,” CPR warns, adding that phishing emails, fake websites, fraudulent offers, and account takeover attempts all surge during this period.

How to defend against Prime Day scams

For events such as this one, crooks prepare months in advance. CPR found that between December 2025 and May 2026, there were 6,843 new Amazon-themed domains registered worldwide, most of which were set up in April (1,446). May 2026 added another 1,267 domains.

Obviously, not all of them will be malicious, but CPR said that almost one in ten (9.2%) were already classified as either malicious or suspicious, and in the first week of June, one in every thirteen was labeled the same way.

“This pattern reflects a broader build-up of malicious infrastructure ahead of the event, with multiple Amazon-themed domains designed to exploit brand trust, urgency, and high purchase intent at scale,” the researchers warned.

To stay safe this Amazon Prime Day, always double-check the website you’re visiting, always go to Amazon's legitimate domain (https://www.amazon.com/) rather than relying on Google search results, and remember - if something is too good to be true, it most likely is.

Andy Jassy has enjoyed a long-running and successful career in the technology industry, being a part of the Amazon family for many years – including serving as CEO of AWS for nearly 20 years – before taking over from Jeff Bezos in 2021. In business and life, he believes, there are no shortcuts to success.

Getting hands-on

Jassy coined this turn of phrase when describing AWS in 2017, speaking with CNBC. The company was one of the fastest-growing hyperscalers at a time when the public cloud was becoming a critical part of the technology ecosystem.

Speaking to the success of AWS, Jassy said newer competitors on the market may be able to replicate the technology that the organization offers, but that the years of operational experience accrued made it dominant.

In that vein, Jassy suggested that AWS had been through experiences in dealing with customers that all hyperscalers would have to overcome – and there was no way to answer those questions without going through those same tribulations.

Putting in the hard yards

Compression algorithms are incredibly useful, especially in the age of big data and especially data-hungry large language models (LLMs).

Compression algorithms were the revolutionary tech at the heart of the 2013 HBO show Silicon Valley, and since then many companies have sought to ease the burden, including Google with its TurboQuant algorithm.

As Jassy suggested, however, experience in life and business doesn't work in the same way as data. The quote is perhaps more relevant today than it was then, in light of organizations around the world shedding entry-level jobs.

With businesses cutting the talent pipelines that could have led to years-long careers – much like Jassy's several decades at AWS – it may worsen not just the skills crisis but also create large experience gaps in the business world in the decades to come.

• Amazon is investigating three employees over comments made at a council meeting
• The employees spoke during a discussion on a one year moratorium on data center construction
• Amazon said that it "may or may not take action based on what we find.”

Amazon is investigating a group of employees who attended council meetings discussing a year-long moratorium on planned data center constructions.

Five employees, who work as engineers, criticized the “all-costs-justified AI build out” that has caused data center construction projects to spread rapidly across the US.

Since attending then, three engineers were invited to separate meetings with Amazon’s human resources to investigate their testimony at the meetings, according to a complaint filed with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

Amazon investigates employees critical of data center buildout

In their separate meetings with HR, the employees were warned that the investigation could lead to disciplinary action, ranging up to termination.

The complaint states that employees were made to feel “intimidated and uncertain in their future employment”.

The complaint further stated that, “Amazon was monitoring their political advocacy before the Seattle City Council and was seeking to identify additional employees who had engaged in political activities.”

Under Seattle Law, personal characteristics such as political ideology, race, religion and age cannot be used for discriminatory purposes by companies against their employees.

Speaking to CNBC, Amazon spokesperson Margaret Callahan said that the employees may have been speaking as representatives of Amazon, rather than as private citizens, adding that those speaking as Amazon representatives must follow certain procedures.

“We believe it’s important to apply our policies consistently so, just as we would with anyone else, we’re investigating whether there was a violation of our policies and may or may not take action based on what we find,” Callahan said in a statement.

Darius Irani, one of the employees involved in the council hearings, said in a statement “All I did was testify because I believe it’s critical that the government regulates data centers and AI. Workers need to be involved in these conversations.”

• Amazon signs agreement with Corning to procure fiber optic cables and networking components
• The move is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs in addition to the 1000 it creates at Corning's facilities in North Carolina
• Move comes as Amazon announces more than $20 billion investment into the state to create 26,000 jobs

Amazon has announced a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar agreement with Corning to supply its data center needs as it capitalizes on an AI-driven boom in demand.

The move, which creates manufacturing and construction jobs, also expands Corning's Fiber Optic Technician Training Program at Catawba Valley Community College, signaling an increased demand for technical workers in the fiber-optic industry.

Amazon has already committed to $10 billion in cloud infrastructure investments in North Carolina, investing over $20 billion in the state in projects it says have directly contributed to the creation of 26,000 jobs.

Amazon's glass obsession: bandwidth is key

The agreement comes weeks after AWS (Amazon Web Services) showcased Random Network Graph architecture, a fiber-optic network design that arranges cables in a semi-random configuration to boost bandwidth and reliability between servers.

The design considerably increases demand for fiber-optic cable and connectivity while solving one of AI's biggest challenges as models and data centers grow larger: reliable bandwidth.

Corning makes for an ideal partner for most AI data center companies looking to build out infrastructure: it is one of the world's largest fiber-optic manufacturers, is a US-based company, and offers cutting-edge fiber-optic technology all in one package. The 175-year-old glass company is up 94.72% Year-to-date (YTD) as investors continue to look for indirect beneficiaries of the AI trade amid unabated spending.

Amazon's move is not an isolated one, even as it marks a multi-billion-dollar investment in fiber optics for Corning. Nvidia has already been here first, backing the construction of 3 new optical equipment facilities and investing as much as $3.2 billion in the company's shares to finance what it says is a "10x increase" in its US-based optical connectivity manufacturing capacity.

"Amazon's investments in North Carolina have created more than 26,000 jobs across the state. This multibillion-dollar agreement with Corning continues that commitment, channeling investment into American manufacturing and creating 1,000 new jobs at their facilities near our data centers," said Matt Garman, CEO of AWS.

"We're also partnering to train North Carolinians for highly skilled roles in fiber optics and fusion splicing. These long-term investments create long-term careers and real opportunity in the communities where we operate."

• Amazon says its data centers used 0.12L/kWh in 2025 – Google used 1.15L/kWh
• Air-based cooling is used 90% of the time, keeping water only for when it's really needed
• The company has also raised the safe operating temperatures for equipment, reducing cooling needs

Amazon has revealed exactly how much its global data center operations used in 2025, and at 2.5bn gallons (the equivalent of 9.5bn litres), it is less than we might have expected.

Even though 2025 was a big year for data center expansion, Amazon says water use at facilities it directly owned fell 2% year-over-year, noting an impressive Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of 0.12L/kWh – seven times better than the 0.84L/kWh industry average and a 52% self-improvement since 2021.

While closed-loop cooling likely drove some of this improvement, Amazon says its data centers now use outside air cooling around 90% of the time.

Amazon says data center water usage is actually decreasing

With air-based cooling doing the heavy lifting, Amazon said that evaporative cooling systems, which are considered water-intensive, are only used during the hottest weather conditions.

To offset some of the cooling requirements, the company also managed to increase the temperatures at which servers can safely operate, reducing the actual cooling needs in the first place.

Comparing itself to key hyperscaler rivals in 2024, Amazon emerged as a clear leader, consuming 0.15L/kWh. Meta came in second place at 0.19L/kWh, with Microsoft consuming twice as much (0.3L/kWh). Google fell short, at 1.15L/kWh.

Where water is required, Amazon says it's committed to expanding recycled water cooling to more than 120 US locations by the end of the decade, up from 24 sites currently. 2030 is also Amazon's target for becoming water positive – a goal it says it's 75% of the way there.

However, while the figures paint a remarkable picture of leadership, Amazon's data excludes partner locations as well as construction and manufacturing-related consumption.

"As demand for cloud computing continues to grow, so does our commitment to doing more with less—and to leave communities better than we found them," the company said in its blog post.

• Jeff Bezos says AI can bring in "multiple golden ages"
• "I think these people are just wrong”, Amazon founder says on AI naysayers
• His new firm Prometheus raises $12bn in new funding in its attempt to build an "artificial general engineer"

Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos has once again looked to play down the effects AI could have on the global job market, insisting the technology can instead bring in "multiple golden ages".

“The people who are jumping to the conclusion that the jobs are all going to go away...I think these people are just wrong,” Bezos, the world’s fourth-richest person, told the Financial Times.

“We’re in the middle of multiple golden ages right now, certainly with AI," he added, "But I think it’s true of space also, and other areas like biotech...I think you’re going to see a whole bunch of incredible miracles unfold here in the next decade.”

Everything has to do with AI

Bezos was speaking at an event for his new firm, Promotheus, which looks to use AI to revolutionize manufacturing and engineering, and recently raised $12 billion at a $41 billion valuation.

Bezos himself was a major contributor for the new funds, with the likes of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and BlackRock also investing.

“All of the things that I work on today have something to do with AI,” Bezos told the FT, noting that his Blue Origin spacecraft firm, “is a perfect example of a company that would be greatly benefited” by Prometheus’ tools.

The company is looking to build what it calls an “artificial general engineer” — services and software which would be capable of automating the design and manufacturing of complex physical systems. It see anything from jet engines to new drugs as being covered by the potential, and could therefore have a major impact on engineering jobs.

And despite widespread concerns over the impact AI is already having on human jobs, Bezos said he believes the technology will in fact create a labour shortage, which will then lead to the creation of a host of new jobs.

“At root, all civilisational wealth is driven by invention. Six thousand years ago, somebody invented the plough, and we all got wealthier,” Bezos said.

This is not the first time Bezos has looked to play up the importance of AI, and convince us of its transformational impact instead.

In May 2025, he told CNBC that naysayer around AI "are dead wrong,” noting that, “What’s really going to happen is that (AI) is going to elevate all of these people.”

Bezos also predicted AI will help boost productivity, and could even lead to deflation as the cost of goods and services falls - but that this could only happen if, “we let this technology play out and don’t hamstring it with regulation too early.”

He also rejected the idea that AI coding tools could be a threat to software engineers, stating the technology could actually help them be more productive by spotting issues and solving problems.

• Northampton and Kettering facilities represent £1bn in UK funding from Amazon
• 4,000 jobs to be created at the two sites plus hundreds of seasonal roles
• Shoreditch HQ also gets a major upgrade with third office building

Amazon has confirmed it will be investing more than £1 billion into the UK in a major show of support for the country.

The announcement includes plans to open an new fulfillment center in Northampton and a second major logistics facility in the nearby market town of Kettering, each creating 2,000 jobs to add more than 4,000 jobs in total.

But more importantly, this major job opportunity represents just one 40th of Amazon's current UK investment plan, which covers £40 billion between 2025 and 2027.

Amazon is creating thousands of jobs across the UK

Within the first year, the company already claims to have delivered on £15 billion of this funding, and the new Northampton fulfillment center is now operational and handling customer deliveries.

Operations at the facility are spread across three floors and the campus includes thousands of Hercules robots that bring products to human workers.

As for the Kettering site, scheduled to open later in 2026, Amazon says it will become the largest cross-dock facility in the UK. The site is expected to process around 20 million items every week and will create both 2,000 permanent jobs and hundreds of additional seasonal roles.

At the same time, Amazon has expanded its Shoreditch HQ campus in East London with a third office building marking its commitment to investing in the UK.

The company declared it now employs 75,000 workers across more than 100 UK sites, noting that nearly half of its entry-level recruits stated on a salary of around the £30,000 mark.

"Amazon’s investment will help people move from welfare into work, with rewarding careers and room to progress," Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Pat McFadden commented. "It reflects the same ambition as our Youth Guarantee, supporting young people across the country to earn or learn."

• Merch on Demand taps into Alexa for Shopping for new AI-generated designs
• Consumer-targeted upgrade works on the app or website, available with Prime shipping
• Only US customers will get it for now – Etsy and others could suffer

Amazon has launched a new feature within Alexa for Shopping that enables customers to generate their own merch designs from AI prompts, which they can then have printed on physical products like hoodies and T-shirts.

Senior Editor Jacquelyn Smith said in an announcement that users may wish to print "a group chat's funniest inside joke... shirts for an upcoming family reunion... [or] a beloved pet reimagined as a cartoon," implying the new feature is designed primarily for consumer markets.

The new AI upgrade will be powered by the company's existing Merch on Demand platform, which means Amazon is behind the manufacturing, fulfillment, shipping and customer service.

Alexa for Shopping and Merch on Demand deliver custom merch via Prime

Available on the app, customers can tap the Alexa icon or search for 'customize' to describe an idea, refine with follow-up prompts and order the merch immediately. It's also available on the website for PC users.

With the new tool, Amazon directly targets other on-demand print platforms like Printful, Shutterfly, Etsy and more, and democratizes access to custom merch with all the benefits of Amazon, like fast Prime shipping.

This comes shortly after the company rolled out Alexa for Shopping, which upgrades the previous Rufus assistant with newer Alexa+ capabilities for an overall slicker experience.

Smith noted that the current product range, which is mostly apparel-dominated, includes T-shirts, V-necks, long-sleeve shirts, polo shirts, quarter zips, jerseys, hoodies, sweatshirts, tank tops and raglans. Tumblers and water bottles are also available.

And as with any new feature, US customers will be the first to benefit. Amazon did not mention any plans to expand to other geographies at this point.

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft: Two-minute review

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft delivers everything you could want from an e-reader (mostly). Amazon packed this device with all of the key features of its other Kindles, but unfortunately, it commands a much higher price as a result.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft nails all the e-reader basics, and that chunky upcharge brings some color into the mix so you can experience comics and the like. You also get a fancy pen to annotate and take notes. Those features function well overall, but they're not perfect.

Despite combining the “Scribe” and “Colorsoft” portions in the Kindle, you actually can't use them in tandem. You can't annotate or take any notes when you're reading comics or manga, which is ironic considering this is meant to be an all-in-one solution.

However, the 11-inch display is large enough to mimic the size of some graphic novels. That means you have plenty of room to take notes, too. The screen also captures images in strong detail.

So, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is a great e-reader, but unless it's on sale, I'd only recommend it to folks in a higher tax bracket.

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: price and availability

• From $629 / £569 / AU$999
• Launched in the US and UK on December 10, 2025
• Launching in Australia on June 10, 2026

No. I simply cannot recommend the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft to the average Kindle user. It’s just too damn expensive. Adding color and a pen to your Kindle is a luxury that I would only recommend to those invested in Amazon’s eBook ecosystem or someone with significant disposable income.

At its starting price with 32GB of storage, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft costs $629 / £569 / AU$999 (it will launch in Australia on June 10). For 64GB of storage, that price jumps up to $679 / £629 / AU$1,099. As someone who just wants to read a book, that makes my wallet cry. But keep in mind that this is the peak premium Kindle device.

You can break down the features of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft into three categories — Kindle, Scribe, and Colorsoft — and it's quite simple to pick apart its value proposition as a result. The Kindle is just your traditional Paperwhite device for $159 / £159 / AU$199, and then the Colorsoft adds a splash of color to that for $249 / £269 / AU$399, and finally, you’ve got the Scribe for $399 / £379 / AU$649, which is like the Paperwhite, except you can write on it. Combine all that, and you get the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

If, for some reason, you need all three features packed into one device, then obviously, your only option in the Kindle ecosystem is the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft. But focusing on one key feature will save you some decent coin, so I recommend doing just that before committing such a princely sum to this all-in-one device. Not to mention, there are cheaper color e-readers out there, like the Kobo Libra Colour ($219 / £199 / AU$359).

• Value score: 3 / 5

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: Specs

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: design

• Slightly less portable, but more reading room
• Pen placement is awkward

The 11-inch Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is almost as big as some of the taller graphic novels I have on my shelf, which seems appropriate considering its purpose. It does make it somewhat more difficult to carry around than the 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft, but it feels more authentic. And despite the larger 189 x 245mm body, it weighs only 400g and is 5.4mm thick, so it’s still more portable than some hardcover books.

As far as the overall design goes, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft looks exactly how you imagine a Kindle would look, except without that chunky bottom bezel. The bezels are still large enough for your hands to grip the device without getting in the way of the screen.

I reviewed the Graphite model with the white pen, but you can get the Fig colorway, which also comes with a Fig-colored pen. I usually don’t say this about tech, but I think I prefer the black model, only because the Fig colorway might be a little distracting while reading.

At the bottom, you’ll find the USB Type-C port for charging, and the power button is located on the top-right side. Just below that is the space where the pen attaches.

If you’re thinking that the pen might get in the way while attached to the right side, you’d be correct. It’s a silly design choice, especially when the pen is small enough (155 x 8.8mm) to easily fit on top of the Kindle.

Overall, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is sleek and inoffensive. It’s thin and light, albeit a bit harder to carry around than previous models, but who doesn’t want a little more reading and writing space? However, I am frustrated by the pen placement.

• Design score: 4 / 5

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: display

• There’s color, but it’s not colorful
• Text and images are sharp

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft covers the black-and-white spectrum at 300 ppi and adds a splash of color at 150 ppi. There isn’t much the 11-inch display could do to elevate the average book reading experience, but it didn’t have to. Text looked clear and crisp, and the 36 white LEDs and 34 amber LEDs made it so I had a more comfortable reading experience depending on the setting I was in.

Like with other e-ink displays, the LEDs do create a layer of color (white or amber) that warps the image on the screen a little bit. With black text, it’s perfectly fine, as the difference is negligible. However, when introducing color, it’s more noticeable.

The problem is that, while it’s nice to have color, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is just not as colorful as I’d like it to be. I read “Hellblazer Vol. 1,” and when John Constantine heads to Africa, there are supposed to be these bright and bold pink and yellow hues, but they are muted on the Scribe Colorsoft’s screen. Even when set to “Vivid” mode, the color doesn’t pop. Honestly, this is to be expected from an e-ink display. But it doesn’t change the fact that you won’t get the same experience as looking at a real graphic novel. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that we can experience color at all, but at this wild asking price, it’s definitely not worth it for the color alone.

• Display score: 4 / 5

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: performance

• Relatively smooth
• The response times you expect

You’re not looking at a racehorse here; this is a little pony, and that's OK. You don’t need all the performance in the world to run an e-reader.

The Kindle Scribe Colorsoft is relatively smooth across the board but still suffers from slightly slow response times during navigation. This isn’t a huge turn-off, since most of the experience comes down to turning a page. I did have to restart my Kindle once because it simply refused to connect to Wi-Fi no matter how many times I tried, but it resolved itself afterwards.

When doing more involved things like annotating or taking notes, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft kept up with all of my movements and demands with little issue. Zooming in around the pages also looked and felt smooth, although there’s still a slight awkward delay for the image to refresh, as I could clearly see the ghost of an image from the previous screen.

• User experience score: 4 / 5

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: software

• Surprisingly fast performance on E Ink
• Smooth zooming, whether color or black and white

All of the important bits of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, or any e-reader, come down to the software experience. I am generally happy with what this Kindle provides, and it’s not that much different from other e-readers.

You’ve got the essentials that allow you to adjust the layout, font, spacing, etc. There are little things like the “Popular highlights” and “About this book” info, which are neat. Then there’s Word Wise, which defines unfamiliar words but also still needs a lot of work — it identifies overly simple words even at its lowest setting instead of exclusively honing in on the university-level vocabulary that most people would struggle with.

One of my personal favorite software features is being able to isolate comic panels. Double-tapping on a comic panel will make it full screen, and then you can flip through the following panels with ease. When it gets to a new page, it’ll show you the full page and then break down each panel at full screen. This is super cool because you don’t have to zoom in to get a closer look at what’s happening. However, it’s not perfect. I noticed an issue when reading “Attack on Titan” where, when there are two panels and text sprawled across them, sometimes the Kindle won’t combine the panels, and it cuts off the text.

Another cool feature is being able to simulate page turns, which I love in theory, but it doesn’t look the best in practice. The problem is that it’s a fade-in and -out effect instead of an actual flipping animation. It looks a bit more natural when reading a book because it’s a quick fade between texts, but it’s a much uglier transition with comics because there’s a lot of ghosting happening. It looks like it fades in chunks, and it was visually unsatisfying to the point where I turned it off.

To highlight the “Scribe” portion of this Kindle, the notetaking and markup process is rather smooth. The pen is equipped with an eraser on the back and a shortcut button on its side (defaulted to highlight). When reading a standard book, there are two important icons, one on the left and right. The leftmost icon is for all of your pen settings to customize the look, change between highlighters and erasers, and even insert notes and canvases between the text.

The right side of the screen is where you take your notes; it can expand and either split the screen with the text or hover over it, and wherever you write notes, it’ll attach a note symbol next to the closest text. That’s pretty intuitive, since you can change the layout of the book, so naturally it would move the space of your notes. You can even expand the size of notes to take up the full page if you want, so there’s plenty of room to write.

There are a lot of features for folks interested in the “Scribe” portion of things, and they operate pretty seamlessly overall. There’s even a workspace section where you can take full notes unrelated to what you’re reading. In that workspace, there are two AI features, one of which can summarize your notes, and the other can “Refine writing,” which basically transforms your notes into a text font that you can customize.

The only absent feature I noticed is that you can’t take any notes in comics. That means no drawings, notetaking, or even highlighting.

• Performance score: 4 / 5

Kindle Scribe Colorsoft review: battery

• Light readers can go for weeks
• Heavy readers can go for days

According to Amazon, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft can survive for eight weeks if you're reading for 30 minutes at just under half brightness. I'll save you the math: that's 28 hours of reading time. For light readers, you could probably stretch that for a few weeks. Heavier readers will likely kill that battery in a few days.

I spent several weeks with the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, reading roughly an hour every day, and I didn't need to reach for a charger until toward the end of the month. That gives credit to Amazon’s battery life claim.

The reading time you experience will vary heavily based on the brightness of your screen. If you're someone who reads at close to zero brightness, you're going to get a lot more longevity out of the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.

Unfortunately, the battery does not charge fast. When I first got it, the battery was completely drained, and I had to wait quite a while before the Kindle showed any signs of life. It'll make you think it's broken, so I do not recommend letting it die.

• Battery score: 5 / 5

Should I buy the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

How I tested the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft

• Review test period = four weeks
• Testing included = books, comics, manga

I spent a month bouncing around between books, comics, and manga. I read “The House Witch,” “The Time of Contempt,” “Hellblazer Vol. 1,” and “Attack on Titan,” most of which were available on Prime Reading. I spent roughly an hour a day reading. Logging into my Amazon account and getting them on the device was easy. Downloading comics and manga takes a little longer than books, but not significantly so.

For the “Scribe” portion of the review, I highlighted portions of dialogue and wrote little notes to myself to come back to later because the text was either written impeccably well or it was just a funny line. I also drew canvases between the text — just silly doodles right in the middle of the book.

First reviewed: May 2026

• A full-screen Fire TV pop-up ad has been spotted during start-up, which you have to dismiss
• manually
• It's currently promoting the new Fire TV mobile app redesign
• Amazon could use this as an opportunity to sell to third-party advertisers

The odd ad crops up across Fire TVs devices now and then, and users have pretty much got used to them, but now full-screen pop-ups have started to appear during the start-up process.

When users turn on their devices, one of the first things that now appears is a Fire TV system pop-up, which blocks the main home screen on both Fire TVs and Fire TV Sticks. The most frustrating part is that you have to acknowledge it and close it manually before you can use your device.

It was first spotted by AFTVnews, who say this is the first time Amazon has shown pop-ups that take over your entire screen. As it stands, the pop-up is only displaying an ad for Amazon’s Fire TV app which received a big design overhaul back in February.

As mentioned, Fire TV users are no strangers to ads. Ads are splattered across the Fire TV home screen and in standby screensavers when the device isn't being used, as well as in content on ad-supported tiers for streaming services like Prime Video.

In addition to product and brand ads, Fire TV devices display the odd pop-up when it’s system-related, whether that’s to notify you of software updates or inform you when it’s failed to pair a remote, for example.

Those types of ads are understandable, because they give you valuable information about any changes happening with your device. However, issuing full-screen pop-ups that you’re forced to acknowledge could be taking it a step too far for users who want to stream content and access apps without ads interrupting the experience.

This has sparked a concern, especially regarding the direction Amazon could take with this new advertising format — and it could even open the doors for the tech giant to start promoting products from third-party advertisers.

Is Amazon repeating history?

When it comes to spotlighting new Fire TV upgrades like the mobile app redesign, it makes sense. Amazon has rolled out a number of upgrades to Fire TV devices this year so far, which also includes a fresh layout and new streaming channels. But how long will it take for Amazon to throw brand ads in your face as soon as you turn on your TV?

As mentioned in the AFTVnews report, Amazon has used displaying formats in the past to advertise its own content and device-related information, and then gone on to sell these slots to third-party advertisers, filling its Fire TV interface with ads promoting brands that aren’t Amazon-related.

While the latest Fire TV pop-up remains system-related for now, that’s not to say Amazon won’t repeat history and see this as an opportunity to generate more revenue from advertising. The last thing viewers want is ads blocking their home screen before they've even decided what they want to watch.

• Motorola's Smart Feed app appears to be adding affiliate codes to purchases through the Amazon app
• This means Motorola, or whoever the code is linked to, would get a kickback for your purchases
• But there's evidence that this behavior might not have been intended

Something very strange — and sketchy — seems to be happening on some Motorola phones, as devices appear to have been caught adding affiliate codes to orders placed through the Amazon app.

The behavior was first spotted by a Reddit user with a Motorola Razr Ultra (2025), with Motorola’s pre-installed Smart Feed app appearing to be the culprit. 9to5Google has since replicated the behavior using a Razr Fold, and the site also claims that this oddity doesn’t happen on older versions of Motorola’s Smart Feed app, so it has only started with the latest update.

It also didn’t occur when 9to5Google used a Moto G Stylus (2026) running the latest version of Smart Feed, so seemingly, only certain phones are affected.

But it’s troubling behavior regardless, as this basically means that any time you order something from the Amazon app, Motorola will quietly get an affiliate fee, despite having nothing to do with you placing the order.

Oddly, this seems to only happen if you open the Amazon app from the app drawer, rather than from its home screen icon, but you can see evidence of it happening because the Chrome browser will flash up for a split second to inject the affiliate link.

You can see this happening in 9to5Google’s video below, which first shows the Amazon app being opened from the home screen and then from the app drawer.

This is reminiscent of the scandal previously faced by Honey — PayPal’s Chrome extension that promised to automatically apply the best discount codes to online purchases, but which would also attach its own referral links to the purchase to get a kickback, even removing other referral links that you might have attempted to use.

It gets weirder

But in Motorola’s case, things appear weirder than the company simply trying to take a cut of your Amazon purchases, because 9to5Google also found that the Chrome site that flashes up when you launch Amazon is ‘kira-abboud.com,’ which seems to be a reference to fashion influencer Kira Abboud.

But why on Earth would Motorola use an affiliate link tied to a fashion influencer? And on top of that, the actual affiliate code that’s generated doesn’t appear to match up with any that have been shared by Abboud. So it may well be that this wasn’t an intentional act by either Motorola or Abboud.

Regardless, Motorola users understandably aren’t happy, taking to Reddit to say things like “this is really sketchy” and describing this quirk as “outright malware”.

Hopefully, Motorola will clear things up soon, but in the meantime, you can disable Smart Feed to prevent this behavior. To do so, head to Settings > Apps, then search for Smart Feed and tap ‘Disable’.

• Jeff Bezos says AI doom-mongerers are "dead wrong"
• Amazon founder says using AI will lead to greater productivity
• Bezos praises Trump, but says "I'm on the side of America"

Jeff Bezos has slammed opponents to the increasing usage of AI in the workplace, saying the technology could actually assist workers across the world and unlock extra productivity for all.

Speaking to CNBC's Alan Sorkin, the Amazon founder turned wannabe socialite looked to play down growing fears that AI technology will gut the job market, particularly for younger workers.

“I think those people are dead wrong,” Bezos said. “What’s really going to happen is that (AI) is going to elevate all of these people.”

"Higher level" work

Bezos, whose former company is one of the largest AI adopters in the world, instead predicted the technology will help boost productivity, and could even lead to deflation as the cost of goods and services falls - but clarified this could only happen if, “we let this technology play out and don’t hamstring it with regulation too early.”

He also rejected the idea that AI coding tools could be a threat to software engineers, stating the technology could actually help them be more productive by spotting issues and solving problems.

“It’s just that the work is going to be done at a higher level,” Bezos said. “It’s going to be done with a bulldozer instead of a shovel, and that’s going to be a good thing.”

In a wide-ranging interview at his Blue Origin spacecraft headquarters, Bezos also touched on tax issues, President Trump and economic policies across the US.

“The top 1% of taxpayers pay about 40% of all the tax revenue, and the bottom half pay 3%,” Bezos said. “I don’t think it should be 3%. I think it should be zero.”

Despite leaving Amazon in 2021, Bezos is still handsomely paid by the company - in April 2026, it noted he received an $81,400 salary - a figure which hasn't changed since 1998, although he also received $1.6 million in security and travel expenses. Bezos, of course, also owns around 8% of Amazon, with his shares estimated to be worth in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

“People sometimes say that, you know, I don’t pay taxes. Not true. I pay billions of dollars in taxes,” Bezos told CNBC, pushing back on critics saying he doesn't pull his weight, and also claiming that making him pay more wouldn't solve anything.

“You could double the taxes I pay, and it’s not going to help that teacher in Queens. I promise you.”

Bezos also told Sorkin he believes President Donald Trump is “a more mature, more disciplined version of himself than he was in his first term,” but noted he had also spoken to predecessors Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

“We need our business leaders to provide input into the administration, regardless of who the president is,” he said.

“I’m on the side of America,” he added. “And that’s where business leaders should be.”

• Alexa+ can now quickly create custom AI podcasts for you
• Meanwhile, Spotify is labeling podcasts made by AI
• An increasing number of new podcasts are AI-generated

We're now well past the stage where AI models can create convincing audio podcasts, run by convincing AI hosts — and there are a couple of developments this week that are going to add to and fight back against the growing deluge of AI podcasts (also known as 'podslop', if you're not a fan).

First up, Amazon has given Alexa+ new powers to create custom podcasts based on your prompts. Whether you want a dive into Roman history, a round-up of the best new music releases, sports previews or anything else, Alexa+ can serve up a podcast-style audio exploration in just a few minutes.

I'm not a fan myself of AI podcasts — more on that later — but I have to give credit to Amazon for actually partnering with real news organizations, including Reuters and the Washington Post, to produce this audio. Publishers and creators actually getting paid as AI scrapes and repackages their work? Whatever next?

This is US only for now, and as I'm in the UK I haven't been able to try it, but the examples Amazon has provided seem solid enough: the podcasts are similar in style and tone to what we've already heard from apps such as NotebookLM.

Wait just a moment, AI

As Amazon pushes AI podcasts forward, Spotify is putting the brakes on — or at least, making it easier to spot these pods. Following on from its AI verification scheme for music, launched earlier this month, Spotify is now using the same badges on podcast content.

You'll start to see light green badges that say 'Verified by Spotify' on them, used for podcasts where Spotify has confirmed who the hosts and publishers behind the show are. The idea is to protect listeners against fake content that may be misleading or dangerous, Spotify says, while also helping creators maintain their audience.

"It signals that the show has been reviewed against Spotify’s standards for authenticity and trust, helping listeners understand who they’re hearing while giving creators a clear, credible way to establish their identity on our platform," explains Spotify, adding that listener activity and audience authenticity are taken into account too.

A recent survey suggested some 39% of new podcasts are AI-generated, and I'm glad to see Spotify helping us to sort the real stuff out. I'd much rather listen to something with real personality and knowledge behind it, rather than a machine-made amalgamation of scraped content polished up into a generic, flat audio episode.

• Amazon's next Kindle lineup could come with user-replaceable batteries
• The company could also start selling its own replacement kits
• Support for older Kindles is ending on May 20, and users have started jailbreaking their devices

Amazon could be hiding something up its sleeve, and its next lineup of Kindle e-readers could be getting an upgrade every bookworm would be thankful for — replaceable batteries.

In the MobileReads forum, a handful of users sparked a discussion that pointed to messages found in Amazon’s Kindle 5.19.4 firmware update referring to user-replaceable batteries, as well as replacement kits and instructional guides. The firmware was then pulled, but eagle-eyed users managed to share it before it disappeared.

Though it’s speculation for now, one user in the forum shared they believe that “it is very likely”, who also shared the following messages found in the firmware release:

“This battery cannot be recognized and may not perform as expected. Charging has been limited to protect your device.”

“To return your device to its original performance specifications, we recommend installing a battery that complies with Amazon specifications.”

“Go to Settings > Device Options > Battery for battery troubleshooting guidance and support.”

“Scan the QR code below to purchase a battery replacement kit and view instructions for replacement.”

The move would align with a new EU regulation that will enforce tighter requirements on consumer electronics. As of February 2027, gadgets such as smartphones and tablets will need to have easy-to-repair batteries that don’t require specific tools, making it easier for users to replace certain hardware parts themselves.

In addition to replaceable batteries, it’s likely that Amazon’s next Kindle range could come with design upgrades to make switching out batteries easier. Most older models are sealed with adhesive, making it difficult for users to pry open their e-readers, while some Kindle batteries are glued into the device.

It would be a welcome upgrade for avid e-readers everywhere, but whether it’s enough to make up for shutting down support for pre-2012 models is another question.

Is Amazon doing this because it has to?

From May 20, Kindle devices released prior to 2012 will lose support meaning that, while you’ll still be able to read books already downloaded to your device, you’ll no longer be able to purchase, borrow, or download additional books on them after that date. Not only that, but the company also unveiled it would be pulling the plug on its Send to Kindle function — which allows you to wirelessly transfer ebooks you bought elsewhere, as well as documents and other files, to your Kindle.

To say this upset owners of these models would be underplaying the response it got from avid readers, but despite Amazon’s attempt to force users to needlessly upgrade to pricier devices, the jailbreaking bug has hit bookworms everywhere. With Amazon’s cease of support looming, users on Reddit aren’t being quiet about how they’re modifying their devices to download third-party apps such as KOReader to continue purchasing books and for most, it’s the best thing they’ve ever done.

You should note that jailbreaking your device isn’t recommended, and it comes with a handful of risks. For starters, it could lead to bugs, battery life deficiency, and other performance issues, and then there’s the matter of piracy. But for those who are dead set on avoiding having to upgrade their device, it’s become a common practice, as has sideloading books.

Amazon hasn’t been giving readers much of what they want, but now that replaceable batteries could be its next hardware upgrade, perhaps this will redeem the series of poor choices it's made lately.

• Amazon wants 80% of its developers to be using AI every single week
• The company is even tracking AI token usage via internal leaderboards
• Unwilling workers are using AI where it's not necessary just to inflate figures

Some Amazon employees are reportedly using the company's internal agentic AI platform, MeshClaw, to automate unnecessary or trivial parts of their work simply to boost internal AI usage metrics.

This comes as company workers are being pressured from above to use more AI – Amazon wants four in five of its developers to be using the tech weekly, and has since started tracking AI token consumption on internal leaderboards.

With workers adoption still relatively slow, many have turned to behavior described as 'tokenmaxxing' to artificially inflate their AI usage metrics, the Financial Times has reported.

Amazon workers are pretending to use AI more than they are

MeshClaw is one of the company's internal systems designed to support the adoption of AI, allowing employees to create their own AI agents to navigate software, coding, emails and other regular workflows.

But workers are now said to be optimizing their usage to maximize token counts rather than useful outcomes, ultimately leading to unnecessary AI calls that are increasing Amazon's compute costs without delivering true ROI.

And it's not just Amazon looking to drive AI adoption internally, with Meta, Microsoft and other companies also reportedly gamifying uptake with internal leaderboards.

However, a recent study by engineering analytics firm Jellyfish (via Business Insider) reveals that, while the heaviest AI users consumed around 10x more tokens than average, they only achieved a 2x increase in productivity.

Conversely, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said in an interview with the All-In Podcast he would be "deeply alarmed" if workers like software engineers or AI researchers didn't use half their annual salary's worth of AI tokens annually – that's $250,000 in tokens for a $500,000 worker.

• Prime Video is expanding it Clips vertical video feed for mobile
• It's designed to help you discover new titles, and you can also share them with others
• Clips is coming to select US users first, with a wider rollout expected for the summer

The TikTokification of the best streaming services is officially happening, and Prime Video is the latest platform to hop on the vertical video feed bandwagon, following suit to Netflix and Disney+.

Launching to select users in the US on iOS, Android, and Fire tablets first, Clips (which is also the name of Netflix’s video feed) is Prime Video’s latest viewing experience for mobile, a short-form video feed that’s designed to give you recommendations for your next binge watch. Prime Video first rolled out Clips with NBA highlights, and now the platform is expanding it to movies and shows.

Just like the algorithm you get with TikTok, your Clips feed uses your viewing history as the basis for offering new entertainment suggestions, putting discovery at the forefront. With the magic of a simple tap, Clips will open in full-screen mode and from there the scrolling begins. Not only can you view snippets of movies and shows from Prime Video’s catalog, you can watch the full thing directly from Clips, rent and buy titles, save to your watchlist, and share with others via messaging platforms or social media.

While Clips isn’t a completely new feature for Prime Video, it’s still a huge addition to its mobile app, and one that the streaming giant is very excited about. “As a first-stop entertainment destination, Prime Video offers customers a vast selection of premium content, and we want to make it as easy and seamless as possible for them to discover what's most relevant," said Brian Griffin, director of global application experiences at Prime Video, who added the following:

"Clips gives customers a whole new way to browse with short, personalized snippets tailored to their interests. Whether they have a few minutes to scroll or are looking for something to watch when they have more time, entertainment is just a tap away”.

At least the platform is hopeful for its new mobile experience, but that said, it doesn’t mean that subscribers are going to embrace another vertical video feed taking over their streaming apps — and it all started with Netflix.

Back in May 2025, Netflix announced it was testing vertical video feeds for mobile, not because it wanted to become a social media app, but because short-form video is the most common form of video consumption among viewers today. Just last week the streaming service unveiled its own Clips feed, and not everyone is welcoming it with open arms.

When you think about it, it’s quite counterintuitive. Users revert to Netflix and other platforms to lose themselves in the drama of a good movie or show to escape doomscrolling, and now Netflix is putting that temptation right back into their hands. As a means of discovery I can see it having its benefits, especially if you’re an incredibly indecisive viewer, but at the same time it unlocks a new lethal rabbit hole for you to fall into — one Netflix subscriber on Reddit exasperatedly called to ‘kill it with fire’, while others jumped on to voice their dislike for the feature in the same thread.

Amazon has also shared that it’s already planning to expand Clips, and the video feed will become fully available across these devices later this summer.

• Amazon DSP marketers can run personalized campaigns with data from LinkedIn
• LinkedIn CTV Ads are more effective than other CTV and linear TV ads
• Amazon Ads and LinkedIn revenues are climbing

LinkedIn has made programmatic buying for CTV Ads available through Amazon DSP, which means that B2B-focused streaming TV campaigns can now be run within existing Amazon DSP workflows rather than having to buy though LinkedIn's Campaign Manager.

The Microsoft-owned platform boasted its CTV Ads reach B2B audiences 2.2x better than other CTV platforms, and 4.3x more effectively than linear TV.

The new Amazon partnership means marketers can access precise LinkedIn targeting like job title, industry and seniority to reach the right buyers.

LinkedIn and Amazon expand personalized B2B advertising

"This collaboration with Amazon DSP expands how advertisers can buy LinkedIn CTV Ads, while still reaching the buyers that matter most to deliver measurable business outcomes at scale," LinkedIn Senior Director David Roter explained.

The partnership is designed to help advertisers reach business decision-makers wherever they are, extending LinkedIn targeting beyond news feeds, and it's available now for advertisers in the US.

As for Amazon, it saw a 22% year-over-year rise in quarterly ad revenue during its most recent three-month period, totalling $17.2 billion. LinkedIn revenue also rose 12% last quarter – its highest rate of growth seen in 15 quarters.

More broadly, LinkedIn is going in heavy on marketing lately. The Amazon announcement comes weeks after the platform pushed creators, noting that four in five (82%) B2B marketers working with creators agree influencers are essential for delivering ROI. The company also underscored the growing role that video plays in marketing.

"By combining LinkedIn's audiences with the scale and impact of streaming TV inventory, advertisers now have the opportunity to reach B2B audiences through their Amazon DSP buys," Amazon Ads Omnichannel Supply Director Chris Conetta added.

• HBO Max now requires Fire OS 6 or later on Fire TV devices
• Some Fire OS 5 devices were sold as recently as 2020
• Fire OS has been superseded by Vega OS on newer devices

If you have a Fire TV device from 2020 or earlier you may lose access to the HBO Max app — it only affects you if your device is running Fire OS 5, but that's still estimated to be "millions" of people, potentially.

The news comes via AFTVnews, which spotted that the HBO Max app support page has been updated and details Fire OS 6 as the oldest supported version of Amazon's TV OS.

That's bad news if you have the older OS, because while Amazon does deliver software updates to existing hardware, it almost never upgrades the version of the operating system.

AFTVnews notes that "this likely leaves millions of Fire TV devices still in use with no way to access one of the most popular streaming services."

That means if you've got one of the affected devices and you're looking forward to whichever Game of Thrones spin-off is coming next, it's time to buy a newer model.

What does HBO Max say about Fire TVs?

HBO isn't the only streamer to stop supporting older Fire TV devices. Netflix ended support for first-gen Fire TV devices in 2025 because the streamer now relies on video formats those devices don't support.

You can see the list of HBO Max supported devices here, and under Amazon Fire TV it says "Amazon Fire TV devices with Fire OS 6 or later [or] Vega OS 1 or later. This includes Fire TV Stick devices, Fire TV Cube, Echo Show devices, and Smart TVs with Fire TV built in."

Fire OS 5 is on Fire TV products sold between 2015 and 2020, including the second generation Fire TV stick. That was a massive seller, so HBO dropping support is going to affect a lot of people's devices.

From Amazon's perspective, upgrading the OS on older devices isn't always the best policy: newer OSes are built for newer hardware, and that can mean problems bringing new versions to devices they weren't built for.

And having people buy new models doesn't just enable Amazon to sell you a new Fire Stick running its new and preffered Vega OS: it also means moving people to a version of the product that can't be used for sideloading or dodgy free streaming.

At the time of publishing, deals on newer Fire TV devices (or Roku devices, if you're feeling a little burned by Fire TV) aren't widespread, but they're common, so keep your eyes open if you need an upgrade.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

• The Xteink X4 ereader has gone viral for its compact size
• It's 4.3 inches, weighs under 80 grams and can be attached to Qi2-compatible smartphones
• It's the first non-Amazon ereader to make the top 10 list

Amazon has been the reigning champion of the best ereaders and its range of Kindle devices continue to dominate the market — but this viral mini ereader has taken social media and bookworms by storm.

The Xteink X4 is the latest gadget that users online can’t get enough of, and it’s all because of its compact size. Coming in at 4.3 inches and weighing 2.72 ounces (which is just under 78 grams), the Xteink X4 is small enough to fit comfortably in your pocket and can even be attached to Qi2-compatible smartphones such as newer iPhone models and Google Pixel phones.

Besides offering the features of a regularly-sized ereader but in compact form, its reasonable $70 price mark is another big selling point — a decent budget option compared to newer Kindle models which can be quite the investment. But following its popularity surge thanks to its online hype, it’s become a new rival for Amazon’s own ereader brand, and it could ring alarm bells for the retail juggernaut.

In a rare turn of events the Xteink X4 has ushered its way into Amazon’s top 10 best-selling ereaders, making it the first non-Amazon device to make the list. It currently sits in the number six spot, surpassing the Kindle Colorsoft and the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, the former which still takes one of the top spots in our list of the best Kindles.

Despite the positives, reviews of its software have been a bit of a mixed bag as Trusted Reviews puts it, with some owners highlighting that its software offerings can be quite basic. But even then, this isn’t a massive setback that’s pushing away prospective owners, and it still offers an adequate casual reading experience, which could be even more of a threat to Kindle devices — especially given Amazon’s latest Kindle crackdown.

Just a few weeks ago Amazon announced it would be pulling the plug on older devices despite them still being used, which frustrated users believe is a way for the company to get you to needlessly upgrade to a new and thus pricier Kindle. The decision affects Kindle devices released in 2012 and before, meaning that as of May 20, you’ll no longer be able to purchase or download new books to your device, but you’ll still have access to read content that’s already downloaded.

• You don't have to be an Amazon seller to use ASCS
• ASCS and AWS have a lot in common, and this could be a good thing
• GPS tracking, photo on delivery, 80,000+ trailers and more are all available

Amazon has launched Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS) business, opening up its logistics network to external businesses for the first time.

Through the new business, companies can use Amazon's existing network of warehouses and transportation services to store, move and deliver goods across the entire supply chain.

The company explained the ASCS business came about after it sought to solve an internal problem – to bring quick deliveries to its own customers – and now it wants to make that available to everyone.

Amazon Supply Chain Services is Amazon's answer to FedEx, UPS

Amazon likened the creation of ASCS to the inception of AWS – the cloud company initially launched to serve Amazon before being sold globally. Now, AWS is generally considered the biggest market share holder across cloud.

Just like other shipping companies, ASCS customers don't need to sell on Amazon to be able to use ASCS – Procter & Gamble, 3M, Lands’ End and American Eagle Outfitters have already signed up as early customers.

The company boasted of its 80,000+ trailers, 24,000+ shipping containers and 100+ partner-operated aircraft to support global logistics, as well as years of work strategically placing fulfilment warehouses to optimize last-mile delivery.

"With the launch of ASCS, we’re confident we can give any other business access to the same cost efficiency, reliability, and speed that we’ve built for Amazon customers," ASCS VP Peter Larsen commented.

The ASCS website highlights other perks, including GPS-powered tracking, photo on delivery and easy returns.

Company shares rose around 2% following the announcement, while FedEx and UPS shares dipped slightly at the same time.

• The FCC has relaxed low-orbit satellite restrictions
• It works out to a 7x capacity increase for internet satellites
• The move is welcomed by SpaceX and Amazon

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has delivered some good news to Elon Musk's Starlink and other satellite internet providers, by removing several key restrictions on how much energy satellites can transmit to and receive from ground stations.

Technically, these are the Equivalent Power Flux Density (EPFD) rules set in the 1990s, as PC Mag reports. In simple terms, it means Starlink and others will be able to operate a much denser array of satellites for providing services to customers.

We're talking as much as a sevenfold increase in satellite network capacity, which should mean a connection that's more reliable and faster. However, it's going to take a while before satellite companies will be able to take advantage.

"This is a major step toward enhancing the satellite broadband experience for millions of Americans by enabling faster speeds, lower costs, and greater reliability," says the FCC. "This change could also unlock more than $2 billion in economic benefits for the American people and up to seven-fold more capacity for space-based broadband services."

Sharing spectrum

The rules were introduced to prevent radio signal interference between satellites in non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) — also known as low-Earth orbit — from affecting geostationary satellites (GSO) higher in orbit. Now, both NGSO and GSO satellites will be able to share more of the communications spectrum.

It's a change that's been welcomed by Starlink's David Goldman, as well as Brian Huseman, a Vice President at Amazon — another company looking to build out a network of internet-providing satellites with Amazon Leo.

As Gizmodo reports, Viasat is one of the GSO satellite companies that has warned that the move could potentially lead to more interference without proper regulation. Viasat has also raised concerns about Starlink getting a monopoly on this particular market.

The view of the FCC is that modern satellites are designed to share spectrum more effectively than they did in the past, and the 1990s rules no longer apply. Starlink, owned by SpaceX, will no doubt be keen to get its next batch of satellites launched.

• AWS revenue grew 28% – it's now a fifth of Amazon's total revenue
• Industry partnerships and in-house chips are impressing customers
• Capex will remain high during the "early years" of the AI boom

Amazon revenues are up 17% year-over-year to $181.5 billion, largely driven by a 28% year-over-year growth in AWS revenue to $37.6 billion, with the cloud business now accounting for around one-fifth of the company's entire income.

In fact, this is the fastest growth rate in 15 quarters (nearly four years), and AWS' significant upward momentum was largely driven by continued enterprise spend on AI, with the business' AI services already at around $15 billion in annual revenue run rate.

Ongoing partnerships with the likes of Anthropic and OpenAI, including yesterday's announcement of an expanded partnership with OpenAI, only serve to strengthen AWS' position in the cloud market.

AWS revenues continue to skyrocket

Despite a consistently high income, Amazon still plans to spend plenty of cash. Q1 capex hit as much as $44 billion, with the company planning around $200 billion throughout fiscal 2026 as it continues to invest in AI data centers.

"It’s very unusual for business to grow this fast on a base this large," CEO Andy Jassy said on the earnings call. "The last time we saw growth at this clip, AWS was roughly half the size." Compared with three years after AWS launched, when it had a $58 million revenue run rate, the business is now around 260x larger.

He described it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support long-term revenue, with this heavy upfront investment likely to pay off in the long run. A continued push to develop in-house chips is also designed to cut costs by reducing the reliance on Nvidia.

"The faster AWS grows, the more short-term capex we’ll spend," Jassy added, acknowledging that "free cash flow is challenged" in the "early years" and during times of high growth.

Looking ahead, the company predicts a further 16-19% increase in total revenue next quarter, though quite how much AWS will grow is yet to be seen.

• Microsoft lost its exclusivity as a cloud partner yesterday – today, AWS gets major OpenAI upgrade
• GPT-5.5 and other models, including Codex, will be available for Amazon Bedrock customers
• Available in limited preview for now, this is just the "beginning of a deeper collaboration"

A day after OpenAI revealed Microsoft would no longer be its exclusive cloud partner (but that it would still be a priority partner), the ChatGPT maker has announced a new deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

As part of the deal, GPT and other related models will be available on AWS via Amazon Bedrock for the first time, and the Codex agent can also be integrated into AWS environments.

This expansion comes weeks after Amazon announced a "multi-year strategic partnership" with OpenAI, which would see it invest $50 billion into the company.

OpenAI and AWS deepen their partnership

Under that deal, OpenAI would consume 2GW of Trainium capacity through AWS infrastructure, and the two companies would develop custom models together to power Amazon’s customer-facing applications. This eight-year agreement itself was an extension on a former agreement, worth a combined $138 billion.

The latest development puts OpenAI models straight into Bedrock alongside alternatives from Anthropic, Meta, Mistral, Cohere, Amazon and "other leading providers." It includes OpenAI's "best frontier model," GPT‑5.5.

By putting OpenAI's models straight into Bedrock, it means customers still have access to AWS enterprise features like IAM access controls, private networking, encryption, guardrails and AWS CloudTrail logging.

Amazon is especially pleased to be integrating Codex, noting its four million weekly users, noting its availability with the Codex CLI, the Codex desktop app and Visual Studio Code extension.

Codex on Bedrock, as well as the availability of OpenAI models and Amazon Bedrock Managed Agents powered by OpenAI, are all available in limited preview for now.

AWS described the latest news as just the "beginning of a deeper collaboration," and with Microsoft's exclusivity off the table, it could be the start of many more for OpenAI too.

The budget TV market is becoming an increasingly competitive space, with more companies entering every year. Whereas QLED was the go-to tech for the budget TV hunter several years ago, companies such as TCL and Hisense have made mini-LED much more affordable in recent times. In fact, both TCL and Hisense’s ultra-competitive mini-LEDs featured among our picks for the best TVs in 2025.

Back in 2023, when mini-LED hadn’t quite nailed the quality-for-the-money balance it has now, the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED (2023) was one of the better budget TVs I’d seen, and was a good option despite mini-LED competition. Since then, Amazon has released a new generation of Fire TVs, now known as Ember TVs, including the Omni QLED’s successor, the Amazon Ember Omni QLED (2025), and the Amazon Ember 4-series (2025).

When we tested the Amazon Omni QLED (2025), we described it as an “average TV” as although it's reasonable value for the money, the aforementioned budget mini-LEDs provide better bang for your buck. We haven’t fully tested the 4-series (2025) yet, but we do have both models in our labs. So, I decided to compare them side-by-side: will the 4-series prove to be a budget gem?

Brightness and bright scenes

Starting with some brightness measurements, the QLED produced a measured 510 nits peak HDR brightness and 510 nits HDR fullscreen brightness in Filmmaker Mode, and 598 nits peak and 528 nits fullscreen HDR brightness in Standard. The fullscreen number is decent, beating the OLED average of roughly 150-300 nits. The 4 series, with its LED panel, could only muster 340 nits peak and fullscreen HDR brightness in Filmmaker Mode, and 356 nits peak and fullscreen HDR brightness in Standard.

How did this translate into real-world scenes? Simply put, the QLED was better at handling bright scenes. Scenes of snow from the Spears & Munsil demo footage looked decent on the QLED with some nice bright whites, but the 4 series struggled to handle the bright scenes, showing signs of clipping and detail loss. This happened in both the 1,000 nits, the standard footage, and 600 nits reels, the dimmest HDR footage on the disc.

Another issue I found was settling on a picture mode for both TVs. Filmmaker Mode was more vibrant on the QLED, perfect for the whites, but it was bordering on too bright. Movie Dark was more controlled, but lacked detail. The same was true with the 4 series, though for pure white, Movie Dark was better.

With other brighter scenes from the footage, such as sunlight reflecting off a red-colored canyon, the 4 series struggled to deliver the brightness you’d find on more premium TVs, even budget mini-LEDs like the TCL QM6K/TCL C6K. The QLED was the better for bright scenes, though it too did have a tendency to overexert its brightness at times.

Colors

As you’d expect, the Omni QLED demonstrated the better color reproduction of the two TVs here. Using the market scene from The Sound of Music, which contains punchy reds and oranges from the fruits on the stall, the QLED delivered more pop and vibrancy in its colors compared to the 4 series, thanks to its QLED panel. The 4 series still had some nice punch, but colors did look a little flat in places.

As with the white scenes from before, I found myself struggling to settle on a picture mode. While Movie Dark arguably suited the QLED more, everything felt too dim and neutral, taking away the impact of the colors from the scene. Filmmaker Mode is clearly pushing the brightness and saturation of the colors, but I felt like it needed it.

One crucial setting to change on the QLED in Filmmaker was Local Dimming. Changing this from Off to Low made a big difference, making the picture look more accurate.

As the 4-series does not have a full array backlight like the QLED, there was no local dimming option to change. The default Filmmaker Mode was best for this scene, as the 4 series’ Movie modes, both Dark and Bright, looked far too washed out, despite the latter modes working better for all white scenes of snow.

One color where the 4-series did look better was green. Although dimmer and more toned down compared to the QLED, greens looked more natural in any scenes in the mountains, such as the Do Re Mi scene, on the 4 series. Still, if you’re looking for more striking colors, the QLED is the better choice.

Contrast and dark scenes

Thanks to the Omni QLED’s full array dimming, it performed better with darker and high contrast scenes than the 4 series. Several scenes from Alien: Romulus, such as shots of space and bright lights contrasting with dark hallways, look better on the QLED. Its blacks are fairly deep and rich, though can look raised at times, and its brightness delivers decent impact with peak areas, shown with stars in space and on the sun on the horizon as the group leaves the Jackson’s Star mining colony.

The 4-series does an OK job at delivering Alien: Romulus’ high-contrast scenes, with some solid brightness in peak areas, I found that some scenes had raised blacks which took a gray tone (in more fullscreen areas) and black crush (in smaller areas like the corners of a hallway).

As the 4 series doesn’t have any dimming however, there was the usual backlight clouding issue you’ll find with LED panels, creating a blue haze over the whole screen which was pronounced in darker scenes. Underneath the haze, I thought the picture looked decent at times for a budget model, but the clouding is a distraction, made worse in pitch black viewing.

The Batman really showed off the 4-series’ lack of local dimming, with the clouding effect shown in Alien: Romulus even more obvious here. The Omni QLED did a better job handling the darker scenes, again showing solid contrast, but blacks were still raised. Movie Dark was arguably more accurate, but I picked the brighter Filmmaker Mode to make it easier to see.

The real choice

The 55-inch Amazon Omni QLED (2025) I tested retails for around $589.99 / £749.99 full price, but you’ll regularly see it drop to $489.99 / £499.99, while the 55-inch Amazon 4-series retails for around $459.99 / £549.99, but again this has dropped to $279.99 / £359.99 during sales events like Black Friday and Prime Day. These sales events are really the only time you should be buying these TVs, as those prices are a better reflection of their value.

While there is a big price gap of $200 / £140 price gap between the two (at their best price), I would still choose the Omni QLED over the 4-series. Not only does it support Dolby Vision (which the 4-series doesn’t), it has better picture quality and more features.

If, however you can stretch your budget, it’s worth looking at the budget mini-LEDs I mentioned at the start of this article. The TCL QM6K (C6K in the UK) 55-inch has hit $399.99 / £499 before and for the money, it’s among the best gaming TVs at this price and delivers much better picture quality thanks to its mini-LED panel and backlight. You can even find the more step-up models at bargain prices during the same sales events.

These two TVs do the best they can with the tech they’re given, and if I had to choose one, it would be the QLED. The 4 series is a decent enough TV if you set it up right, but the QLED is the better model for the money overall. If you want the best bang for your buck, however, I'd be looking at cheap mini-LEDs.

• The new Amazon streaming stick stops sideloading
• A message to this effect is popping up on its online listing
• This is part of Amazon's rollout of its own Vega OS

Alongside a revamp for the Fire TV OS interface, Amazon announced a new Fire TV Stick HD earlier this week, that's slimmer than its predecessor — and it's now been confirmed that sideloading won't be allowed on the new device.

As spotted by Cord Cutters News, the product listing on Amazon has this to say: "For enhanced security, this device prevents sideloading or installing apps from unknown sources. Only apps from the Amazon Appstore are available for download."

The message doesn't seem to show up for everyone, but it's definitely there in some cases. Of course, when Amazon says "for enhanced security", it means for the purposes of preventing any dodgy and legally suspect apps from being loaded up.

However, this is also going to affect users who liked to customize and hack their Amazon streaming devices in a variety of other, perfectly legal ways: think custom launchers, local media streaming, and smart home tools, for example.

The future is Vega OS

Part of the way Amazon has locked down its latest streaming stick is by using its own, proprietary Vega OS rather than an adapted version of Android. That gives Amazon much more control over what's possible on the software.

This was all announced last year, but it wasn't clear just how speedy the rollout would be, or which specific devices would be affected. We can safely assume that this 'no sideloading' rule will apply to all Amazon devices going forward.

In fact, as Ars Technica highlights, Vega OS and the same sideloading restrictions apply to the Fire TV Stick 4K Select that came out in October as well — and we noted at the time that you wouldn't be able to sideload apps on it.

Amazon has made sure that the majority of the best streaming apps work on Vega OS and on its new streaming devices, including Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, YouTube, and Apple TV. Beyond official entertainment apps though, your options are limited.

There are a lot of tech stories that get published every day on TechRadar, and we'll forgive you for not getting around to reading all of them — though we're very grateful if you do (and our daily newsletter might be perfect for you as well).

If you're in need of a catch up on what's been happening since this time last week, then our ICYMI (In Case You Missed It) round-up is here to help. It features the biggest stories from the week, summarized in an easy-to-digest format.

With new LG TVs, cameras from DJI and GoPro, Fire TV sticks, and more to discuss, it's once again been quite a week in technology — here's what went down.

7. We got our first taste of Spider-Man: Brand New Day

We've already seen a trailer, but the first extended clip of Spider-Man: Brand New Day has been shared at CinemaCon 2026 in Las Vegas, and there's lots to dig into. Besides what it tells us about the upcoming Spidey flick (arriving in theaters on Friday, July 31), it also hints at some retconning that could have an impact on the next two Avengers movies.

This is mostly just speculation until we get to see the movie for ourselves, but everything is now perfectly set up for the return of Tom Holland as the superhero web slinger. At the same CinemaCon 2026 event, we've also been treated to two excellent new posters for the movie — check both of them out via the link below and tell us which one you prefer.

• Read the full story: Spider-Man: Brand New Day's first big clip has been revealed at CinemaCon 2026 — and I think it's teasing us over how it'll set up Marvel's next two Avengers movies

6. There was a new twist in the US foreign router ban

The US administration recently banned the launch of any new routers manufactured in foreign countries — ostensibly over national security concerns. One of the companies expected to be affected by the ban was Netgear, but this week we got news that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be giving Netgear routers a pass.

Netgear has told us that it did submit an application for an exemption based on the FCC guidelines, which take into account the future plans of a company as well as current manufacturing processes, and that may be what made the difference here. Whatever the details in the small print, this remains a somewhat confusing ruling by the FCC.

• Read the full story: Netgear routers seemingly won’t be banned in the US after all — and this just proves the ban was never about security

5. Amazon gave us a slimmer Fire TV Stick

There was a lot of Amazon Fire TV news this week: not only did we get a slimmer version of the dependable Fire TV Stick HD streaming device, there's an interface revamp coming for all Fire TV devices. The updated layout is apparently going to help users to find content faster, with improved category selections one of the incoming software improvements.

Alongside the interface refresh, Amazon is also pushing out Fire TV channels, which will be free and ad-supported. These channels are going to be rolling out internationally at the end of the month, and cover genres such as news, comedy, cooking, and travel. These updates are substantial enough for rivals such as Roku and Google to take note.

• Read the full story: Own a Fire TV device? You're getting a free update soon, with refreshed layout and new streaming channels — and Amazon's also launching a slimmer Fire TV Stick

4. We tried 'the most beautiful phone of 2026'

Oppo has something to say to those who think smartphone design has peaked, and it's saying it in the form of the Find X9 Ultra. We've spent some time with the handset, which is inspired by the fantastic Hasselblad X2D camera in terms of its aesthetics, and this could genuinely end up being the most beautiful phone of 2026 (and quite a few other years as well).

There's going to be a full reveal of the phone next week, but for now we can confirm that the Oppo Find X9 Ultra comes with twin 200MP cameras and 10x optical zoom, and we're confident that the inside of the phone will be just as good as the outside. Stay tuned to TechRadar for more details over the next few days, including pricing and availability.

• Read the full story: The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is inspired by my favorite Hasselblad camera — and I think it's the most beautiful phone of 2026 so far

3. The DJI Osmo Pocket 4 finally landed

After months of rumors and speculation, the DJI Osmo Pocket 4 has finally landed, and this looks to be a serious upgrade over the Pocket 3 that preceded it. We've listed seven key upgrades that make the latest model worth a look, whether you're looking to upgrade from an existing device or wanting to get started with a vlogging camera for the first time.

The upgrades here include a new 4K sensor for better photos and video, improved color handling, a new slo-mo mode (up to 8x in full 4K), and subject tracking. We've got some welcome design tweaks to talk about too, while there's a higher capacity battery compared to the Pocket 3 that should ensure more recording time between charges.

• Read the full story: DJI Pocket 4 vs DJI Pocket 3 — 7 upgrades for the next best-selling vlogging camera

2. GoPro launched its epic Mission action cams

GoPro has been rather quiet of late, but that changed this week, when we got three new models from the camera company. These models are firmly aimed at serious videographers and photographers, too — the Mission 1 Pro ILS supports a Micro Four Thirds lens mount, which means it's compatible with hundreds of existing lenses.

That model is joined by the Mission 1 and Mission 1 Pro models. All three cameras feature a new 1-inch 50MP sensor and are capable of recording 8K video, and while we're still waiting for details on pricing, we do know pre-orders are opening up on May 21. Check out the three new models for yourself and let us know your thoughts — is GoPro back?

• Read the full story: GoPros get their biggest upgrade for 20 years with trio of 'professional' Mission 1 8K action cams — and one even supports hundreds of pro camera lenses

1. We tested LG's new flagship OLED TV

For many years LG has topped our list of the best OLED TVs on the market – or been very close to the top – and so expectations were high for the LG G6 that's leading the charge for the electronics maker in 2026. Having spent three weeks in the company of the television, we can confirm that it sets a new high bar when it comes to viewing experiences.

The LG G5 remains an excellent TV, but the LG G6 has somehow managed to improve on its predecessor in terms of picture quality, reflection reduction, gaming performance, color reproduction, and performance in brightly lit rooms. Have a read through our review and see if this could be the significant television upgrade you've been waiting for.

• Read the full story: I reviewed the LG G6 for 3 weeks, and it's a fantastic OLED TV that's the new best option for brighter rooms

I’m bad at interior design. So bad, in fact, that I affectionately refer to my apartment as ‘the clown house’ due to its total lack of a cohesive color scheme. It’s definitely due for a refresh — so I turned to Alexa+ to help me create something more tasteful.

A few weeks ago, Amazon rolled out Alexa+ in the UK. The AI-powered virtual assistant made its debut in the US last year, but the company had taken its time localizing Alexa+ for British users. Not only does it recognize and use British slang (which is sometimes unintentionally funny considering its rather posh accent), it also links to services and sites that people use in the UK —and since it's designed to be an 'ambient assistant' for your home, it seemed like a natural choice for decorating advice.

I was lucky enough to get early access to the British version of Alexa+, so after getting to know her a bit (and teasing her about her accent, which she took with good humor) I asked her to suggest ways to make the clown house look a little bit less goofy.

With certain devices (such as the latest Amazon Echo Show smart displays), Alexa+ can take a picture of the room as a starting point, but if you’re using different hardware or want help with another room, you can just describe what it looks like and the assistant will understand. There was a brief moment when I accidentally gave Alexa the impression that I had a strange bedroom with only three walls, but that was probably a poor explanation on my part (the fourth wall is painted a different color).

I started with my spare bedroom/study, which is where I keep my Echo Show speaker, and is the place most in need to help. Paint always looks brighter and bolder on a wall than in a tin, and I ended up with a small room painted quite an alarming shade of swimming pool blue. With two bikes mounted on the walls, two desks, and a bookshelf, it’s quite an assault on the eyes.

Alexa+ gently suggested toning things down with a sage green to “make those bikes look like intentional art rather than storage solutions” and “create a calmer workspace for your computers without clashing with your existing setup”.

She even generated some swatches when I asked to see some examples of sage green paint, though she was unable to recommend one in particular, explaining that she couldn’t see or recall images that she had created before. Nonetheless, it was very useful, and she even offered to message it to my phone for future reference.

Floor to ceiling

Next I described the hallway, and was impressed that she factored in my smart home devices when making suggestions about flooring:

“A light colored runner would help enormously,” she suggested when I described my narrow hallway with its black laminate flooring and no natural light. “Maybe cream or soft beige to tie in with those bedroom curtains as we discussed, And since your robot vacuum can handle it, you won’t have to worry about maintenance!”

She even suggested using an anti-slip rug mat underneath, or possibly carpet tape, and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t immediately try to shuffle me off to Amazon to buy some.

If an AI was capable of cringing, I think Alexa+ would have done it when I described my bedroom: "Blimey, that's quite the red theme you've got going!" she remarked, not unfairly. "Sounds like you're living in a proper crimson sanctuary there."

Once I’d clarified that the crimson sanctuary was in fact a normally-shaped room (which she called “a proper four-wall bedroom situation”), she suggested swapping the red for dusty lilac or more sage green, “with soft neutrals or warm gray as your base”.

If I wanted to keep my red accent wall (yes, I know) she suggested fitting some cream curtains to break up the intensity: "The key is creating breathing space so the room feels cozy rather than overwhelming."

She also recommended plants that can survive without natural light for my bedroom, and suggested adding copper accessories in my green living room. It all made sense, and since I’m a fan of green, I wouldn’t have a problem with spreading it throughout the whole apartment.

Picture this...

I was a little skeptical about how well the decorating conversation would work, but it was a rather lovely chat, and I came away with some genuinely good ideas (as well as my sage green swatches).

Sadly when I tried the same experiment more recently, the experience wasn’t quite as colorful. When I asked for some examples of a color, Alexa+ told me she’s unable to generate images, and offered to tell me where I can buy paint instead.

Although our initial conversation was definitely quirky, it was a lot of fun, and this turn of events was a tad disappointing. Hopefully Alexa+ will rediscover her eye for color soon.

• Amazon has been hit with a new class action lawsuit for tethering old Fire TV Sticks
• It accuses the company of restricting vital software support, forcing users to upgrade
• The lawsuit also claims Amazon didn't disclose the true lifespan of Fire TV Sticks

Amazon has found itself at the center of a new class action lawsuit in the US, which claims the company has been quietly stopping software updates as a way to slow down older Fire TV Stick devices until they become unusable — all while advertising their ‘instant’ streaming features.

The lawsuit was filed by Californian plaintiff Bill Merewhuader, who accused the tech giant of ‘bricking’ its first and second generation Fire TV Stick models as a way to force users to upgrade to its more expensive options, as reported by Top Class Actions. Essentially, older models have been diminishing in functionality even though the hardware has been untouched, resulting in slow performances, lagging, and delayed responses.

What does the lawsuit allege?

In his claim, Merewhuader accounts his own experience of purchasing two second generation Fire TV Sticks in 2018. He says he started experiencing performance issues just a few years into owning them, eventually feeling forced to upgrade to a newer, more expensive model in 2024 after the devices became unusable — effectively blaming Amazon for ‘software tethering’.

This refers to a device’s usability, which relies on software updates manned by the company that releases them to ensure a high level of performance. By stopping this support, companies can cut the lifespan of a device prematurely in order to force consumers to upgrade. Merewhuader has accused Amazon of doing this to the first generation device as early as 2022, ending support for the second generation shortly after despite Amazon’s claim that software support would continue until 2024.

Additionally, Merewhuader says Amazon never disclosed information that said software support could be discontinued, as the company initially marketed the devices as ones which offer ‘instant’ entertainment across a wide variety of content from the best streaming services — which the plaintiff says was the main reason why customers purchased the devices in the first place.

Overall, the lawsuit is centered on two things. The first being the act of software tethering and the second being the fact no one was told the truth about the devices’ lifespan, which risks jeopardizing user trust. As a result, Merewhuader is looking to take his case nationwide in hopes that Amazon will compensate users in his position while tightening laws to prevent future software tethering practices.

Amazon hasn't publicly addressed the lawsuit, but we'll update this story when we know more.

• Pre-2013 Kindles will soon lose Send to Kindle support
• This follows news that they'll lose access to the Kindle Store
• The changes are set to happen on May 20

It’s fair to say that a lot of Kindle owners aren’t particularly happy with Amazon right now, as the company recently announced that pre-2013 models will no longer be supported from May 20.

The support page detailing this change initially just mentioned that these devices would no longer be able to access the Kindle Store or use Kindle Unlimited, but now — as spotted by GoodEreader — the page has been updated to say that Send to Kindle will also stop working.

Send to Kindle is a feature that lets you wirelessly transfer ebooks you bought elsewhere, as well as documents and other files, to your Kindle, but from May 20 the only way to get content onto affected Kindles will be via USB cable.

So it’s a change that makes these older models even more useless than they were previously set to become.

Unhappy readers

There haven’t been many reactions to this Send to Kindle news yet, but in the days since Amazon first announced that these older models would lose access to the Kindle Store there has been no shortage of annoyed responses to that.

On Reddit this includes things like “I hate this”, “screwing the most loyal early adopters is extremely not cool”, and “this is a revolting waste.”

Amazon is offering a 20% discount off new devices, but given that the same fate might eventually befall those too, this could end up pushing users to rival services like Kobo, or perhaps to something with direct access to multiple ebook stores, like a Viwoods or Boox device.

• Amazon has announced a significant refresh to the Fire TV interface
• It will include new streaming channels and will head to older devices too
• The company had also revealed a faster, slimmer Fire TV Stick HD

Amazon has revealed it is refreshing its Fire TV platform with a new look and new streaming channels. It also reveals a new Amazon Fire TV Stick HD.

The update, which will be coming to all older Fire TV devices such as the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K, will see a new layout with a focus on getting users to their content easier. Categories have been introduced so customers can quickly access their preferred movies, TV shows, news and sports. Amazon also claims the update will make Fire TV 30% faster.

The update will also introduce Fire TV channels, a new feature that brings in free, ad-supported streaming channels covering a wide range of genres such as news, comedy, cooking and travel to name a few. These 'FAST' channels are becoming increasingly popular across some of the best TVs, with both LG (with LG Channels) and Samsung (included in Tizen) including the feature.

The Fire TV update is free and will begin rolling out to customers internationally at the end of the month, so it will vary depending on region and device as to when you'll see the new UI.

Amazon also revealed a new version of its Amazon Fire TV Stick HD. Amazon says it's 30% narrower than the previous generation's model, making it easier to fit alongside devices in other HDMI ports.

It will run off Direct Power through a TV's USB port, eliminating the need for a bulkier, external power adaptor. Amazon also says the new Stick will be 30% faster than the previous generation, too.

The new Stick HD will also receive an Adaptive Display accessibility feature that will make text and menus easier to see on screen. It will enhance smaller items such as text while simultaneously scaling up larger things like artwork.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick HD will launch for £39.99 / AU$79 (US price TBC), with pre-orders live at Amazon UK and on Amazon Australia.

A Fire TV refresh

Fire TV is featured in a wide range of devices, so it's great to see that it's getting an update in 2026. In my time using the smart TV platform, I've sometimes found it can be clunky, slow to navigate and slow to respond to commands. If this new update does indeed up the speed by 30%, that could make a huge difference.

The inclusion of FAST channels (free, ad-support streaming channels) is a welcome one, as it gives users more content they can watch without extra fees.

While I haven't seen the new Fire TV interface in-person yet, from the image above, I can see that large banner ads will still likely be a feature. This is now common across most smart TV interfaces and continues to be a bit of a frustration. I'll reserve full judgement however until I use it myself.

It will take a lot for Fire TV to de-throne the top smart TV platforms such as LG's webOS, Roku and Samsung's latest Tizen iteration (though I'm yet to test the 2026 version yet), but hopefully this refresh will do just the trick.

As for the Amazon Fire TV Stick HD, it's again nice to see an update to the HD models, as the 4K now has three different varieties available. It looks like the upgraded model will be the same price as the previous HD Stick (£39.99 in the UK) and it's likely to receive discounts during big sale events during Prime Day and Black Friday.

Amazon has re-branded its lineup of Fire TVs to Ember TVs, and the latest Ember TV entry, the Samsung Frame-rival Artline, is set to launch in the coming weeks.

Amazon released several new Fire TVs last year including new versions of the Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED, Amazon Fire TV 4-series and Amazon Fire TV 2-series. These TVs will be re-branded under the Ember TV name. So, expect names to read as Amazon Ember QLED, Amazon Ember 4-series and so on.

We’ve already tested the Amazon Omni QLED (2025) and while it didn’t score as highly as the 2023 model, it’s still a competent enough TV when it’s at the right price. That said, it faces very stiff competition from the likes of Hisense, TCL and Roku. The 4-series and 2-series, both of which use LED panels, are in our labs ready for testing.

Onto the next news then: the Amazon Ember Artline TV is the company’s version of the Samsung Frame. While the Samsung Frame may not offer the picture quality and features of the very best TVs, its Art Mode, where artworks are displayed in standby rather than a black screen, is extremely popular. 2,000 artworks will be available at no extra fee. There's also a 'Match The Room' feature which uses AI to find an artwork that matches the TV's surroundings.

The Artline is set to launch in a few weeks, with an estimated shipping date of May 7th. Pre-orders are live on Amazon US and Amazon UK. The 55-inch Artline is priced at $899 / £949 and the 65-inch is priced at $1,099 / £1,199. It will have a QLED panel (the same used in the 2025 Omni QLED) and matte screen to reduce glare, but will support both Dolby Vision and HDR10+. It will have four HDMI ports, but these will be limited to 60Hz for gaming.

In terms of smart features, the Artline will come with the refreshed Fire TV (2026) smart TV platform which aims at getting you to content faster, with the ability to browse dedicated content categories and comes with new, free channels to stream. It will also support Alexa+, a more advanced version of its Alexa smart assistant, which was first introduced in 2025, eventually landing in the UK in 2026.

First impressions of the Artline

We recently got our first look at the Artline in person and the results were…mixed. It was by no means an extensive preview, but we were shown a scene from Prime Video’s The Boys and the first thing we noticed was that the matte screen was too glossy, resulting in the demo scene being very difficult to watch.

Art itself, however, looked very nice on it. We also saw the Artline with a brown-wood design frame on it (one of 10 colors) which again looked great, made even better with the included near-flush wall mount which fit snugly and neatly to the wall. There is a chunky black section under the frame which takes away from the sleekness a little, but this does house the sensor for Omnisense, where the TV will turn on and off when movement is detected in the room.

The big talking point is the price. At $1,099/£1,199 for the 65-inch model, this is significantly pricier than a well-specced mini-LED such as the TCL QM7K/C7K which costs $799/£749 at the time of writing. These boast features of the best gaming TVs such as 4K 144Hz support and a mini-LED backlight for pictures that are brighter, with more vibrant colors and more refined contrast.

The Artline is not alone in this though, as these increasingly affordable mini-LED TVs do make them a very tempting offer, especially given their features and performance. While our first impressions of the Artline were mixed, we’ll reserve full judgement when we get it in for a test. Still, the Art TV market becomes even more crowded with TCL, Hisense and now Amazon all gunning for Samsung.

Try our TV size and model finder! You tell it how far you sit from your TV, we'll tell you what size to buy based on viewing angle advice from image quality experts, and we'll recommend our three top TVs at that size for different prices.

Thinking of buying a new TV?

• Amazon's NBA stream cut out with less than a minute on the clock
• The game was offline for close to two minutes
• Amazon blames a hardware error on the outage

With less than one minute on the clock in overtime of a tight Heat vs Hornets NBA game, Amazon Prime Video’s stream cut off, leaving viewers staring at a technical difficulties message for close to two minutes.

At arguably the worst time for an outage to happen, basketball fans watching from home missed Charlotte extend its lead, but thankfully were able to tune in before the game concluded — to see Charlotte’s team eliminate Miami’s from the play-in event, blocking them from entry to the postseason playoffs tournament.

As you might expect, the outage infuriated viewers. Social media threads like this one are full of complaints that “Streaming sucks,” and another exclaims, “It shouldn’t be this hard to watch games.”

Even LeBron James was angered by the issues, “Tell me the game didn’t just cut off?!!? Am I trippin?? WTH.”

For many, the outage, plus other frustrations like commentator audio being slightly ahead of the video, and the loss of the ability to pause or quickly rewind on streaming, confirmed their fear that Amazon would be inferior to the old home viewing experience.

It also follows other live streaming woes from Netflix and its Skyscraper Live event, another example of a platform proving that its VOD doesn’t necessarily translate to a premium real-time viewing experience.

As for what caused the NBA game outage, a spokesperson for Prime Video said the problem was due to “a hardware failure in our production truck,” and that it’s conducting a “thorough internal review” into the outage.

We’ll have to wait and see if the streaming situation continues for Amazon, but hopefully, this is simply an early teething problem to resolve.

• OpenAI acknowledges Microsoft contributions to its growth, but says it's time to expand
• New partnership with AWS could unlock more enterprise customers
• Enterprises bring in 40% of OpenAI's entire revenue

OpenAI has reportedly told staff to focus on growing its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) after a years-long primary relationship with Microsoft, which Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser described as a blocker.

"[The relationship with Microsoft] has also limited our ability to meet enterprises where they are – for many that's Bedrock," Dresser wrote in a memo sent to staff, praising Microsoft for being "foundational to [OpenAI's] success."

Amazon Bedrock is generally seen as a more flexible platform that's more likely widely used than Microsoft.

OpenAI looks to be reducing reliance on Microsoft

OpenAI has been actively trying to reduce its reliance on Microsoft for a number of months, first branching off to use other hyperscalers' compute and now partnering up with AWS to obtain more customers.

"Since we announced the partnership at the end of February, inbound demand from our customers for this offering has been frankly staggering," Dresser said about Amazon.

While OpenAI was heavily reliant on Microsoft in its first few years in the public eye, it hit the ground running and has grown substantially since then. The company now says it's making $2 billion a month, with enterprise customers accounting for 40% of this.

Offering up solutions to businesses that choose not to subscribe to Microsoft is virtually guaranteed to draw in significantly more revenue for the ChatGPT maker.

Dresser also made remarks about competition from Anthropic, which has been aggressively expanding Claude in recent months with a clear focus on the enterprise customer.

The revenue head accused Anthropic's strategy of being "fear, restriction, and the idea that a small group of elites should control AI."

As for what's next, we're still no closer to finding out whether OpenAI will go public, though rumors continue to circulate for such an event in 2026 or 2027.

Via CNBC

• Jeff Bezos' $81,400 salary hasn't changed since 1998
• Amazon pays out around $1.6 million in security and travel expenses for its founder
• Other Amazon execs take home $365,000 in pay, as well as millions in expenses

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos still earns a base salary of around $81,400 from the company, yars after stepping down as CEO – a figure that has remained unchanged since 1998.

Even with the relatively low salary, Bezos has never taken bonus or additional compensation from the company, which he has previously said is by choice.

His $81k salary is also deliberately low and not aligned with typical exec structures, with most of his wealth instead coming from Amazon shares, of which he owns around 8%, worth hundreds of billions.

Jeff Bezos only takes an $81k salary despite his net worth

Bezos is currently worth an estimated $250 billion, making him the third-richest individual in the world and one of many worth a similar figure – falling far short of Elon Musk's $800+ billion net worth.

However, while Bezos doesn't take the typical exec salary, he is still entitled to considerable compensation from the company's expenses funds, racking up around $1.6 million annually in security and travel costs.

"Mr. Bezos requested not to receive additional compensation and has never received annual cash compensation in excess of his current amount," Amazon’s 2026 proxy filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, reads.

Meanwhile, other Amazon execs take home a pay of $365,000, including its current CEO, Andy Jassy - although he claimed other expenses related to security and travelling.

"Due to Mr. Bezos’s substantial stock ownership, he believes he is appropriately incentivized and his interests are appropriately aligned with shareholders’ interests," the filing continues.

Amazon share prices are up around 42% in five years, currently at an all-time high of $241 and on the way up again after recent events, so the expenditure may not have much of an effect on the final accounts.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has outlined his view of the future of AI at the company, offering six "key truths" concerning what the technology can, and will do.

Laid out in a blog post accompanying his annual letter to company shareholders, Jassy shared his thoughts on what Amazon's role in the AI-powered future will be.

"No doubt, AI will fundamentally alter the customer experience. But it has also given rise to much debate," the blog post noted - so what else does Jassy have to say?

"We have never seen a technology more quickly adopted than AI"

Well, to begin - Jassy certainly doesn't believe the hype around AI is being blown out of proportion.

"Every customer experience will be reinvented by AI, and there will be a slew of new experiences only possible because of AI," he notes.

"I’ve followed the public debate on whether this technology is over-hyped, whether we’re in “a bubble,” and if the margins and ROIC will be appealing. My strong conviction, at least for Amazon, is that the answers are no, no, and yes."

Jassy goes on to state, "we have never seen a technology more quickly adopted than AI", giving the example of ChatGPT's rapid growth after the last few years, and likening it to Edison's launch of the first commercial power station in 1882, and the unseen potential this had to everyday consumers.

"AI may have comparable impact," Jassy says. "The difference is that electricity took 40 years to get where it was going. AI appears to be moving ten times faster."

"Amazon is smack in the middle of this land rush"

Luckily, Amazon (mainly through AWS) is well set to provide your business with everything you need to adopt AI.

Jassy notes the astounding growth and success of AWS, which he claims now has an AI revenue run rate of over $15 billion in Q1 2026 (nearly 260 times larger than AWS was at the same point in its lifespan)- and this is growing "rapidly".

Jassy says AWS offering broader capabilities than competitors, along with a global network meaning customer inference can remain as local as possible, and a broad and capable ecosystem of integration with non-AI services, alongside "the strongest security and operational performance of any AI and infrastructure provider".

"We spend a lot of time listening to customers, and they continue to remark about AWS’s advantaged performance as they increasingly move their AI to AWS," he notes.

"AWS could be growing even faster"

Despite the tremendous growth at AWS, Jassy (who formerly held the top job at the business), then notes how it could yet expand even further.

He notes how AWS reported 24% YoY growth with a $142 billion dollar revenue run rate in its Q4 2025, and how, even though it added 3.9GW of new power capacity in 2025, still expects to double total power capacity by the end of 2027.

"That’s a lot of absolute growth," he says, "And yet, we still have capacity constraints that yield unserved demand," noting how customers are asking for more and more compute as AI demands increase.

"Our chips business is on fire"

Since launching Graviton in 2018, AWS' chip business has expanded hugely, with the fourth generation hardware announced in December 2025.

It's clear that Jassy and Amazon as a whole see Graviton as a major revenue driver going forwards, as the company looks to offer an alternative to the status quo in the AI market, where he notes, "virtually all AI thus far has been done on Nvidia chips."

"A new shift has started," Jassy says. "We have a strong partnership with Nvidia, will always have customers who choose to run Nvidia, and we will continue to make AWS the best place to run Nvidia. However, customers want better price-performance."

He likens the state of affairs to when Intel dominated the CPU space, and notes "demand for Trainium is booming."

"Having our own hotly demanded AI chip opens up many possibilities, but perhaps none larger than the ability to lower costs for customers and secure better economics for AWS. At scale, we expect Trainium will save us tens of billions of capex dollars per year, and provide several hundred basis points of operating margin advantage versus relying on others’ chips for inference."

"The way AWS’s cash cycle works is that the faster AWS grows, the more short-term capex we’ll spend"

Jassy's truths then get into the complex financial weeds a little, as he delves into AWS' cash cycle as a way of demonstrating "how much short-term capex we'll spend".

The TL:DR of this is that having short-term capex allows AWS (and Amazon) to quickly spend and invest in the likes of "land, power, buildings, chips, servers, and networking gear", ahead of the company being able to monetize it - all of which means it can spin up future new investments quickly, ensuring (probably) more success.

Or as Jassy puts it - "We’ve been through this cycle with the first big AWS growth wave, and liked the results."

"A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity"

Finally, looking forward, Jassy notes that Amazon is hopeful about the future due to the strengths of its customer base - including the recent OpenAI commitment of over $100 billion.

Intriguingly, he also mentions "several other customer agreements completed (and unannounced), or deep in process" - so we may hear more of that to come soon.

"AI is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where the current growth is unprecedented and the future growth even bigger," Jassy concludes.

"AWS has a significant leadership position with the broadest functionality, strongest security and operational performance, largest share of customers and revenue, strong desire from customers to run their AI in AWS, and an opportunity to build what could be a new pillar for Amazon in chips."