Hasta La Gadget!

If you are a Netflix subscriber, you probably noticed that the streaming video service had a number of holiday films and cartoons among its options for viewing. If your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans involved sitting down in front of the TV and streaming some of those holiday movies, odds are you were disappointed. Netflix had a significant outage on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day that took the streaming service off-line.

The problem wasn’t on Netflix’s end; rather the problem had to do with Amazon Web Services Elastic Load Balancing service in the US-East data center. The problem with Amazon service led to Netflix and streaming service Heroku being off-line Christmas Eve and the outage continued into the next day. Interestingly, Amazon’s own video streaming service Amazon Prime Instant Video was apparently unaffected in most locations.

The outage reportedly began at 1:50 PM Pacific Standard Time. There are some scattered reports of outages for Amazon’s own video streaming services well. Netflix reported that streaming service was back up to normal streaming levels at 8:45 AM Pacific Standard Time on Christmas Day.

This isn’t the first time that an Amazon Web Services-related outage has struck companies using the US-East data center. Apparently, that data center is often chosen because it’s one of the first to get new features that Amazon rolls out. Interestingly that data center is Amazon’s oldest and largest and it’s one of the least expensive that Amazon offers making it very popular.

[via Gigaom]

Netflix outage on Christmas Eve blamed on Amazon Web Services problems is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Gizmodo Twitter friend Ben Dreyfuss. bought his mom an iPhone for Christmas. Ben is a good son! Christmas morning: Mama D. tears open the package, finds a shiny aluminum bundle of joy, and then decides to set it up. One problem: When she called Verizon to activate the thing, they told her that her new iPhone was stolen. Whaaat? More »

Amazon might enjoy only very thin to nonexistent margins on its Kindle hardware, according to most industry watchers, but it looks to be cooking up a plan to extend device sales revenue thanks to extended warranties. That’s according to trademark filings uncovered by GigaOM in a new report today. The wording of the application suggests Amazon is following Apple’s lead, hoping to replicate the Mac maker’s success with its AppleCare extended hardware protection plans.

GigaOM notes that Amazon’s patent is almost identical to Apple’s but it would apply to “Kindle” products, and goods and services associated with that name. The trademark would cover “maintenance, repair, updating and installation services,” as well as troubleshooting services, and a second trademark filing associated with the first extends to “insurance and warranty services.”

In the consumer electronics space, extended warranties are big business. As a former employee of Best Buy myself, I can tell you that margins on big-ticket items like PCs were razor-thin, and that the Product Service Plans (PSP) we were encouraged to shill were the real moneymakers, along with accessories. Best Buy has never been very open about how much of its bottom line comes from the PSPs it pushes, but they’re clearly of key value to the retailer’s bottom line, given how hard they push them, And of questionable value to consumers  given that nowadays, merely telling a Best Buy employee that I used to be one when they launch into their PSP pitch is almost always enough to get them to stop.

Apple has done a better job of making its own AppleCare service appeal to consumers, and many disinterested third-parties will actually recommend picking them up. The company has faced legal challenges in Europe around AppleCare and how it works with EU regulations guaranteeing consumers two years of basic protection on consumer electronics purchases, but Apple is resolving those issues and continuing to offer its extended warranties in affected countries, albeit differently than they’re sold in the U.S. and other locations.

Amazon partners with a third-party provider, Service Net, to provide Kindle extended warranties, but in doing so, it’s leaving money on the table long-term. An AmazonCare (they won’t be so brazen as to actually call it that) offering would help it add revenue to device sales with relatively little cost. That’s something which would provide a lot of upside for a gadget-maker that now needs to compete with Google on pricing, a company which is arguably more willing and able to ignore profit margins on hardware in pursuit of getting its devices into more hands.

Everyone and their dog knows that Christmas is coming, and this would mean a frenzied shopping season needs to kick off (which can be a good excuse to the missus that you are just doing your patriotic duty in stimulating the local economy, of course). Well, giving gifts have just one level of excitement – when the box that the gift comes in is carefully wrapped in present paper. Well, how about increasing the level of suspense by another one, while eliciting a surprised look from the recipient’s face? This is where the Prank Pack Pet Sweep comes in handy.

Basically, the Prank Pack Pet Sweep has been described as a package that comes with four tiny mops that can be attached to your dog’s paws, allowing it to clean up your home as it moves around indoors. Good luck getting your dog to wear all four of these without nary a form of protest! All you need to do is pack the actual gift within, and watch the expressions of dismay on the recipient’s face when he/she rips open the wrapping paper only to see this – and he/she doesn’t even have a dog in the first place.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Earthquakes Linked To Wastewater Disposal From Fracking, Amazon Reveals Best-Selling Books Of 2012,

Short of an iPad, the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 and Nook HD+ are about as good as it gets in the 10-inch media tablet space, so we thought it only fitting to Fly or Die these bad boys side-by-side.

Though John and I did disagree a bit on which is best, we can both agree that either of these media tablets is an excellent buy for the avid reader and movie lover. Both have excellent displays — the Nook HD+ technically has a slightly higher ppi and laminated screen, while the Fire HD offers stereo speakers.

In almost every way, though, it comes down to software.

Truth be told, Barnes & Noble has come along way in terms of bringing a solid UX to the table, and has done so with Personalized User Profiles and Nook Today (which offers a list of daily tidbits like weather, recommendations, etc.).

Features like Scrapbooking take that simple progress and accelerate into the lead where magazine readers and catalog enthusiasts are concerned. The HD display paired with the interactivity of over 100 supporting catalogs and the ability to save your faves make the Nook HD+ very well suited to anyone who prefers the steady stream of magazines and catalogs over novels, movies, and other one-offs.

The Nook HD+ is also cheaper, starting at $269 as opposed to $299.

If, however, you would rather have a pseudo reader tablet (with the priority on e-reading, and not surfing or email) the Fire HD 8.9 may be the way to go. It too has personalized user profiles for family use, and comes with its own unique features like X-Ray and WhisperSync. It’s great for watching movies, and offers an excellent reading experience too.

All this requiring that you are new to the space and don’t already own a library full of content in either Amazon’s or Barnes & Noble’s cloud.