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Amazon Underground

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121–130 of 139 posts

Re: Amazon Underground

#121

Post by 72deluxe »

hackuser wrote: post #24

Isn't this the same model that funds most websites? Zero cost in exchange for advertising and, I'm guessing, giving up your private information - with all the positives and negatives associated with that model. I'm too lazy to check: Does Amazon say what private info is collected? Info on phones can be much more personal and more accessible to other applications.

Not sure but the app does request permission for everything on your phone:

http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-com-Amazon-Underground/dp/B004G...

Thanks to mkaziz above for the link, apologies for the repetition

Re: Amazon Underground

#122

Post by 72deluxe »

zrgiu_ wrote: post #61

This is Android - what about apps that run mostly in the background ? A music player, fitness tracker, activity tracker? What about apps that run continuously, like a launcher ?

Time to write a live wallpaper!

Re: Amazon Underground

#123

Post by tootie »

justin_vanw wrote: post #70

I bought my daughters Kindle Fire's for Christmas. It doesn't have the Google Play store. 99.99% of the apps available, either free or even paid, are cookie cutter, mass produced, generic garbage. Almost all the free apps were complete junk. Besides that, the Kindle Fire is a fundamentally useless device for kids. The kid mode was so buggy as to be useless. Take more than a few minutes of video and the wifi won't wor…

If your kid is reading at a first grade level or so, the best device for her is a Chromebook. It can play all the little flash games on nickjr.com or pbskids.org, but is also a tiny functional computer with a full keyboard and trackpad.

Re: Amazon Underground

#125

Post by gooftop »

ohazi wrote: post #72
modeless wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finally, someone figures out the real reason Amazon is doing this. Thank you for doing the job all the journalists reporting on the press release failed to do.

No, the real reason Amazon is doing this is that they want to get the Amazon App Store onto Google and carrier branded Android phones. It's a fight for survival and relevance against Google Play.

Taken in the light of today's news about Fire engineers being laid off, it might suggest that Amazon is walking away from the Android hardware space but wants to stay relevant in the Android App space.

Re: Amazon Underground

#126

Post by PhrosTT »

I actually tried to install this, but stopped when it prompted me for permissions. It literally asked for every permission I can imagine (read and write my files, all contacts, all calls & texts, all sensors, etc etc etc).

Re: Amazon Underground

#127

Post by jcfrei »

PhrosTT wrote: post #126

I actually tried to install this, but stopped when it prompted me for permissions. It literally asked for every permission I can imagine (read and write my files, all contacts, all calls & texts, all sensors, etc etc etc).

Amazon is apparently almost desperate to establish their own apps marketplace.

Re: Amazon Underground

#128

Post by austenallred »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #113
austenallred wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not that that's not a real cost. Is that you don't include intangible things such as time and emotions when determining if something is free, by any expected usage of the word.

Hold on. My account balances are represented in a purely digital form. Almost all have no real physical record, at least not in sufficient detail or accessibility to be comparable to the digital form (in most cases it would probably be impossible to recover from a complete loss of the digital form). Most people here who use traditional banks and credit cards are probably in a similar situation. You are telling me tha…

I should have said non-monetary.

The way Amazon is using "free" the definition means that you don't pay money for it. Full stop.

There are other ways of calculating what your "costs" are, such as including opportunity cost (what you're referring to as "time wasted." If you use that definition of "free," literally nothing is ever free, as you're always forgoing something else.

Re: Amazon Underground

#130

Post by jerf »

sigmar wrote: post #12

Took me a minute to find out what "actually free" means: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/underground/do... "Interstitial Advertisements When a user launches an Amazon Underground app for the first time, a welcome message in the form of an interstitial ad plays. In subsequent times that a user either launches or resumes the app, paid interstitial ads will also sometimes play." Interesting. So amazon deal…

So, how much can I pay Amazon to make the ads go away?
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