Photos: Inside Amazon's pop-up COVID-19 vaccination site in its Seattle headquarters - GeekWire

 This doesn't have anything to do with publishing, but Panzer thought you might be interested in what Amazon is doing in Seattle, Washington, to help with the COVID-19 pandemic vaccinations.

 

Vaccinated yet?

According to GeekWire's Taylor Soper, Amazon made a portion of the company's indoor headquarters available for people to receive COVID-19 vaccinations from Virginia Mason volunteers. Amazon says they plan to hold more pop-up vaccination sites in the future.

 

Note: This is a very long post with several photos taken inside the pop-up vaccination site.

 

To read the post tootle over to Amazon Seattle

Amazon hires 248,500 people in Q3 as Jeff Bezos challenges large employers to raise minimum wage - GeekWire

 Panzer decided to make a stop at the GeekWire site today. With a little digging in the posts there, our inquisitive kitty found one about Amazon.

 

1.13 million?

According to Taylor Soper's post, Amazon has 1.13 million employees worldwide. 400,000 of those employees were hired this year. Now Amazon plans to hire another 100,000 seasonal workers for the company's distribution centers. Amazon pays its employees a minimum wage of $15.00 per hour and CEO Jeff Bezos challenged other large employers to raise their minimum hourly wage as well. The post contains several links to information about Amazon's previous hiring sprees, previous wage increases, letters to shareholders, and more.

 

Panzer says, "Hmm ... Seasonal workers? ... They must be planning for a lot of online Christmas shoppers."

 

Note: This is a long post. Bring a cup of tea, a cup of cocoa, three muffins and three cupcakes for today's reading selection. If you plan to follow all the links, bring a thermos of cocoa, twelve muffins, twelve cupcakes, and a blanket for a nap in the middle.

 

To read the post tootle over to Amazon

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon streams Thursday Night Football again with new X-Ray feature audio feed, Twitch shows - GeekWire

Today Panzer made a stop at the GeekWire site. Although the post he found there doesn't have anything to do with publishing, our adventuresome kitty boy found it interesting. Amazon is live streaming the Thursday Night Football games for Prime members.

 

According to the post by Taylor Soper, Amazon just signed a new multi-year contract to stream the football games.  The post includes links to information about Amazon's added features of extra streamed programming for stats, audio and programming on Amazon's Twitch. The post also includes a schedule of all the Thursday night games which will be live streamed.

I'm ready for football.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... They sure like cats in football. There are teams called the Bengals, the Jaguars and the Panthers."

Note: This is a long post. Bring a thermos of tea and three muffins. If you plan to follow the links, bring an extra thermos of cocoa and another three muffins.

 

To read the post tootle over to Amazon football

 

 

 

 

Walmart unveils Walmart+, its Amazon Prime competitor that costs $98/year and will launch Sept. 15 - GeekWire

Panzer made a quick trip to the GeekWire site today. There our speedy kitty found a post about Walmart's new membership program.

This might be interesting.

According to the post by Taylor Soper, Walmart has announced a new membership program called Walmart+. The new program is available for $98.00 per year or $12.95 per month. Walmart+ gives free delivery for your online purchases. There is a $35.00 minimum order requirement however. There is a 15 day free trial period available. The post contains a link to Walmart's post about the new program. Walmart's post has more information about the program benefits.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... If you really think about it you'll see it's not really a competition. Amazon Prime is a lot more than just free delivery."

Note: This is a long-short length post. Bring a half a cup of tea for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Walmart's post about the new program, bring another half a cup of tea.

To read the post tootle over to Walmart+

Judge issues preliminary injunction for Amazon and top authors in lawsuit against 'pirate' book site - GeekWire

Today as Panzer was sweeping out the Panzermobile, our illustrious kitty found a wadded up post under the pilot seat. Flattening the post out, he discovered it was from the GeekWire site and about the court case against the KISS Library site. In July Panzer told you about the lawsuit filed against KISS Library by Amazon, publisher Penguin Random House (PRH) and several individual authors.

Don't steal. You will get caught.

According to the post by GeekWire's Taylor Soper, the judge in the case has issued a preliminary injunction ordering KISS Library and all its assorted other sites to shut down. To accomplish the shutdown, the judge ordered domain registrars to de-activate the KISS-owned domain names. In the judge's opinion these are pirate sites and they distributed and sold copyrighted material without the copyright owners' permission.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... This little kitty wonders what these pirates will do now."

Note: This is a long-short length post. Bring a cup of tea for today's reading selection. If you plan to read Panzer's previous post and the link in it, bring another cup of tea and a muffin.

To read the post tootle over to Amazon
To read Panzer's previous post about the KISS Library tootle over to Amazon lawsuit

Microsoft's new foldable Android-based Surface Duo goes on sale Sept. 10 $1,399 - GeekWire

Today as Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere, the Panzermobile was suddenly shaken by oohing and aahing coming from outside. Following all the noise took our brave kitty boy to the GeekWire site. There he discovered a post about Microsoft's new Surface Duo was causing all the excitement.

Don't forget it costs $1,399.

According to the post by Taylor Soper, Microsoft has opened pre-orders for it's new Surface Duo. The phone will have dual screens which will fold closed. The two screens allow you to run two apps on the Surface at the same time. It comes with a camera and 15.5 hours of play time. You can also use it as an ereader for Kindle ebooks. The post explains all the uses and has screen shots and short promo videos of the uses.

Panzer says, "Oh yeah. It can be used as a phone too."

Note: This is a long post. Bring a cup of tea, a muffin, a brownie and a macaroon for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to Microsoft's Surface Duo

Microsoft to permanently close physical retail locations; will incur pre-tax charge of $450M - GeekWire

Nothing will ever be the same.

Today as Panzer was tootling around in the Catosphere, the Panzermobile was suddenly shaken by crying and gnashing of teeth outside. Following all the hubbub took our brave kitty boy to the GeekWire site. With no digging at all he found a post about Microsoft's bricks and mortar stores. While the post doesn't have anything to do with publishing, Panzer found it interesting and thought you might too.

According to the post by Taylor Soper, Microsoft is permanently closing all 79 of its retail outlets. The stores have been closed since March because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The company announced today it won't re-open any of the stores.

Panzer says, "Well, they didn't really have that many stores, but now you can't "test drive" any of their hardware before you buy it."

Note: This is a long medium post. Bring a cup of iced tea and two chocolate chip cookies and a brownie for today's reading selection.

To read the post tootle over to Microsoft

Amazon charges non-Prime members more at physical bookstores, hinting at new retail strategy - GeekWire

Panzer was cleaning out the Panzermobile like he does every Saturday, when he found a post wedged into the passenger seat. The post was from his visit earlier this week to the GeekWire site. The post is about Amazon's new bricks and mortar bookstores.

According to the post by Taylor Soper, apparently, it pays to be an Amazon Prime member even if you're not buying online at Amazon. Turns out, if you are a Prime member and you go to one of Amazon's bricks and mortar stores, you pay the online price not the store's list price for physical books. It seems, however, that the in-store price for devices like the Fire tablet are the same as the online price as the store sign in the photo says that.

Hmm ... Worth $99 a year? ... Maybe.

Panzer says, "Hmm ... Inquiring cats want to know: How many books would You have to buy at the store to make the cost of the Prime membership worth it?"

Note: This is a l-o-n-g post with photos. Bring two cups of tea and a muffin for today's reading selection.

To read the post, tootle over to Amazon bookstores