Path comes to Kindle Fire HD

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Private social network Path is branching out with its first application release for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet.
The new application, developed in conjunction with Amazon, landed on the Android-forked platform Thursday and is compatible with Kindle Fire HD 7, Kindle Fire HD 8.9 WiFi, and Kindle Fire HD 8.9 4G LTE models, the company said.
Three-year-old Path specializes in letting members share private moments with their closest friends. The application is said to have more than 12 million registered users.

"Making Path available for Kindle is a goal our Android team has worked tirelessly and excitedly to accomplish over the past few months," the startup said in a blog post.
Amazon's version of the social-networking application looks like the standard Android app and comes with all of Path's core features, including an ever-expanding collection of stickers that add personality to messages and comments.
The release marks another new territory for Path, which was long only available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets. Last week, Path announced that it would soon launch on Windows Phone, as well as make a special, photo-optimized version of its application for the 41-megapixel Nokia Lumia 1020.

Amazon launches its own game studio, goes social with Living Classics on Facebook

Amazon is committing itself to gaming much more seriously than providing a storefront: it just launched its own game development house. The simply titled Amazon Game Studios is starting out gently by producing a Facebook hidden object game, Living Classics, that lets the socially inclined dig around through scenes from well-known literature -- what else would you expect from the Kindle's creator? While the free, me-too game isn't going to give Microsoft or Sony any frights just yet, the company has the ambition of making "innovative, fun and well-crafted" titles. Amazon is actively recruiting more help for the studio as we write, so we'd expect more grandiose work before too long.

Google Wallet Just Got A Huge Update That Lets You Use Any Major Credit Card

Google just announced it's launching a new version of its mobile payments app Google Wallet. The update now allows you to load any major U.S. credit or debit card to your phone.

Until now, Google Wallet would only let you use a Citi MasterCard or a pre-paid Google credit card.
The new Google Wallet is cloud-based, meaning you store all your cards online and access them on your phone or your web browser. You also have the option to disable Google Wallet on your phone in case it gets lost or stolen.

Google is able to do this because Wallet no longer stores credit card information on your phone. It's all stored online, just like Amazon and other shopping sites store your credit card data.

Amazon updates Cloud Player with 256 Kbps matched files, faster import, direct delivery

Amazon's Cloud Player service just scored some major upgrades, including quality and import enhancements. Perhaps most notable is a new 256 Kbps option for matched files, including songs you imported before today. That bitrate, in MP3 format, is available for new tracks and albums added to the cloud -- a process that's been streamlined as well, with Cloud Player scanning your library and automatically offering up matched tracks, rather than requiring manual imports. In addition, music you buy in the Amazon MP3 Store will show up in your Player automatically, including past purchases (in cases where the site has the necessary rights). There's also an option to edit metadata directly, such as artist and album info, along with album art, or you can use the label information already in Amazon's catalog. Cloud Drive will also be less integrated with Player -- previous uploads will be moved to an "Archived Music" folder and won't count against storage caps, but will still be accessible and downloadable, while new imports will be stored in Player directly. You can upload up to 250 songs to Cloud Player for free, or pay a $25 annual fee to bump that cap to 250,000.

Major Tech Companies Partner to Fight Government Regulations

Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay are just four of the tech giants said to be in a major lobbying group formed to protect the interests of the technology industry, according to a report by The Washington Post.
The group will be called The Internet Association and plans to launch in September, according to an anonymous source the The Washington Post spoke to. When it’s launched, the full list of members will be available, but as it stands already, The Internet Association contains some major tech players. The group will be led by former Deputy Staff Director to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Michael Beckerman.
The group’s aim is to fight restricting regulations that impede innovation, although some lawmakers say regulations are necessary for the often-unregulated tech industry.
The group’s website describes its mission as this: “The Internet Association is the unified voice of the Internet economy, representing the interests of America’s leading Internet companies and their global community of users. The Internet Association is dedicated to advancing public policy solutions to strengthen and protect an open, innovative and free Internet.”
The Washington Post notes that the tech industry — and the giant companies leading The Internet Association — are facing regulatory issues that would impact their business, including “privacy legislation, online sales tax reforms, cybersecurity and proposed anti-piracy and copyright laws.”
In the past, the U.S. government has investigated Google on numerous occasions, in one instance to see if it favors its own products in search results. Apple was also investigated by the FTC for its business dealings with Google.

Amazon plans for 'five or six' new tablets

While we expect Amazon to refresh its Kindle Fire tablet sooner rather than later, Demos Parneros, president of US retail for Staples, has told Reuters that the online book-seller has bigger plans, and aims to introduce five or six new devices. According to the exec, the tablets will come in a range of sizes and would include a new ten-inch device -- going directly against another popular 10-inch slab. No word on whether these five or six device would include a smartphone, as screen sizes get increasingly closer. Amazon has also announced that it'll be creating a new R&D hub in London, focusing on its services and APIs for TVs, consoles, smartphones and PCs, aimed squarely at rolling these out across the globe. The original Kindle Fire -- and its Android app store -- is still not available outside of America. However, public plans for the new Amazon base currently center on relocating both Lovefilm and Pushbutton to this new hub. However, it's been about a year; about time for Europe to get a taste of Amazon's wallet-friendly tab.