Tag Archives: googl

Amazon offers 30-day free trials of Fire TV set-top box

Amazon.com hopes to light a fire under sales of its Fire TV set-top box by giving select customers a 30-day free trial of the device. BTIG Research and several media outlets reported Friday that Amazon.com is emailing certain customers with an offer to try out the Fire TV streaming video box for a month at no charge. The promotion comes less than two months after Amazon launched the box to compete with devices from Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOGL), Roku and others. “It’s an unusual promotion for Amazon (AMZN) , which previously has never allowed customers to try a product at home before buying it,” Kif Leswing wrote on GigaOm. If trial customers like the $99 Fire TV, Amazon will bill them after the 30-day window. If they don’t, they can simply return it within that time. Fire TV ranks No. 1 on Amazon’s Top 100 Electronics , up from No. 3 earlier in the day. Google Chromecast is No. 2, the Roku 3 box is No. 6 and Apple TV is No. 11 as of this posting.

GOOGL Stock Averages $7.35 More Than Nonvoting GOOG

If you’re wondering what a Google (GOOGL) vote is worth, the answer seems to be $7.35. Through Tuesday, in the 38 trading sessions since Google’s complex 2-for-1 stock split that created nonvoting shares trading under the GOOG (GOOG) ticker, the GOOG stock price has closed an average of 7.35 lower than the price of GOOGL stock. The GOOGL stock, as did the pre-split GOOG stock, has one-10th the voting rights of the nontraded Google Class B shares.

Microsoft’s new Surface tablet pitched as laptop replacement

It used to be said that Microsoft (MSFT) needed three tries to get a product right. The software giant is hoping that’s the case with its third-generation Surface tablet. Microsoft on Tuesday introduced its Surface Pro 3 tablet, which it claims will be the product that replaces the notebook computer. It also hopes the device will give it an edge against Apple’s (AAPL) iPad and Google (GOOGL) Android-based tablets. Like its predecessors, the Surface Pro 3 can double as a tablet and a notebook. It features a greatly improved dockable keyboard and adjustable screen kickstand that will allow for laptop typing, something difficult with earlier models. Plus, it features a special pen for writing digital ink on documents, editing photos and other tasks where pen input is preferable. It has a 12-inch screen where the previous model had a 10.6-inch display. The new screen is 38% bigger than Surface…