Starting Feb. 26, 2025 (via ZDNet) you will no longer be able to download copies of your Kindle books and use those files as a backup. After that date, you will only be able to download books via Wi-Fi or through the Amazon platforms. //

All in all it is a reminder that you don't actually own many or most of your digital purchases, as what you are typically actually "buying" are licenses to use content that can be revoked at any time.

A couple of years ago, Amazon removed the ability to purchase e-books with their flagship Kindle for Android from the Google Play Store. Google implemented a policy that all in-app purchases had to be made using their billing system. Instead of paying Google 30% of each e-book sold, Amazon removed the ability to buy e-books or audiobooks. //

Amazon operates their own Android App store. You can install the Amazon App Store and download the Kindle app if you have a smartphone or tablet. All of the audiobooks and e-books that are available in the store can be purchased. This is because Amazon uses their billing system, the same one that their Kindle e-readers use.

Google, Amazon, Microsoft dive into costly deals that aren't generating anything yet. //

Nuclear power contracts signed by hyperscalers show they're desperate for reliable "clean and green" energy sources to feed their ever-expanding datacenter footprints, however, investment bank Jefferies warns that these tech giants are likely to end up paying over the odds to get it.

Under the terms of the sale, Amazon not only acquired Cumulus' datacenter facilities and associated power infrastructure, but has direct — behind the meter — access to a sizable chunk of the energy generated by the nuclear plant's two reactors.

Over the course of its contract with Talen, Amazon expects to unlock upwards of 960 MW of power supply. However, we'll note that the cloud titan has the option to cap this at 480 MW if it doesn't actually need all of it.

We've now learned at least 15 new datacenters will be built adjacent and connected to the fission plant over the next ten years. As we've previously reported, an AWS campus with five buildings may take up 600,000 square feet, or around 13 acres, and capacity of between 50 and 60 megawatts. //

As generative AI has taken off, it's not uncommon to see clusters of 20,000 or more GPUs capable of consuming in excess of 25 megawatts of power, deployed.

Learning how to use the Fire TV Stick isn't exactly easy, as its menus may feel a bit laborious and features can seem a bit hidden. Once you smarten up how to use your brand new Fire stick to stream live TV or binge-watch amazing shows like A League of Their Own and The Boys. And now that Amazon has a new Fire TV remote, the Fire TV Stick is even easier to use than before.

Keeps Smack-Fu Master, in training
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sryan2k1 said:

I'd pay any amount of money for a Roku remote with ABCD buttons I could configure rather than the streaming platforms of the month (seriously, buy a replacement remote and it's buttons are unlikely to be the same as the one it is replacing). But they know what makes them money, unfortunately.

That's a pretty low bar for all the money! That's how I've run my Roku for the past ten or fifteen years; any universal remote that can send arbitrary REST commands can do this.

All you do is send a "POST /launch/<appid>" command, where <appid> is a unique number for the app inside Roku's database. That ID used to be exposed in the web addresses on https://channelstore.roku.com, now it's obfuscated somewhat, but you can go to http://<Roku IP Address>:8060/query/apps to get a list of all the installed apps and their IDs on any particular Roku.

Depending how fancy you want to get with the remote, Roku even hosts thumbnails for each app on its internal web server, so that http://<Roku IP Address>:8060/query/icon/<appid> gives you each specific icon, and you can build a copy of the app list with direct launching and everything. There are other commands and features, but it looks like I caught Roku half-transitioned to a new website - the old documentation was here: https://developer.roku.com/docs/developer-program/debugging/external-control-api.md And the new documentation looks like it's started to be here: https://github.com/tispratik/docs-1/blob/master/develop/guides/remote-api-ecp.md And neither seems to be complete at the moment.

The app buttons at the bottom of the newest Fire TV Remotes and Fire TV Smart TV remotes can either be fantastic or useless. They’re great if it’s an app that you use often, but they’re a complete waste if you don’t even have the app that they’re for installed. This guide will show you how to reassign the app buttons to open any app you want. This method uses my Remapper app and works for Netflix, HBO, Hulu, PS Vue, Disney+, CTV, Crave, DAZN, TVNOW, and other buttons. It works on the new remote paired to a Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, and Firestick, as well as Fire TV Edition devices from Element, Toshiba, Insignia, Onida, Grundig, JVC, and more.

The following tutorial will show you How to Block Amazon Firestick & Fire TV automatic updates.

Enter the security code at the end of your account password and click Submit. For example, if password is "abcdef" and the security code received is "12345," enter "abcdef12345" as your password.