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Black, unassuming, about the size of a pack of chewing gum: On the surface, the Fire TV 4K Select stick released in mid-October looks just like any other streaming device made by Amazon. Plug it into your TV, and youll be greeted by Amazons tried-and-true living room interface, complete with icons for popular streaming apps like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video. And yet, the Select streaming stick is unlike any of its predecessors. Thats because the device is running Vega a new, Linux-based operating system Amazon has quietly been building over the past couple of years as a replacement for its legacy, Android-based Fire OS. The company plans to eventually launch Vega across a wide range of devices, including smart displays, streaming devices, even car dashboards. The adoption of Vega represents one of Amazons most ambitious hardware-related initiatives ever since the launch of the first Fire TV device over a decade ago. It also prompted backlash from consumers and lukewarm reception from developers. But for the company, launching Vega may be worth the pain. Amazon has always wanted to create its own software ecosystem, says Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart. Betting on Vega allows Amazon not just to optimize the code running on its devices, but also to break free from Google and take control of its own destiny. Android was developed to run on phones When Amazon launched its first Fire TV streaming box in early 2014, it did so by using a version of Googles Android OS that the company customized to its own needs. For that, Amazon decided not to license Googles Play Store and other services available on officially Google-sanctioned hardware. Instead, it simply used open source Android code freely available to anyone, and built its own Fire TV app store and services on top of that foundation. Android [has] been and remains super, super important to our product lines – it is wonderful how Google has built and supported that platform, wrote the outgoing Amazon devices executive Robert Williams in a recent LinkedIn post, adding: However, we also felt that we could build something more purpose-built for consumer electronics devices that was faster and used more modern components and design. [Photo: Amazon] There are sound technical reasons for this approach: Android is, at its core, an operating system for mobile phones, and many of its components are either not required or not optimized for other kinds of devices. Thats why Google itself switched from Android to a new, custom OS called Fuchsia for its smart displays in 2021. Similarly, Amazon first launched Vega on a smart display, the Echo Show 5, in 2023, albeit without publicly announcing the switch. We started where we could have the biggest impact right away, explains Tapas Roy, Amazons vice president of device software & services. Vegas integration with our custom-designed silicon accelerates AI query response times, such as for Alexa+, making our Echo lineup ideal for joint development. An insurance policy against Google Other reasons for an alternative to Android are less technical. While Google has maintained the core Android code as an open source project, it has also long tightly controlled what device makers can and cannot do if they want access to the companys Play Store, and other commercial Android components. Google in particular frowned upon efforts to build alternative, customized distributions of Android, something thats known among open source insiders as forking. Fire OS is the most popular forked version of Android in Western markets, leading to significant friction between the two companies. The conflict came to a head when Amazon began approaching third-party consumer electronics companies about making TVs powered by Fire OS a few years after launching its own streaming adapters. At the time, Google told TV makers that they couldnt use Fire OS if they also were using Googles Android on other devices, including phones. Google justified this by arguing it was trying to prevent fragmentation, but the move also effectively kneecapped Amazons smart TV efforts. The conflict resulted in an antitrust investigation in India that got resolved with a settlement earlier this year. Google and Amazon separately came to an agreement on the issue, paving the way for manufacturers like TCL to build TVs powered by Fire OS. Despite this truce, Vega OS can be seen as a kind of insurance policy against Google. If the search giant were to further restrict the use of Android in the future, Amazon wouldn’t be left empty-handed. At least publicly, Amazon is committed to shipping devices with both operating systems for the foreseeable future. We’re not moving away from Android, says Roy. Were a multi-OS company, and Fire OS isnt going anywhere. Creating and managing our own operating system lets us innovate across the whole tech stack within our devices where we need it. Amazon has no plans to make Vega available to third-party device makers, Roy said. Pushback from developers and consumers Amazon has faced some pushback from consumers after launching the Vega-powered Select stick. While Android-powered Fire TV sticks are rated 4.6 stars and up on Amazons shopping website, the Select model currently has a 3.6 star rating, with a whopping 25% of reviewers awarding it just a single star. Part of the backlash has to do with the fact that prior Android models allowed consumers to install their own apps from sources other than Amazons official store a feature frequently used for apps designed to access pirated content. Vega does not offer a similar sideloading feature. Amazon has also struggled to gain support from app developers and publishers for the device. Smart TV app developers already deal with a very fragmented landscape, with devices made by Roku, Samsung, Google, and LG, all requiring them to build different versions of their apps. At launch, the Select Stick was missing native apps from a number of major publishers, including CBS, PBS, andBET. To make up for those shortcomings, Amazon adopted a novel approach: For the time being, it is simply running the existing Android apps for services like these in the cloud. In most cases, consumers will notice little to no difference to an app running on the device itself. Some functionality, however, simply isnt compatible with this approach. As a result, Select stick owners currently dont have access to a Spotify app on the device. Despite the initial extra investment, publishers could ultimately benefit from porting their apps to Vega. The operating system is based on technology that will, at least in theory, allow developers to consolidate their codebase across multiple operating systems. Developers can reuse their … code from one project to another, within or outside of Amazon apps, to make the most of their time and efforts, Roy says. Aside from those practical considerations, developers do have another factor to contend with: With over 200 million Fire TV devices sold to date, Amazon is a giant in the streaming hardware space. If the company keeps shipping new devices running Vega, publishers may just have to fall in line and rebuild their apps for the new operating system. There are likely to be growing pains, says Greengart, adding: I would give Amazon extremely high odds for success with Vega OS.
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E-Commerce
With over 800 student organizations on campus, the University of Pennsylvania already seems to have a club for every interest, from investment banking to beekeepingeven cheese. Now, add AI to the mix. In September, dozens of Penn students gathered in the engineering school auditorium for the debut of the Claude Builder Club, sponsored by AI company Anthropic. Over the course of this semester, the Builder Club has plans to host a hackathon, demo night, and other opportunities to create projects using artificial intelligence. I need the Claude premium for a year, says Crystal Yang, a freshman who attended the first meeting. Claude, she had heard, is better for coding and sounding more human in writing. Like Yang, many attendees were interested chiefly in the free Claude Pro and API credits offered. But according to their responses at the first meeting, a number of attendees also wanted to spend the semester working on problems with climate, healthcare, and manufacturing. Hearing other Penn students stand up and share what problems they were working on solving with the help of AI was genuinely inspiring, says Alain Welliver, one of the Builder Club ambassadors leading Penns chapter. As an ambassador, Welliver is responsible for promoting the club and developing programming. Hell receive a $1,750 stipend for his work. Welliver, an engineering student, saw the ambassadorship opportunity this summer on LinkedIn and was quickly interestedhe had considered creating a similar club before. To land the role, he completed a written application form about projects hes built and his perspective on AI, and did an interview. The Builder Clubs are part of Anthropics broader Claude for Education initiative, which also includes a Learning mode in Claude and free campuswide access for partnering universities. Drew Bent, the education lead on Anthropics Beneficial Developments team, suggests that economics students who take part in the Builder Clubs could, for example, use their Claude app to create an interactive simulator for a macroeconomics concept in minutes. The first iteration of Builder Clubs debuted this fall semester; there are now over 60 participating universities. Theyve launched at seven of the eight Ivy League schools, SEC schools like the University of Georgia and Vanderbilt University, and international universities like the London School of Economics. According to Greg Feingold, who leads the Builder Club program for Anthropic, over 15,000 students have signed up. More than 25 of the chapters exceed 100 members. By the end of the semester, Feingold hopes to empower students to build projects theyre interested in, especially those who have found AI tools too costly or otherwise inaccessible before. I really want us to find those students who are not technical students and have them participate, Feingold says. I just know that were going to get some really amazing stories of people who have never written a line of code but were able to make an app for the first time. A certain type of agency Victor Lee, a professor at Stanford Universitys Graduate School of Education, says tech companies have launched similar programs in the past, pointing to Apples Swift Coding Clubs as an example. A lot of groups are trying to jockey for position and recognition, especially amongst a user base that is likely to be core to them, he says. Across college campuses, AI companies are everywhere. During the last finals season, OpenAI offered free ChatGPT Plus. At Penn, students recently waited in line for over an hour at a Google Gemini pop-up eventwhich included free Gemini-branded Owala water bottles. This has created concerns for educators, who worry many students are using AI to cheat. In addition to being a Builder Club ambassador, students can apply to be a Campus ambassador and promote Anthropic products directly to peers. Anuja Uppuluri, one of the first ambassadors, shared on X Anthropics $1/month Pro subscription deal for Carnegie Mellon University students this spring. Her post received tens of thousands of views, and in the comments section, multiple students asked for the offer to be available at their schools too. Uppuluri feels thankful that she took her introductory computer science courses before LLMs got popular: The temptation to use an AI tool would have been all too alluring. Theres some type of agency about Claude Code that makes it different, Uppuluri notes. It doesnt make it a tool. I think it makes it more like a pair programmer. Welliver finds Anthropic to be one of the few AI companies with an approach that fully aligns with his values. Part of the Builder Club programming that Anthropic has developed is education about AI safety and the societal impacts of AI. If you ask my friends, theyd probably be like, Alains the last person to become a brand ambassador, Welliver says. Anthropic, though, is really intentionally trying to do an ethical approach to advancing AI. I think those values transfer over to the club.
Category:
E-Commerce
Its not often that headlines about customer brawls end up morphing into good news for a brand. But thats arguably whats happened to Starbucks thanks to the bungled rollout of its limited-run Bearista cups becoming the first new craze of this holiday seasoneven including good-natured copycat tributes from the likes of Aldi and Walmart. At first, the Bearista debut on November 6 seemed like a black eye. The 20-ounce glass tumbler, shaped like a cute bear sporting a Starbucks beanie, sparked immediate viral demand, with customers at some locations lining up at 3 a.m. to score one. This apparently caught the company off guard, and supplies of the $30 object ran out almost instantly. Frustrated customers slammed the brand online (some claiming stores were woefully understocked), and in a few cases physically battled each other for what was available. ‘Bearista’ cups brew up brawls at Starbucks, Fox News reported. With fistfight accounts and clips circulating online, the fiasco took on a Waffle House vibenot exactly the community-centric third place experience the coffee giant tries to cultivate. Starbucks apologized for the disappointment. But the story didnt go away. It evolved. Of course the bear tumblers materialized on eBay, on sale for hundreds of dollars. But less predictably, a new round of social media videosand mainstream press coverage of themexplained how to DIY your own bear-shaped drinking vessel dupe by draining honey packaging and perhaps drawing on the Starbucks logo for fun. Aldi began winkingly promoting a $5 gingerbread-figure cup for those who missed out on that $30 bear; Walmart chimed in with its own version, a bear-shaped bottle of its Great Value brand honey filled with coffee. All of this has been lighthearted, and ultimately a tribute. Thus the Bearista mini-craze was pulled back from becoming a borderline squalid tale of corporate fumbling and manic consumerism. Instead, its as if the market has decided that thanks to this absurd incident, bear cups are, somehow, out of nowhere, now a Holiday Thing. And that works out rather neatly for Starbucks, which this week, in the direct aftermath of the Bearista freakout, began rolling out this years version of its traditional holiday-object lineup. On November 13 it started offering the new iteration of its annual reusable Red Cup promotiona free, limited-edition cup, in four design choices, for certain orders from its holiday menu. And it has teased new holiday merch additions to its lineup, including a collaboration with fashion brand Roller Rabbit slated for early December. Meanwhile, though Starbucks has declined to comment on whether the Bearista will return (a McRib-style mystery?), demand clearly transcends any ill will about the botched debut. We want the cup , reads the top response to one Starbucks Instagram post hyping the new Red Cup designs. Dont ignore our bear cup requests! echoes another response. We want more! In other words, what looked like a brand blunder is now arguably the happiest story of the early Brian Niccol eracertainly better than news of store closings or lagging earnings or union disputes. The Bearista tale, however chaotic, has ended up making Starbucks feel relevant, in a good way. If there is such a thing as the right kind of brand brawl, this was it.
Category:
E-Commerce
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