A few days ago I brought up a patent Amazon got on reselling “used” digital content. It turns out that’s not the only odd patent Amazon’s gotten lately. Dan brought to my attention U.S. patent number 8,370,271, which Amazon just received on “recurring delivery of products.” Essentially, Amazon just received a patent on the ability to ship a new order of a particular good every so often to a customer without being asked. Or, as one pundit put it, Amazon has just “patented the milkman.” Amazon has already been offering this service for some time now. If you order some sort...

Yesterday Engadget reported that Amazon has brought its post-office-box-style package pickup lockers to Gristedes, Rite-Aid, and D’Agostino stores in New York City. We had last mentioned them trying the lockers out in Seattle, and Electronista also reports that they have been popping up in the UK (though none of those have been activated yet). I expect the lockers will probably be introduced in major metropolitan areas first, where there are more people to use them, and might slowly make their way to other cities. I doubt any will come to my home town of Springfield, Missouri for a...

It’s a conundrum faced by anyone who has ever ordered something expensive on-line: how do you make sure you’re home when it gets there? How can you be sure the UPS man won’t just leave your shiny new Kindle, or even a box of books, sitting right on your doorstep? (I had that happen to an Amazon package once. It rained that day; one of my books got soaked.) If your employer won’t receive it for you, and you don’t have a friendly neighbor or relative to take care of that for you, what do you do? Amazon has...