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Amazon is buying Roomba maker iRobot. Roomba is now 20 years old, making iRobot one of the pioneers in the home robot space. Since 2017, Roomba has beencompatible with Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. And in May, the company introduced iRobot OS, a revamped operating system. Amazon is a market leader in smart home devices, but it has never offered a vacuum cleaner before. Amazon didn’t offer further details about how it plans to integrate iRobot with the rest of the company....

Starting next year, people shopping on Amazon will be able to pay for purchases usingVenmo.

The surcharge, a first for the e-commerce giant, will go into effect on April 28. It’s estimated almost 90% of Amazon’s more than 2 million sellers use its FBA service. Analysts predict many will pass the increase on to their customers. “FBA sellers can only handle so much margin compression before customers are affected.”

The tech industry hasshed more than 100,000 jobsin recent months as companies includingGoogle,MicrosoftandFacebookhave all announced massive cuts. Game streaming service Twitch will also see cuts, as well as Amazon’s advertising business, Jassy said.

CEO Andy Jassy said in a blog post Wednesday that affected employees will be notified by Jan. 18. Jassy also said at the time that cuts would continue into 2023. Amazon saw a boom in online shopping starting in 2020. In the past few months,Jassyhalted testing onAmazon Scout, the company’s robotic home-delivery initiative. He’s alsoshuttered the Amazon Caretelehealth and nursing service, as well asFabric.com, a longtime online fabric retailer. Amazon imposed a hiring freeze for small teams in September, followed by acorporate-wide freezeearlier this month....

Amazon Prime will deliver last-minute gifts and stream original shows likeGood Omens. The company cited “increased inflation and operating costs” as the reasons behind the hike. Customers in Spain, France and Italy are facing price hikes of up to 43%. It also follows aprice increase for UK customers of Netflixback in March – the second in 18 months.

Amazonon Monday said it’slooking to fill 150,000 seasonal jobsacross the US as we head into the holiday shopping season. The seasonal positions are the latest part of Amazon’s recent hiring push.

Amazonreportedly wants to take its role in the grocery industry to new heights in 2022. Amazon reportedly plans to expand that model across Europe and into the US next year.

Amazon will offer on-unit processing on its Echo smart speakers for the first time. The company also announced amore powerful AZ2 chip, which powers the newEcho Show 15 smart display. Amazon says it plans to eventually roll the option out to other devices, too.

And it will bring a flavor of online shopping to the in-person experience. The clothes will then be delivered to a changing room or checkout counter by a store employee. Shoppers will be able to receive personalized recommendations too. Amazon’s warehouses have beensubject of controversyover their labor practices. This isn’t the first time Amazon has taken its online shopping experience to the real world. Avideo posted to YouTubeshows a shopping experience conducted largely through a smartphone and touchscreen in the changing room....

Amazon said it’s worked hard to keep employees safe during the pandemic. Amazon has long faced scrutiny over its treatment of warehouse and delivery workers during the pandemic.

The closures won’t affect grocery stores and the dates the stores will stop operating vary. The e-commerce giant willclose 68 stores in total. The 4-star stores feature items like electronics and toys. The move leaves grocery as the main focus for Amazon’s physical store strategy. It’ll also keep developing Amazon Style apparel stores and increasing its Starbucks Pickup and Amazon Go locations. It also hasplans for an apparel storewith the technology in Los Angeles....

New York Yankees baseball is coming to Amazon Prime, at least for those in the New York area. The announcement follows Amazon’s purchase of apiece of the Yankees' YES connection in 2019. Games played on the road are designated with an @. All times are in ET.