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Having made its name buying smaller, niche independent projects to build its TV and movie division into a multi-award-winning studio, Amazon plans ramp things up a little moving forward, Reuters reports . According to sources, the company will increase its spending on new films, dedicating as much as $50 million to more commercial projects. Amazon will reportedly reduce the number of art-house movies it buys, which it typically acquires at events like the Sundance Film Festival for figures in the low millions, in its bid to lure more people to Prime and onto its expanding streaming service. Amazon Studios' shift to movies with a broader appeal mirrors its plans for its TV business, which is also spending big in order to secure big-budget projects. In November 2017, the company confirmed it had acquired the rights to a Lord of the Rings TV series , which may have cost as much as $250 million. Netflix is also spending more on original movies: Will Smith fantasy Bright reported...

Last year was a big year for Alexa. First, Amazon released updated versions of its popular Echo speakers and then brought its smart assistant to screens with the launch of the Echo Show and the Echo Spot . However, like many Amazon products, they often take their time to travel across the Atlantic. The Echo Show took around five months to launch in the UK and we've been waiting since September for its smaller sibling to make its debut. Today, Amazon announced that its smart alarm clock will cost £120 and is now available to pre-order. Actually, calling the Echo Spot a smart alarm clock is doing it a disservice. It is essentially a smaller Echo Show that is designed to sit beside your bed. It plugs into Alexa, connects to your smart home, handles video calls and displays up-to-the-minute updates via its circular 2.5-inch display. Due to its lack of size and reduced output, it's also a lot cheaper than the Echo Show, which will set you back £200. To incentivise pre-orders, ...