Here is a recap of new posts for the week of October 12^th on the Amazon Apps & Services Blog:

Unboxing the New Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition

Developer Evangelist, Jesse Freeman, unboxes the new Amazon Fire TV Gaming Edition and walks through all the hardware with pictures.

New ASK Features Support Thousands of Developers Building for Alexa

We recapped the new features for the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) that have launched since June.

Grow Your Amazon Game Revenue With Chartboost Mobile Ads

We shared information on Chartboost, the largest mobile-games only platform, helping game developers increase revenue and discover new players.

Amazon Announce the Next Alexa Fund Recipient: Invoxia

We announced the most recent recipient of the Alexa Fund, Invoxia, who joins 10 previously funded recipients.

Game On: Get $100 in Free Mobile Game Ad Credit from Chartboost for your Amazon Appstore Games

We announced the GameOn program from Chartboost, offering $100 in free Charboost ad credits to qualified developers.

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Here is a recap of new posts for the week of October 5^th on the Amazon Apps & Services Blog:

Announcing the Amazon Appstore Success Bundle Offer

Publish your first app to the Amazon Appstore between October 1st – November 1st and we'll help you drive installs, monetize, and scale with a Success Bundle worth up to $700.

Tips for Using Login with Amazon in Alexa Connected Home (CoHo) Skills

We recently launched the Alexa Lighting API extending Alexa’s built-in lighting skill so she can securely control cloud-connected lighting and switch devices. This new API enables you to write code that translates between Alexa’s built-in lighting skill and your lighting device’s proprietary control systems. In this post, learn tips for using Login with Amazon in your Alexa Skill.

Want Amazon Developer blogs delivered to your inbox? Stay in the loop on the latest industry best practices, Amazon promotions, and new launches by subscribing to our weekly blog summary here. You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and our YouTube channel.

Publish your first app to the Amazon Appstore between October 1st – November 1st and we'll help you drive installs, monetize, and scale with a Success Bundle worth up to $700 including:

   • $100 Ad Campaign with Advertise Your App

   • Doubled Earnings on up to $500 with the Amazon Mobile Ad Network 

   • $100 in AWS promotional credits

Your Apps & Games on More Devices

The Amazon Appstore is preloaded on Fire devices, Blackberry 10 and millions of other Android devices, including certain HTC, LG, Motorola, and Samsung phones to name a few, as well as certain Samsung and LG tablets. Fire tablets expand that reach even further - just in time for the holiday season. App purchases typically surge by 50% Thanksgiving week, and 400% during digital week. And when customers unbox their new Fire tablet, what’s the first thing they do?  Start downloading apps and games of course! Now is the time to develop a new app or bring your existing Android app to Fire tablets.

Want to Learn More?

Join us for a special webinar on how to make the most of the Amazon Success Bundle:

• Register for October 14, 2015 at 7:00AM PDT (2:00PM GMT)
• Register for October 14, 2014 at 1:00PM PDT (8:00PM GMT)

Starting today, you have the option to participate in a preview of Amazon’s new Developer Publishing API. The Developer Publishing API is a RESTful API that allows you to update existing apps and submit new Android apps to the Amazon Appstore. By integrating the Developer Publishing API with your existing backend, content management systems, and configurations tools, you can more easily manage large quantities of apps and games. Click here to learn more.

Participate in the Developer Publishing API Preview

The Developer Publishing API allows a registered Appstore developer to programmatically submit new apps as well as submit updates to existing apps. Applying to participate in the developer preview is easy:

1. Register for a FREE Amazon Devleoper account.
2. Apply for the Developer Publishing API Preview.

Right now, this service is only available for free apps. If you are selected to participate, we will contact you with next steps. To invoke the Developer Publishing API from your code, please consider using a convenient web client library, such as Apache HTTPClient

Want To Learn More?

Now is the time to get started. Check out the resources below to learn more about the Developer Publishing API and the Amazon Appstore.

Learn more about the Developer Publishing API

Register for a Free Amazon Developer account

Sign up for the Developer Publishing API Preview

Want Amazon Developer blogs delivered to your inbox? Stay in the loop on the latest industry best practices, Amazon promotions, and new launches by subscribing to our weekly blog summary here.

Today, Amazon is excited to introduce its best-selling Fire TV family of devices in Japan—Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, small devices connect to your home Internet and plug into your HDTV for easy and instant access to thousands of movies and TV shows from Hulu, Prime Video, GYAO!, Netflix, Amazon Video, YouTube.com, niconico, Video Market, and more. Since launch, Fire TV has become the #1 best-selling Amazon device category, with Fire TV Stick quickly becoming Amazon’s fastest-selling product ever. Today, Amazon is introducing the next generation of Amazon Fire TV—the new Amazon Fire TV with support for 4K Ultra HD, and the new Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote in Japan.

If you use the Amazon Mobile Ads API and build your app with Apple’s iOS 9 SDK (or Xcode7), the new iOS 9 App Transport Security (ATS) feature will affect your app’s ability to receive ads from the Amazon Mobile Ad Network.

The new App Transport Security feature prevents ads being served via non-secure HTTP, and by default it only allows HTTPS connections over TLSv1.2. There are other security requirements that you should be aware of such as new ciphers and certificates requirements – please see iOS 9 documentation.

We are excited to announce that Amazon Cloud Drive has published its IFTTT channel. IFTTT stands for “If This Then That”, and it provides a simple way to automate interactions between your favorite apps. It connects two services together in a way that an action from one service triggers an action at another.

In order to create automations in IFTTT, you simply create what’s called a “Recipe”. Connect any of the available channels with Amazon Cloud Drive channel to create “Triggers,” which is the “If” part. Then,   have the corresponding “Actions,” the Then part. You can check out the Amazon Cloud Drive channel at https://ifttt.com/amazonclouddrive. IFTTT channels include a vast range including social media services, email, text message, GPS, electronic piggy banks and smart light bulbs.

The launch of Amazon Underground was front and center this week, and we’ve seen a lot of excitement about apps and games that are #ActuallyFree. Amazon Underground customers will find 100% free versions of popular premium titles like Office Suite Professional 8 and Fruit Ninja and popular titles with in-app purchases like Frozen Free Fall, Star Wars Rebels: Recon Missions, Angry Birds Slingshot Stella, and many more.

Tom’s Guide wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so they tried out the Amazon Underground game Jetpack Joyride, and says “The real magic comes in the form of free in-app purchases” and “There is no limit on the number of in-app purchases you can make, and you can buy items repeatedly, depending on whether the app allows it. That’s a huge perk.” Some developers wonder: what’s the catch? There is no catch. An article on TechCrunch hits this home when it notes, “…the “actually free” program isn’t a one-off promotion and that the company is committed to this program.”

OK, so now you’re wondering: why is Amazon doing this? In an article on CNBC, mobile Analyst Jack Kent says, “By paying for the apps, Amazon is showing that the app store's role is part of a bigger strategy to drive users into its ecosystem”. Developers like Amazon Underground too. Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal, Co-Founder and CEO of Games2Win says, “I believe Amazon Underground is a massive game changer for the Casual Gaming Business…” and then notes that Amazon Underground “…validates that 'time spent' is the most 'scalable, relevant and indexable' metric to reward mobile games consumption.”

VentureBeat thinks this is good for developers too, noting, “If the new model takes off, it could provide an interesting path to revenues for companies that are struggling with microtransactions in the free-to-play business model, where players can get a game or app for free and then pay for in-app items.”. We agree. One of the most important objectives of this program is to help developers make more money.

Check out all the articles below.

Experiences designed around the human voice will fundamentally improve the way people use technology. Since introducing Amazon Echo, we’ve heard from developers, manufacturers, and start-ups of all sizes who want to innovate with voice. The Alexa Fund--named for Alexa, the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo--provides up to $100 million in investments to fuel voice technology innovation.

Amazon today announced two new recipients of the Alexa Fund, Musaic and Rachio. Musaic and Rachio are the latest additions to the growing portfolio of Alexa Fund recipients, and join the seven previously funded companies announced in June, including: Orange Chef, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, Dragon Innovation, MARA, and Mojio. 

The Amazon Cloud Drive API provides a RESTful interface, and Android and iOS SDKs, for upload, download, manipulation, and organization of data in the cloud. You can use this API to integrate these services in your app and offer added flexibility to your users. Your app can provide direct access to their Cloud Drive storage and the content they keep there, as well as use it to preserve game settings, preferences, and other application state on their behalf. By doing this you can also add Unlimited Storage benefits to your app through Amazon Cloud Drive’s Unlimited Photos and Unlimited Everything storage plans.

Many app developers have already integrated support for Cloud Drive into their web, desktop and mobile products, including odrive. odrive helps Amazon Cloud Drive customers automatically sync folders on their desktop with their cloud storage account. We had a chance to sit down with Alex Teu, EVP for Partnerships, to discuss his company’s experience with supporting Amazon Cloud Drive in their product.