Amazon goes offline with digital video downloads

Amazon goes offline with digital video downloads

SAN FRANCISCO -- Amazon is stirring things up again in the media industry.  The world's largest Internet retailer re-defined book reading and purchasing with its Kindle e-readers. Now the company is pushing the boundaries of video distribution and consumption.  Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos unveiled two new Kindle Fire HDX tablets and one updated Fire HD model Wednesday to compete with Apple's dominant iPad. The new devices let subscribers of Amazon's Prime Instant Video service download movies and TV shows to watch offline, making it the only online streaming subscription service to offer this feature.  Most downloads last for 30 days and once viewers start watching the videos they expirein 48 hours. Previously you could only stream these videos, so the subscription service was only available to most users through a Wifi connection.