Yesterday, Amazon announced it paid $775 million in cash for Kiva Systems, the maker of little orange robots that help automate warehouses.

Today, a video of Kiva’s CEO Mick Mountz, who appeared at a Wired business conference, was being passed around the Twitter-verse. 

In the clip, he depicted a day in the life of a Kiva robot, comparing complex routes one takes on the warehouse floor to “highways” and a grid that was set up like Manhattan with North and South avenues.

He even gave the robots — all males, I noticed — some personality.

They can’t really be compared to Number 5 in “Short Circuit,” which had super expressive eyebrows, but you can’t help but think these more modern, practical versions, are cute, too.

For example, Mountz said, one robot that rocked back and forth on its way to its parking spot had some “swagger.” And, after a particularly taxing trip, a robot returned to base for a “five-minute drink off the charger.”

All joking aside, the huge benefit of these robots is their efficiency, something Amazon — with roughly 70 distribution centers — doesn’t take lightly. In well-orchestrated routes, the machines will expertly zigzag their way across a floor, picking up racks of inventory that are then brought back to real humans, who pick up the items and pack them in boxes.

Kiva’s clients include companies like The Gap, Saks Fifth Avenue, Amazon-owned Diapers.com, Staples, Walgreens and Crate and Barrel. Mountz, who founded Kiva Systems nine years ago, knows a thing or two about packing boxes on a warehouse floor. The executive previously worked at grocery delivery service Webvan, which was one of the bigger dotcom flops in history.

Here are the robots in action:

Photo Credit: Virgin Media.

Originally, the new Kindle was supposed to be available on May 3, but Amazon’s SVP and CFO Tom Szkutak confirmed that it will start shipping tomorrow.

The device, called Kindle with Special Offers, comes at the lowest price yet at $114, which is $25 cheaper than the Wi-Fi-only version.

While the hardware on the new e-reader is identical, it’s cheaper because it is being subsidized by advertising. Initially, sponsors include General Motors, Proctor & Gamble and Visa.

“The team did a nice job of moving the dates up,” he said.

The e-reader will be available from Amazon, Target and Best Buy.

While the new price only represents a drop of $25 (and Amazon promises the device will never be free), it will likely drive additional sales of the already popular e-reader. Sticking with tradition, Amazon did not disclose how many had been sold to date. “We are incredibly excited with Kindle because we see that customers are buying a lot more books….We continue to invest in that business,” Szkutak said.

Also during the call, Amazon hinted at how fast its physical retail sales are growing. Szkutak said it may build more than the nine distribution centers it had been planning on building this year. Already, one has opened, and about five are expected to be based in North America with the remainder opening up internationally.

Analysts watch Amazon’s investments carefully because it affects the company’s profitability. Right now, it is investing heavily, leading first quarter profits to fall despite a 38 percent surge in revenues year over year.

Separately, the company said revenues were hurt internationally by the earthquake in Japan. Had it not been for the natural disaster, it said international revenues would have grown by 32 percent instead of 27 percent.