Tag Archives: amazon prime

History and How to get a discount for Amazon Prime

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Amazon recently announced and increase for Amazon Prime membership from $99 to $119. Amazon Prime was first introduced in 2005 to offer free two day shipping within continental United States on all eligible products for a flat rate of $79. This was eventually raised to $99 in 2017. During Amazon’s April 26, 2018 earnings call, they announced that starting May 11, 2018, new Prime customers in the United States will pay $119 per year for their Prime membership. Throughout the years, Amazon has launched several perks as part of Prime membership. Below is the history and timeline of when those services were launched:

Sept 2006 – Amazon Video
Nov 2011 – Kindle Owners’s Lending Library
March 2014 – Amazon Music
April 2014 – Prime Pantry
Nov 2014 – Amazon Photos
Dec 2014 – Prime Now
Oct 2016 – Prime Reading
Others –
Amazon First Reads
Audible Channels
Amazon Lightning Deals
Ad Free Twitch Streaming
Amazon Freetime (kids)
Prime Early Access
Prime Lightening Deals

Still doesn’t justify the price increase? There are ways to pay less for Amazon Prime which isn’t widely known.

Household / Family Sharing
Amazon allows each paying Prime member to share their account with 2 adults, 4 teens and 4 child profiles in a household. These benefits will be shared – Free Prime Delivery, Streaming Access to Prime Video, Prime photos and video sharing, Free books through Amazon, Unlimited listening on Audible, early access to Amazon Lightning Deals. This can potential equate to 15% discount! Sign up people in your household here.

Students
If you are a college student, you pay only $59 annually for Amazon Prime.

EBT or Medicaid
Amazon have a monthly Prime Membership for anyone on EBT or Medicaid. If you are on EBT or Medicaid, Amazon Prime will be $5.99/month which comes out to $71.88. You do need to submit proof through the following page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ending Membership
If you feel that the $50 price increase from the original cost of Prime isn’t worth it, you can unsubscribe and get a refund here.

Lastly, if you have any questions about Amazon Prime, reach directly to a Prime representative through calling +1-888-509-7040.

How much is Amazon Prime’s Stream monthly cost?

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Amazon announced yesterday that they will offer a monthly subscription to its Prime video library for $8.99/month. Previously, you had to subscribe to its full Amazon Prime membership to reap the benefit of Amazon Prime video. Now you can subscribe to its video only services without the added on features of Prime shipping, Prime music, and other benefits. This is great for people who found the $99 annual Prime membership to be too expensive or not worth it but interested in the Amazon Prime video offerings.

Currently, you can sign up for a 30 day free trial to test drive the Amazon Prime video library.

If you tried the free trial and still not interested, you can cancel or change your Amazon Prime membership here.

Amazon also announced the option of paying for Amazon Prime membership on a monthly basis at $10.99/month. If you use it for a full year, you end up paying $131.88 which is $32.88 more.

Below is a breakdown between the different Amazon Prime subscriptions.

amazon prime

Amazon Introduces Add On Subscription to Prime and Prices

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amazon prime subscriptionAmazon announced this week the ability for Prime users to add on subscriptions to some of the most coveted TV series and movies through their streaming partners program. For most people, Prime provided sufficient content but left others to want more. With add-on paid subscription, a Prime user can add popular premium content such as stars, Showtime, Comedy Central, Drama Fever and others. There are many movie subscriptions, workout, as well as documentaries, and something for children. Here is a sample of Amazon’s add-on subscription price list as well as their promo free trial length.

Showtime – $8.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Starz – $8.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Comedy Central Stand up plus – $3.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Acorn TV – $4.99 / month (30 day free trial)
Lifetime Movie Club – $3.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Gaia – $9.99/month (7 day free trial)
Quello Concerts – $7.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Dramafever Instant (Asian J and K Dramas) – $3.99/month (7 day free trial)
Hooplakidz – $5.99/month (7 day free trial)
Smithsonian Earth – $3.99/month (7 day free trial)
The Ring TV (boxing) – $2.99 / month (7 day free trial)
Dove Channel (Rated G content such as Veggietales) – $4.99/month (7 day free trial)

Check out the full list here.

Buy Amazon New Fire Tablet for Cheap $50!

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amazonfireAmazon launches probably the best quality, cheap, product with its new Fire tablet for just $50! Rumors started circulating last week that Amazon was going to drop their tablet for just $50. Amazon has taken some criticism for their failure of the Fire phone but this is a major game change for people who do not want to shell out hundreds of dollars for devices such as the iPad. You can pre-order now and they will ship / arrive on Sept 30th. Below are the specs for the new fire tablet:

  • 7″ IPS display with 171 ppi (1024 x 600)
  • 1.3 GHz quad-core processor
  • Front and rear facing camera
  • Access to Amazon Underground (Amazon’s app store)
  • Access to an array of movies, tv shows, music. If you have Prime, a lot of content is free
  • 8 GB of internal storage
  • microSD card expandable to 128GB
  • Free unlimited cloud storage for Amazon content and photos
  • 5GB for files and videos for cloud storage
  • Fire OS 5. You can likely flash another OS onto it but you will void your warranty
  • Battery is unknown but Amazon is citing 7 hours of continuous use
  • WiFi support

The best part of this is the microSD support. This will allow you to expand the storage which makes it more enticing. I have the 2nd generation Nexus 7 tablet and suffer from lack of storage.

Note that the $50 price is for sponsor version of the tablet. Similar to the Kindle, you have the option to buy sponsor version or non sponsor version. Sponsor version will display ads during screen lock. Non sponsor version will be ad free and will cost $15 more.

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One more thing, there is an amazing deal right now if you buy 5 Fire tablets, you get one free! This will bring your cost down to only $41.60 per tablet!

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I just bought one. Will do an unboxing and review video soon!

Amazon Prime’s Top Movies for July 2015

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Here are Amazon’s top movies for the month of July.

  1. Transformers: Age of Extinction 2014 PG-13 CC
  2. The Expendables 3 2014 PG-13 CC
  3. A Most Wanted Man 2014 R CC
  4. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire 2013 PG-13 CC
  5. The Words 2012 PG-13 CC
  6. Little Accidents 2015 NR CC
  7. The Prince 2014 R CC
  8. Wolf of Wall Street 2013 R CC
  9. Beastly 2011 PG-13 CC
  10. Seven Psychopaths 2012 R CC

amazon prime top 10 july

Amazon Prime Releases for June 2015

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Amazon released new movies, TV shows, and concerts for the month of June. You can find some old and some new show and even Katy Perry’s concert!

 

Amazon Prime

“The Shining”
“Roman Holiday”
“Apocalypse Now”
“Apocalypse Now Redux”
“Something Wild” (1986)
“Sid & Nancy”
“Sucker Punch”
“Troll”
“Troll 2”
“Repo: The Genetic Opera”
“The Island of Dr. Moreau”
“Seven Psychopaths”
“The Paper Chase”
“People Will Talk”
“Far From Home: The Adventures of Yellow Dog”
“Murder of a Cat”
“Nine Months”
“Word and Pictures”
“Life of Crime”
“Transformers: Age of Extinction”
“Leprechaun: Origins”
“A Most Wanted Man”
“Lucky Number Slevin”
“Covert Affairs” season 5
“Katy Perry: The Prismatic World Tour”
“The Mist”

Amazon Prime introduces Ad-Free Radio Stations

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This couldn’t come at a better time. I was listening to Pandora when I was starting to get annoyed at the ads that have noticeably increased recently. Not only this, they can also stop the music and have you interact with ads in order to continue. I don’t listen to Pandora enough to justify the subscription fee and their selection is subpar compared with other options. Google Play has also offered free 3 months of trial on their music service but again, it will eventually require payment. Today, I received an email from Amazon regarding its new Ad-free prime stations. I have used Prime services for some time now and this is great news particularly if you want to use stream songs over your Fire TV and fire TV Stick. Navigation is simple. Through a PC browser, you can watch the song, title, and progress through the song. You also have the option to add it to your Prime music playlist to listen or buy later. You can also use a thumb up / thumb down for Amazon to learn your taste. You also have the option to share what you are listening to your Facebook wall.

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Compare Fire TV Stick with Chromecast

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chromecast-backdrop-chrome-os-android-ios-appWith the Fire TV Stick, Amazon went head on against Google’s successful Chroemcast. It took a whole year for Amazon to launch the Fire TV Stick. Amazon already had the Amazon Fire TV but the price point and the lack of mobility did not attract the casual TV viewer as $99 was steep for your average consumer. Chromecast pretty much did everyone people expected it to do such as streaming from apps such as Youtube, Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and screen mirroring. However, there was one thing Chromecast could not do which was stream Amazon Prime videos directly. Amazon wanted to keep Prime videos to themselves and their devices. That didn’t stop people with Chromecast to find their own methods to cast and stream Amazon Prime to their TV’s.

 Chromecast Advantages:

Screen mirroring to all Android devices.
Much more support with apps particularly on Android Play store.
Functions with Google Drive
Additional features such as Guest mode and Google Cast Audio.
Amazon Fire TV Stick Advantages:

Includes remote control.
Support for Amazon Prime.
Custom GUI and app store. Some may feel this is a disadvantage.
Fire TV App which will give you voice search
More memory and storage
Faster processor
More games
Stream pictures and videos from Amazon Cloud Drive. UNLIMITED photo storage and 5GB for other files.

Amazon Prime Netflix releases for Feb. 2015

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CNN released a list of new releases scheduled for Feb. 2015 on Amazon Prime and Netflix. Amongst the list? House of Cards Season 3!

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Netflix Feb releases:

“Bleach the Movie: Hell Verse” (2010)
“The Brothers Bloom” (2008)
“Dark Ride” (2006)
“Departures” Seasons 1 and 2 Gimme Shelter (2013)
“Gucci: The Director”
“Hot Pursuit”
“Houseboat”
“Into the Blue 2: The Reef”
“Joe”
“King Arthur”
“Magic City” Seasons 1 and 2
“M*A*S*H” Seasons 1 through 5
“Naruto Shippuden: The Movie”
“Now: In the Wings on a World Stage”
“Proof”
“Spartacus: Complete Series”
“We Could Be King”
“We’re No Angels”
“Zapped”
“The Little Rascals Save the Day” (2014)
“Ever After High: Spring Unsprung”
“Danger 5”
“Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead”
“Elsa & Fred”
“Blood Ties”
“Catch Hell”
“Dwight Howard: In the Moment”
“Mr. Peabody & Sherman”
“Young Ones”
“The Two Faces of January”
“Scary Movie 5”
“Mako Mermaids” Season 2
“Save the Date”
“The Overnighters”
“Earth to Echo”
“In Secret”
“The Fluffy Movie”
“White Bird in a Blizzard”
“Richie Rich” Season 1 (2015 Netflix original)
“RoboCop” (2014)
“Hawaii Five-0” Seasons 1 to 4
“1,000 Times Good Night”
“Open Windows”
“Russell Brand: Messiah Complex”
“Ralphie May: Unruly”
“House of Cards” Season 3

Amazon Prime Feb releases:

“Batman” (1989)
“Batman Returns”
“Into the Blue 2: The Reef”
“Airplane II: The Sequel”
“Hitch”
“Lars and the Real Girl”
“Joe”
“Gimme Shelter”
“Ulee’s Gold”
“Love Story”
“Music From Another Room”
“The Brothers Bloom”
“The Object of Beauty”
“The Other End of the Line”
“The Way We Were”
“Mulberry Street”
“Air Force One”
“Tootsie”
“Steel Magnolias”
“Mood Indigo”
“Sense & Sensibility”
“Soul of a Banquet”
“20,000 Days on Earth”
“Robocop” (2014)
“Finding Neverland”
“Orphan Black” Season 2
“Alpha & Omega”
“Believe Me (Prime Member Exclusive)
“Clerks II”
“Jamie Marks is Dead”
“Hannibal” Season 2