Prime Day is Tuesday & Wednesday (12-13 July)!

Prime Day is Tuesday & Wednesday (12-13 July)!

It’s time for

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

which is 12 & 13 July (this Tuesday & Wednesday)!

Of course, there are deals now!

This is an annual event for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members.

While we’re comfortable, we’ve moved into a phase where we are likely to have negative cash flow for a while (but the long term future looks fine, and this is expected). That changes my approach a bit: this will be the 1st year I won’t be carefully watching for a

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

deal.

We have it now and when it runs out, we’ll try just using

Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

There are about a 1,000 books in there you can read with your Prime membership.

I should emphasize, I don’t see a point where we wouldn’t be Prime members! Too many benefits!

One of the things I’ve “bought” is adding

Paramount+

as a channel to Prime Video for $0.99 a month for the first two months. This is a “cancel” any time deal, and I’m setting a reminder to cancel it before it hits the normal $9.99. That’s my plan right now: I’ve got a lot to watch already! However, as an old school Trekkie, I’ve heard good things about Strange New Worlds. I like an optimistic Star Trek. I do want to be clear, though: whatever you like is okay with me! Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, after all. 🙂 This will give me a chance to watch it.

While the first Prime Day had a lot of things almost instantly sell out, I don’t feel like you have to be hovering over the Buy Button any more…at least not as much. This is more of a heads up, and then your own strategies should work. If you have questions, feel free to ask.

One weird tip for you: we sort of accidentally got a Credit Karma account (that’s where Turbo Tax offered to put the tax refund, and I was so relieved to get done with the taxes, that I just said yes).

What happens is they just randomly pay for things people have “charged” (it’s a debit account, not credit…they call it a “spend account”). I never thought that would happen, but they paid for a $74 bill for us…so far! I’ve changed that to be our default card for Amazon: CK shows you who has won in the past couple of hours (just by 1st name and state), how much they got, and how many times they’ve won. The highest number of times winning we’ve seen is 45, but there is almost always someone who has won at least ten times before…and almost always someone who wins over $100. Totally up to you, of course! It didn’t make a lot of sense to me (it doesn’t cost us anything), so we looked up the business model. I see ads for things like car loans. I just ignore them. What I read is that CK gets something like a finder’s fee: they are referring good customer prospects.

Last thing I’ll say for now:

My Silver Falchion award-winning mystery writing sib, Kris Calvin, has the second book in the Emma Lawson series coming out on Prime Day. I’m sure that’s a coincidence: the publication date wold have been set well before we knew when Prime Day was!

Under a Broken Sky

It’s available for pre-order in Kindle format (or as a hardback).

Amazon has the first book

All That Fall

on sale right now for $1.99 for the Kindle edition…I’m guessing that goes through Prime Day.

If you spot any deals you want to share with my readers, feel free to comment on this post or let my readers know on Twitter:

• https://twitter.com/bufocalvin

Remember that you can buy gifts for others, and for places like non-profits!

Amazon Charity Lists

Happy shopping!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. 

My award-winning mystery writer sib’s 2nd book is on sale for $1.99

My award-winning mystery writer sib’s 2nd book is on sale for $1.99

We don’t know how long this will last (Amazon put it on sale), but my sib, Kris Calvin’s second book

All That Fall (at AmazonSmile)

is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon in the USA right now.

4.5 stars on Amazon for customer reviews at time of writing, and you can read blurbs there as well.

Just wanted to give you the heads up…

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 

Shop ’til you help! 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

Early Prime Day Deals on “select top” Kindle titles

Early Prime Day Deals on “select top” Kindle titles

Amazon is really promoting this year’s

Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

which is June 21st & 22nd!

I’m seeing lots of commercials, and they even reached out to me (and through me, to you) for the first time in a long time. This is the annual sale for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

members.

They particularly alerted me to an early sale on Kindle books (there will be other Kindle book sales on Prime Day itself.

Early Prime Day deals: Up to 80% off, select top titles on Kindle (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

There are 105 titles in the sale (note that this is for the USA & titles could possibly go in and out of this deal: check the price before you hit that Buy button). Here are a few that caught my eye:

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Book 1 of 6 in the Earthsea series) | $1.99 | 4.4 stars out of 5 | 2,129 customer reviews
• Lost Hills by Lee Goldberg (Book 1 of 3 in the Eve Ronin series) | $1.99 | 4.5 stars | 5,480 reviews
• Dark Pattern by Andrew Mayne (Book 4 of 4 in the The Naturalist series) | $1.99 | 4.4 stars | 1,544 reviews
• The Mercy of Snakes by Dean Koontz (Book 5 of 6 in the Nameless: Season One series) | 4.6 stars | 4,139 reviews
• Murder by the Book by Lauren Elliott (Book 1 of 7 in the Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery series) | 4.3 stars | 1,394 reviews
• Plain Jane by Fern MIchaels | $1.99 | 4.4 stars | 542 reviews
• This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind by Ivan Doig | $1.99 | 4.6 stars | 437 reviews
• A Grave Mistake by Ngaio Marsh (Book 30 of 33 in the Roderick Alleyn series) | $1.99 | 4.5 stars | 156 reviews

Remember, this is just a few out of more than 100. Feel free to mention others in the comments/Twitter replies.

There will be lots of other Prime Day deals, of course!

Enjoy!

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 

Shop ’til you help! 

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. To support this or other organizations, begin your Amazon shopping from a link on their sites: Amazon.com (Smile.Amazon.com)

Great sale on Amazon devices!

Great sale on Amazon devices!

We’re getting down to the wire on having physical items shipped, so it’s time for Amazon to offer great prices on their

Amazon Echo & Alexa devices (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping)

Here are some of them (these are for the USA, and I don’t know how long they’ll last):

• Echo Dot (the new generation) $29.99 instead of $49.99
• Echo Show $44.99 instead of $89.99
• Echo Flex (it gives you a smart speaker about the size of one regular wall outlet! This is the “any place you need Alexa” device, and makes a great gift): $9.99 instead of $24.99
• Echo Auto $19.99 instead of $49.99: I consider this pretty much essential in my car! It reads me my books, gets me the news, and many more
• Echo Buds $79.99 instead of $129.99
• The new Echo Dot (4th gen) Kids Edition: it looks like a cute tiger and has parental controls

Fire TV devices are also on sale.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. 

Shop ’til you help! 

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: The Phantom Tollbooth or Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for $1.99 each, more

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: The Phantom Tollbooth or Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee for $1.99 each, more

I’ve been so busy lately, I haven’t even been able to look at the

Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

most days. However, this evening, I was able to take a look while I was listening to a meeting, and a few of them really stood out! These are for 13 May 2020 in the USA…and I apologize it’s so late in the day for some of you. Hopefully, somebody will be able to get a deal! 🙂

I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find a small gift for someone here. Remember that you can buy the books at this discounted price, then either delay the delivery until the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or even print it out to wrap and give whenever you want.

Check the price before you click/tap/eye gaze that Buy button (or voice order)…the prices may not apply in your market and you may check after a book has moved out of this deal.

Here are ones that caught my eye:

• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown | 4.7 stars out of 5 | 2,086 customer reviews | $1.99
• The Phantom Tollbooth 50th Anniversary Edition by Norton Juster | 4.8 out of 5 | 1,789 reviews | $1.99
• New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson | 3.8 out of 5 | 485 reviews | $3.99
• Fake Like Me by Barbara Bourland | 3.8 out of 5 | 61 reviews | $2.99
• Tarnsman of Gor (Gor #1) by John Norman | 3.9 out of 5 | 304 reviews | $1.99 (note: I’m going to do a short excerpt of a line from the Amazon product page: “…men are masters and women live to serve their every desire.”) I was surprised to see it featured. It’s a long-running science fiction series of novels

Enjoy!

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. 

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: 53 titles including Ken Follett, Mary Burton, and Neil Gaiman

Today’s Kindle Daily Deal: 53 titles including Ken Follett, Mary Burton, and Neil Gaiman

Today’s

Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

has some great titles by brand name authors. The unifying theme seems to be that they have been highly-rated by Amazon’s customers.

I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find a small gift for someone here. Remember that you can buy the books at this discounted price, then either delay the delivery until the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or even print it out to wrap and give whenever you want.

Check the price before you click/tap/eye gaze that Buy button (or voice order)…the prices may not apply in your market and you may check after a book has moved out of this deal.

Here are some that caught my eye:

• American Gods 10th Anniversary Edition by Neil Gaiman | 4.3 out of 5 stars | 5,329 customer reviews | $2.99
• A Column of Fire (Kingsbridge #3) by Ken Follett | 4.5 stars | 3,927 | $1.99
• The Last Move by Mary Burton | 4.6 stars | 1,050 reviews | $1.99 (available to read for Kindle Unlimited members at no additional cost)
• The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco | 4.0 stars | 678 reviews | $2.99
• The Cold Dish: A Longmire Mystery (Longmire #1 of 11) by Craig Johnson | 4.5 stars | 1,797 reviews
• The Orphan’s Tale by Pam Jenoff | 4.4 stars | 1,447 reviews | $2.99
• The Tuscan Child by Rhys Bowen | 4.3 stars | 4,088 reviews | $1.99 | KU
• The Princess Bride by William Goldman | 4.6 stars | 324 reviews | $2.99
• You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day | 4.8 stars | 875 reviews | $1.99 | [I like Felicia Day a lot and I was so disappointed when this book originally came out and text-to-speech was blocked, which used to be a thing I wrote about a lot. I actually wrote to explain the situation. I’m certainly not saying I’m responsible for the unblocking, I’m sure I’m not, but it’s nice to see it happened]
• The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1 of 3) by N.K. Jemsin | 4.3 stars | 1,388 reviews | $3.99
• Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman (Leaphorn and Chee #21) | 4.5 stars | 880 reviews | $1.99
• A Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr | 4.7 stars | 302 reviews | $1.99
• Tracks of Her Tears (Kindle in Motion) by Melinda Leigh (Rogue Winter Novella #1) | 4.2 stars | 493 customer reviews | $0.99
• A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes | 4.1 stars | 282 reviews | $2.99
• The Darkest Warrior (Lords of the Underworld #14) by Gena Showalter | 4.2 stars | 193 reviews| $1.99
• No Time To Spare: Thinking About What Matters by Ursula K. Leguin | 4.5 stars | 126 reviews | $2.99
• The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis | 4.5 stars | 52 reviews | $2.99
• The Snow Bride by Debbie Macomber | 4.4 stars | 254 reviews | $1.99
• War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches edited by Kevin J. Anderson | 4.4 stars | 10 reviews | $1.99 [this was is intriguing to me…short stories covering H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, at least sometimes as though they were written by famous people. Authors include Barbara Hambly, and Gregory Benford]

Enjoy!

---

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. 

Round up #190: Dash away, an unexpected benefit of Echo Auto

Round up #190: Dash away, an unexpected benefit of Echo Auto

The ILMK Round ups are short pieces which may or may not be expanded later.

Echo Auto solves a long term problem

We’ve now settled in with having the

Echo Auto (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

in my Significant Other’s car.

I really want one for my car too, and we’ve put in a request, but that’s all you can do at this point.

The main thing my SO uses it for is music. I’ll use it for a lot more than that, but that’s the main purpose now.

It’s working very smoothly. I do turn off the Bluetooth on my phone when we are both going to be in the car…that car defaults to my phone. My SO, who isn’t very techie, did change the audio from Bluetooth to a local radio station, so I had to adjust that.

I pointed out (after testing it), that my SO could just say, “Play XYZ” and that local station plays on TuneIn. They did good programming on that: you don’t have to say, “Play XYZ on TuneIn”…it just works.

When we were driving home from the dog park yesterday, though, we got a really pleasant surprise.

Our now adult kid called…that’s a regular occurrence. They called just as usual, calling my SO’s phone number.

None of it felt different in answering it…but we realized pretty quickly that our kid could hear me very well when I was in the passenger seat! I drive out, my SO drives back.

In the past, using the built-in car audio system, the passenger couldn’t be heard very well: the phone pick-up was really only designed to work from the driver’s side.

However, with the Echo Auto’s far field microphones, we could both be heard just fine. No more having my SO repeat what I said. 🙂

That was really an improvement!

Dash away, dash away, dash away all!

I always thought the concept of Amazon’s physical Dash buttons was weird.

Here’s a company which is dominating by moving people away from the physical to the electronic. That doesn’t mean that they don’t sell a lot of physical products (“diapers and windshield wipers”, as I like to say): they do. It’s more about interactions and media (although they do sell a lot of physical media, too).

Sending you a plastic device which did exactly one thing (reorder a specific product when you pushed a button) just seemed like the opposite of that.

They just about gave them to you, usually crediting you with the cost of the device.

Well, they’ve been doing a lot of other things that seem to fit better to me. Subscribe & Save, which we use for many things, and ordering through Alexa.

So, you won’t find them to buy at Amazon now, and according to this

CNN story by Heather Kelly

and other sources, they’ll just stop working on August 31st…in a few weeks.

They’ll automatically give you

virtual dash buttons (at AmazonSmile*)

for any physical ones you have: that makes sense and will continue. You can just click/tap on a screen to order, or again, you can order using Alexa. If you use the

Echo Show 5 (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

you can combine the two. You just say, “Alexa, show my Dash buttons”, and they’ll appear on your screen. Then, you just tap the white button of the one you want.

I’m kind of a big Daily Deal 😉

Today’s

Kindle Daily Deal (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

is one of their big ones they do from time to time: 72 titles.

I now generally use sales like that to either put books on the gift list my family uses for me, or buy them as gifts (since you can buy it at the discounted price and delay delivery for the appropriate gift-giving occasion, or print it out to give whenever you want). Check the price before you click/tap/eye gaze that Buy button: prices may not apply in your country or the book might not still be part of the deal when you see this.

Here are a few titles that caught my eye:

• The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte | $2.99
• The Silent Woman by Terry Lynn Thomas | $0.99
• A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea by Masaji Ishikawa | $1.99 (also available through Kindle Unlimited) | I’ve read this one, and found it fascinating
• P.S from Paris by Marc Levy | $1.99 (also KU)
• Instinct by James Patterson and Howard Roughan
• Mycroft Holmes by Kareen Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse | $1.99
• The Cthulhu Casebooks – Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows by James Lovegrove | $1.99
• Winter’s Bone by Daniel Woodrell | $2.99
• Matt Helm – Death of a Citizen by Donald Hamilton | $1.99

“Alexa, send Driftwood to Bufo’s Kindle”

Alexa can now manage your content by voice.

You can start with, “Alexa, manage my content”. You can then tell Alexa to send a specific book you own to a particular device, or even to permanently delete a book from your library (there will be a confirmation message first).

To quote Manny Farber: “…context…”

Natural conversation is making great strides.

However, it still has a ways to go, especially in the area of context. When people say something, we have automatically connected it to a million other things in our heads. The statement doesn’t just stand alone.

That’s one of the issues with Alexa…responses can be very specific.

I saw that twice this week.

My Echo Show suggested I ask Alexa about what the digital assistant’s favorite book was.

The answer was good: I was told that Alexa really likes I, Robot, and was a big believer in the 3 laws of robotics.

Just to test, though, I said, “Alexa, who wrote that?”

Alexa couldn’t answer that one…some fan. 😉

The other one was using an Alexa “social bot”. Amazon does a university prize for the best chatbot. You can test them by saying, “Alexa, let’s chat”, and a random bot will start a conversation.

This one gave me a couple of choices for conversation: I chose Disney.

The chatbot told me a news story about Ice Cube and Caroly Rafaelian bidding to buy Sports Networks from The Mouse House. That was relevant, and made sense.

The chatbot then asked me if I wanted to know more…and proceeded to tell me about actual frozen water ice cubes! 🙂

No human being would have brought up the singer Ice Cube and then confused it like that.

I do believe they’ll catch up to us, but they aren’t there yet.

Have any thoughts or questions on these stories? Feel free to let me and my readers know by commenting on this post.

 

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Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. 

 

Day 1 of Prime Day…and we’ve already saved much more than we pay for the annual membership

Day 1 of Prime Day…and we’ve already saved much more than we pay for the annual membership

I recommended some strategies for

Amazon Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

earlier today:

It’s Prime Day! Strategies…

We’re careful buyers (believe it or not), but I thought I’d give you some idea of what we’ve bought, and how much we saved.

First, and this is still available, we’d saved $95.96 before the official start of Prime Day (but as part of it) by renewing our Kindle Unlimited membership for another two years. You do that here:

Give the Gift of Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile*)

Did we stop there?

Nope! 🙂

We’ve saved about $150 just today.

Our biggest savings was on the

Ring Spotlight Cam Battery HD Security Camera with Built Two-Way Talk and a Siren Alarm, White, Works with Alexa (at AmazonSmile*)

That is $60 off, $139.00 instead of $199.

I’ve been wanting one…we do have package theft in our area, and not everything can go to an Amazon Locker (we send everything there we can). This should be a deterrent…oh, and if the camera itself gets stolen, Amazon will replace it!

Lots of good features in this one. We bought an extra battery pack…one battery likely lasts for a few weeks (depending on settings), and it will automatically switch to the second one. That gives you a chance to charge one while the other is running. They sell a solar panel for it, but I don’t trust us to install it. We’re terrible at that “handy stuff”. A funny one recently: we had to put on a new doorknob. My first mistake was removing the doorknob while the door was closed…I couldn’t open it! Then, fortunately, my Significant Other noticed I was putting the doorknob on upside down…

We also bought the

Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote (at AmazonSmile*)

for $14.99, to have as an “emergency gift”. That saved us another $25.

I bought two wi-fi bulbs for $38.99 off…but they appear to be sold out.

Outside of that, it was clothes and household items, making up the rest.

I heard from other people I know that they bought two

Echo Show 5s (at AmazonSmile*s)

for $49.99 each…$40 off each!

I want to mention one more thing:

There is a

new version of the Kindle Oasis (at AmazonSmile*)

being released on July 24th…and the current version is significantly on sale:

current generation Kindle Oasis…apparently now available without an animal leather cover (at AmazonSmile*)

for $199.99, $80 off.

Prime Day has definitely been worth it for us!

How about you? Feel free to let me and my readers know about great bargains you’ve gotten by commenting on this post.

---

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.

It’s Prime Day! Strategies…

It’s Prime Day! Strategies…

It’s here!

Today (and tomorrow) is

Amazon Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

This is genuinely an opportunity to get some great deals! However, like a lot of things in this time of consumer plenty, it can be confusing.

You’ll see tons of deals, and it’s entirely possible that you’ll feel yourself shift into a sort of predator mode, that you have to strike NOW as the zebra darts out of the scrub across the savanna. Or, you know, you just think it’s cool 😉

I’m not going to stop you from that. We expect to buy some things today.

I’m also not going to try to point out flash deals to you all day long. The nature of Prime Day has changed in the four years since it launched. The first year, there were many deals which were only available for a very short time. We hovered over the Buy button, trying to hit it at exactly the right time before they ran out.

That’s not the case now. There will be lightning deals, and some of them will sell out, but now, it’s more a matter of making a deliberate choice. Many deals have already been available, and they will be available through both days (and some will undoubtedly continue afterwards).

UPDATE: We had on the Prime Day Channel in the Amazon shopping app on our Fire TV Cube, and they announced their first special deal (a “Deal Reveal”) for a 70″ Sony TV deal for about $800 (which I think was about half off)…and it appeared to sell out in under a minute. That’s not going to be the case with most things, especially Amazon products, but it did seem to be true with this…a quick sell out.

You can find them at

Amazon Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

or even better, in the Amazon Shopping app. That’s just going to be easier and has more functionality to alert you to deals. You can also just ask Alexa.

What do you do when you see something you want? For example:

Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote (at AmazonSmile*)

It says it’s $14.99 instead of $39.99 (63% off). This is an excellent “emergency gift”. We always keep a few things around at the holidays, in case someone shows up we weren’t expecting (such as someone having a new Significant Other). If your recipient already has one, this can still be valuable. It would also be good for a company gift exchange

If it’s a Prime Day Deal (and you’ll see a “badge” on that), you’ll also likely see a countdown for when the deal ends (as I write this, the deal ends in about 43 and a half hours).

If you are just good with the price, and don’t care whether it’s a bargain or not, go for it.

If you want to see if it is actually a good deal, an especially low price, go to

https://camelcamelcamel.com/

You can either describe the item or put in the URL (the address up in the search bar). Note that there may be different versions shown if you put in words. Also, and this is important, their current price will probably be higher than the price you are seeing on Amazon…because that price at Amazon is exclusive for

Amazon Prime (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

You need to be a Prime member to get Prime Day deals…although you can get a free trial. The odds are if you trial Prime, you’ll stick with it. Not having Prime nowadays is like not having access to a car. You can deal without it, but it certainly makes things much more convenient!

So, it shows the current price for the Fire TV Stick above as $39.99. What’s important, though, is that it shows you the price history. In this case, it goes back to January 15th…and the lowest price it has been is $29.99, so this is a great deal!

You can set a price alert at CamelCamelCamel…locate a product, and then sign up to get an e-mail (yes, you’ll be giving them your e-mail for that…you don’t have to sign up for anything to use CamelCamelCamel) when that product drops to a price you set.

That’s the shopping part. 🙂

I do want to point out that there will be many scams around Prime Day. Beware of e-mails telling you that you need to click something because your product is out of stock, or they need a confirmation, or the price changed, or they couldn’t deliver something. If you get an e-mail, ideally, go directly to Amazon to check on it.

I may try to add more specific products throughout the course of the two days, but this is where my readers can help each other. Feel free to comment on this post with deals you see. If you can, give some idea about when it will expire.

Here’s Amazon’s press release listing some of the deals:

press release

Don’t forget to use Alexa to shop! Asking Alexa for deals can be very easy, as well as using the Amazon Shopping app on your Fire TV device (they have a live Prime Day “channel”) in the app.

Also, while Prime Day is not just in the USA, the offers will be different in different markets.

Happy shopping! Oh, and if you go to Amazon Smile, you can benefit a non-profit of your choice by doing so. I’d appreciate it if you use my link to start your shopping trip:

Amazon Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

but if you want to help someone else by going from their link, (such as a non-profit), I understand. 🙂

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog. 

 

The one Amazon deal I look for every time is here!

The one Amazon deal I look for every time is here!

With

Amazon Prime Day (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

less than two weeks away (July 15/16), deals are already here.

There’s one deal I look for every time for Prime Day and on Black Friday.

That’s a big discount on

Kindle Unlimited (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

That’s Amazon’s subser (subscription service) for books (including audiobooks) and magazines. We’ve been happy members since it started…you can have up to ten books borrowed at a time, with no limit as to how many you borrow (not get to own) in a month.

I’m not an audiobook fan…I like them if I’ve already read the book, and I know I’m unusual in this, but I don’t like an actor or even the author interpreting the characters for me if I haven’t read it. On the other hand, I use text-to-speech (software reading the book aloud) pretty much every work day, and for hours a week typically (I can end up driving a lot in my day job, and that’s when I listen…at other times, I sight read). If you are a fan of audiobooks, though, KU is a great way to go.

It’s normally $9.99 a month, but right now you can buy it at a discount, up to 40% off if you buy 24 months ($143.80 versus $239.76…a discount of $95.96, and just shy of $6 a month).

Yes, if you are already a member, you can take advantage of this. Before I bought it this time, I already had an ending date based on my current payments in 2023.

We also have bought it as a gift for a family. I’d still love Amazon to let you buy a single month as a gift…that would be great for things like gift exchanges at work, or even birthday presents for kids!  Here’s the gift page (that’s where I got the deal right now):

Give the Gift of Kindle Unlimited) (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping)

What I did to get the deal is buy it as a gift for myself (using the e-mail address we always use on the account). When I was notified of the gift, it said this:

Already a Kindle Unlimited member? You can now stack this gift on top of your existing subscription or click here to redeem your membership as a gift card.

We’re now subscribed through 2025…my tentative retirement year from my day job. 😉

I should also mention that they have really been improving the selection, although it was good before. Here are some standouts:

• Never read the immensely successful Stephanie Plum mystery comedies by Janet Evanovich (or just want to revisit the beginning)? One for the MOney is in KU
• Watership Down…the THIS IS NOT A CHILDREN’S BOOK tale of rabbits by Richard Adams (and the subject of a recent TV adaptation)
• Nonfiction more of your thing? Read TV super producer Shonda Rhimes’ Year of Yes
• NYT bestseller Robert Dugoni’s Bodily Harm

Older books, newer books, well-known books, special interest…there is a lot here!

I should also mention that if you are an Amazon Prime member, you also automatically have

Prime Reading (at AmazonSmile: benefit a non-profit of your choice by shopping*)

at no additional cost…that’s a wonderful benefit, but it is only about 1,000 titles…it doesn’t have Watership Down (mentioned above) as one example.

This deal may not last until Prime Day, although my guess is that it will…or at least it will be available during the Prime Day sale.

Might there be other deals during or for Prime Day that will save you more money? Yes, but this is the one that will get you access to the most books!

See other Prime Day deals you want to share with me and my readers? You can do so by commenting on this post.

Join thousands of readers and try the free ILMK magazine at Flipboard!

All aboard The Measured Circle’s Geek Time Trip at The History Project!

Bufo’s Alexa Skills

* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get.  Shop ’til you help!  

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.