Technologies

9 hidden Amazon perks besides quick shipping and Prime Video

You already know the major players: Prime Video, Prime Music and Prime’s free shipping. But there are a ton of other perks that can help you save big today.

Amazon has become a one-stop shop for just about everything on your buy list. But on top of two-day and same-day shipping for Amazon Prime members, the trillion-dollar tech titan has dozens of services only a few clicks from the homepage. Some, like Amazon Prime Video and Prime Music, make headlines. Others get buried in the vastness of Amazon’s super site. We’re here to help uncover the best of the bunch so you don’t have to get lost in the search tool.

Amazon expanded its sphere during the pandemic — with visits to its site reportedly increasing by 37% from February 2020 to January 2021 — as it pushed new programs, including Amazon Sidewalk, the auto-on broadband-sharing program for Amazon Echo speakers and Ring devices. But its shopping experience continues to be its bread and butter.

For avid Amazon shoppers, a ton of lesser-known features can land you stellar deals, including steep discounts on expensive items and free books, if you know where to look. We’ve hacked through Amazon’s jungle of services to find the most useful (and surprising) Amazon programs that you can use today.

1. Free reading with Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited

Prime Reading is your own personal lending library that comes with a Prime membership. With a rotating selection of over 2,500 books and magazines, you can access Prime Reading with the Kindle app on your desktop or portable device or your Kindle e-reader. This Amazon service also lets you share titles with members of your household. Some books in Prime Reading come with Audible narrations so you can multitask while you listen.

Prime Reading also includes First Reads, which gives members a sneak peek at books before they’re released to the general public.

Kindle Unlimited is a $10-a-month subscription service separate from an Amazon Prime account. It gives you unlimited access to more than 1 million ebooks and up to three magazine subscriptions on a Kindle device or Kindle app.

2. Trade in your used devices for gift cards and shop for preowned products at a discount

Amazon is boarding the train to sustainability station, and it’s something you can directly benefit from. With Amazon Trade-In, you can send back your used electronics in exchange for Amazon gift cards. Make sure to check on the eligibility of each product — some trade-in options are only available for a limited time.

Amazon Renewed gives you access to products that may have been opened but unused by their original owners, or were refurbished. Amazon assures that these preowned items work and look like new, coming with the Amazon Renewed Guarantee. A variety of products and brands are available, even from premium names like Apple and Vitamix.

3. Uncover discounts in the Amazon Warehouse

Amazon Warehouse resells millions of like-new or preowned items that have been returned by customers. Some of the products only had their boxes opened by original purchasers before they were sent back, unused, so they’re sold again at a discount. While there’s no regular manufacturing warranty on these products, they are backed by Amazon’s 30-day return policy and 90-day renewed item return policy.

To read more about how you can get the most out of Amazon Warehouse, check out our guide on shopping for the best deals on Amazon Warehouse.

4. Discover deals on overstocked items in Amazon Outlet

Just like a brick-and-mortar outlet store, but without the gas money. The Amazon Outlet features overstocked items and other products at a discounted price. Like at an outlet, you can find premium brands, items under $10 and products ranging from home furniture and clothing to books and pet supplies. It’s a good place to stay within a budget while being the first owner, unlike some items in the Amazon Warehouse.

Keep in mind that although the online shopping experience is convenient, just like an outlet, the best deals sometimes take some sifting to find. Luckily, you can do it from the couch.

5. Land limited-time discounts with Lightning Deals

Amazon’s Lightning Deals are a promotion where a product or service is on sale for a short period of time or until it’s sold out. You can find them all throughout the site, but especially on Prime Day and in Today’s Deals. On Prime Day, Lightning Deals are only for Prime members.

There is one lightning deal per customer until the promotion ends or all the deals are claimed by other shoppers. You can join a waitlist for a deal, but keep in mind that these discounts are extremely time-sensitive, so grab them fast. Unless refreshing the page over and over is your thing, these deals aren’t necessarily the tool to find something specific because of their fleeting nature and limited availability.

6. Store pictures and videos with Amazon Photos

Amazon’s online shoebox for photos and videos offers secure and unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5GB of video for Prime members. To use this feature, you can choose to manually or automatically upload media in the Amazon Photos app. You can personalize the displays on Amazon devices like Fire TV, Echo Show and Fire tablets as long as you have the app. There are also ways to create keepsakes using the pictures you upload, such as custom cards and prints.

With the Family Vault perk, up to five family members can share in the same plan. If you want more beyond what Prime offers, there are paid plans available. If you choose to switch — which can be done anytime — there is a 100GB option for $2 per month and 1TB plan for $7 per month.

7. Share your Prime benefits with loved ones using Amazon Household

Sharing is caring, and Amazon Household lets you divvy up Prime benefits and digital content with others. Using Household, share your Prime account with:

Up to two adults, each with their own Amazon account. Adults can manage accounts of teens and children.
Up to four teens (ages 13 through 17). Teens can have their own Amazon login to shop with parent approval and stream content.
Up to four children (children can’t shop on Amazon).

8. Redeem discounts on Whole Foods hauls

Healthy shopping can rack up the number at the bottom of the receipt. But if you enter your email address, phone number or scan the QR code on your Whole Foods Market app at checkout during your next grocery haul, Prime members receive discounts on select products.

Blue tags indicate sales exclusive to Prime members, while yellow tags mean an extra 10% off of an item already on sale. This gets you discounts on weekly bestsellers, including produce, packaged goods and beauty products, but note that it excludes alcohol. The few cents saved on items may seem insignificant individually, but savings do add up at the end of the shopping trip.

Also, if you don’t want to make the trip across town, Amazon offers two-hour delivery of groceries for free, as long as you meet the minimum purchase amount. But if you don’t mind the drive, there are also one-hour pickup windows depending on your location — just remember to check in with the Amazon app to see if you need to enter the store.

9. Create an official wish list with Prime’s wedding registry

If the big day is coming up, Amazon’s wedding registry can get a gift wish list set up for everything from daily essentials to group presents. Amazon can help you cover all the gifting bases, and that makes it a convenient option for you and your wedding guests.

The registry includes lists of editors’ picks and bestsellers to help you sort through Amazon’s options, while the browsing feature can inspire new ideas or highlight something you may have forgotten about. You can also buy any item that’s left on the registry for 20% off — which can be returned within 180 days if you decide you don’t like it.

For more, here are our picks for the best Alexa devices and which e-reader is right for you.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 25

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 25.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s not terribly tricky, but read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Instrument in bluegrass music
Answer: BANJO

6A clue: Publication with the headline «C.I.A. Realizes It’s Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years,» with «The»
Answer: ONION

7A clue: Cut-off point for cropped jeans
Answer: ANKLE

8A clue: Hilarious person
Answer: RIOT

9A clue: Place to hibernate
Answer: DEN

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Tens across the ___!»
Answer: BOARD

2D clue: 1982 film in which Carol Burnett played Miss Hannigan
Answer: ANNIE

3D clue: Japanese camera brand
Answer: NIKON

4D clue: Sudden shock
Answer: JOLT

5D clue: Final number in a countdown
Answer: ONE

Technologies

The BlackBerry-Esque Smartphone With a Full Keyboard Just Launched on Kickstarter

This Android smartphone with a tactile QWERTY keyboard has already raised over $2.1 million.

While today’s best phones are all glass touchscreens ripe for swiping, when nostalgia hits, all we want to do is get our fingers click-clacking on a BlackBerry’s tactile keyboard. Though BlackBerry discontinued its mobile line in 2016, phones with physical keyboards are making a comeback.

At Mobile World Congress 2026, CNET Mobile Managing Editor David Lumb got his hands on the Titan 2 Elite, an Android smartphone made by Chinese smartphone manufacturer Unihertz. It features a full backlit QWERTY keyboard that fits right in your pocket. On Tuesday, both the standard version and the Pro launched on Kickstarter, and have already exceeded the company’s $100,000 goal.

At the time of writing, over $2.1 million has been pledged by over 4,500 backers.

The Titan 2 Elite lets you customize its A-Z keyboard keys to create short- and long-press shortcuts that take you to different apps and assist with text editing. You can even use the keyboard to scroll and move your mouse, an upgrade from BlackBerry’s trackball. As for the red programmable side button, it can launch any app with one press.

To get your hands on an orange or black Titan 2 Elite, which is estimated to ship in June 2026, you have to pledge $396. This is discounted from the full price of $489 and is at least $403 cheaper than the iPhone 17. Shipping to the US is an extra $10.

For the Titan 2 Elite Pro, you have to pledge $486, plus shipping. Its full price is $579. The estimated delivery time is October 2026.

For both the standard and Pro phones, packages are available for couples, families (three devices), friends (five devices) and wholesale purchasers (10 devices).

The phones are currently in the process of being certified by Google, the FCC, the Conformité Européenne for EU Compliance, UK Conformity Assessed and Japan Approvals Institute for Telecommunications Equipment. These certifications are expected to be obtained by April, before trial and mass production occur in May.

The Elite vs. the Elite Pro

The Elite and Elite Pro differ only in power and storage. The standard Elite comes with a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chip, while the Pro offers a Dimensity 8400. For storage, you get 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage with the standard, and 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage with the Pro.

Despite rising prices in the memory market caused by AI-driven demand, Unihertz decided to stick with 12GB of RAM. The company says that this is why the Titan 2 Elite costs more than previous Unihertz devices launched on Kickstarter.

Both the standard and Pro versions have a 4.03-inch AMOLED screen, a 50-megapixel rear camera, a 32-megapixel selfie camera, a 4,050-mAh battery, dual-band GPS, fingerprint and face unlocking, Bluetooth 6.0, global 5G coverage and support for two physical SIM cards and an eSIM. You can even swap one of your SIMs for a microSD card, giving you 2TB of extra storage.

Both the Elite and Elite Pro will ship with Android 16 OS, for which Unihertz will give five years of update support and security patches until 2031.

Technologies

A Historic Heat Dome Is Creeping Across the US. Here’s How to Prepare

After breaking heat records in 14 states, the heat wave pummeling the Southwest is moving eastward.

A massive heat wave has broken heat records in 14 states, including Arizona and California, reaching up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. Now it’s creeping eastward, according to the National Weather Service.

The heat wave is continuing its journey through the Midwestern United States and is projected to affect anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of the 48 mainland states, National Weather Service meteorologist Gregg Gallina told The Associated Press. The highest temperatures recorded today are in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — what the National Weather Service refers to as the Southern Rockies region. But the hot air is on the move.

The reason these high temperatures persist is the «heat dome» phenomenon, in which high pressure prevents hot air from rising, trapping it in a bubble above a region. As the dome of pressure moves, so too does the hot air — and right now, it’s barreling east.

The states that will be smothered by the heat dome in the coming days include those in the Southern and Central Plains regions. This means residents of Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska can expect to sweat as the heat blankets them on its eastbound journey.

What the heat dome means for climate change and our health

According to Climate Central, the US has experienced rising blackout rates over the past 20 years, largely due to weather-related issues and an aging electrical grid.

As of August 2025, the US Environmental Protection Agency states that heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the US. The World Health Organization reports that between 2000 and 2019, about 489,000 heat-related deaths occurred each year.

Fortunately, humidity levels are not as high during a summer heat wave. As humidity can contribute to dehydration, body strain and breathing difficulties, lower humidity makes this heat dome somewhat less dangerous for workers in affected areas.

The World Weather Attribution, an initiative formed by international climate change researchers and climate scientists, determined that the heat dome would be «virtually impossible without human-induced climate change.»

In a world where weather events like these cease to be impossibilities, you’ll want to prepare for future heat waves properly. Here’s how to stay safe during the heat dome.

How to prepare for the heat dome before it hits your state

There’s nothing you can do to beat the heat outside, aside from following heat safety best practices. You’ll just need to stay hydrated, wear breathable, light-colored clothing and wait out the potentially dangerous heat dome, which is expected to dissipate by the end of next week when April begins. But you can do things to batten down the hatches before the sweltering heat reaches your home.

Even if you don’t have much prep time, a couple of small items can make your home safer (and far more comfortable). Cooling towels, portable fans and countertop ice makers are must-haves during a heat wave, especially if you aren’t looking to crank the thermostat down and spend a pretty penny.

Heat waves are also extremely costly due to the sheer amount of energy used — it’s expensive to stay cool. Depending on your living situation, though, you might want to invest in heat pump installation. These HVAC system additions are extremely energy efficient, which means you can keep more money in your pocket while beating the heat.

During the middle of the heat wave, when everyone has their AC running, there’s also the potential for an early brownout (a temporary drop in electrical voltage, causing lighting to dim) or even a blackout (a complete loss of power). It’s common to feel helpless during power outages, but you can get ahead of the curve by preparing a summer blackout kit with portable chargers and alternative light sources before the heat wave hits.

Even if the historic heat wave doesn’t hit your home, these tips will help you prepare as the summer season bears down on the US in a couple of months.