Technologies

9 hidden Amazon perks other than Prime shipping and video to save money now

You know the big ones: Prime Video, Prime Music and Prime’s free shipping. But there’s a ton of Amazon features that you might not know about and will want to start using ASAP to save some cash.

Amazon has made a name for itself as the supplier of just about anything. But in addition to two-day and even same-day shipping for Amazon Prime members, the trillion-dollar tech titan has dozens of other services just a few clicks away from the homepage. Some, like Amazon Prime Video and Prime Music, make headlines. Others tend to get buried in the vastness of Amazon’s super site. We’re here to help uncover the best of the bunch.

Amazon expanded its reach during the pandemic — with visits increasing 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 services continue to be its bread and butter.

For avid Amazon shoppers, a heap of lesser known features can score you big perks if you know where to look, including steep discounts on expensive items and free books. We’ve scouted 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 used devices to redeem gift cards and shop preowned, discounted products

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. Shop Amazon’s Warehouse items at a discount

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. Find discounts on overstock 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. Discover limited-time offers 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. Back up photos and videos with Amazon Photos

Amazon’s online shoebox for photos and videos offers secure and unlimited full-resolution photo storage plus 5 GB 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 Prime benefits with 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 (aged 18 and over), 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. Shop exclusive discounted 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 best-sellers, 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. Build a 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 best sellers 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

Be Wary of AI Videos as Hurricane Melissa Hits Jamaica. How to Spot a Fake

AI-generated storm videos are spreading rapidly online. Here’s where to find reliable information.

As Category 5 Hurricane Melissa bears down on Jamaica with winds topping 180 mph, social media is being hit by a surge of AI-generated and misleading videos, showing catastrophic flooding, collapsing buildings and rescue scenes that never happened.

Across X, TikTok, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media platforms, fake clips spread quickly, racking up millions of views in hours. Many of these videos are spliced footage from past storms or clips created entirely with text-to-video AI tools.

In times of crisis, like a dangerous and imminent natural disaster, these fake videos can create confusion, panic and distraction at a time when accuracy can be life-saving.

Natural disasters have always bred rumors and recycled footage, but the rise of AI-generated video has supercharged the problem. Tools like OpenAI’s Sora and other AI-video platforms can render realistic-looking images of storms, floods and damage scenes in seconds, reaching millions online in just a few hours.

Read also: The Deepfakes Are Winning. How Can You Tell if a Video Is Real or Sora AI?

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Why storms are a magnet for fake news

Storms are visual, emotional and fast-moving, which is the perfect recipe for viral misinformation. In years past, videos were often taken out of context or labeled as a different storm. Now, they can be digitally fabricated from scratch.

Some depict apocalyptic flooding that hasn’t occurred, while others claim to show «real-time» conditions hours before landfall. Several videos that have circled this week include images of sharks swimming in the storm surge and unsettling depictions of human suffering.

False videos like these can exaggerate the danger of the storm, create panic, undermine trust and distract emergency responders, as misinformation pulls attention from verified reports.

The following three videos are all fake. They are labeled (albeit briefly) with the Sora watermark, which indicates they were made in OpenAI’s video generator.

How to separate truth from fiction online

When social feeds fill with dramatic hurricane clips, it’s important to separate truth from fiction.

«You have to be very discerning,» Senator Dana Morris Dixon, Jamaica’s information minister, said. «You have to know what is good information from bad information. If you want to know where the storm is going, if you want to know what to do, you need to look for official sources.»

Dixon highlighted that the Jamaica Information Service, Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management’s information sites and the Office of the Prime Minister page are resources for legitimate, timely updates.

Here are some ways to be discerning.

Check the source. If the video comes from an unfamiliar account, lacks a timestamp or carries no recognizable media branding, assume it is fake until verified. Also, look for the Sora watermark indicating it was made in OpenAI’s app, or read the comments to see if someone else has flagged the video as fake.

Ask yourself if it’s new and local. Does the geography match Jamaica? Is the footage recent? Many «Melissa» clips could actually be from past Caribbean or Gulf storms.

Cross-check before believing. Confirm through trusted outlets, like the Meteorological Service of Jamaica and the US National Hurricane Center, or established media like the BBC, Reuters or the Associated Press.

Pause before sharing. A viral video can cause harm if it spreads misinformation. Wait until a credible source verifies it before reposting.

Go local. If you’re in the affected area, rely on local emergency agencies, radio stations and city or county-level officials for evacuation and safety updates.

Monitor official alerts. For real-time instructions, stick with government channels and local emergency feeds. Your safety depends on accurate information, not viral content.

As AI-generated media becomes easier to produce, hurricanes like Melissa offer a preview of a new reality: one in which you can’t trust much of the information you see online.

Staying safe means being skeptical and diligent when looking for accurate and even lifesaving news.

Read also: What Is AI Slop? Everything to Know About the Terrible Content Taking Over the Internet

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for Oct. 29 #605

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Oct. 29, No. 605.

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

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a fun one for English majors. Some of the answers are a bit tough to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: «Nevermore!»

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

MOVE, RAVE, NOVEL, BACK, LACK, HACK, FEAT, HEAT, WING, SORE, ROSE, STAR, RATS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

BLACK, CLEVER, WINGED, FEATHERED, OMNIVOROUS

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is THATSSORAVEN. To find it, look for the T that’s six letters down on the far-left vertical row, and wind across.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Oct. 29, #401

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Oct. 29, No. 401.

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

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a fun one. As a Vikings and Seahawks fan, I spotted two nicknames for parts of those teams right away. Of course, the purple category is its typically loopy self. If you’re struggling but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Buy me some Cracker Jack.

Green group hint: Hoops homes.

Blue group hint: Like the Monsters of the Midway.

Purple group hint: Football teams, with a twist.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Things a stadium vendor sells.

Green group: NBA arenas.

Blue group: Famous nicknames for NFL defenses.

Purple group: NFL teams, with the second-to-last letter changed.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is things a stadium vendor sells. The four answers are beer, cotton candy, hot dogs and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is NBA arenas. The four answers are Barclays, Little Caesars, Smoothie King and United.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is famous nicknames for NFL defenses. The four answers are Legion of Boom, Orange Crush, Purple People Eaters and Steel Curtain.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is NFL teams, with the second-to-last letter changed. The four answers are beads (Bears), biles (Bills), colas (Colts) and packets (Packers).