Technologies
9 hidden Amazon bonuses besides fast shipping and Prime Video
You already know the big bonuses: Prime Video, Prime Music and free shipping with Prime. But there’s a heap of other perks that can help you save big today.
Amazon is the 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 away. Some, like Amazon Prime Video and Prime Music, make headlines. Others get buried in the vastness of Amazon’s site. We’re here to help pick the best of the bunch so you don’t get lost in the search tool.
Amazon expanded its sphere during the pandemic — visits to its site reportedly increased 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 customers, a ton of lesser-known features can land you stellar deals, including steep discounts on expensive items and free books, but only 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.
Read more: Amazon Prime Video: The 25 best films to see this week
1. Read for free using 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 for gift cards and shop 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. Find 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 resold 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 Amazon Warehouse deals.
4. Sift through 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 discounted prices. 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 can take sifting to find. Luckily, you can do it from the couch.
5. Land limited-time discounts through 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 Prime benefits with loved ones using Amazon Household
Sharing is caring, and Amazon Household lets you extend access to 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 stream content and shop with parent approval.
- Up to four children (children can’t shop on Amazon).
8. Use 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. Handpick 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 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 Sunday, Feb. 1
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 1
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? Some of the clues are kind of tricky, but I was able to fill in enough of the others to get them all answered. 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: Spot to shop
Answer: MART
5A clue: Pounded sticky rice sometimes filled with ice cream
Answer: MOCHI
6A clue: ___ Chekhov, «Three Sisters» playwright
Answer: ANTON
7A clue: Like many dive bars and bird feeds
Answer: SEEDY
8A clue: Jekyll’s evil counterpart
Answer: HYDE
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: What makes the world go ’round, per «Cabaret»
Answer: MONEY
2D clue: Performed in a play
Answer: ACTED
3D clue: __ Island (U.S. state)
Answer: RHODE
4D clue: Itty-bitty
Answer: TINY
5D clue: Squish to a pulp, as potatoes
Answer: MASH
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Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 1, #496
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 1, No. 496.
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. The blue group made me think of dusty gum sticks, and the purple one requires you to look for hidden names in the clues. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle 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 appear in the NYT Games app, but it does 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: Splish-splash.
Green group hint: Vroom!
Blue group hint: Cards and gum.
Purple group hint: Racket stars.
Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups
Yellow group: Aquatic sports verbs.
Green group: Speed.
Blue group: Sports card brands.
Purple group: Tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter.
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 aquatic sports verbs. The four answers are kayak, row, sail and swim.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is speed. The four answers are mustard, pop, velocity and zip.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is sports card brands. The four answers are Leaf, Panini, Topps and Upper Deck.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is tennis Grand Slam winners, minus a letter. The four answers are ash (Arthur Ashe), kin (Billie Jean King), nada (Rafael Nadal) and William (Serena and Venus Williams)
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
Technologies
Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Feb. 1, #1688
Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Sunday, Feb. 1, No. 1,688.
Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Today’s Wordle puzzle is a tough one, with some unusual letters. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.
Read more: New Study Reveals Wordle’s Top 10 Toughest Words of 2025
Today’s Wordle hints
Before we show you today’s Wordle answer, we’ll give you some hints. If you don’t want a spoiler, look away now.
Wordle hint No. 1: Repeats
Today’s Wordle answer has no repeated letters.
Wordle hint No. 2: Vowels
Today’s Wordle answer has one vowel and one sometimes vowel.
Wordle hint No. 3: First letter
Today’s Wordle answer begins with S.
Wordle hint No. 4: Last letter
Today’s Wordle answer ends with Y.
Wordle hint No. 5: Meaning
Today’s Wordle answer means full of prickles.
TODAY’S WORDLE ANSWER
Today’s Wordle answer is SPINY.
Yesterday’s Wordle answer
Yesterday’s Wordle answer, Jan. 31, No. 1,687, was ALLOT.
Recent Wordle answers
Jan. 27, No. 1,683: DUSKY
Jan. 28, No. 1,684: CRUEL
Jan. 29, No. 1,685: FLAKY
Jan. 30, No. 1,686: JUMBO
Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.
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