Technologies
One Amazon Prime perk goes away in less than a week. Here’s what to know now
Time’s running out to get free grocery delivery, but other Prime services are sticking around.

There’s only one week left for Amazon Prime members to enjoy free Whole Foods’ deliveries (on orders $35 or more). After Oct. 25, the free perk will cost $10 extra. It might mean that you buy more to offset the delivery cost or use Amazon’s other free Prime grocery delivery options to avoid the extra fees.
But your Prime membership offers more than free grocery deliveries and two-day shipping. You can cut the hustle and bustle of running other errands, like the pharmacy or the mall, and can even get Amazon gift cards when you trade-in eligible products. And other services like Prime Video and Prime Music can help you limit your monthly subscriptions.
So don’t fret. Even though Whole Foods’ deliveries may cost more, we found a few hidden gems to help you make the most of your membership. You can also check out these top CNET deals before they’re gone This story was recently updated.
Read more: Amazon Prime Video: The best movies to see this week
1. Free Whole Foods grocery deliveries (until Oct. 25)
For now, Amazon offers 2-hour delivery of groceries for free. But after Oct. 25, you can expect an additional $10 charge for delivery. But if you don’t mind the drive and don’t want to spend the extra money, there are also 1-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.
Some other Whole Food perks for Prime members are still sticking around. 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.
You can still enter your email address or phone number or scan the QR code on your Whole Foods Market app at checkout during your next grocery haul to get exclusive Prime discounts on select products. The few cents saved on items may seem insignificant individually, but savings do add up at the end of the shopping trip. But there’s another Prime grocery perk that you can take advantage of if you don’t want to pay the delivery fee.
2. Amazon Fresh grocery delivery services
Another grocery delivery option for Prime members is Amazon Fresh. You can restock your pantry directly from Amazon. But instead of paying $10 for Whole Foods grocery delivery later this month, you can get free delivery for orders over $35. Below that, delivery is $6.
You can also use the service to get discounts when you order more or when you set up automatic delivery subscriptions for certain items and save even more for future deliveries. Plus, some items, like fruit snacks and cookies, are SNAP-eligible.
Prime members can also use Amazon Fresh to get fresh fruits and vegetables delivered for free with orders over $50.
3. Amazon Pharmacy’s two-day delivery and discounts
If you refill at least one prescription on a regular basis and you’re tired of going to the pharmacy, Amazon’s Pharmacy may be a more convenient choice. Plus, Prime members may get lower prices on medicine. Amazon will handle the hassle of transferring prescriptions, and 24/7 pharmaceutical assistance is available. The pharmacy works with most insurance plans, but it is available in 45 states right now.
4. Try Amazon’s personal shopper program
Prime members can skip trips to the mall and order clothes for their next outing with Prime Try Before You Buy (the name changed from Prime Wardrobe). Here’s how it works: Choose up to eight items — clothes, shoes or accessories. Keep them for up to seven days to see if you like them. Send back what you don’t like for free and only pay for what you keep. Amazon’s personal shopper program is available for men, women, kids and babies. And if you’re looking for a new style or need help deciding, you can try the styling service for personalized help starting at $5 per month. If you’re not sure which clothing or shoes are eligible, look for the «Try Before You Buy» icon.
5. Amazon gift cards when you trade in used electronics
Amazon is boarding the train to the 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.
6. Discounts and guarantees on preowned products
Amazon Renewed gives you access to products that may have been opened but weren’t used 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.
7. Amazon Warehouse savings on almost everything
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.
8. Amazon Outlet’s overstocked items
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.
9. Limited-time Lightning Deals year-round
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 way to find something specific because of their fleeting nature and limited availability.
10. 5GB of storage 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 ($40 at Amazon), Echo Show ($34 at Amazon) 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.
For more, here are our picks for the best Alexa devices and which e-reader is right for you.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #463
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 463 for June 9.

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.
Todays NYT Strands puzzle features a bunch of mysterious words. Some are a bit difficult 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: What you see isn’t what you get
If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Hiding in plain sight
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:
- CALL, CALLS, FALL, FALLS, SAME, SEAM, LAND, ROSE, COVE, CANE, CANES, FLUME, FLUMES, DIGS, MEAL, COLA, CARD, CASE
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:
- MASK, CLOAK, COVER, FACADE, DISGUISE, CAMOUFLAGE
Today’s Strands spangram
Today’s Strands spangram is FALSEFRONT. To find it, start with the F that’s two rows over from the far left and two letters down. Wind around into a question mark.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for June 9, #729
Here are some hints and the answers for Connections for June 9, No. 729.

Looking for the most recent 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, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.
Do you play the NYT Spelling Bee? If you do, you should be able to ace the purple category in today’s NYT Connections puzzle. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times now has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.
Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time
Hints for today’s Connections groups
Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group, to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.
Yellow group hint: Control-C.
Green group hint: Don’t wait till the last minute.
Blue group hint: Pals to plan a heist.
Purple group hint: Think another NYT online game.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Keyboard shortcut commands.
Green group: Secure in advance.
Blue group: Crime organization.
Purple group: Spellling Bee ranks minus a letter.
Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words
What are today’s Connections answers?
The yellow words in today’s Connections
The theme is keyboard shortcut commands. The four answers are paste, print, quit and save.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is secure in advance. The four answers are book, order, request and reserve.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is crime organization. The four answers are crew, family, ring and syndicate.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is Spelling Bee ranks minus a letter. The four answers are genus, goo, mazing and slid. (Genius, good, amazing and solid.)
Technologies
I Made Google Translate My Default on iPhone Before a Trip and It Saved Me More Than Once
Google Translate supports far more languages than Apple’s app, and it’s easy to make the switch.

If you’re traveling overseas this summer, the Google Translate app can come in handy to quickly translate a road sign or conversation. The latest Google Translate update allows you to pick the app as your default translation app for Apple iPhones and iPads running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 and later. Previously, you were limited to the built-in Apple option.
Google began leveraging AI to boost Google Translate’s offerings, adding 110 languages last year to increase its total support for 249 languages. Compare that to Apple Translate, which supports 19 languages. Neither Google nor Apple responded to a request for comment.
Both apps offer voice and text translation, including a camera feature that lets you instantly translate by pointing your camera at text. Both also allow you to use translation features without an internet connection, which can come in particularly handy when traveling to more remote locations.
After using both, I found that the Google Translate picked up speech a little quicker so I didn’t have to constantly repeat myself, and the audio pronunciations were a little easier to understand than on Apple Translate. I switched to Google Translate as the default on my iPhone, and here’s how you can, too.
How to set Google Translate as the default on an iPhone or iPad
Setting Google Translate as your default app is simple on an iPhone or iPad, so long as it’s running iOS and iPadOS 18.4 or later.
- Download the Google Translate app or update it to the latest version.
- Go to the Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down to the bottom then select Apps.
- Click Default Apps at the top of the screen.
- Then choose Translation.
- Select Google Translate.
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