Technologies
This Amazon Prime perk isn’t free anymore. Here’s what it means for you
Plus, you may be missing out on other benefits included in your annual membership cost.
Amazon has removed one free perk for people subscribed to its Prime subscription services. Members can now expect to pay $10 for Whole Foods’ grocery deliveries. Fortunately, other discounts are sticking around for Prime users to save on their grocery hauls but it may mean that you buy more to offset the delivery charge or use other grocery delivery options.
But your annual membership cost includes more than just free two-day shipping and returns. There are other Prime perks that you may be missing out on. For instance, you can save time and money on errands, like the pharmacy or the mall with Amazon’s services. And if you didn’t know, Prime Video and Prime Music can help you limit your monthly subscriptions while you still stream shows, movies and music.
We’ll tell you the best Prime membership benefits that you may be missing out on. Plus, these perks can save you time, money and the stresses of in-store shopping. By the way, check out these Black Friday deals before the big shopping day. This story was recently updated.
Read more: Amazon Prime Video: The best movies to see this week
1. Exclusive Whole Foods discounts
Even though Whole Foods deliveries will now come with an additional $10 charge, there are other ways to save on organic fruits and vegetables. There are also free 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 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 also use the Whole Foods Market app at checkout to get exclusive Prime discounts on select products. The few cents saved on items may seem insignificant individually, but savings do add up in the end. But there are other Amazon grocery delivery options if you don’t want to pay the extra fee.
2. Free Amazon Fresh delivery
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 that exceed a certain amount (depending on where you live).
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.
3. Amazon Pharmacy’s two-day delivery and discounts
If you refill at least one prescription on a regular basis, Amazon’s Pharmacy may be a more convenient choice. Plus, Prime members may get lower prices on medicine. Amazon will transfer your 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 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.
And 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 Apple and Vitamix.
7. Amazon Warehouse savings on almost everything
Amazon Warehouse resells 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.
8. Amazon Outlet’s overstocked items
The Amazon Outlet features overstocked items and other products at discounted prices. Like at an outlet, you can find premium brands and items under $10 ranging from home furniture to clothing and pet supplies. 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, Echo Show and Fire tablets as long as you have the app.
Plus, with the Family Vault perk, up to five family members can share the same plan. If you want more, 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 the latest on the new Amazon Fire tablet, the Amazon Glow for kids and the new Halo View fitness tracker.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, April 18
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 18
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 the super-long one as always on Saturdays, and a few of the clues are tricky. But if you play all the other New York Times games, 13-Across will be easy. 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: What people pay Extra for?
Answer: GUM
4A clue: Pre-meal prayer
Answer: GRACE
6A clue: Physicist Bohr
Answer: NIELS
7A clue: Line up a shot
Answer: AIM
8A clue: Photo ___ (P.R. events)
Answer: OPS
10A clue: «Zootopia,» but not «Zoolander»
Answer: PGMOVIE
12A clue: TV show with the initials «TV»
Answer: THEVIEW
13A clue: New York Times game with weaving, interconnected answers
Answer: STRANDS
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: More bleak
Answer: GRIMMER
2D clue: Dubai’s country, for short
Answer: UAE
3D clue: Nickname of Seth and Evan’s friend in «Superbad»
Answer: MCLOVIN
4D clue: «See you in the mornin’!»
Answer: GNIGHT
5D clue: Fancy term for «noticed»
Answer: ESPIED
7D clue: Many N.Y.C. addresses: Abbr.
Answer: APTS
9D clue: Uses a needle and thread
Answer: SEWS
11D clue: Egg cells
Answer: OVA
Technologies
AI Trusted Less Than Social Media and Airlines, With Grok Placing Last, Survey Says
More Americans are concerned about the loss of personal interaction from AI than they are about potential job loss.
Google Gemini is the most trusted AI platform among its competition, but many people still have concerns about the technology, according to an American Customer Satisfaction Index poll released Thursday.
In ACSI’s results, AI scored an overall customer satisfaction score of 73 on a scale of 0 to 100, which the authors noted was slightly below social media (74), airlines and mortgage lenders, but in line with energy utilities.
Of the five platforms mentioned in the survey, Google Gemini led with 76, followed by Microsoft Copilot (74), Claude and ChatGPT (both 73), and Grok and Perplexity (both 71). Meanwhile, TikTok (77) and YouTube (78) both scored better than the AI platforms.
Gemini is one of the most prolific AI services, with access via smart speakers, TVs, phones and computers, while most ChatGPT users access the AI tool via the ChatGPT website or mobile app, and Grok via social media platform X.
The ACSI poll found that 43% of respondents said reduced human-to-human interaction is their main concern, followed by job loss for future generations (37%) and their own job risk (31%), based on interviews with 2,711 US adults.
Baby Boomers were the most skeptical generation in the poll, with 35% saying they are very concerned about AI’s effects, compared to just 6% who view it extremely favorably.
Disconnect between AI adoption and perception
While platforms such as ChatGPT have up to 1 billion weekly users, there is still a disconnect between AI’s adoption and public perception of it, which is driven by concerns over privacy, the spread of misinformation and the loss of jobs.
«Consumers spent the last decade learning to distrust how social media platforms handle their data, and AI’s privacy scores suggest they’re carrying that skepticism forward,» said Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.
21% reported an «extremely favorable» outlook toward AI, while an equal 21% said they are «very concerned about the consequences.»
These results were in line with another poll published by YouGov this week, which found that only 29% think the positive effects of AI outweigh the negative ones, while 36% think its net effects are negative.
It’s worth noting that more than half of the people interviewed (56%) had no recent experience with AI, but of the 44% who did, half of them use AI at least once a day, and the usage went up with people who earned over $100,000 a year.
Last month, an NBC poll suggested that AI was one of the least-liked things in America, but it was still more popular than the Democratic Party.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for April 18, #1042
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 18, No. 1,042.
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.
Today’s NYT Connections puzzle features a fun purple category that’ll require you to spot certain beverage names. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.
The Times 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 the 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: Wow!
Green group hint: Plug it in.
Blue group hint: Cinderella team.
Purple group hint: Drink up.
Answers for today’s Connections groups
Yellow group: Look at with awe.
Green group: Basic electricity terms.
Blue group: Unexpected winner.
Purple group: Starting with soda brands.
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 look at with awe. The four answers are goggle, marvel, stare and wonder.
The green words in today’s Connections
The theme is basic electricity terms. The four answers are AC, DC, power and voltage.
The blue words in today’s Connections
The theme is unexpected winner. The four answers are dark horse, long shot, sleeper and underdog.
The purple words in today’s Connections
The theme is starting with soda brands. The four answers are crushworthy, Fantagraphics, frescade and pepsinogen.
-
Technologies3 года agoTech Companies Need to Be Held Accountable for Security, Experts Say
-
Technologies3 года agoBest Handheld Game Console in 2023
-
Technologies3 года agoTighten Up Your VR Game With the Best Head Straps for Quest 2
-
Technologies4 года agoBlack Friday 2021: The best deals on TVs, headphones, kitchenware, and more
-
Technologies5 лет agoGoogle to require vaccinations as Silicon Valley rethinks return-to-office policies
-
Technologies5 лет agoVerum, Wickr and Threema: next generation secured messengers
-
Technologies4 года agoOlivia Harlan Dekker for Verum Messenger
-
Technologies4 года agoThe number of Сrypto Bank customers increased by 10% in five days
