Technologies

9 Amazon Prime Benefits to Use in 2023

2023 is almost here. Here’s how you use your Amazon Prime membership for access to exclusive deals.

The new year is coming up in just a few days, and there are Amazon deals going strong with more to come for the new year. If you’re a Prime member, there are a slew of perks included with your subscription that you’ll want to use all year round.

No, we’re not just talking about free two-day shipping. Amazon Prime members have access to tons of other perks and bonuses you might not know about.

Want to improve your cybersecurity?

We’ll teach you why protecting your identity and data is important. Plus, get recommendations for VPNs, Password Managers and Antivirus Software.

For example, Amazon Prime members can get deliveries much faster than two days, sometimes in a few hours. They can also schedule delivery dates for convenience or to avoid times when they’ll be away from home. And they even get exclusive deals simply by using Alexa on an Amazon Echo.

If you’re thinking about signing up for an Amazon Prime account (here’s how) or don’t know much about all of the included features, here are some ways you can get the most out of your membership while shopping for Black Friday deals.

You can get free same-day delivery on qualifying items

If there’s a product you want immediately, you can see if it’s available for delivery the same day you order. To check a product’s eligibility, look for delivery that’s marked as «Prime FREE Same-Day» while shopping. Note that your order will need to contain over $35 of qualifying items. If not, you’ll have to pay a small fee.

Amazon will deliver from morning until evening, so you won’t have to worry about receiving your order at 3 a.m. However, same-day delivery isn’t available in all locations, so enter your ZIP code on the Amazon Same-Day Delivery page to see if you’re eligible.

Alexa can share extra discounts when you shop on Echo

You can use your Amazon Echo to ask «Alexa, what are my deals?» anytime. Alexa will then share Prime-exclusive deals and you’ll have the option to add the item to your cart, buy it now or move on to the next deal.

Schedule a convenient shipping date for your package

Everyone knows about Amazon’s free two-day shipping, but another option is to choose a delivery date during checkout. It’s called Amazon Day and it’s helpful if there’s a specific day you know someone will be at home to answer for packages — especially if it’s something pricey that you don’t want to risk leaving unattended.

If you order multiple items on different days, you can have them delivered on the same day as long as they’re eligible for this offer.

Use your Amazon Echo to help track packages

If you have an Amazon Echo of any kind, you can use it to track your orders.

Just say «Alexa, where’s my package?» and your Echo will let you know where it is, who it’s for and when it’ll arrive. Once your order has been delivered, the Echo’s ring light will pulse yellow and if you have the Echo Show, the delivery notification will appear on the screen.

Shop Early Access deals before non-Prime members

If something you’ve been eyeing says «Prime Early Access,» as a Prime member you can shop that sale 30 minutes before non-Prime members. However, you’ll still have to compete with other Prime members who are interested in the product before it sells out.

Amazon can leave your package inside your house

When you know you’re not going to be home for a while and you’ve got a shipment on the way, it’s much safer to have an Amazon employee leave your items inside your house to avoid theft.

For in-home delivery, you’ll need a Key-compatible smart lock and an (optional) Amazon Cloud Cam. The Amazon driver will send you a notification when they’ve arrived at your house and will request to unlock your door. Amazon will verify the package is at the right address and the driver is near the door, then will turn on Amazon Cloud Cam and unlock your door.

If you’re wary of letting a complete stranger into your home, keep in mind that you’ll also receive notifications during the entire process. Note that you can opt to block delivery access to your home — for example, if you know you’ll be home during that time.

You can also have packages delivered inside your garage

«Porch pirates» — thieves who steal packages left in front of homes — are no joke. Security site SafeWise told CNET that about 260 million packages have been stolen from home exteriors in 2022. The Amazon Key in-garage delivery service can stop porch theft completely and is free for all Amazon Prime members.

When you use Amazon In-Garage Delivery, select Key Delivery at checkout. The garage kit is $29 right now and turns your garage into a smart garage. It works the same as in-home delivery so Amazon will do all the verifying for you.

Send a gift to someone without knowing their address

An Amazon Prime feature lets you send someone a gift, even if you don’t have their address. For instance, if you’d like to send a coworker something for the holidays or their birthday but don’t know what their address is, you can still send a gift. But there’s a catch — that person must also have a Prime account and you need either their phone number or email address associated with the account.

Just note that not every item on Amazon is eligible.

Share Prime perks with family

If you’ve got another adult living in your household, like a significant other or friend, you can share your Prime membership with them. You’ll still be able to keep your personal accounts separate, but you’ll both have access to all the same Prime benefits.

You can also share your account with up to four teens and up to four children in your household. While they’ll have their own logins, you can still manage their profiles.

For more shopping tips, here’s how to send your Amazon packages back the fast, easy and free way.

Don’t Know Who Needs to Hear This, but Clean Out Your Keurig Already

Change These Browser Settings Right Now to Boost Your Privacy

Get the best price with CNET Shopping.

Love shopping online but don’t have time to compare prices or search for promo codes? Our CNET Shopping extension does that for you, so you always get the best price.

Technologies

Toy Story 5: The Big New Rival Is a Tablet

Woody, Buzz and Jessie will battle a tablet in Toy Story 5, which is scheduled to hit theaters just about a year from now.

Pixar is giving its old-school toys a decidedly modern antagonist: a tablet.

During the studio’s Friday showcase at Annecy’s International Animation Film Festival in France, Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter revealed that Toy Story 5’s villain is Lily Pad, a «sneaky» and «prickly» tablet that convinces 8-year-old Bonnie Anderson that friends and games on a device beat dusty ol’ toys in the closet.

The first concept art shows the frog-faced tablet looming over Buzz, Jessie and Bullseye like a touchscreen tyrant of the toy box. As you can probably foresee, this is a battle between analog toys and always-on tech. (You can stream Toy Story movies one through four on Disney Plus.)

The Lily Pad reveal topped a jam-packed Walt Disney Animation and Pixar showcase, where the company rolled out updated release dates, never-before-seen footage and a couple of all-new original films.

Toy Story 5: The enemy is tech

The premise of Toy Story 5 is that Anderson gets a Lily Pad for school chat and online games. But the tablet decides that Anderson’s toys, including Woody, Buzz and Jessie, are holding her back. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and Joan Cusack are all returning, while Ernie Hudson steps in as Combat Carl, honoring the late Carl Weathers.

Docter shared the opening scene of Toy Story 5, which shows a crate full of stranded Buzz Lightyears trying to escape a desert island. Toy Story 5 is set for release on June 19, 2026.

Pixar announced two new original films

Daniel Chong’s Hoppers, scheduled for March 6, 2026, turns an eco-heist into a critter-powered caper: 14-year-old Mabel uploads her mind into a robotic beaver to save her local pond from a highway project.

Gatto, slated for summer 2027, centers on Nero, a black cat in Venice who’s burned through most of his nine lives doing jobs for a feline mob boss. Now, questioning whether he’s wasted those lives, Nero stumbles into an unexpected friendship that could finally give him purpose. The film will be shot in a «living storybook» style, which is new to Pixar.

And we got to see new footage from Zootopia 2 and Elio

Jared Bush, Walt Disney Animation Studios’ chief creative officer and director-writer of Zootopia 2, showed some new footage and images from the anticipated sequel, which should come out in November. The audience also got to watch a 27-minute sizzle reel from Elio, the cosmic coming-of-age adventure, which opens June 20.

Technologies

Too Busy to Read? Google’s Audio Overviews Summarize Your Search Results Aloud

This new feature turns some Google queries into bite-size podcast clips so you can learn without reading.

The next time you wonder why school buses are yellow, you might not have to read a single word to get the answer. Google’s latest experimental feature can literally tell you the answer, in a tiny audio clip that loads right to your results page.

Launched Friday in Search Labs, Audio Overviews uses Google’s latest Gemini AI models to turn certain queries into 30- to 45-second, podcast-style explainers, complete with on-screen source links for fact-checking.

The move pushes Google’s AI Overviews beyond text, positioning Search for a semi-hands-free, voice-first future, while also raising more questions about what this means for publishers who rely on clicks.

How you can try out Audio Overviews right now

If you’re interested, you can try out Google’s Audio Overviews right now. Go to the Google Labs website, opt in to the Search Labs program if you’re not already signed up and toggle on Audio Overviews.

The next time you run a query, like «How do I stop apps from tracking my exact location on my iPhone,» Google might show you a button that says Generate Audio Overview, which you’ll have to scroll down a little to see.

You can then tap on the Audio Overview to process the clip, and then press play. You can speed up the audio, mute the clip and also rate it with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to better train it.

Below the player, Google lists the web pages it drew from, so you can click through to fact-check the information or just dig deeper.

For those with visual impairments, this new feature offers a glimpse at what a voice-first Google might look like. But until Google expands language support and proves the summaries are dependable, consider this a nifty experiment for now, not a substitute for reading the full story.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for June 14, #468

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 468 for June 14.

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 honors Flag Day. 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.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: It’s a banner day.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: O say can you see.

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:

TRIP, TRIPS, TROT, TROTS, RATS, LEND, SEND, TRAIL, RAIL, NAIL, RANT, STRIP

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie in to 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: