Wanting to use Amazon Prime Video to help cut the cable?

Amazon Prime users can opt into some of the prime cable channels (HBO, STARX and SHOWTIME) on a subscription basis. Amazon is providing a 7 day free trial to check it out for yourself. After the trial period you be looking at paying $8.99/month for STARZ, $14.99/month for HBO and $8.99/month for SHOWTIME.

If you want to see all the channels available on Amazon Prime click here.

Don't know which Home Assistant to Buy?

Here is a quick overview of the three major products that are in the market today, Apple (HomePod), Google (Google Home) or Amazon's (Amazon Echo). Which one of these out performs the other? What other considerations should you be thinking about? Take a look at this article and see if this helps you to decide.

Me, I have already made my commitment to the Echo line of products. Each of the different product lines have their different pro's that might make you lean towards that product. If all you are looking for is good sound for your music, I would probably stick with none of these and jump back to Sonos. It has the widest flexibility but will make the biggest dent in your pocketbook. If you are looking for the add-on apps to make the unit a true assistant, then the Echo is probably the product you should be looking at. If you are heavily into Google products and apps then it might be Google Home. Lot's of things to consider.

Another Cloud Storage Space gets peeled back

Amazon has announced that it will no longer offer an unlimited storage plan in its Amazon Drive consumer service. In its place, Amazon will price cloud storage at $60 per 1 TB. If you look around, this really isn't a bad deal. Compare to other services out their like Dropbox for one, that has the same offer for $99.

Now, Amazon is offering storage plans of 100 GB ($20 per year) and 1 TB ($60 per year), and anyone who wants additional storage can pay another $60 per 1 TB. Additionally, all Amazon customers get 5 GB of free storage. And if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you get unlimited photo storage. (Which makes this service a good option for those who wisely choose to backup their phone-based photos to multiple places.)

The change is effective today, Amazon says, and customers who are already paying for unlimited storage will retain that perk until their current subscription expires. At that time, they will be switched to a 1 TB plan at $60 unless auto-renew is disabled.

Amazon files patent for drone deliveries

Amazon is planning on using drones and parachutes for their future deliveries.

CNN reports that the US Patent and Trademark office provided Amazon with a patent that sees the everything giant delivering packages with drones and parachutes. The patent shows Amazon would use drones to delivery packages "at altitude" and "monitor and adjust package trajectory during descent". CNN reports that Amazon's drones could "radio a message to an off-course package, instructing it to deploy a parachute, compressed air canister or landing flap".

So, for now, drones still need a human at the flight stick but Amazon hopes to be in the lead with automating delivery in the very near future.

Amazon offering kindle versions of “100 Books You Must Read Before You Die”

I am big into “reading” and I do so mainly digitally. Whether I use my Kindle, Tablet, or switch to audio, I hardly ever touch a real, physical book anymore. So if you haven’t read what are considered as the books you must read for your bucket list, Amazon is giving them away free for your Kindle device.

This looks like a good collection of public domain novels, in Kindle format.  It's volume 1 of a 2 volume set. Here's volume 2.

This is a great way to get started, but don’t forget the Kindleunlimited option that you can purchase which costs $9.99/month for basically unlimited reading. You can borrow up to 10 titles at a time and you can consume most of these either in text or audible formats. This is a really nice option especially for me consuming 8-10 books a month.

If you have Prime, there is also Prime Reading option that comes with that subscription. There are quite a few books and magazines available through this service as well.

Data Privacy Day: know the risks of Amazon Alexa and Google Home

Here is a great discussion of whether you should be concerned with Amazon Alexa and Google Home

See the Naked Security article here.

The article addresses the following topics:

• Your technology is listening
• Lessons from the Dyn attack
• Defensive measures

Sonos’s New CEO Wants To Connect With Alexa, Google And All Services That Matter.

Patrick Spence, Sonos new CEO, has a new mission: Keep Sonos alive in the face of the innovative disruption from the rest of the industry. Amazon’s Alexa and now Google’s Home Products are part of this competition invading the networked speaker environment. Sonos is a manufacturer of home speaker systems that have their own unique connectivity. Instead of embracing standards they have stood alone with their products not interfacing with other manufacturers products.

The Alexa is a good example of this type of device providing more than just sound, but services as well to access information or purchasing merchandise. Integrating this product with internet programming like IFTTT provides an extension to personalize its services.

So if Patrick Spence gets his way, Sonos will be connecting to these other devices that are exploding onto the market. I hope so.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/8/30/12709452/sonos-amazon-alexa-announced

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/business/sonos-john-macfarlane-ceo.html?_r=0

Use Alex to control your Plex Environment

Alex is one of those neat devices that if you pay attention to the enormous number of skills that are being attached to it everyday can help to add a lot of enjoyment in your home or office. Yesterday I ran across this article in engadget that discusses a new skill you can add to your Alex Tap, Dot, Fire TV or newer model Fire tablets. Below is a video on how it all works:

Google Home to be release Nov 4th

Now available for preorder for $129 which is less expensive than the full blown Amazon Echo device. The Verge discussed a unit that they were able to test  that they felt was smarter than Siri and the Alexa stating that it was able to understand context in a question and find information from around the web.

It is going to be available in different colors, and they felt the speakers had better quality than the Echo. Google Home works with YouTube Music and Google Play Music, six months of YouTube Red,  and integrates with Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio and TuneIn. Any of the third-party services can be used as the default music service if you like.

Home also acts as a Chromecast Audio receiver, so you can choose to cast the music to any Chromecast-connected television or speakers in the house, and you can play music in multiple rooms at once.

Click here to see The Verge’s article here.

Special offer on Amazon’s Echo Dot

At $49.99, this device is pretty interesting. Dan Seifert from the verge did a quick review that goes over the basic new functions that are coming out that make this very interesting. With Google coming out with its own product to rival this one we are in for some interesting new options in this market. Its worth a quick read above if you interested in this technology.

Kobo Aura One

Where was this device a few years ago. I have had some issues over the years with electronic devices finding their way into our pool. This new Kobo Reader gets rid of that issue with its waterproof design. This eBook reader is a little larger than most of the ereaders in this category of devices sizing out to 7.8 inch display. The unit is no thicker than an iPhone 6s and not much heavier than the 6s Plus. The Aura One is rated to 6 feet of water resistance, I’ll have to keep it out of the deep end of the pool, which normally shouldn’t be an issue unless you are floating in the deep end.

The number on eBook company that Kobo is competing against is Amazon with their kindle products. With Amazon’s deep source of books to purchase and borrow you have almost any book that you could desire available to you. It’s ability  to also play back audiobooks for those of us that are deep into their Audible Library, is another boon.

Kobo however has deep ties into the the US Lending Library system with Overdrive. So this feature is part of their system. That gives you access to books for free if available from your local and regional libraries that you are a member of.

The cost of this device in the US is going to be around $229 and it should be available in early September.

Review at theverge

Amazon is talking with the UK Government about the safe use of drones in small package delivery

While the idea of placing a One-Click order on Amazon Prime and having the package delivered to you just thirty minutes later is very intriguing, this really is taking the shopping experience to a level that is suggesting pure laziness on our part. But is does fuel my geeky side as well.

This service dubbed “Amazon PrimeAir” suggests that there is a real strong case for the service as shown in the video below because we really need to instantly quiet down the screaming child.

While this is old news the video above shows a new drone prototype that has been released. This drone is designed to fly up to fifteen miles and up to 400 feet. It will be able to carry up to 5 lbs of cargo and unlike the original images we saw it will no longer be delivering your stuff in a plastic box but in a normal cardboard box that is carried internally in the drone.

While the same concerns that were mentioned in earlier reviews of this service still exists, Amazon is still actively pursuing this avenue of delivery.

1. Review: Concerns over Drone Delivery
2. One of the original Amazon Videos
3. New Drone Look

Announcing Amazon Inspire

Announcing Amazon Inspire, a Free Service for Digital Educational Resources

Press Release

An interesting blog note came across my desk from Tech & Learning eNews that Amazon had launched a new free service called Inspire that Amazon hopes will make it a major player in the tech education industry. It launched in late June with thousands of free education resources such as worksheets and lesson plans. This new service is meant to provide teachers with students anywhere from kindergarten to 12th grade a place to find and share free education materials.

Amazon Inspire Features

• Smart search — With smart search, teachers can explore resources by grade level, standard or even from a particular district. Educators can filter search results using more than 10 criteria to find great resources that best fit their needs.
• Collections — Educators can group resources into collections. They can describe the collection, curate the resources in it, recommend an order for going through the resources and share the collection with other teachers.
• Simple upload — Amazon Inspire offers an easy to use and intuitive upload interface. Educators can drag and drop files they want to share, add basic metadata such as title, description, grade and subject, and publish the content on the service, all in a few minutes.
• Customer reviews — Teachers can rate and review resources on Amazon Inspire, helping their colleagues around the country select the best resources for their needs.

• Accessibility support — Amazon Inspire has built in accessibility features. For example, educators can navigate Amazon Inspire using popular screen readers and users are also able to indicate the accessibility features of resources they upload.

see additional information at EdSurge

Educators across the United States are invited to learn more about or join the Amazon Inspire beta at www.amazoninspire.com.

Amazon is unbundling Prime Video for $8.99 per month`

I guess Amazon figures our New Math can't make sense of this. Let me see... $99/year for prime and $8.99 per month for Prime Video $119.88/year. That's my math and you lose all of the other services associated with the Prime Membership. Hmmm....

Compare that service to Hulu, $7.99 and NetFlix $7.99 and what are they thinking? I really don't fine Prime Video as that great of a source of video options so I think they really missed the mark on this one.

They are also going to offer the full Prime Services as a monthly option for $10.99 per month. That comes to $131.88 per year. That's $42.88 extra over paying it annually. That's a pretty big premium! But I understand budgets are tight and this may allow you to afford the service when you can't afford the annual fee. However, that is a pretty big premium.

Amazon Echo vs. Amazon Tap

It is amazing how a seemingly simple device can so quickly become a part of your everyday life without you really considering its impact on the many different types of interactions you may have with it. The Amazon Echo has become one of those devices that hardly ever remains unused in the household either by myself or my wife. We use it as an speaker extension to our many handheld devices to entertain us through a davorite podcast while we play words with friends on a lazy weekend afternoon. We'll request from Alexa to play some accoustical music to give us some background music while we discuss and solve the many items that come in our daily lives. I come down in the morning and ask for my daily calendar to begin for the day's events that I must prepare to work on.

With the ability to play online radio stations, I can get information on what is happening on sports talk shows and other news stations in our local area. It has caused me to look for applications that will enhance its capabilities like finding a program to sync my outlook calendar with my google calendar so that I don't have to do double input in both areas. 

I love redirecting the playing of my Audible books to the Alexa to give my ears a rest from the earbuds I wear all night long. While the Echo might not have the rich bases that some other wireless/bluetooth speakers might have, it more then sufficient for the spoken word.

I just finished a review of the Amazon Tap that was written up on the Verge and can see many of the points that they brought with the Magic being lost with not being able to grab Alex's attention by addressing it from across the room. Having to physically touch a similar device to get its attention reduces its impact. But this drawback might not be as bad in certain types of use scenarios. I could see where the device is always at arms length, that reaching out to begin your interaction might not be so bad and the fact that it is so portable makes it nice to be able to bring it with you as your location continues change as it does so often during the long summer days.

It has a nice long battery life (9 hours), that makes it a functioning companion for a relatively full day of use. This makes it that much more intriguing to me to actually mke me consider adding it our household of friendly devices.

Amazon Bans Poorly made USB Type C cables

USB C cables the new configuration of USB cable that is reversible and prevents you from plugging you from plugging in the coble incorrectly. Google engineer Benson Leung, has been on u crusade to prevent shoddy manufacturersof USB Ccables from marketing their productson Amazon. 

Amazon.com has added non-standardized USB Type-C cables to its "Prohibited listings" for the Electronics section of their site. In other words, at last, non-compliant USB-C cables, which can damage or shut down a device entirely, will be banned from sale on Amazon. This is a policy update though, and Amazon will need to police its seller community and shut down any who continue to offer non-compliant cables.

There has been issues with these shoddy cables actually damaging devices that they are plugged into. Hopefully Amazon and other marketing sites will continue to monitor these products so that consumers won't have to suffer damage to thin electronics caused by these rogue cables!

Amazon's Echo Speaker

I have been listening to one of my favorite podcasts for a while now and one of the hosts talks from time to time about how much she likes Amazon's Echo Speaker system and I finally saw an article in Engadget discussing the fact that Audible files now can be directly accessed through the speaker.

I am such a big Audible fan that having another source through which I can listen to the books I am reading, yes I understand that I'm listening to them but to me it's the way that I consume most of the books I read for enjoyment.

However, the Echo Speaker is available through invitation only through Amazon so I have to put my request for an invitation to purchase one through the Amazon service. As a Prime user you can an automatic discount of $50 of the price of the unit is $149.

Connectivity is one of the things that you always are looking for in today's new speaker devices and the Echo Speaker does a lot of the things that you would expect. First to connects through Wi-Fi back to the Internet so that as you are asking questions it will use that Internet connection to gather information to respond to you with an answer. It is also Bluetooth enabled allowing you to connect your tablet or phones back to the speaker so that you can play from applications that you are using on those devices. Also available for both Android and iOS devices is a companion application that allows you to connect to the speaker as well.

It also connects to your WeMo compatible devices using voice commands. A list of these controllers are available on the Amazon Echo's website. The Echo's brain is not built into the unit itself but is actually operating from Amazons Web Services. Over time, the Echo will continue to learn your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences. All updates are done in the cloud so you don't have to worry about doing them locally on the device.

Echo is always ready, connected, and fast. Just say the wake word, "Alexa," for:

• New - Connected Home: Control compatible WeMo and Philips Hue devices with your voice.
• New - Pandora: Listen to and discover music from Pandora's library of over 1 million tracks.
• New - Traffic: Hear commuting time and the fastest route to your destination.
• New - Sports: Ask for sports scores and schedules from the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, and more.
• Music: Listen to your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.
• News, weather, and information: Hear up-to-the-minute weather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn.
• Questions and answers: Get information from Wikipedia, definitions, answers to common questions, and more.
• Alarms, timers, and lists: Stay on time and organized with voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping, and to-do lists.
• More coming soon: Echo automatically updates through the cloud with new services and features.

With all of these features, how can you help not wanting to own one for yourself?

Amazon is now providing same day delivery in 14 Metropolitan Areas

Another great service for members of Amazon Prime (membership cost $99/year) now provides same day delivery in fourteen metropolitan areas across the US.  See this link to see if your area is included. Prime members in the the selected areas can now receive free same day service on qualifying orders over $35.00.

Just four key points:

• Order must be $35 or more in total
• You must be in a covered area
• The items that you in you order must all be qualified (look for the Prime FREE Same Day logo)
• You must order by noon (delivery by 9PM seven days a week)

Orders under $35 have a charge of $5.99 if you want them the same day. If you order after noon the item will come the next day for free.

Look out local brick and morter stores!

Amazon Prime

Have you considered joining Amazon Prime? For the annual fee of $99.00 you certain have a lot of things that you gain. I will list them below and maybe this will help you decide whether it is a good option for you.

Free Two-Day Shipping. Whenever you see the prime symbol on an item that you are purchasing this item is eligible for free two day shipping to the delivery location that you assigned to the  in order. So, if you are ordering quite a bit from Amazon and you may find this one feature worth the entire annual fee.

Prime Instant Video. This feature provides unlimited instant streaming of over 40,000 movies and TV episodes.So if you're busy trying to catch up on some old TV shows that you have missed this is a great way to do so.

Prime Music. If you like Pandora and some of the other online music providers then you will love this feature that is again free. You can setup unlimited, ad free access to over a million songs and hundreds of playlists. So choose you favorite artist and dance away.

Prime Photos. anew feature that provides unlimited storage of your photographs.  This includes Raw files from Canon, Nikon and Sony. The limit is on the total storage of your video files (5 gb) before you will have to start paying for the increase storage requirements. This is again a simple and reasonable option for storing your digital photos safely in the cloud.

Prime Early Access. Amazon runs online specials and just because you are a Prime Member you get a 30-minute jump on the rest of the world that hasn’t ponied up the admission price. This also give you access to new events showing up on myHabit.com.

Kindle Books. Choose one featured early release book for FREE every month. You can also borrow one Kindle Book per month from over 500,000 titles for free on any Kindle device with no due dates. Two great options if you are a reader and use your Kindle for digital books.

You take a look at always options I am sure that you will find one or two at least that you would use. It doesn't take long to see the savings that pile up if you are in active user of these Amazon Prime benefits. There are so many other little things that add up as well that I find myself not being able to leave behind the Prime Membership system. I think you'll find this true for yourself as well.

Amazon Mobile LLC now available for your Android Phone

If you have been waiting on the edge of your seat for an APP to allow you access to the World of Amazon Shopping you no longer have to wait.

Amazon describes the APP as follows:

Shop the millions of digital and physical products in Amazon’s catalog and manage your orders from anywhere. The Amazon App for Android phone combines the fast and easy mobile shopping experience customers have come to know and love with access to unlimited streaming of tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes from Prime Instant Video. After installing this version of the Amazon App for Android, customers wishing to stream Prime Instant Video movies and TV episodes can install the Prime Instant Video player, which is delivered exclusively via the Amazon Appstore. To start streaming movies and TV episodes, just search for your favorite video and tap play; the Amazon app will guide you through the setup process.
• US customers can now use a single app to discover and shop for hundreds of millions of physical and digital items.
• Prime members in the US can stream unlimited Prime Instant Video from inside the Amazon app using the Prime Instant Video player, including HBO shows The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, Six Feet Under, and The Wire
• Customers can shop any of Amazon's sites around the world from a single app
• Quickly search, get product details, and read reviews on millions of products sold by Amazon and other merchants
• Take advantage of 1-Click ordering, order tracking, delivery information, customer support, Wish Lists, and Push Notifications
• Compare prices and check availability instantly by scanning a barcode, using Flow, or typing your search
• Buy with confidence, knowing that all transactions are securely processed