Octopus Overlords

Amazon Prime definitely makes sense if you are already vested into the Amazon ecosystem. In my case I have a Kindle Reader and a **Gasp** Fire Phone and I got my daughter a Kindle Fire HD for Christmas last year. In addition, I do a lot of ordering of things like razor blades and such on a regular basis so it really makes Prime a good deal for someone like me. It's not for everyone though.

I really like the Prime/Instant Video service. It's got a pretty good selection and serves as a nice companion to Netflix streaming. We use the music streaming service a lot in our car since we have a Ford Explorer with MS Sync that includes an Amazon App. Works fairly well but it could be better IMO.

Don't know if it's been mentioned already, but Amazon added "unlimited" cloud photo hosting with Prime. Previously only available to Fire Phone users but now open to anyone with Prime.


Prime Photos.

Haven't read the TOS yet though.

If you sign up for Prime today (or buy a 1-year gift subscription that you can give to yourself), and order any Kindle in the same transaction, you'll get $40 off.

They just added streaming in 4K resolution to select titles (more to come of course) for Prime video.

Question is: how good must your internet connection be to be able to stream 4K content?

1 hour delivery service for 25,000+ products to NYC Prime members. That's crazy.

Carpet_pissr wrote:They just added streaming in 4K resolution to select titles (more to come of course) for Prime video.

Question is: how good must your internet connection be to be able to stream 4K content?

Netflix

High (best video quality, up to 3 GB per hour for HD, 7 GB per hour for Ultra HD)

Ultra HD wrote:We recommend an Internet connection speed of at least 25 Mbps to stream Ultra HD titles

Smoove_B wrote:1 hour delivery service for 25,000+ products to NYC Prime members. That's crazy.

Important details:
It's Manhattan only.
It's based around a centralized location, their future Manhattan "store".
Delivery appears to be via bike messenger.
$7.99 for 1 hour. 2 hour is free.

Same-day and, now, one-hour delivery have been something of a Holy Grail for e-commerce companies hoping to compete with the immediacy of brick-and-mortar shopping. But the difficult economics of instant delivery have caused rival eBay Inc. to scale back the ambition of its similarly-named eBay Now one-hour service and felled startups from the early days of the Internet, like Kozmo.com and Urbanfetch.

In addition, Google Inc. offers same-day delivery service, but only for a limited number of products in a handful of U.S. cities.

Meanwhile, traditional physical retailers like Macy’s Inc. and Gap Inc. are turning to startups to make same-day or one-hour deliveries for them to stave off the threat from Amazon.

Always nice to have options.

OTOH, their 2-day has been great for me. I've gotten same day a few times but hate having to depend on it.

I've definitely got my money's worth this year (heck, this Christmas alone). We did about 90% of our shopping online. There are two Amazon fulfillment centers within 4-5 hours of me, so I get some of my 2-day stuff next day.

10 million new Prime members over the holidays:

The Internet retailer has never disclosed the precise number of Prime subscribers, except to say it is in the tens of millions. Analysts estimate it is growing at a rapid clip, and the company continues to try and spice it up with new content.

Hmmm... how many of them got it for free with their latest Christmas toy?

LawBeefaroni wrote: OTOH, their 2-day has been great for me. I've gotten same day a few times but hate having to depend on it.

I just had something arrive Saturday that was bought using Prime on Dec. 13. Seems it shipped from China. Also, I've been noticing some things I bought with Prime now saying "2-3 days." In one case, I received a delivery confirmation email from Amazon 2 days before the package was actually delivered. I never had such problems until recently, but now I have to consider this questionable reliability until performance indicates otherwise.

I also got a letter from Amazon a few days ago admonishing me for never using their Prime video service. Except I had, twice, on the baby's Kindle. When I tried to configure my Tivo to download from Amazon, I got charged enormous
fees for TV shows I had no intention on paying for; a video service that won't work on a TV is of no use. The letter said it's a service I am paying for. If this is the case, can I stop paying for useless video service and just continue using the dubious shipping benefit?

Jeff V wrote:

LawBeefaroni wrote: OTOH, their 2-day has been great for me. I've gotten same day a few times but hate having to depend on it.

I just had something arrive Saturday that was bought using Prime on Dec. 13. Seems it shipped from China. Also, I've been noticing some things I bought with Prime now saying "2-3 days." In one case, I received a delivery confirmation email from Amazon 2 days before the package was actually delivered. I never had such problems until recently, but now I have to consider this questionable reliability until performance indicates otherwise.

Prime isn't automatic 2-day shipping, it is free 2-day shipping. I've never had anything that was supposed to ship 2-day take longer 2 days. Some Prime stuff isn't 2-day.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Jeff V wrote:

LawBeefaroni wrote: OTOH, their 2-day has been great for me. I've gotten same day a few times but hate having to depend on it.

I just had something arrive Saturday that was bought using Prime on Dec. 13. Seems it shipped from China. Also, I've been noticing some things I bought with Prime now saying "2-3 days." In one case, I received a delivery confirmation email from Amazon 2 days before the package was actually delivered. I never had such problems until recently, but now I have to consider this questionable reliability until performance indicates otherwise.

Prime isn't automatic 2-day shipping, it is free 2-day shipping. I've never had anything that was supposed to ship 2-day take longer 2 days. Some Prime stuff isn't 2-day.

What other benefit is there for an item to be "Prime" if it does not qualify for 2-day shipping?

I think the delivery issues started once the post office started doing the door drop. But the shipping from China, not sure what was up with that.

Jeff V wrote:
What other benefit is there for an item to be "Prime" if it does not qualify for 2-day shipping?

Fancy tape on the box.

I dunno. I've never seen a prime item that wasn't free 2-day. Some quick reading suggests that the only things that aren't are huge items ("TVs larger than 48 inches") and hazardous items with special shipping requirements.

Just got informed that I'm now in an area to use Prime Now. 2 hour delivery for "free" on lots of items. 1 hour if I want to pay $8. And I call it "Free" because it automatically adds on a $5 tip for the delivery service. But you can change that if you want.

What happens if you fail to tip a delivery drone? Are they armed?

My wife used Prime Now yesterday for the first time. The prices were normal and she chose the free option so that it was delivered between 6-8pm that same day. The drivers don't accept cash tips but you can tip them ahead of time when you place the order.

McNutt wrote:My wife used Prime Now yesterday for the first time.

Wow. So they skipped the drone implementation, and beelined straight for the time travel delivery, huh? Or maybe they are using pre-cogs?

At the risk of starting a heated debate, why would you tip the delivery person for this service?

$iljanus wrote:At the risk of starting a heated debate, why would you tip the delivery person for this service?

So Amazon can pay them less.

I don't usually mind tipping when convention calls for it but I would draw the line at (non-food) delivery...

gilraen wrote:I don't usually mind tipping when convention calls for it but I would draw the line at (non-food) delivery...

Why is food delivery different from non-food delivery when it comes to tipping? I'm assuming the delivery isn't done by the standard UPS/Fed Ex, right? So just some dude driving his own car? In that case, what's the difference?

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:

gilraen wrote:I don't usually mind tipping when convention calls for it but I would draw the line at (non-food) delivery...

Why is food delivery different from non-food delivery when it comes to tipping? I'm assuming the delivery isn't done by the standard UPS/Fed Ex, right? So just some dude driving his own car? In that case, what's the difference?

You have an option to go pick up your own food. Amazon isn't giving you an option to stop by the warehouse and pick up your stuff (if they are, then yes, you tip for convenience).

It's a fuy

Kids hit my hand while I was typing and edit in Taptalk isn't working.

It was delivered by a guy in a car. I didn't pay a premium for delivery so I don't mind tipping just as I would a pizza.

In what I'm sure is a total coincidence with the Netflix news, Amazon announces that you can watch movies on your phone or tablet - even offline. This was something available for random movies and shows, but apparently it's in wide release now?

EDIT: I guess it was available for the Kindle for a while, but now you can do it on Android / iOS for the first time via the new app.

McNutt wrote:Kids hit my hand while I was typing and edit in Taptalk isn't working.

It was delivered by a guy in a car. I didn't pay a premium for delivery so I don't mind tipping just as I would a pizza.

Lazership/Amazon stuff is delivered with white vans here. My son already got free books out of his Prime membership because the courier delivered it somewhere else. His replacement order was at the top door, while the neighbor left the original package in the bottom door.

Smoove_B wrote:In what I'm sure is a total coincidence with the Netflix news, Amazon announces that you can watch movies on your phone or tablet - even offline. This was something available for random movies and shows, but apparently it's in wide release now?

EDIT: I guess it was available for the Kindle for a while, but now you can do it on Android / iOS for the first time via the new app.

Ooh, that's interesting. I didn't realize they did that. That'll help for an upcoming flight we have.

I really wish the interface for the Amazon video app on the PS3 wasn't terrible. It's really slow, and there's no easy way to continue watching a series like Netflix has. Amazon doesn't always update the watched status correctly, and the "recently watched" seems to go to one of the episodes I saw last instead of taking me to the next unwatched one.

Smoove_B wrote:In what I'm sure is a total coincidence with the Netflix news, Amazon announces that you can watch movies on your phone or tablet - even offline. This was something available for random movies and shows, but apparently it's in wide release now?

EDIT: I guess it was available for the Kindle for a while, but now you can do it on Android / iOS for the first time via the new app.

I wish the apps would work off line. The Kindle is only useful as a baby pacifier as long as it's connected to a wifi network. For no good reason, every single app must authenticate online before it will run.

Jeff V wrote: I wish the apps would work off line. The Kindle is only useful as a baby pacifier as long as it's connected to a wifi network. For no good reason, every single app must authenticate online before it will run.

I've never found that to be the case. Recently we took ours on a road trip with zero connectivity and it played downloaded movies, games, and apps just fine.

Or are you talking about the Kindle App on non-Amazon hardware?

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Jeff V wrote: I wish the apps would work off line. The Kindle is only useful as a baby pacifier as long as it's connected to a wifi network. For no good reason, every single app must authenticate online before it will run.

I've never found that to be the case. Recently we took ours on a road trip with zero connectivity and it played downloaded movies, games, and apps just fine.

Or are you talking about the Kindle App on non-Amazon hardware?

That shouldn't matter. The Kindle App works without connectivity on my Android device.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Jeff V wrote: I wish the apps would work off line. The Kindle is only useful as a baby pacifier as long as it's connected to a wifi network. For no good reason, every single app must authenticate online before it will run.

I've never found that to be the case. Recently we took ours on a road trip with zero connectivity and it played downloaded movies, games, and apps just fine.

Or are you talking about the Kindle App on non-Amazon hardware?

Nope, Kindle Fire HDX. Every app we try to load we get a message saying it needs to be connected to wifi so it can authenticate (don't remember the exact verbiage). While it's understandable for the one that streams shows, it makes no sense for otherwise static applications.

Jeff V wrote: Nope, Kindle Fire HDX. Every app we try to load we get a message saying it needs to be connected to wifi so it can authenticate (don't remember the exact verbiage). While it's understandable for the one that streams shows, it makes no sense for otherwise static applications.

Is it the kid version or something? Ours never does this.

Kindle Fire Gen 1 and Fire HD.

I don't know about paid apps but any app that I got off the Amazon App Store as the "free app of the day" wants to authenticate online before it lets me run it (this is on a Samsung tablet, not Kindle). I assume it's to make sure I'm actually entitled to use it but it's still annoying.

LawBeefaroni wrote:

Jeff V wrote: Nope, Kindle Fire HDX. Every app we try to load we get a message saying it needs to be connected to wifi so it can authenticate (don't remember the exact verbiage). While it's understandable for the one that streams shows, it makes no sense for otherwise static applications.

Is it the kid version or something? Ours never does this.

Kindle Fire Gen 1 and Fire HD.

The kid version is just an HD6/7 with a cover on it and the freetime app installed. Neither of those things change the app requirements. My kids both have them and there are no unusual online requirements.

These we all obtained as "Free app of the day" because, well, you know my motto, "nothing but the freest when my kid is concerned."

It's not the kids version of the tablet, nor does it have Freetime installed.

About 95% of the apps on my Kindle Fire are of the 'Free App of the Day' varity. I've never run into one that wouldn't load offline (save for obvious online apps like streaming services.)

Amazon apps require you to have logged into Amazon recently using Amazon tablet app, Amazon music app, or such, so it saved some sort of key into your system. If you don't, it'll try to authenticate with Amazon and that's when it says "cannot connect with Amazon" or something like that.

Once you have that hidden key you don't have to stay online. That's been my experience. YMMV.

Hmm...I'll have to give that a try.