9 benefits of an Amazon Prime membership

Amazon Prime built its popularity by offering subscribers faster free shipping, access to streaming movies and TV shows, and exclusive deals. But Prime membership includes other perks, too: Everything from free ebook offerings to free photo storage and even grocery delivery.

The list of benefits has grown considerably since the program’s launch, so we’ve highlighted the best of the bunch, the ones that make Amazon Prime worth having. Some of these you’ll already know, but the others you’re likely not taking advantage of.

The top Amazon Prime benefits

Free expedited shipping

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Expedited shipping is included for free with a Amazon Prime subscription, with no minimum purchase for most orders.

Amazon Prime’s upgraded shipping is the feature that started it all. These days, you get free two-day delivery on most items, plus free one-day delivery on over 10 million items, with no minimum purchase. In select areas, free same-day delivery on over 3 million items for qualifying orders over $35 is available as well.

Free shipping benefits also extend to several other businesses Amazon owns: Woot, Zappos, and shopbop.

Membership sharing

Standard Amazon Prime memberships can be shared with one other adult and up to four teens in a household. All household accounts can take advantage of Prime shipping benefits, Prime Video, Prime Reading, Amazon Photos, First Reads, unlimited listening on Audible Channels, and early access to Lighting Deals.

Child profiles associated with the same household can access digital content that’s been approved by the adult account(s).

Prime Video

You can stream thousands of movies and TV shows through Amazon Prime Video for free, including original content produced by Amazon—some of which is quite good, as our sister site TechHive noted a few years ago. Like Netflix and other streaming sites, the catalog changes often, so if you’re interested in a show or movie, watch it while you can. We’re still sad that Babylon 5 rotated off the list.

Grocery delivery

Prime members in select areas get free two-hour delivery on Amazon Fresh purchases—available groceries include produce, snacks, and meat.

Amazon Photos

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Amazon Prime members get unlimited photo storage at full resolution, but only 5GB of space for video.

Amazon’s photo storage service lets you skip an Apple or Google subscription for photo and video backup—or set up a secondary backup for your existing backup service. Prime members get unlimited, full-resolution storage for photos and up to 5GB of space for video, with the ability to view your files across all devices. You can also easily share files, just as with rival services.

Prime Gaming

Amazon’s acquisition of Twitch resulted in further diversification of Amazon Prime perks—if you link your accounts, you can get free games and in-game content monthly, one free Twitch channel subscription to use on your favorite streamer, and special promotions on pre-order video games.

Amazon Music Prime

Not interested in paying for streaming music? No need. Amazon Prime subscribers get access to a couple million songs, plus millions of podcast episodes, as part of their membership. If you later want to access a wider catalog (and are willing to shell out for it), Prime members also get a 20 percent discount on Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

Prime Reading

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Feed your inner bookworm with the library of titles available through Prime Reading, which gives unlimited access to several thousand ebooks, magazines, comics, and more. While only a handful of books are recognizable bestsellers, you can find interesting reading with some digging. (We managed to find a few Lonely Planet guidebooks to use for vacation planning.)

Interested in reading material that you can keep even if your Prime subscription lapses? Be sure to choose a free Kindle book from the Amazon First Reads collection each month. Prime members get early access to these editors’ picks before the official publication date, with genres spanning suspense, romance, fantasy, historical fiction, children’s books, and more.

Prescription discounts

In addition to getting two-day delivery on purchases from Amazon Pharmacy, Prime members can get a discount on prescriptions when paying for them without health insurance.

How to sign up for Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is normally $13 per month or $120 per year, but you may qualify for a discount.

If you’re interested in getting in on Amazon Prime’s range of benefits and services, you can first try before you buy—a 30-day trial membership is free.

Afterward, a standard Amazon Prime membership costs $13 per month or $120 per year (plus taxes). Students and people on qualified government assistance qualify for a 50 percent discount on a yearly subscription. First-time Amazon Prime Student subscribers also currently qualify for six free months of service, after which the student rate kicks in.

How to Carry Your Vaccination Card on Your Phone

After an initial rollout that left people anxiously refreshing Twitter feeds and state health websites for appointment slots, COVID-19 vaccinations are going into arms across the country, and there is ample opportunity in the US to get vaccinated.

It's a privilege that's not available in many other places, and if you've taken advantage of it, you're probably wondering what to do with that white proof-of-vaccine card you were handed alongside your "I got the jab!" sticker.

There are no clear answers on whether or not you should laminate your COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card. With mask rules changing, you never know when you may have to produce it, but the card is larger than a credit card or driver's license, making it easy to damage in a wallet. Apps are usually the answer to dilemmas like this, but there aren't that many universal ones, so we have a few options.  Click here for the rest of the article from PCMag.

How to Prepare Your Digital Life for Your Death

Death is as somber as it is inevitable. But as we live more of our lives online, it's more important than ever to make sure loved ones can access digital accounts when we're gone. Don't be the guy who locked cryptocurrency exchange customers out of $250 million after his death because only he knew the password.

There are a number of ways loved ones can request access to your accounts once you're gone, but they don't need that stress. Several online services allow you to designate legacy contacts or grant access after a period of inactivity. Here's how to make sure those you leave behind can manage your affairs after you head to the great beyond.  Click here for the full article.

R.I.P. Internet Explorer: Use One of These Top Web Browsers Instead

The browser wars continue to rage, but one competitor is gone forever: Internet Explorer. Microsoft announced that the once-indisputable leader in browser market share, and the one that paved the way for interactive web applications, would go out of support on June 15, 2022. With new competitors in the fray and longtime entries spinning up new technologies, conveniences, protections, and features, your choice of browser software is just as important as it ever was.

For the last several years, the browser landscape has been dominated by Google. The same company that serves more web content than any other (according to comScore), also claims nearly 70 percent of the browser market with Chrome (based on NetMarketShare and StatCounter numbers). That’s for desktop use, but if you add in mobile, Chrome is still king, with a share of over 60 percent. So dominant is Chrome that most other browsers now use its underlying Chromium rendering code, with Firefox the only remaining top-to-bottom independent competitor.  Click here for more

Top 200 most common passwords of the year 2020...and worse

Here are the worst 200 passwords of 2020. The list details how many times a password has been exposed, used, and how much time it would take to crack it. We also compare the most common passwords of 2019 and 2020, highlighting how their positions have changed. The green arrows indicate a rise in the position while the red ones - a fall off. Check if your password is on the list and strengthen it if it is.  Click here for the article

Transfer Your Google Play Music Library Before Google Deletes It

Google is erasing all traces of Play Music. Though the platform stopped streaming in December, some user content remains available for export, but not for long.

As reported by 9to5Google, the company will delete all information associated with Play Music later this month. That includes content uploaded to the cloud locker, purchases, saved playlists, stations, albums, songs; as well as likes and dislikes.

News of a Play Music shutdown came almost exactly one year ago, as Google allegedly began transitioning users away from the nine-year-old service and towards YouTube Music. The move became official in May last year, with plans to shutter Play Music entirely by the end of 2020. The music store went dark in October, and all usage was discontinued two months later.

Users were initially given until Dec. 31 to transfer data to YouTube Music or download an offline copy. That deadline slipped into 2021, and there's now just 19 days left. "On Feb. 24, 2021, we will delete all of your Google Play Music data," according to a customer email. "This includes your music library with any uploads, purchases, and anything you've added from Google Play Music. After this date, there will be no way to recover it."

Those who've already transferred to YouTube Music may receive a different message, suggesting that "if you've made any changes, you still have the option to transfer again so your music library is up to date." Visit play.google.com/music to review your export options before it's too late.