Daily Archives: February 21, 2016

Daily Links and Deals: Why Zelda Was so Revolutionary When It Came Out 30 Years Ago Today

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daily_links_1Daily Links for Sunday, February 21, 2016:

13 Free Things on the Internet You Should Be Using (Time) – Free ebooks, audiobooks, courses, cloud storage and more.You probably know most of these, but it is a great list. 🙂

Reading sacred texts on screens, not paper: Does it matter? (Baptist News) –  This is an E versus P conversation that I don’t think I’ve ever heard discussed before….

Which VPN Services take your Anonymity Seriously? 2016 Edition (Torrent Freak) – Nice round up of the privacy practices of VPNs.

Endless Mini review: A low-cost desktop that’s useful even without the Internet (CNET) –  The usefulness of this device without the Internet is its real strength.

Why Zelda Was so Revolutionary When It Came Out 30 Years Ago Today (Motherboard) – Happy Birthday, Zelda!

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deals includes Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva  by Rosemary Sullivan for $1.99.

Amazon also has the Fire HD 8 for only $99.99.  (This is an unannounced sale with no end date/time listed, so it may disappear quickly.)

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is The Girl in the Spider’s Web (Millennium Series #4) by David Lagercrantz, Stieg Larsson for $4.99. This is the controversial series sequel that triggered a Viking curse by Larrson’s longtime partner. The Romance Daily Find is Lovers and Liars: A Novel by Sally Beauman for $1.99.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter for $1.99.

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Under $4 includes White Tiger: Dark Heavens Book One by Kylie Chan for 99 cents.

(A note on Daily Deals: All prices current at the time of posting and subject to change. Most items marked Daily Deals are good for only the day posted.

Many large promotions have discount pricing that is set by the publisher. This usually means that titles can be found at a discount price across most platforms (with iTunes sometimes being the exception). If you have a favorite retailer you like to patronize, check the title on that website. There is a good chance that they will be matching the sale price.)

Daily Links are interesting links I discover as I go about my online day. The frequency and number of links posted depend upon the daily news. I also post other, different links of interest on Twitter and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.

Amazon Raises Free Shipping Threshold

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amazon_pkg_smOnce again, Amazon.com has raised the amount of merchandise  you have to order to be eligible for free shipping. Formerly $35, you now have to purchase $49 worth of items to get the free shipping. For book orders  you only need $25 to get you order shipped for free. Once you hit the $25 mark for books, you can add other merchandise without worrying about the $49 threshold. When Amazon started offering free shipping, formerly called Super Saver Shipping, the purchase threshold was only $25.

There have been a lot of articles talking about future options for Amazon’s delivery woes, whether that is using delivery drones or hiring Uber-like drivers to deliver product. Pundits have clearly emphasized that logistics and delivery are problems Amazon needs to solve in order to move forward. It is difficult to say whether this latest change is meant to offset the damage shipping costs cause to the company’s bottom line or is designed to make Amazon Prime more attracted to customers who still haven’t tried it.

There’s no doubt this makes Amazon Prime a more attractive proposition. Prime members get free two day shipping and a host of other benefits such as vidoes, music, ebook loans for Kindle owners and free cloud photo storage.

I posted the link to this a few days ago, but it is probably even more relevant now. Here’s an article from CNET giving you 5 shipping tricks you can use to reach the threshold even if you don’t have Prime.

You can find more information about the new free shipping requirements here.

Note: Amazon UK raised its threshold last May to £10 for books and £20 for other items. Those requirements remain unchanged.