Today, a story about the end of VCR manufacturing. Also, a followup on Deezer’s new music service, free courses available at iTunes U and a way to try electronics before you buy. In deals, the first three novels in the  Gaius Petreius Ruso Mystery Series for $2 each.

Daily Links for Thursday, July 21, 2016:

iTunes U: Free education to make you smarter (Macworld) You can use iTunes for more than just music and apps. You can find courses from universities from all over the world for free.

The last VCR will be manufactured this month (Quartz) It’s been a good 40 year run, but even Walmart stopped carrying VHS tapes a long time ago.

Firefox will start blocking Flash content next month (PC World) Since Flash is not safe, this is a good thing.

Deezer Is Launching the Strangest Free Access Tier In the World (Digital Music News) A followup to yesterday’s news. So Deezer is starting with paid and adding free later?

Grover lets you rent electronics on the cheap (Techcrunch) This is a great idea for people who want to make sure they really like tech … or to make sure it really works as promised.

Deals of the Day:

Amazon’s selection of Kindle Daily Deals features the first three books in Ruth Downie’s Gaius Petreius Ruso Mystery Series, including Medicus: A Novel of the Roman Empire.

In Today’s Deals, savings on select CRKT and Kershaw Knives and Tools.

The Barnes and Noble Nook Daily Find is a collection of twelve Star Trek movie novels for $2.00 each. The Romance Daily Find is Midnight’s Kiss (Elder Races Series #8) by Thea Harrison.

Kobo’s Daily Deal is The Widow’s War by Sally Cabot Gunning. The Extra Daily Deal is Must Love Chainmail: A Time Travel Romance by Angela Quarles. Also at Kobo, Kids & Teen titles at $4.99 & under.

iTunes’ Weekly Bestsellers Under $4 includes The Drafter by Kim Harrison.

(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, Facebook, and on the Google Plus eBook Evangelist Page.