News - Part 13

Audible Tip: How To Avoid Using Member Credits When Buying Sale Audiobooks

I recently picked up some deeply-discounted Kindle books on Amazon, and noticed that the companion Audible audiobooks were also being offered as add-on purchases at ridiculously low prices. I’m talking a couple of bucks for the Kindle books and another buck to two bucks for the Audible audiobook. Normally, I don’t pay much attention to the prices listed for Audible audiobooks because I’m an Audible member and I’m usually “buying” audiobooks with my Audible member credits anyway. I currently pay about $23/mo to get two Member Credits per month, which is a great deal if the audiobooks I’m “buying” with my credits are normally priced at $12 or more. And they usually are priced higher; in fact, they’re usually priced anywhere from about $17 – 25 each. Sometimes I’d like to get one of these deeply-discounted add-ons, but I don’t want to spend my Member Credits on them because then I’m not…

What Happens If You Get Your Lost Or Stolen Kindle / Fire Back?

Regular readers may recall my son lost his Kindle Fire when we were visiting family out of state this past June, and the incident inspired my post, What To Do If Your Kindle Or Kindle Fire Is Lost Or Stolen. Since that post quickly became, and continues to be, among the most popular posts of all time on this site, I’m assuming many of you have dealt with a lost or stolen Kindle or Kindle Fire so I’m back with an update: my son’s Fire was turned in to the airport lost and found, and my parents were able to pick it up and mail it back to me. This post is about what happens next: how to get your formerly lost or stolen device back into your Amazon account’s good graces.

What’s The Difference Between SD And Micro SD Memory Cards?

I won’t bore you with all the technical details of what makes a micro SD card different from a standard SD card, because I’m pretty sure all you care about is whether or not a micro SD card will work with your various devices. The answer is, so long as your device can accept a standard SD card, yes, it can accept a micro SD card — provided you have a standard SD card adapter or USB plug-in adapter (as pictured in this post). You can buy micro-to-standard SD card adapters and USB plug-in adapters on their own, but plenty of micro SD cards come bundled with adapters, too. To use a micro SD card in a device that takes standard SD cards (most digital cameras, for example), you just slide the micro SD card into the adapter’s card slot, then insert the adapter into your device the same as…

How To Turn Off Amber Alerts On Your Cell Phone

Last week many Californians were jolted awake, or were at least startled, by a totally unfamiliar, high-pitched tone coming from their cell phones. Looking at their phones, they found they’d received an AMBER alert, per a new emergency broadcast notification system that went into effect January 1 of this year. Because they have no control over the timing of these messages (nor in some cases, the earsplitting ring tone that announces them), and because the messages themselves are somewhat cryptic and therefore somewhat useless, most recipients reacted with 1) irritation that they’d been subjected to an alert they never opted in to receive and 2) an immediate desire to disable this feature so they’d never receive another cell phone AMBER alert. Click here to learn more about the wireless AMBER alert system and the changes that went into effect 1/1/13. Yeah, But How Do I Turn It Off?! On an…

HD vs. SD – Is It Worth Paying Extra For HD Digital Videos?

I recently got this question from a site visitor and thought it’s probably something a lot of site visitors are wondering, so here goes. Neo is just as much The One in SD as he is in HD. High Definition (HD) vs. Standard Definition (SD) In a nutshell, the difference between high definition and standard definition images is the number of pixels contained in the image on display. HD images have more pixels per square inch than standard definition videos. Okay fine, but what does that really mean? It means that HD images can show much finer detail than SD images. Here’s a simple analogy that should explain why. Imagine you have a 3×5″ card, and you’ve been asked to draw a picture of a flower on it. You’re given your choice of two drawing tools: either a preschooler-type crayon (the really big ones) or a finely sharpened pencil. If you…

Closed Captions: What’s That All About?

As anyone who regularly reads my missives here at Digital Media Mom knows, I am in the process of switching to an all-digital movie library. I no longer buy new videos I want on disc, and I’m gradually replacing my existing discs with Amazon Instant Videos when I find those titles offered at a discount. Amazon is my digital video vendor of choice because I’m confident Amazon will outlive me, but I’m not so certain about any of the other folks who’re selling digital videos—like my satellite cable provider, VUDU, UltraViolet and so on. But that’s not what this post is about. This post is about those wonderful, useful, practical Closed Captions!

Amazon Review Tips & Tricks For Savvy Shoppers

Amazon is one of my preferred shopping outlets, mainly because I’m an Amazon Prime member and that means I get free two-day shipping on almost everything I buy there. However, it’s also a great resource for any shopper, even if you ultimately make your purchase somewhere else. This is largely because of the customer reviews, but if your approach to Amazon customer reviews is to merely look at the overall average review rating for a given product and maybe spot-check a few of the most positive and most negative reviews, you aren’t getting the maximum level of helpfulness and guidance from those reviews. How To Use Amazon Customer Reviews Like A Boss: The Little-Known Search This Product’s Reviews Feature Amazon reviews are a particularly great shopper resource when you’re looking at a big-ticket item, such as the Samsung Galaxy Player pictured in this post. You may have heard it’s the exact same hardware as…

Ebooks Settlement Refunds: How To Get Your Share of the Ebooks Price Fixing Settlement Fund

Today Publisher’s Weekly reports: According to a recent filing, publishers have paid a total of $166,158,426 to settle state and consumer e-book price fixing charges, including an additional $3,909,000 to settle consumer claims in Minnesota. In all, the total damages assessed to the publishers came in at $218,883,000…And that figure could jump considerably now that Apple has been found liable at trial. Pending a reversal on appeal, Apple will eventually have to pay to settle the state and consumer claims as well. I wrote an article about this for Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily, Apple Loses in Ebook Price Fixing Case. The article provides more information about the basis of the government’s case against the big publishers who were involved as well as Apple, so if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about here that may be a good place for you to start. Don’t worry – the link…

Kindle Fire Antivirus: You Still Don’t Need It

Note: Kindle Fire HDX owners, please see this more recent post, which is specific to the HDX line – Kindle Fire HDX Antivirus: Do You Need It? Since a great many site visitors get here via an internet search having to do with virus protection for the Kindle Fire, I’m assuming that many people reading this are gravely concerned about the possibility of their Kindle Fire being targeted by malware. I wrote an entire post on this back in February of this year, Does Your Kindle Fire Need Virus Protection?, and what I said in that post still holds true to this day: The Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD do not need antivirus or malware protection because they are not “proliferation-friendly” devices, run a custom version of Android, and cannot multi-task, and therefore are not (yet) being targeted by hackers. Furthermore, Amazon thoroughly vets apps before allowing them to be listed…

Amazon’s Instant Video Finder Is A Terrific, FREE Tool For Finding Your Next Great Movie Or TV Show

Whether you get your movies from Redbox, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Video on Demand from your cable provider, or even the old-school way, by purchasing discs, you’ve got to give Amazon’s Instant Video Finder tool a try! You know there are LOTS of great movies and TV shows out there you’ve never seen, but you also know there are plenty of clunkers. How can you narrow the field down to the winners? When you’ve got specific criteria, like maybe you need a kid-friendly film to keep the young ones occupied while the grown-ups socialize in another room, how can you quickly drill down to appropriate viewing material, AND choose something the kids will actually enjoy? When you’re in the mood for something fairly specific in terms of subject matter or tone and the usual broad categories of Thriller, Drama and Action aren’t cutting it, how can you find what you’re looking for without spending as…