Tag: savvy consumer

How To Change Your Amazon Recommendations & Browsing History

* * * the Superbpag Bamboo Collapsible Folding Bed Laptop Desk/Table/Stand with Drawer, currently 28% off on Amazon (as of 6/25/15). Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to bring you great content each day for free, so thanks for your support. Why Does Amazon Think I’m Interested In THAT? A site visitor recently wrote to ask how he could get rid of Amazon’s suggested products on his Fire tablet. Well, so far as I can tell it’s not possible to do away with recommendations entirely, but you can change them. Your Amazon Browsing History Determines Your Recommendations Amazon keeps track of the stuff you look at on the site, and stores that list as your Browsing History. Your Browsing History is then used by Amazon’s site search algorithms to come up with product recommendations based on what you seem to be most interested in most recently. Your browsing history…

How To Stop Amazon Seller Emails

There’s a new kind of spam email in town, and it’s maddening. I’ve noticed many of my Amazon orders prompt unwanted follow up messages from the vendor, and I’m sick of it. These always come disguised as a “thanks for your order,” “helpful tips,” “let us know if there are any problems,” email or similar, but what they’re all REALLY about is prompting the buyer to leave an Amazon review. Today’s post explains what opened the spam floodgates last year, and how to stop Amazon seller emails. What Changed? You may recall reading about Amazon’s purge of paid reviews a couple years back. A purge of “received this product free or at a discount in exchange for an honest review” reviews followed, just last year. Both of these types of reviews are now banned on Amazon. The changes put Amazon sellers into a panic: how would they get reviews now?

iPod Touch Alternative: Samsung Galaxy Player

Today I continue my series [which originally appeared on the Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily site] detailing how I freed myself from Apple and iTunes by taking a closer look at the device I chose to replace my iPod, and comparing it directly to the closest iPod competitor. As a reminder, allow me to repeat this from the first post in this series: The Samsung Galaxy Player: my chosen iPod / iPod Touch alternative. Plays music, video and apps, provides internet access, and more. Why am I talking about iTunes and Apple devices on a site dedicated to Amazon’s Kindle Fire? It’s because many—maybe even most—Kindle Fire owners aren’t taking advantage of all the Fire’s music features because they’re already chained to iTunes and Apple devices for digital music purchases, downloads and management. Nobody wants the headache of having to manage separate media libraries for different devices. Many would LOVE to free…

SD vs. MicroSD – What’s The Difference?

Today I’m revisiting another popular topic that regularly attracts new site visitors: SD vs. microSD cards. I won’t bore you with all the technical details of what makes a microSD card different from a standard SD card, because I’m pretty sure all you care about is whether or not a microSD 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 microSD card in a device that takes standard SD cards (most digital cameras, for example), you just slide the micro SD card into the…

The Audible DailyDeal: It’s A Thing, But You Might Never Know It

* * * the Anker® 2nd Gen Astro Mini 3200mAh Lipstick-Sized Portable Charger External Battery Power Bank, currently 75% off and priced under $10 on Amazon (as of 7/14/15). Advertisers make it possible for Digital Media Mom to bring you great content each day for free, so thanks for your support. * * * You Probably Know All About The Kindle Daily Deal, But… …did you know there’s an Audible Daily Deal on offer every day, too? Probably not, unless you’re in the habit of checking the front page of the Audible site each day. The Audible Daily Deal is a one-day only discount on an Audible audiobook, with prices on the Deal typically ranging somewhere between $2.95 – $4.95. Audible is owned by Amazon and for a time, the Audible Daily Deal was featured right on the Audible home page on the Amazon site, just the same as Kindle Daily…

You Don’t Need An iPod To Listen To Podcasts

I guess it sorta makes sense that many people think podcasts are only for iPods, since it’s got “pod” right there in the name, but it’s not true. A podcast is just a regular ‘ol MP3 audio file, just the same as an MP3 song or album, and that means any device that’s capable of playing MP3s can play podcasts. If A Podcast Is Just An MP3, Why’s It Called A Podcast? Okay, fair question. Podcasting got its start as a way for people to host and share their own radio programs on the internet. I say “radio programs” because even though, for the most part, these were not programs that ever played across radio waves, their format followed what you’d typically hear on a radio program: either interviews and commentary, like you’d hear on talk radio stations, or more of a music radio show format, with music, host commentary…

How To Get Your Music Out Of iTunes And Into Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Player

Today’s installment is part 4 in my Escape From iTunes series. In the first post I explained why making the switch from iTunes to Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Player is an especially good move for Kindle Fire owners, since it will free them to get full use of their digital music libraries across all their devices, including the Fire. I’ve already compared the Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 to the 5th Generation iPod Touch and found them to be virtually identical in functionality (though not in price!). I also compared iTunes to Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Player for use as a music player and library management tool, and concluded Cloud Player is a worthy substitute. Enough about the whys of leaving iTunes, today I’m getting into the how. The following tutorial explains how I made the switch from an iPod + iTunes to a Samsung Galaxy Player 3.6 + Amazon’s MP3 Cloud Player, but the same basic steps can be used regardless of the portable player…

DMM’s 5/12/17 Freebie Friday: Android Utility Apps

Welcome to DMM’s 5/12/17 Freebie Friday! Today, I’ve got ten free utility apps for Android that are tried and true. Remember that free apps may include in-app purchase (IAP) options or be ad-supported, but given that these apps have been given very high ratings by MANY consumers, where IAP links or ads are present they must be pretty unobtrusive. Descriptions below are from the apps’ product pages.

DMM’s 4/28/17 Freebie Friday: Audiobook Shorts

Welcome To DMM’s 4/28/17 Freebie Friday Today I’ve got two shorts from Audible: nonfiction dealing with the Bernie Madoff scandal and a horror story. First up, it’s Ponzi Supernova. Ponzi Supernova is an original audio series that profiles Bernie Madoff, the Wall Street financier sent to prison for orchestrating the largest Ponzi scheme in history. The series, hosted by journalist Steve Fishman, includes hours of unheard conversations with Madoff behind bars, as well as interviews with law enforcement and the victims. In a review, Lulu Miller, of NPR’s Invisibila, wrote: “At times alluring, at times disgusting, it’s the push and pull that makes the magic of this series. You experience non-consensual bouts of empathy for Bernie, and moments later find yourself repulsed by his seeming lack of remorse for his victims, not just their financial ruin, but even their deaths. This is a needed listen for anyone curious about what actually…