If you've been thinking about buying an Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick or Fire TV streaming box, a Fire tablet or Kindle eReader, today is the day to act. It's Amazon Prime Day and Amazon is cutting the prices on tons of electronics items, including the company's own branded devices. The Amazon Echo is now $129.99 ($50 off). The Fire TV stick is $24.99 ($30 off) and the 4K streaming-capable Fire TV box is $69.99 ($30 off). Some deals are limited to just a few hours, but hopefully some deals will last the entire day. But one thing is for sure: tomorrow is too late, so act now if you want to snag these deals.
Prime Day deals are only available to Amazon Prime customers. But if you're not a Prime customer yet, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of the service and get the deals along with all the perks immediately. With Amazon Prime, you get free 2-day shipping on most items, and even one day or same day shipping on select items in some markets. You also get additional perks like free movie and TV show streaming of a large library of titles, free access to Prime Music (a music streaming service) and access to a huge lending library of books for Amazon's Kindle ereaders.
Amazon Echo - $129.99 ($50 off)
The Amazon Echo is a voice-activated powered speaker that's connected to the Internet. Want to play your favorite song or playlist? Just ask Alexa, Amazon's voice assistant. Need to get a recipe? Or find out the weather forceast? Or order laundry detergent because you're running low? Just ask Alexa. Alexa can even control a host of home automation products like the Nest thermostat, smart AC plugs and Philips Hue lighting. "Bed Time Alexa" could turn off the lights and the AC in the living room while starting up a soothing playlist in the bedroom.
One thing new this year is that Amazon is offering some Prime Deals that are exclusive to Amazon Echo customers. For example, if you have an Amazon Echo, you can say "Alexa, order a drone" and Alexa will order a quadcopter drone with a built in camera for $15! Or you can ask Alexa to order the Philips Hue starter kit and you can save $75 on the 3-bulb voice-controlled Philips Hue lighting kit ($125). With this kit, you can ask Alexa to turn your lights on or off, or even to turn them red, green, purple or blue depending on your mood. You can find all of the Alexa-specific Prime Day deals here:
Amazon Fire TV: $69.99 (save $30)
Very few streaming boxes support 4K streaming, but the Amazon Fire TV is one box that does. With the Fire TV you can stream select TV series and movies to your UHD-capable TV in full Ultra HD 4K resolution. Fire TV also supports regular 1080p and 720p HD TVs as well if you haven't upgraded to 4K yet. In addition to Amazon Prime Video streaming, the Fire TV supports Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, ESPN, HBO Go, and dozens of other popular music and video streaming services. It can turn any TV into a Smart TV and can allow you to save hundreds of dollars a year by "cutting the cord" to traditional cable and satellite Pay TV services. If you don't care about 4K, you can save even more by picking up a super-compact Fire TV stick for $24.99 or a voice control-enabled Fire TV stick for $34.99.
Fire Tablets Starting at $33.33
Fire tablets are a great way to watch Prime Videos and listen to Prime Music, as well as read e-mbooks. But they're also full-fledged Android tablets with access to thousands of Android apps. Amazon even offers a free app every day in the Amazon app store. On Prime Day, they're offering the 7-inch Fire tablet for $33.33 (with special offers), which is 33% off. The discounts are also available on larger size Kindle Fire tablets. The 10-inch version is now as low as $149.99. The deals may be limited to existing stock, so grab one if you're in the market for a decent inexpensive Android tablet.
Kindle eReaders Starting at $49.99
If you're a voracious reader (or know someone who is), the Kindle eReader is still one of the best in the business. Today, you can get a Kindle for $49.99 and Prime members can borrow thousands of books for free (one at a time) or get instant access to a huge selection of eBooks in Amazon's library. One nice thing about the Kindle eraders is that they're not gaming devices, or media tablets, so you don't have to worry about your kids wasting hours glued to the screen playing games or watching mindless YouTube videos.
Amazon Prime Day only lasts 24 hours so take advantage of these deals while they last.
