Lilbits (10-22-2013): Amazon free shipping gets more expensive

Amazon has been offering free shipping to folks in the US who buy qualifying items totaling $25 or more for a decade. Now the company is raising that minimum order by $10.

The move gives Amazon a good excuse to remind customers that they can get free 2-day shipping on many orders, no matter the price, if they sign up for Amazon Prime for $79 per year. Membership also gets them access to streaming movies and TV shows and books which they can borrow from the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

But it’s also probably going to lead to plenty of folks waiting a little longer until there are a few things they need to buy from Amazon so they can group their orders and save on shipping… which saves on packaging, which is good for Amazon and the environment.

So while this is kind of bad news for shoppers… it’s also kind of good news for folks. Kind of.

Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web.

• Amazon increases minimum order for free shipping to $35 (up from $25)
  For the first time in 10 years, Amazon is increasing the minimum order amount to qualify for free super saving shipping. [Amazon]
• Google introduces “Supervised Users” feature for Chrome OS beta, keep track of your kid’s usage
  Want to let your kid use your chromebook, but want to keep an eye on the sites the youngster visits or block access to certain websites? If you’re using the beta channel of Chrome OS, now you can. Just visit chrome.com/manage. [Google Chrome Blog]
• Whoops. Turns out the Omate TrueSmart watch won’t ship with the Google Play Store after all.
  The Omate Truesmart is basically a phone that you wear on your wrist… but that apparently wasn’t enough to get Google certification. Despite the company’s earlier claims, it will not ship with the Google Play Store pre-installed. It may be available later. [Android Community]
• Microsoft is testing Google Glass-rivaling eye wear
  The folks at Microsoft have got their eyes on your, Google. Get it? Eyes? Anyway, it looks like they’re working on something that could be an alternative to Google Glass is this whole wearable computing thing takes off. [WSJ]
• Google Play Newsstand will likely replace Play Magazines soon
  Hidden deep within the code of the latest version of the Google Play Store is evidence of a new Google Play Newsstand feature — and it’ll likely be a market for magazines, newspapers, and other periodicals. [Android Police]
• BlackBerry says BBM for Android, iOS downloaded 10 million times in 24 hours
  Yesterday BlackBerry released BlackBerry Messenger for Android and iOS. Within the first day, it had been downloaded millions of times — showing that there are still people interested in what BlackBerry has to offer… just not the company’s tablets. [Inside BlackBerry]

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