In a move to safeguard confidential information, big tech companies like Apple, have recently imposed restrictions on the use of AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GitHub’s Copilot by its employees. This decision stems from the concern that sensitive data entered into these systems may be leaked or collected, potentially compromising valuable proprietary information.

Oy vey, my friends! Just as the summer season rears its sweltering head, Amazon drops a mitzvah for all the Apple devotees out there. I’m talking about a discount on all models of the beloved AirPods earbuds that’s so steep, it would make your Bubbe blush. Seriously, such savings are usually reserved for those frenzied events like Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. But hey, who are we to question Amazon’s calendar or its benevolent sale strategies?

Panera Bread has announced that it will be integrating Amazon One checkout technology into its loyalty program to enhance customer experience and speed up checkout time. With this new technology, customers will be able to make purchases without the need for credit cards, loyalty cards or mobile devices. After enrollment, customers will simply need to scan their palm to checkout, with their loyalty account and saved payment method used for the transaction.

What should you do if Amazon says that your order was delivered but you never actually receive it? For the most part an Amazon delivery happens when they say it will. But sometimes an Amazon order will be marked as having been delivered even though the order has never been received by the person who ordered it. Here’s what to do if your order from Amazon hasn’t shown up even though Amazon says that it was delivered.

A huge batch of scam text messages with links going to onlinehome.us have been going out, phishing for your Amazon, Netflix, Venmo, and other credentials. Many of them appear to include the strings “membershpspprt” or “mailspprtaccnt” in the ‘from’ field, suggesting that they are all part of a bot effort using the same script or scripts.

Here’s how to watch a movie together apart, as it were. In other words, how to watch a movie together online using the Amazon Watch Party feature. The Amazon movie watching party feature not only lets you watch movies together long distance, but also has a built-in chat feature! The best part of Amazon watch parties is that if you both have Amazon Prime then it’s free (unless you pick a movie that has a rental fee attached, then you each pay the rental fee through your own Amazon Prime account). But as with so many other things Amazon, the concept is cool, and it actually works well, but the directions for how to do it are lacking at best, confusing at worst. Plus there are things you need to know to keep you from being frustrated. So here’s what you need to know!

If your Amazon Echo Alexa skill is not working, this may be why Alexa is not working for you, for example your Alexa news briefing not working. And especially if the symptom is Alexa responding “unable to play”. Using the NPR news briefing skill as an example, if you say “Alexa play NPR” (or “Alexa news” if you have the NPR skill set up that way), your Echo Alexa responds “unable to play NPR” instead of playing it as it has always done for years. If that is the issue you are having (whether with the NPR skill or any other skill) read on.

Amazon is giving the police video taken by private homeowners’ Amazon Ring doorbells not only without a warrant, not only without the consent of the homeowner, but without even the knowledge of the homeowner! And what Amazon has to say about the program is stunning. The Internet Patrol obtained the letter that Amazon sent to Senator Markey in response to Markey’s alarmed request to Amazon for disclosure, and what Amazon has disclosed is, frankly, frightening. Amazon’s Ring Neighbors app includes a ‘Neighbors Public Safety Service’ (NPSS) component, and through that portal a total of 2,161 law enforcement agencies have joined the Ring Neighbor app (so far), as have 455 fire departments. You can think of the Ring Neighbor app as being like Nextdoor, but specifically for Ring Doorbell owners. And, increasingly, the police. However unlike Nextdoor, Amazon is handing over private homeowners’ videos to the police without a warrant, and they’ve done it nearly a dozen times in the first half of 2022 alone. And they clearly fully intend to keep doing it.

With very little warning, Amazon has announced that in 2 weeks they will start charging third-party sellers who sell on Amazon a surcharge of 5% as a “fuel and inflation” surcharge. Not even just little warning, but with little fanfare; in fact the only place that Amazon has posted a statement about it is with a post on Amazon’s “Seller Central” hub, slipping it onto the site as quietly as a knife going into..well, you get the point.

Millions of Amazon Prime customers received the below letter this week, detailing the Amazon Prime price increase from $119 to $139 a year, and from $12.99 to $14.99 a month for the monthly plan. No you can’t get around it, no you can’t buy yourself an Amazon Prime gift card at the old rate (despite many sites saying that you can). According to the letter from Amazon “The new prices, plus applicable taxes, will apply after March 25, 2022, on the date of your next renewal.” However, the new rates are actually effective today, February 18th, 2022. Confused? You won’t be, read on.

The Amazon billing and fraud prevention scam is back in full force, along with the Apple advisor “your iCloud account has been breached” scam. Each of these scams rely on pre-recorded calls to your phone, and then enticing you to call the “Amazon billing and fraud prevention” department, or an “Apple support advisor,” respectively.

Here is a sneaky way that Amazon can end up refunding you less than your purchase price for an item that you have returned. Actually there are a couple of ways that you can end up being refunded less than what you paid, but one of them is particularly sneaky, and there is really only one way to make sure that it doesn’t happen to you, which is, unfortunately, not great for the environment.

A reader has alerted us that Amazon double charged their debit card for orders for which they had already been charged and had already paid! They found the duplicate Amazon charges when “I went to see what had caused my bank account to become overdrawn, and imagine my shock to see that Amazon had just charged me again for two orders for which I had already been charged and paid!” They went on to say that Amazon had immediately then refunded the charges, but that didn’t help the fact that their account had become overdrawn, triggering their overdraft protection, for which they are charged interest!

What do the different fulfillment, shipping and delivery options mean at Amazon? Prime delivery, sold by, shipped from, FBA, if you shop on Amazon (and who doesn’t these days?) you will be confronted by a dizzying array of shipping, fulfilled by and delivery options. Here’s what they mean to you, the consumer.

Amazon Sidewalk automatically uses a bit of your wireless network to create a mesh network with nearby Alexa and Ring devices. Amazon is enabling it automatically for all devices (old and new), so you have to disable it if you won’t want your neighbors’ Amazon devices using your wireless network.