Scifi Complete Series: Battlestar Galactica for $36 [BluRay]

This is a great deal for an instant classic sci-fi TV show! The UK import edition of the BluRay set of the Battlestar Galactica Complete Series (all four seasons, the mini-series, and some (but not all) of the made-for-TV movies and extras) is offered in a region-unlocked set, in new condition for $36 fulfilled by Amazon. A marketplace seller is offering them, but they are Prime-eligible, so free shipping if you are a member.

Note however that a digital copy is NOT included. You get the TV series in BluRay and that’s it. Given the price, this is cheaper than completing the series if you have some but not all of the individual season and half-season bluRays. When this was airing on TV, each TV season (back when they had 20+ episodes) was sold (and aired) as a half-season.

Note also that you get five episodes twice. They include their air cut but also an extended cut. They are included back to back on their respective disc, so you get to decide which one to watch. Or watch both 🙂

You can see a summary of the special/bonus features in the red segment of this customer review picture.

January 16, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Samsung Book Deals options for January 2017

If you have an eligible Samsung device, you can get one free e-book per month from a choice of four options, if you use the Kindle app downloaded from the official Samsung app store. This app is tuned to work with the S-Pen, so that’s a plus if you have a Note device!

Your benefit and how long it lasts depends on which Samsung device you purchased and when. I have no clue which devices qualifies for what, so that’s up to you to determine. IF you have an eligible device, the four e-books, under the “Book Deals” section of the Kindle app downloaded from the Samsung app store show a price of FREE/$0. If you see an actual price, it means you will pay for it. But fear not, even if so, you can always go to amazon.com/myk and reverse/cancel the purchase.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, these are the four choices for January 2017. You have until 1/31/17 to make a choice. Unlike Kindle First that offers brand new e-books, almost all the Samsung Book Deals options are already part of Kindle Unlimited, so they have a built-up review profile, which can help you device if none of the books shout “read me” immediately.

The choices are:

  • “First Activation” by the Wearmouth brothers (book #1 in a post-apocalyptic series)
  • “Katwalk” by Maria Murmano
  • “Opal Fire” by Barbra Annino in a Mystery series
  • “The Kentucky Bride” by Norah Hess in Steamy Romances

OPTIONALLY, once you buy the e-book of your choice, you can add audio narration (Audible audiobook) for typically an extra $2 more. In the strange world of e-book pricing, sometimes it is cheaper to buy the ebook + audiobook, than buy the audiobook directly!

January 15, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Free January 2017 ebook from University of Chicago Press (DRM’ed)

The monthly free e-book promotions continue with the University of Chicago Press. This one sadly is Adobe DRM, so to download it you need an Adobe ID that is used for the evil DRMalia. Still, if you have an Adobe DRM ePUB ecosystem device or app, you may already be setup for it anyway, so not a lot of hassle. On the other hand, if you are a Kindle-only reader, then this is a kerfuffle.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the free ebook offered for January 2017 (you have until 1/31/17 to claim it) is a 2013 book, “Looking for Strangers: The True Story of My Hidden Wartime Childhood” by Dori Katz, 184 pages long. This is not a famous book, but it averages a solid 4.6 out of 5 with 12 customer reviews at amazon.com. You have to get the free e-book through University of Chicago, I am including the link to Amazon so you can read reviews and a sample if you wish!

This is a screenshot below visually explaining how to claim the free ebook. The link in the first paragraph is how you can claim it…

January 15, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

T-Mobile Tuesday for 1/10/17 are a Bookshout ebook, 3-month IndieFlix membership, and $2 movie ticket

The Tuesday January 10 (2017) T-Mobile freebies, the first ones after another fiery “Uncarrier Streaming Event” (this one at CES 2017) is a media-centric promotion with three offerings:

The Bookshout promotion is ONE free e-book from a choice of ten. Eight of them are fiction, the other two are “new year, new you” type of books (diet and beauty tips). You can read these ebooks with a web browser or using the BookShout apps. Note that Bookshout is a “social media” type of app, it creates a profile for you automatically, so if you hate that kind of nonsense, go through the account and adjust things appropriately.

The $2 movie ticket is as it says, and you redeem it using the Fandango service for a movie theater ticket (the OG Fandango, not the M-Go FandangoNOW). The movie MUST be watched on Tuesday 1/10/17, so it’s kinda restrictive, but that’s why there’s a discount, Tuesdays are not exactly blockbuster movie nights 🙂

Last but not least, it’s a 3-month free subscription to movie streaming service IndieFlix. They typically offer a free 14-day trial, so with this promotion, you are getting a 90-day free trial. It is a for-pay service, $5/month or $40 per year prepaid. As the title suggests, they focus on indie films (think Sundance, Canes, etc) along with other randomness they are able to procure 🙂

January 10, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

$2 Kindle ebooks with coupon (30 choices)

If you like discovering new authors, Amazon has just launched a new e-book promotion. Coupon code READJAN17 can get you any of the thirty participating ebooks for $2 each. You can buy as many as you want with this promotion. Make sure you enter the coupon code _BEFORE_ you buy any of them! Here’s how:

You can find all eligible books and read details at the Kindle January 2017 promotion which expires 1/31/17.

NOTE: I do not know if this promotion is targeted or everyone can use the coupon. I have no way of finding out, so YMMV if you haven’t received an email with this promotion. Try it on one e-book first, then check your account history to make sure you are charged $2 not the regular price.

January 7, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Free Tor e-Book: “Off Armageddon Reef” (until 1/10/17)

If you like FREE and scifi, we have good news for you! The Tor free e-book of the month, good until January 10 (2017) is the e-book “Off Armageddon Reef” by author David Weber. You can get it by entering your email address at the Tor e-book club. You don’t even have to sign up for their e-mailing list to get the free ebook. After that, you can download it in .mobi (eg Kindle devices) or .ePUB (most reading apps and other e-readers).

This is book #1 of an 9-book series. This book (book #1 in the series) averages 4.1 out of 5 based on 300+ customer reviews at amazon.com.

Speaking of Amazon, if you are a Prime member, you can score one free e-book from a choice of six every single month. These are the choices for January 2017.

Happy reading 🙂

January 6, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

Kindle First choices for January 2017 are here (pick one from six for FREE if a Prime member)

January 2017 is here and with it, we get the first round of Amazon Kindle First free e-book options for Prime members. As before, you pick one of the six pre-release e-book choices for free if you are a Prime member. If not, you pay $2. If you want to read more than one of the six books, you have to wait until they are released on the first of the following month (February 1st in this case).

The six choices are *drumroll*

  • “The Mutual Admiration Society” by Lesley Kagen in Family Life
  • “The Night Bird” by Brian Freeman in Suspense
  • “Never Again So Close” by Claudia Serrano, Anne Milano Appel in “Lit Fiction” ~ that’s one way to make literary fiction trendy in the eyes of younger readers 🙂
  • “Palm Trees in the Snow” by Luz Gabás, Noel Hughes in Sagas
  • “In the Shadow of Lakecrest” by Elizabeth Blackwell in Historical Fiction
  • “The Winter Over” (Ned Stark would disagree with that statement!) by Matthew Iden in Thrillers

As usual, if none of them screams at you (READ ME NOW!), just wait a few more days until they pick up more reviews. Since they are pre-release, Kindle First-ers are the only ones reviewing them. You have until January 31st in 2017 to make a pick from this lot. eBooks don’t run out 🙂

January 2, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

Google Play: Half off a digital Movie purchase

While putzing around Google Play, be on the look out for a new promotion that gets you half-off the digital purchase (not rental) of a movie. The offer shows up when you are wondering about. You have to click the “Redeem Now” in the app. Once you do, the offer will show up in your Google Play account under the “Account” category, further down under the “Rewards” section. You can see them all there, and they include the expiration date too.

A screenshot from an Android smartphone is shown below:

January 1, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,

T-Mobile Tuesday freebies for January 3

We have our first T-Mobile Tuesday of 2017, coming on January 3, and just like stereotypical clockwork, it has a “New Year Resolutions” cliche theme 🙂 A total of four items are offered, three freebies and a coupon. The coupon is $20 off of juice cleansing at “JUS by Julie” or something like that.

The three freebies have one returnee, a FandangoNow movie rental. You can rent a movie up to $5. Unlike the Vudu offer that gave you a balance and you could use it any which way you like, FandangoNow’s credit can only be used on a single movie rental and nothing else. Also note that this is not the more well-known Fandango service, but rather the service formerly known as M-Go that got purchased by Fandango. So that “Now” is important in the name 🙂

The other two freebies are digital and first timers. You get a 1-year digital subscription to the “Shape Magazine”, and you get a 1-month service to the fitness app “Aaptiv”. Apparently now companies go for two “As” in the name to be shown first in alphabetically-sorted results 🙂

January 1, 2017 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

Rent any movie (even new releases) for $0.99 w/coupon

This is a great deal. For just $0.99, you can rent any movie, including new releases, HD and without ads, at Amazon Instant Video when you enter coupon code MOVIE99 over there until 1/23/17. You don’t have to watch the movie right away. You can enter the coupon code right now, but rent the movie at any time until the deadline.

Once you rent an actual movie, you have 30 calendar days to begin watching it. Once you begin watching it, you have either 24 or 48 hours (it depends on the movie) to watch it as many times as you want. So don’t start the movie playback until you are ready to watch it. Also don’t wait until the last minute to enter the coupon or make the rental. Better early than late 🙂

More details on the promotion, along with official instructions at the Amazon Instant Video promotional page.

December 23, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

Classic scifi e-book for just $0.25: “The Forever War”

A great deal on one of the classic science-fiction books, the Kindle edition ofJoe Haldeman’s “The Forever War” is on sale for a limited time for just a quarter, that’s right $0.25, at amazon.com. This is a limited time promotion, but I do not know when it expires. It is a 294 page book. At this price, it is really a must-have for your digital reading collection!

December 5, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

Kindle First Choices for December 2016 are available

If you are a Prime member and a book fan, the start of a new month is extra special, because you get one more ebook for free, a pre-release one at that, as part of the Kindle First program. Non-Prime members can buy one of the six choices for $2. All these will be released to the general population on January 1st, in 2017.

Your choices for December 2016 are…

  • “Fate of Perfection (Finding Paradise Book 1)” by K.F. Breene (this one already has 41 customer reviews!)
  • “The Missing” by Caroline Eriksson, Tiina Nunnally in Psychological Suspense
  • “The Original Dream” by Nukila Amal, Linda Owens in Magical Realism
  • “Into the Thickening Fog” by Andrei Gelasimov, Marian Schwartz in Literary Fiction
  • “Sisters One, Two, Three” by Nancy Star in Contemporary Fiction
  • “Hope’s Peak (Harper and Lane)” by Tony Healey in Thrillers

kindle_first_december_2016

As usual, you don’t have to hurry and pick one right now. You have until December 31st to make your choice, and they are e-books, so they won’t “run out” of copies. IF none of them stands out, you can wait for 1-2 weeks until they get a lot more reviews, which can be helpful is figuring out what to avoid (more so than what to get) 🙂

December 1, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , , ,

One month FREE CBS All Access with coupon

In time for the Black Friday madness, CBS All Access is offering a 1-month FREE TRIAL to its streaming service when you enter coupon code GOBBLE over there by November 28 (2016). The coupon for the ad-based tier (the “Limited Commercials” euphemism).

Here’s their tweet promoting this offer:

cbs_allaccess_blackfriday_free_trial

The ad-free tier is $10/month and is not getting a free trial. I’m guessing the reason for this is that the with-ads tier gets them some money (by showing ads to the free trial users), while the no-ads tier does not 🙂

CBS All Access will be (other things equal) the home of the new “Star Trek Discovery” TV series, along with the “The Good Wife” spin-off/sequel series. This is month to month, so you can sign up only when your favorite shows are running.

November 23, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

50% off Google Play Movie Rental (YMMV)

In addition to the previosuly mentioned 20% off purchase promotion, Google Play is also running another promotion you may see in your emails or while browsing around their website or Store on an Android device, you get 50% off when you rent a digital movie of your choice. Strategically this is a great promotion for newly released movies which have insane rental price of up to $6 or $7. The offer ends 1/22/17 if not used.

YMMV as usual as to whether it is offered on your account, since I have no way of testing this for everyone…

Here’s a screenshot with the description:

google_play_half_off_movie_rental

GOOGLE PLAY TIP

If you tend to forget about these offers after you add them to your account, you are not the only one. I do too. However, you can easily find them in your Google Play account, go to the Account section in the left sidebar if you are using a web browser, and page down to the Rewards section. You will see all the activated offers there with the expiration date prominently displayed. Here’s a screenshot example below:

google_play_list_of_offers_in_account

November 22, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: ,

T-Mobile Tuesdays for 11/22/16 include Thanksgiving e-cookbook, Lyft, ShopRunner

Time does not stand still, no matter what Rush steampunkily sing-songs 🙂 A new T-Mobile Tuesday is fast-approaching, a Thanksgiving-themed one, with the following three freebies scheduled for 11/22/16:

tmobile_tuesday_november22

  • digital Thanksgiving cookbook through the BookShout service (the book service is a returning guest)
  • Free Lyft ride (another recurring guest)
  • six months of ShopRunner, it’s like a Prime for about 100 retailers that don’t have their own Prime service

Overall, this is a bit of a meh offering. If you have an American Express credit card, you can get a free annual Shoprunner subscription. The Lyft ride is limited in scope. The only interesting thing from this lot is the cookbook since it is seasonally relevant. But even that, you only get it two days before the feast, not a lot of time to plan ahead 🙂

Having said all that grumpily, these are freebies, and one can always ignore them if they are not of interest 🙂

November 21, 2016 Filed Under: media Tagged With: , ,