Latest news with #KindleUnlimited
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Free and cheap things to do with the kids this summer including theme parks
MoneyMagpie Editor and financial expert Vicky Parry shares the best way to keep the family entertained throughout the school holidays without breaking the bank Summer is a great time to spend with the kids and family members, but that also means expensive days out! The good news is there are lots of ways to stay entertained on a budget, thanks to free events, workshops, and activities. Money-savvy parents can save this summer with some forward planning – try these activities and tips to save money without saving on fun! Visit the library There's a reason this is always on the free activities list! Libraries aren't about dusty old books these days. They offer computer access and printing, as well as run lots of free workshops and events from storytime to crafting and more, for a wide range of ages. You can often also borrow DVDs, computer games, and board games. You don't need to visit the library either, if there isn't one near you. Register for a free library card online and you can borrow ebooks and audiobooks for free! If your kids are impatient and don't want to wait for a book on hold, try free two-month trials of Kindle Unlimited, Readly, and BookBeat to get them access to books, magazines, and audiobooks for free this summer. Free holiday clubs If your child is entitled to free school meals during term-time, the Holiday Activities and Food Programme means you could claim some free childcare, meals, and activities for your child in the holidays. Eligibility varies between local authorities, and some children who aren't eligible for free school meals but have a low income could still be eligible, so make sure you check your local authority website for details. Free National Express coach travel Getting to and from activities can be expensive when you're going with a family. If you haven't already picked up a Family and Friends Railcard look into it, as it could save you hundreds across the course of a year with regular rail travel. But if you don't want to travel by rail to your family activities this summer, consider the coach instead. National Express is offering for up to three under-15s to travel free with every paying adult until September 30th – just book tickets online and use the code KIDSFREE to claim the free tickets. Kids eat free or cheap deals Feeding a family gets a lot more expensive in the holidays – but it doesn't have to. There are lots of restaurant and café chains that run special offers in the summer to help families with their food bill. Some, like Bill's Restaurants, have holiday-specific deals. Others, like TGI Fridays, IKEA, Morrisons and Asda cafes, and Brewers Fayre venues run year-round deals to keep costs low for families throughout the year. Check out your local restaurants and cafes to find out where kids eat free or cheap to feed the family on a budget! Save up to 45% on theme parks The summer means lots of deals available for theme park entry, saving huge amounts on your entrance fees. If you're a Lidl customer with the Lidl Plus app, scroll to the Partner Offers tab to find and claim a free thirty-day Day Out With The Kids pass to claim up to 45% off entry fees at theme parks like Drayton Manor, Flamingoland, DiggerLand, Crearly Theme Park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and more. Or, check out National Rail if you're planning to get the train to a theme park. You can claim up to 33% off Merlin attractions and more by booking your voucher through their Days Out Guide and showing your train ticket on entry. Finally, check out Kellogg's cereals and snacks for up to 25% off at major attractions – visit their website for more details. Have a Garden Cinema Night Gather friends and family together for a cinema night – in the garden. It's easy to set up a space with a white bedsheet and a projector. Dangbei offer a range of projectors, from the Freedo to the new MP1 Max, depending on your budget and needs. If you want to set up a cinema room at home, or replace your TV in the living room, it's definitely worth investing in a higher-end projector for the best experience. Get everyone to bring their favourite cinema snack, or set up a popcorn station where you make your own and add toppings you prefer. A drinks station – with one for the adults if you want cocktails! – adds to the fun and gives kids independence to choose what they want. Pick some family-friendly films, drag the sofa cushions and throws outside (or use outdoor blankets like those from Night Lark in case the drizzle starts), and enjoy movie night with friends as the sun goes down. Game of rounders in the park Every summer should include a competitive game of rounders! Gather up your friends and family for an afternoon in the park. Take a picnic, brush up on the (very simple) rules, and create a tournament for a whole afternoon of fun. Check the rules of your local park regarding ball games and gatherings first, of course. Free mindful jogging community If you love to exercise with your kids, consider joining the free Joy Runs community. With a theme each week, such as trees or water, you can jog together while contemplating the theme to stay mindful as well as get those endorphins going. If you're more competitive, check out free Park Runs each weekend in your area – and see if you can encourage your kids to improve on their time between the start and end of the summer holidays! Cricket and music combined The Hundred is a sporting event that makes the most of everything cricket has to offer. Global cricket stars combined with headline music acts make it a fun event of sport and music combined. The tournament starts on 5th August, with eight matches taking place at Lord's and the Kia Oval throughout the month. It culminates in The Eliminator on Saturday 30th August and The Final on 31st August – with a family-friendly fun-filled weekend. Tickets are £21 an adult, £5 for junior and under threes go free! Cheap cinema tickets Take your family to see a film from just £1 a ticket this summer. Cineworld is running family friendly screenings with £1 tickets, and films such as The Minecraft Movie and Disney's Snow White. If you don't have a Cineworld near you, check out the cinema deals available in your area. It could be £6 showings with O2 Priority, or adults paying kids prices at Vue, or Odeon Member Mondays for a fiver. There will be all kinds of deals at your nearest cinema, so make sure to check them out for a cheap afternoon out with the kids. Quick tips for a cheap summer Whenever you're planning cheap summer activities, keep these things in mind to keep the cost down. Book tickets in advance for cheaper prices and special offers or discounts Enter freebie contests and giveaways to try new activities Shop via cashback websites to get some money back on your spending Take picnics instead of buying food at venues Invest in reusable water bottles for all the family to keep hydrated without spending lots of money on drinks Get together with friends to take advantage of group discounts Finally, having children around for six weeks can increase your household bills a lot! Keep the cost of groceries down by shopping at the cheapest supermarket in your area and making the most of loyalty card price cuts and offers.
Gizmodo
7 days ago
- Gizmodo
Amazon's Only Color Kindle Just Got a Version That's a Little Bit Cheaper
Amazon's newest Colorsoft e-reader is downgrading storage so it can upgrade your bank account. A new version of the Colorsoft Kindle—Amazon's first-ever color e-reader—will come in a 16GB version that cuts the e-reader's storage in half compared to the first generation but also debuts at a slightly cheaper $250 compared to the first-gen's $280. There's not a ton going on here other than the lower storage for a lower price tradeoff, but if you're not someone who needs the whole 32GB of capacity on your Kindle, a $30 discount ain't a bad thing, I guess. If you're feeling so compelled to buy this cheaper version, it's available now and comes with three months of Kindle Unlimited. Probably the more interesting side of the latest Colorsoft release is the first-ever kids' version, which has an illustrated cover and a two-year warranty. That's definitely a good thing if you're letting your kids cart this thing around in the car or to dinner and tacitly putting it in harm's way. There are also some special educational apps designed for kids. Those include Vocabulary Builder and 'Word Wise,' which provides 'simplified definitions' for words, according to Amazon. On the safety front, Amazon's kids edition Colorsoft Kindle also provides parental controls for things like which content can be accessed and a hub for monitoring reading activity. Additionally, parents can set a device bedtime if they don't want their kids up all night getting smarter. Believe it or not, the Colorsoft Kids is somehow a little bit more expensive than the new adult version and has the same 16GB storage. Amazon's kid-centric color e-reader is available now for $269.99. I guess pacifying your kids with something that might actually be enriching is probably worth paying a premium, though.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Amazon introduces a more affordable color screen Kindle
Amazon is making its color screen Kindle more affordable. Following the launch of the Kindle Colorsoft last year, the retailer on Thursday introduced a lower-cost version of the normally $279.99 device. The new device offers a $30 discount for 16GB of storage instead of 32GB, bringing the cost down to $249.99. A kids edition is also now available. The original 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition was designed to bring a more engaging visual experience to the popular Kindle e-reader, ideal for digitally browsing comics and other graphic novels or highlighting in different colors. The device offered an adjustable, glare-free display with up to eight weeks of battery life, and it even allows users to invert the black text and white background of pages for those who prefer a dark mode-like experience. The new 16GB model also features the high-contrast Colorsoft display of the original, the adjustable warm light, battery life, fast page turns, and more. Plus, it includes three months of Kindle Unlimited, the subscription offering access to over 4 million e-books. However, it won't include the auto-adjusting front light, wireless charging, or the larger storage space of the Signature Edition. The Kindle Colorsoft Kids ships with an illustrated cover, a two-year guarantee, and a year of the Amazon Kids+ subscription offering access to books, games, videos, apps, and more. The $269.99 device includes a handful of features to help kids practice reading, too, including a vocabulary builder and a feature called Word Wise that helps them learn new words, as well as the OpenDyslexic font, and Bluetooth connectivity for listening to audiobooks. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Stuff.tv
7 days ago
- Stuff.tv
Amazon makes the Kindle Colorsoft cheaper and adds a Kids version
Amazon has launched two new Kindle models: a more affordable version of the Kindle Colorsoft and the first-ever Kindle made specifically for kids with a colour display. The new 16GB Kindle Colorsoft is available now for $249.99 in the US and £239.99 in the UK and includes three months of Kindle Unlimited. It offers everything you'd expect from a Kindle – but in colour. That means a sharp, high-contrast display for reading books, comics, and graphic novels, fast page turns, adjustable warm light, and battery life that lasts for weeks. It even lets you highlight text in multiple colours and browse your library by colourful book covers. If you're after a few more extras, the $289.99 / £269.99 Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition adds wireless charging, 32GB of storage, and an auto-adjusting front light. We're reviewed the Kindle Colorsoft, and were impressed with the excellent battery life, lightweight design, and muted colour screen, but slightly let down by the clunky software and high price – something the new model partly addresses. But the big news here is the new Kindle Colorsoft Kids. Priced at $269.99 in the US and £259.99 in the UK, it's the first Kindle for kids with a colour display, designed to make comics and graphic novels more engaging. Amazon says kids who read these kinds of books spend 46-percent more time reading on average than Kindle Kids users overall. The child-friendly model comes with a bright illustrated cover (in your choice of 'Fantasy River' or 'Starlight Reading'), a year's subscription to Amazon Kids+, and a two-year worry-free guarantee. That means if it breaks, Amazon will replace it. No questions asked. There are no ads, apps, games or messages on the device, just books. Kids can read Harry Potter, Big Nate, or The Treehouse series without distractions, and use tools like Vocabulary Builder, Word Wise, and OpenDyslexic font to help them along the way. Bluetooth is also built in for audiobook listening with headphones. Parents aren't left out either. The Amazon Parent Dashboard gives you full control over what your child sees, lets you monitor reading progress, and even set a bedtime for the device. As part of the package, Amazon Kids+ continues to expand. The service now includes thousands of books and audiobooks from series like Keeper of the Lost Cities, The Breakfast Club Adventures by Marcus Rashford, and The InvestiGators. Amazon says Kindle reading is up this year, with customers having read more than 129 billion pages so far – more than this time last year. So, if you've been holding off on buying a Kindle Colorsoft, now's a good time, and if $269.99 in the US and £259.99 in the UK still feels steep, it's worth waiting for Black Friday, when prices could drop closer to $220 / £200. Liked this? The Google Pixel 10 leak looks exactly the same as the Pixel 9, and I think that's great
TechCrunch
7 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Amazon introduces a more affordable color screen Kindle
Amazon is making its color screen Kindle more affordable. Following the launch of the Kindle Colorsoft last year, the retailer on Thursday introduced a lower-cost version of the normally $279.99 device. The new device offers a $30 discount for 16GB of storage instead of 32GB, bringing the cost down to $249.99. A kids edition is also now available. The original 7-inch Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition was designed to bring a more engaging visual experience to the popular Kindle e-reader, ideal for digitally browsing comics and other graphic novels or highlighting in different colors. The device offered an adjustable, glare-free display with up to eight weeks of battery life, and it even allows users to invert the black text and white background of pages for those who prefer a dark mode-like experience. The new 16GB model also features the high-contrast Colorsoft display of the original, the adjustable warm light, battery life, fast page turns, and more. Plus, it includes three months of Kindle Unlimited, the subscription offering access to over 4 million e-books. However, it won't include the auto-adjusting front light, wireless charging, or the larger storage space of the Signature Edition. The Kindle Colorsoft Kids ships with an illustrated cover, a two-year guarantee, and a year of the Amazon Kids+ subscription offering access to books, games, videos, apps, and more. The $269.99 device includes a handful of features to help kids practice reading, too, including a vocabulary builder and a feature called Word Wise that helps them learn new words, as well as the OpenDyslexic font, and Bluetooth connectivity for listening to audiobooks.
