# Amazon Instant Video app



## tlrowley (Oct 29, 2008)

Amazon has released their Instant Video app in the AppStore today - iPad only, sorry all you iPhone/Touch users.  It seems to work pretty well, and includes videos you've bought/rented as well as the Prime video library.  You can't rent/purchase from within the app, you'll have to go to a browser for that (I guess that gets around the 30% Apple tax )  You can set up a watchlist, which you'll probably need since there's no way of searching within the app.  (Who made that decision?)  It does have whispersync so you can start watching on your iPad, continue on the website and finish on your Fire, should you wish.  Works pretty well when I tested it.

All-in-all a welcome addition to my iPad!!


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

As soon as it is available for the iPhone/touch I will go ahead and cancel Netflix. The only reason I have kept both is so I can watch on my idevices.


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

I just tried a free video on my iPad, and it worked well.  I don't have Amazon prime yet, but I'm thinking of signing up for it. I have a question though. If I sign up for Prime, do I have to use it for all package deliveries, or can I opt out? (Sometimes I need to send things to a PO Box address, and I can't get UPS, etc. there.)

Edited to add: Ok, I just found some information on Amazon, so it looks like a PO Box address can be used. Now I have a different question: If you set up Prime using one address, can you still choose to send an individual order to a different address?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

gdae23 said:


> Edited to add: Ok, I just found some information on Amazon, so it looks like a PO Box address can be used. Now I have a different question: If you set up Prime using one address, can you still choose to send an individual order to a different address?


Sure. I have several addresses that I send to (the grandkids' addresses mostly). You can save them to your account if you regularly send to other addresses. I think it asks you which address, if you have several addresses, and if it doesn't, you can go in right after clicking "buy" even with 1-click and change the delivery address.

Betsy


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

Sounds good, thanks! I think I'll give it a try.


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## hsuthard (Jan 6, 2010)

This made my day! Between this announcement, and the addition of Hulu Plus to my Apple TV (announced yesterday), I can't wait to start watching some tv! Now all I need is access to Amazon Video from the Apple Tv.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Good news.  I'd been using it on my PS3 and then Xbox 360 when they added that (my remote works with the xbox, but not the PS3 since it doesn't have an IR sensor), this will be handy when traveling or wanting to watch something in bed.


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## sadievan (Dec 21, 2010)

<<You can set up a watchlist, which you'll probably need since there's no way of searching within the app. (Who made that decision?)>>

That has probably something to do with apples policy of charging for buying through the app.

I wish Amazon would have closed captioning. If they did, I would probably watch it more.

Carol


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

It is weird that there's no searching for the free Prime movies, but I guess they couldn't figure out a way to separate that from the pay movies.  Pay movies you have to add to your library online, and then they'll be in the library section of the app.

But the freebies you can browse and add to the watch list in the app, so would be nice to be able to search for those.  But not a huge deal as I generally make my watchlist online and then access it on my Xbox or PS3 anyway.  So this app is the same as what I've been doing.


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

I'm doing the Prime free trial right now. At least on the iPad, I didn't find it a big deal to have to do the search in Amazon itself, via the Safari browser. Once you choose an item to watch, it will open the app. automatically and start the video. You can also sort your watchlist by date or alphabetically both on the website and in the app. For my needs and using the iPad, this is OK. I don't know if this would be more inconvenient on another device.

Edited to add: By the way, I was surprised there was no Prime video category for Classic movies, so I tried entering that term in the search box on the website. When I did, it brought up a list of classic movies, and in the left hand column, you could still search that list by genre. So, you could browse classic dramas, classic comedies, etc.  

Edited again: Just to clarify, you can use the search box on the Amazon website Prime video section to search directly for a specific movie or TV show. You just can't do this type of search inside the iPad app. Once you find the video, you can add it to your watchlist, and you can use the watchlist in the app to select the video you want to watch.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

This worked well.  I experimented from the Amazon home page.

If I put a search term + "prime instant video" in the search box on the home page, for example, "John wayne" and "primte instant video" I got a selection of john wayne movies that were available for free viewing.  How complete that is compared to browsing the store, I can't say.  But it's a good easy way to start looking.  I also tried "classic western" and it came up with some hits.  So you can achieve at least some level of success right from the front page of the store.

Betsy


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

A side benefit--I was never able to use my iPad to purchase or rent from the video store before--I would get a warning that the video wasn't viewable on my device, which I knew.  I just wanted to buy/rent it on my iPad to watch later on my Roku or Logitech.  But now, because of the app, those purchases go through.


Betsy


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

This app, combined with the news that Verizon will now allow me to use my phone as a hotspot for my iPad without sticking me for an extra charge, may be what will finally push me to switch from Netflix to Amazon Prime, so I can get free 2 day shipping as a bennie off of my video streaming.  I'm trying a free trial of Prime now.  Good chance I will ditch Netflix if it works out well, including keeping me entertained on a business trip in a few weeks.


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## kindlegrl81 (Jan 19, 2010)

The Hooded Claw said:


> This app, combined with the news that *Verizon will now allow me to use my phone as a hotspot for my iPad without sticking me for an extra charge*, may be what will finally push me to switch from Netflix to Amazon Prime, so I can get free 2 day shipping as a bennie off of my video streaming. I'm trying a free trial of Prime now. Good chance I will ditch Netflix if it works out well, including keeping me entertained on a business trip in a few weeks.


Is this for all Verizon customers or just the ones on the share everything plans?


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

kindlegrl81 said:


> Is this for all Verizon customers or just the ones on the share everything plans?


Pretty sure it's on the share everything plan. Which ups the cost if you only have a one device $30 a month data plan as I think there's another $10 on top of that to go to share everything. Still better than the $20 a month hot spot fee on old plans I guess.

I've been debating looking into it since i have an iPhone 4s and an wifi only iPad 2. But not sure I travel away from wifi enough to be worth even $10 a month more currently, as I mostly stay in hotels with free wifi other than a conference or two a year where the conference hotel wifi is $10-15 a day.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

kindlegrl81 said:


> Is this for all Verizon customers or just the ones on the share everything plans?


It affects share everything customers, and those under the tiered data plans Verizon has offered since ending new unlimited data plans. But not for the lucky souls still on unlimited data plans. Here's an article.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57485518-94/what-verizons-fcc-tethering-settlement-means-to-you-faq/

I was late jumping ship from Sprint, so didn't get an unlimited data plan, but got in under a promotion that doubled my data allowance, so I have 10 gig per month, enough for modest but not reckless video streaming when I travel. Unlike Mooshie, most of my hotels see wifi as a profit center and charge twenty bucks per night for wifi that is slower than 4G...


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Good news, I hadn't read that.  I have a 2GB plan as I got a smart phone after they dropped the unlimited, so from that article sounds like I can tether for free--but need to use a third party app rather than Verizon's official service.

What app do use THC?

Edit:  I think you're on Android rather than iPhone if I recall correctly.  Looks like there's not free tethering with iPhones still.  No app in the app store as far as I could tell, and the enable personal hot spot feature just pops up something telling you to call verizon to enable it.

Though it seems the FCC settlement was just at the end of July, so maybe things just haven't been updated yet.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I didn't know iphone had that limitation, but some googling suggests you are right! Too bad, if the new model had a larger screen, I was going to consider trying it, but not in light of this new Verizon policy. Will still be Android for me! 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

Version 1.1 just released.  Notes:

Search function added
Improved navigation bar
bug fixes


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