zroger73

"Vocolinc suggests that the bulb should only cost you $6.30 per year to operate, assuming that you're running it for an average of three hours a day."

9.5 watts (at full brightness) x 3 hours/day x 365 days/year = 10.4025 kWh/year

At a national average of 10.53 cents/kWh, that's $1.10 per year.

In order for this bulb to cost $6.30 per year to operate, it must consuming 5.6 watts even when it's "off". It looks like most of the cost is to keep the bulb connected rather than produce light. A traditional, 60-watt incandescent light bulb that costs less than a dollar will cost $6.91 per year to operate 3 hours per day, but it only produces one color and isn't HomeKit compatible.

jd_in_sb said:

Amazon used to include free music subscription with my Prime service then, awhile ago,  started charging me a $4/mo separate music service fee with no notification. 

Prime Music is still included with Amazon Prime. It offers about 2 million songs.

Amazon Music Unlimited offers about 50 million songs and costs $7.99/mo. for Prime members or $9.99/mo. without a Prime membership. It is available for a single Amazon device for $3.99/mo.

There's also a Free music service without a subscription. It is ad-supported and limited to top playlists and streaming stations.

It sounds like you or someone with access to your account agreed to the $3.99/mo. Single Device plan at some point.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GW3PHAUCZM8L7W9L

https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=15730321011

I've tried Amazon Music Unlimited a couple of times, but I find Apple Music to have higher quality curation. And, my HomePods sound much better than my Echo devices.

I find Alexa to be much better at non-music knowledge.

I still have an OTA TiVo after discontinuing cable TV a few years ago, but I find that I use it less and less. Most recently, several weeks passed without using it and I discovered that the hard drive had become full and it was no longer recording. It's becoming an obsolete concept for me. I get my news from web sites and apps while my television viewing is mostly on-demand streaming.

I have a feeling this kid is going to end up with more AirPods than he has orifices to insert them.

BMW may backtrack on this for now, but don't expect that to last.

Subscription-based services and features are the future.

At work, we used to buy AutoCAD and keep it for years until it became obsolete. Now, you can no longer buy it - you can only rent it. When you stop paying, it stops working. Same for Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop and Acrobat and Quicken and the list goes on.

Beginning with the 2019 RDX, Acura no longer includes keyfob-based remote start...on a $50K SUV. Remote start is now app-based and requires an $110/year subscription to keep it working.