An Amazon success, with more annoyance

[mtbc]

Given that I have long-haul travel coming, I realized that one thing that could make it more bearable might be taking the opportunity to watch plenty more of The Expanse (2015) on my Amazon Fire 10. After all, it may be that I can download the remaining episodes now then watch even in airplane mode.

This turned out to not be a quick check. Amazon doesn't easily handle multi-country activity so I must have both US and UK accounts. My Fire 10 was last associated with my UK Amazon account so it couldn't see my Prime subscription. It appears not to be able to switch my Prime Video viewing to my US account without switching the whole tablet, and various other app-related data or whatever seems tied to the account, not simply the tablet. No doubt it makes sense for others somehow but, for me, the sole user of the tablet but with multiple accounts, it's a real pain. Even my ssh client stopped working after the switch.

Apps are now reinstalled, rechecked, etc., my Prime subscription has become visible and, indeed, I can download whole seasons of a show, put the tablet into airplane mode, reboot it, then watch episodes. So, it worked out in the end but, goodness, what a fuss to get there.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

That is a pain in the butt! I only read on planes. I've never really gotten comfortable with ear buds or headphones.

[mtbc]

Ah, yes, I sure wish I could too! I can read for shorter or easier journeys, like when I'd take Amtrak between Boston and Manhattan, or UK rail from Perth to York. For long-haul, beyond the first couple of hours of the first leg, I am already getting worn down and I usually don't sleep well so spend a significant fraction of the journey feeling very tired and, for this outbound, the second of the three legs, from Dulles to Narita, takes over fourteen hours, and I won't have slept the night before because I'll be driving to a motel from which I take a 4am shuttle to the airport. Watching light fiction is about all that I can manage in that state, I typically can't sleep well enough to refresh (except for one notable redeye on which I fell asleep after the evening meal and awoke in time for breakfast!). Reading, I can manage a few pages, then I start zoning out, then I might take a break, even briefly nap, then manage a few more pages, so I've learned not to bother trying. (I also choose longer layovers to account for things like inter-terminal transfer via another security checkpoint.) I was amused a couple of years ago (another intercontinental journey for which I didn't sleep) to find that a measure of my tiredness was if I could beat the seatback screen's chess game on its lowest level. At least I can manage to catch up on sleep once settled at my destination, except for one awkward time when I was very jetlagged and wanting to sleep during business hours in a room that the owner wanted to repaint! It'd all work much more easily if I could just sleep well after they dim the lights and have people close the window shades, then I could bring a good novel!

[wpadmirer]

That's awful. I can sleep pretty much anywhere, but I get lost in books and time flies. So reading has always worked well for me.

[mtbc]

Mmm, I have a couple of close friends who can nap just about anywhere and anytime. (-:

[thewayne]

I'm one of those who can sleep anywhere/any time. But audiobooks are also a sure way usually, they're just not for me. My wife loves 'em, friends love 'em, just not for me. Whenever I fly, I have my iPad and laptop(s), but usually I'll read a little and just sleep.

I can't do ear buds as I wear hearing aids, but a friend of mine gave me an awesome set of Bose head phones. I have to turn the hearing aids off, which I can do through my phone app.

As a thought with your Kindle, have you experimented with a VPN to make it think it's in the UK? Might that make obtaining media easier?

[mtbc]

My hearing is good but I don't decode the sounds into speech quite as readily as most so, together with the engine noise, audiobooks wouldn't be my first choice either; I'll be reading the closed captions on whatever I watch.

Alas, my Amazon Prime membership is US-based. For Amazon, one typically needs the IP geolocation to match the membership's domicile. But, yeah, if I'd still had UK-based membership, that'd have been a possibility. Netflix tends to be a bit more lenient, one can see shows for one's geolocated IP regardless of one's membership's domicile.