Amazon's new Family Library feature lets you share purchases as a household

[AnemicOak]

Amazon just removed one of the biggest roadblocks for sharing things you've bought with someone else in your family — at least for some of the things you buy off Amazon. Alongside its new line of Kindle announcements, it's introducing a new feature called Family Library that lets people in the same household share books, audiobooks, Prime Instant videos, and any apps or games that were bought off Amazon's Appstore. Not included on that list are things like purchased music, movies, or TV shows.

http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/17/63...ture-explained

[jhowell]

Family sharing seems to be the hot new thing. Apple's IOS 8 release yesterday has a similar feature, but also includes other purchased media beside books.

Once you set up Family Sharing, family members get immediate access to each other’s music, movies, TV shows, books, and apps.

[fjtorres]

Of note: what they are offering is a cross-linking of accounts, not a merger of accounts.
Presumably in case the need arises to sever the link.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Family sharing seems to be the hot new thing. Apple's IOS 8 release yesterday has a similar feature, but also includes other purchased media beside books.

Amazon's Family Library will allow sharing of apps, games, audiobooks, books, and Prime Instant Video content.

From Amazon's press release: Introducing Fire OS 4 “Sangria”

Examples of new cloud services in Fire OS 4 include Family Library so you can share your apps, games, audiobooks, books, and Prime Instant Video content with other members of your household...

Also, it will be coming to 3rd generation Fires, according to the same press release:

Fire OS 4 will be available on all 4th generation Fire tablets and will be available for all 3rd generation Fire tablets via a free, over-the-air software update.

[eschwartz]

Ah, Family Library explained. Multi-user mode, basically?

Sounds like this will be set in the device, not the Amazon account. So that means many devices will be left out in the cold.

[mycurlylocks]

I'm hoping they will have better security set up for the accounts. I had an embarrassing situation arise last night. I had some neighbors over and they wanted to watch a show from my Instant Videos. Their son had been in trouble. I knew they'd see my login on the TV.

Discreetly, I called Amazon and asked if there was any way to have a separate log in for the videos. If the son had happened to remember my log in info, he would have had access to my full account and could have ordered anything from Amazon on my credit cards.

There is no way to separate the two. The pin only stops someone from purchasing videos, but they can log into your full store account.

Now that I've learned this, I've removed the app from my iPads. It was one of the few that I let store my password. I've loaned my iPad to people before to use, never thought about the Instant Videos. Thank heavens they have been honest.

Surely they will see this is a problem. Unfortunately sometimes children make improper choices. Extra security would protect the parents.

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by mycurlylocks

I'm hoping they will have better security set up for the accounts. I had an embarrassing situation arise last night. I had some neighbors over and they wanted to watch a show from my Instant Videos. Their son had been in trouble. I knew they'd see my login on the TV.

Your username and password were visible? What interface were you using to watch the videos?

Either way, all you need to do is change your password if someone inadvertently views it when you have it displayed.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by pidgeon92

Your username and password were visible? What interface were you using to watch the videos?

Either way, all you need to do is change your password if someone inadvertently views it when you have it displayed.

I'm wondering what interface as well--I use my Roku to watch video on my TV all the time, and my user name and password were never shown. They're not shown when using the iPad app or PC, either.

Shari

[booklover6]

This sounds great.....I can put my girls on a different account and give them access to all the apps, yet not crowd their carousel with all my books! Awesome!

[gabby98]

I'm curious as to how long it will be before they actually implement it.

[mycurlylocks]

Originally Posted by shalym

I'm wondering what interface as well--I use my Roku to watch video on my TV all the time, and my user name and password were never shown. They're not shown when using the iPad app or PC, either.

Shari

I was using my Samsung TV. The problem was I had not let the TV store my log in. So as I was logging in, my email address was visible and for the password, each character displays briefly before turning into a dot. Anyone with a good memory can grab the password.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Amazon's Family Library will allow sharing of apps, games, audiobooks, books, and Prime Instant Video content.

Also, it will be coming to 3rd generation Fires, according to the same press release:

Yay!! This is great news!

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by mycurlylocks

Anyone with a good memory can grab the password.

And thus you changed it immediately afterwards?

[mycurlylocks]

No, we didn't watch videos that night. I made an excuse that I had a new 3D movie I wanted to watch.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by mycurlylocks

No, we didn't watch videos that night. I made an excuse that I had a new 3D movie I wanted to watch.

Get yourself a cheap Roku or Fire TV and the Roku app doesn't have this problem. I would never use any app with that kind of security flaw.