The Latest, Greatest Cultural Perk of Amazon Prime: Stream Movies and TV Shows to the iPad

When Ama­zon launched Ama­zon Prime in 2005, it did­n’t offer that much in the way of ben­e­fits — just free ship­ping on Ama­zon goods. Now if you pony up $79 per year, you get some good cul­tur­al perks: You can bor­row over 145,000 e‑books and read them on your Kin­dle and devices with Kin­dle apps. What’s more, you can stream thou­sands of movies and TV shows through your com­put­er, select blu-ray play­ers and now … drum roll please .… the iPad. Just yes­ter­day, Ama­zon released its free iPad app, which means that Prime mem­bers can start stream­ing movies on their tablets right away. If you’re not a mem­ber, you can always try out a one month Free Tri­al to Ama­zon Prime. And if that does­n’t move you, you can sim­ply dive into our col­lec­tion of 500 Free Movies Online. Ars Tech­ni­ca has more details on the pros and cons of the app here.