💧 Hey there! Our boiler decided to fail on us yesterday. Fortunately, water leakage was at a minimum. Unfortunately, we’re without hot water for a while. 

Amazon Prime’s European price hike

Amazon Prime has been around for years now, taking the form of a monthly or annual subscription. The subscription gives you free expedited deliveries, access to Prime Video, access to Amazon’s music streaming service, and a host of other benefits. Now, European users are seeing a major price hike.

• Amazon announced that a Prime subscription in Europe will see a price hike by as much as 43%.
• That 43% figure applies to the likes of France, as the Prime subscription fee jumps from €49 annually to €69.90.
• The French price hike doesn’t seem so bad when you look at what other countries in Europe are paying after the increase.
• Germans were already splashing out €69 a year for Prime, but they’re getting a 30% increase and will now be paying €89.90.
• Meanwhile, consumers in the UK were paying £79 (€94) for an annual membership but will now pay £95 due to a 20% hike.
• The new pricing kicks in on September 15, 2022.

Amazon’s reasons

• Amazon reportedly had a number of reasons for the price hike, starting with increased inflation and operating costs.
• We can understand this to an extent, as rising fuel costs and inflation have impacted people and businesses around the world. 
• So it’s not really a surprise to see that a subscription service offering free deliveries as one of the major perks would see a price hike.
• Amazon also cited a few other reasons, according to Variety. 
• The company said it was adding more streaming content to Prime Video.
• The streaming wars are indeed becoming an expensive endeavor. Movies, TV shows, and live sports all cost plenty of money.
• Amazon also noted in an email to UK customers that it was the first increase since 2014 and that it’s added new perks since then.

A long-overdue increase, then?

• Prime subscribers in the US are used to price hikes. The service was available for $79 a year at first back in 2005.
• We saw a price increase to $99 a year in 2014, followed by another increase in 2018 to $119.
• The most recent price increase in the US took place in February, with Prime now setting you back $139 annually.
• By comparison, the most expensive subscription in Europe is the UK’s new £95 rate (~$115). 
• Then again, you’d expect the UK version to be cheaper given that a few perks are (somewhat understandably) missing. 
• These missing perks include Whole Foods discounts (in favor of integration with Morrisons), a year of free GrubHub Plus, and a host of other deals.
• You can still check out our Amazon Prime guide if you’re interested in the service, or our Amazon Prime Video vs Netflix comparison if you can’t decide between the two streamers.

Roundup

♥ Study: iPhones are best for getting dating matches, but what about Android? A new study found that flashing an iPhone in your profile resulted in a significant boost in matches on dating services. However, the Pixel 6 Pro reigned supreme when it came to selfie quality on these platforms (Android Authority).

💻 Lenovo launches its first Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 laptop: The new Qualcomm chip promises a big boost over the previous generation (Android Authority).

🔍 Samsung’s cool 10x zoom camera could return on Galaxy S23 Ultra (Android Authority).

💊 Out of prison, Shkreli plans “Web3 drug discovery” platform backed by crypto: So-called “pharma-bro” Martin Shkreli getting involved in a Web 3.0/crypto venture with vague details? Why do I feel like this won’t end well? (Ars Technica).

📹 Google, like Amazon, will let police see your video without a warrant: We recently heard about Amazon giving police access to people’s Ring video footage without a warrant. Now, a peek at Google’s info request policy has shown that it’s willing to hand over Google/Nest data to law enforcement in a similar manner (The Verge).

🕶 Buy the Meta Quest 2 now before pricing goes up on August 1: Expect a not-insignificant $100 increase in a few days (Android Authority).

🏭 China’s top chip maker SMIC may have achieved tech breakthrough, experts say: The chipmaker has reportedly produced 7nm chips, albeit with older DUV tech instead of the EUV tech used by other chipmakers. Still, this could be a significant milestone for the likes of HUAWEI. The Chinese phone brand previously used SMIC-made, in-house designed chips for some budget phones, and this latest news could bode well for its mid-range devices (SCMP).

📱 Official Galaxy Z Flip 4 photos and colorways outed in new leak (Android Authority).

🛰 Russia says it will quit the International Space Station after 2024: Moscow has made these threats before, but it seems more concrete now. But who knows, maybe Russia will change its mind if US sanctions are off the table (NPR).

📺 What’s new on Hulu in August 2022?: From Prey to Reservation Dogs, our guide covers everything to expect next month (Android Authority).

🕹 An official early look at the PSVR 2 user experience gives us a peek at see-through video features, broadcast functionality, boundary support, and more (PlayStation Blog).

📞 OPPO Reno 8 Pro review: I recently reviewed OPPO’s latest mid-ranger. Fantastic design, capable camera, powerful chip. But OPPO did itself no favors with pricing (Android Authority).

🚗 Uber has to teach people how to open Tesla doors, after the service debuted a Premium Electric option in the US earlier this year (Axios).

Wednesday Weirdness

The long-standing mystery of the so-called Somerton Man, also known as the Tamam Shud case, may have been solved. The body of a man was discovered on Somerton Beach in Adelaide, Australia, back in 1948. The man — who may have been poisoned — was dressed in a suit and tie.

Personal effects included a half-smoked cigarette, a pack of cigarettes, two combs, a line from a Persian poem (which contains the words “Tamam Shud,” meaning “is finished” or “is over”), a book with code seemingly scribbled in it (seen above), and transit tickets. Unfortunately, a wallet or ID wasn’t found.

• The BBC reports that the man wasn’t a spy but rather an electrical engineer from Melbourne named Carl Webb.
• The mystery was solved by Australian professor Derek Abbott and US forensic expert Colleen Fitzpatrick, using DNA preserved from the body.
• It turns out Webb was the youngest of six children and married to Dorothy Robertson.
• Unfortunately, the two may have been separated from each other. Abbott and Fitzpatrick suggested that he may have been in Adelaide to track her down.
• There’s no word on what happened to Robertson, though.

In the mood for more mystery? We’ve rounded up the best thrillers and suspense movies on Hulu, including classics like Chinatown and Escape from Alcatraz.

Have a great day!

Hadlee Simons, Editor