Untangling the Web: Prime price hike, Dell’s dongle, RIP Colonel Meow

By on January 31, 2014

Well, the last week in January has come to a close. Football fanatics are preparing for months of hibernation after Super Bowl Sunday and Punxsutawney Phil is likely to predict another 6 weeks of Polar Vortex. But what happened this week around the Web? We can get you all caught up:

Amazon wants more money for Prime

Amazon-Prime-air-drones

Amazon is considering a price hike on Amazon Prime yearly cost by $20 to $40, bringing the total cost up to $99.99 to $119.99 per year. The retailer hasn’t indicated if current subscribers would be grandfathered in at the current $79.99 yearly rate. While we previously argued that the $80-per-year subscription rate was a deal based off the current benefits, it’s likely that Amazon will have to sweeten the pot when the rate hike goes into effect. They have to pay for all those drones somehow.

They probably meant to get Heisenberg

jesse-eisenberg-will-play-lex-luthor-in-batman-superman

If you thought casting Ben Affleck as Batman wasn’t insane enough, DC wanted to top it today. Jesse Eisenberg (Irritable Bowel Syndrome kid in Zombieland, Aziz’s friend in 30 Minutes or Less) has been cast as Superman’s arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. One can only hope Clancy Brown will be lip-dubbed over everything that Eisenberg says, if only to appease the Internet explosion of hate headed towards the studio.

OUYA is surprisingly still in business

OUYA-console-and-controller

Despite a significant lack of interest in the platform among gamers, OUYA has released a new version of the Android-based gaming platform this week. At a $129 price point, the new version of the console offers 16GB of storage, opposed to the base $99 8GB model. The creators claim that the controller has been improved, but that’s unlikely to impress early adopters due to the continued lack of quality software available for the console. You can find the new version on Amazon here.

The Internet is not comprised of Beliebers

justin-bieber-petition

A petition submitted to the White House to boot Justin Beiber out of the United States crossed the 100K signature mark, thus the White House will have to respond. Just passing over 225K signatures, the people behind the petition want his green card revoked and booted back to Canada. Of course, Canadians probably wouldn’t be happy with that outcome. The White House will need to tread carefully or we may be going to war with the Great White North over which country is stuck with The Most Evil Opponent.

Dell showed off its dongle

wyse-cloud-connect (2)

Call it the Chromecast for the business user, Dell released a HDMI device called the Wyse Cloud Connect that’s slightly larger than a traditional USB flash drive. Using an Android 4.1 interface, users can access the Google Play Store in order to download entertainment apps like games or Netflix. However, the primary purpose of the dongle is to allow business users to connect to virtual desktop platforms. It’s also significantly more expensive than the Chromecast, clocking in at a $129 price point.

RIP Colonel Meow, you will still be feared

Colonel Meow

Everyone’s favorite iron-pawed ruler has come to an untimely end at just over 2 years in age. We paid homage to our feline ruler several month ago and mourn the loss for the entire Internet. Please enjoy this montage of his life and honor him by taking over a small country using extreme military force:

About Mike Flacy

Editor-in-Chief for The CheckOut. During my free time, I love to write about pop culture, home theater, digital photography, social media, mobile technology and cool gadgets!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *