Dell's stylus impresses as Amazon Music price jumps
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Dell's stylus impresses as Amazon Music price jumps

NOTICE: It's the weekend again, which means it's time for us to crown this week's winners and losers.

It's been a slow week in tech, but that doesn't mean we haven't seen some exciting news emerging. Apple released its first iOS 15.5 beta as an announcement date for iOS 16 was revealed, Sky launched its fastest broadband tier yet with Gigafast and Twitter scrambling to prove it was working on an edit button long before Elon Musk published his poll.

Read on to find out who our winner and loser were this week…

Dell Premier Rechargeable Active Pen with Mosaic

Winner: Dell

Whether you're a doodler, note taker or digital artist, anyone who uses a stylus frequently will know how frustrating it is not to find it.

This week, Dell teamed up with Tile to bring Tile tracking technology to its new Premier rechargeable active stylus.

Collaboration now lets you play a ringtone and flash LED lights to help you locate your Dell Stylus instead of blindly rummaging through your bag or reaching for the back of your couch in case it falls over there.

Like other Tile devices, you can also see the pen's last known location in the Tile app, so you'll know if you left it at home, at work, or on a train. Plus, if it's out of reach, you can rely on the Tile network to help you find it and bring it home.

Surprisingly, the first rechargeable active pen is the first active pen to have Find With Tile functionality built-in.

The Apple Pencil supports tracking with Find My and the S Pen Pro has Samsung's SmartThings Find. Microsoft also offers tracking for its Surface Pen. However, until now, no stylus has taken advantage of Tile's tracking skills and vast network.

It would be great to see more brands and third-party manufacturers partnering with Tile to make styluses virtually impossible to lose, especially since replacements can go up to triple digits for some pens.

An image of a wallpaper from a game called Call of Cthulhu

Loser: Amazon Music

While this week ended on a high note for Amazon after revealing that all 25 James Bond movies would be coming to Prime Video in April, the same can't be said for its music streaming service.

Amazon quietly announced a price increase for Amazon Music this week - but only for Prime subscribers.

From May, Prime users will have to pay £8,99/$8,99 per month (or £89/$89 per year) to keep Amazon Music Unlimited. Meanwhile, Amazon Music Single-Device users will need to pay £4,99/$4,99 per month to use the service.

That's an increase of £1 per month on both plans, or £10 per year if you pay your subscription annually.

Amazon says the price hike is the result of expanding Prime member benefits. However, the hike means subscribers will be forced to pay more on top of their standard Prime subscriptions (which have also increased in the US this year), making this offer less attractive over time.

Interestingly, non-Prime members won't experience any price increases, with their plans remaining at £9,99/$9,99 per month. However, given that Spotify Premium and Apple Music both cost £9,99 per month, it's easy to see why Amazon might be reluctant to pass the costs on to its non-Prime plan.

Spotify and Apple Music are two of the biggest names in music streaming, and it would be an obvious choice for users with no real allegiance to Prime services to transfer their playlists to rival apps that offer better deals than for users who pay. already. for a Prime membership.

It will be up to Prime users to decide if they still get enough value from Amazon Music to stick with this offer when the price hike takes effect in May.

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