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iOS 7 (Beta 1)

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Well Apple finally did it. They made the iPhone 4 unusable. I wrote a few months back about iOS 6 and how Apple tends to brick devices by their second major update (that aren’t left out – iPad 1 for example). The A4 processor clearly doesn’t cut it for iOS 7. The phone is usable, but you’re constantly reminded how “old” and outdated it is now, with laggy graphic effects and unresponsive apps (Safari, I’m looking at you now). Granted, this is a beta, but having used iOS 7 on the iPhone 5 it’s clear that Apple wants to send a message.

You see they could’ve just excluded the iPhone 4, the way they have the iPad 1, or iPhone 3G with iOS 5. But Apple are smarter than that, they save face with the media by continuing to support “legacy” devices, despite this device I’m typing on right now being not even 3 years old, but ultimately they want users like me to feel the pain. They want to make it seem older than it really is. Imagine the uproar if they tried this with their notebook market. The design doesn’t look old, it doesn’t feel old to touch, the features are barely any different to the current flagship (except LTE), so Apple makes the user experience absolute misery. It’s artificial, it’s manufactured. There’s nothing wrong with my iPhone 4, but Apple are really saying “it’s high time we got some more money out of you!”.

And they will. Call me a fanboy but iOS 7 feels like a mature mobile operating system now. It feels more like a proper OS than a mobile phone interface. It’s difficult to describe, but the new multi tasking and navigation effects really give you the sense that what you’re holding is actually a remarkably powerful tiny handheld computer. I couldn’t understand how people were using iPads as their one and only computer before, but now with AirDrop (that I don’t get for the same artificial reasons outlined above) almost completes the desktop experience – power users not withstanding.

It will be interesting to see where Apple heads next with it’s hardware. I was suitably unimpressed and underwhelmed when the iPhone 5 launched and despite Apple’s (latest) best efforts, I still (like many iPhone 4 users) cannot justify the cost. I hope Apple breaks with this silly “S” intermediate model in odd years like we’ve seen in the past. I doubt an iPhone 5S could pack enough new gear to make me jump. Apple really needs to come out with something very special – to catch up with the likes of Samsung if nothing else. The iPhone 5 felt like a cheap upgrade to quell the masses (we want a bigger screen) but ultimately brought nothing new to the table. They just stretched the iPhone 4, like anyone couldn’t have thought of that. We need the iPhone 6, not the 5S. We need the one with the bendy screen and the new design, or the one that’s semi transparent OLED. I want to be able to look through my phone. This technology exists I’m not imagining it. Otherwise, I’m off to eBay for a used iPhone 4S.

Star Trek Into Darkness

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Spoiler alert!

If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you’re probably not a hardcore Trekker so this warning can be ignored.

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Seemingly unsatisfied with destroying a lifetime’s worth of work by people like Rick Berman, Michael Pillar and Brannon Braga with the story of the first film – J.J. Abrams and his crew saw fit to rip off elements from the best Star Trek movie of all time – The Wrath of Kahn, instead of actually coming up with something new and different. The film starts with the cliched non-interference prime directive plot device (TNG – Who Watches the Watchers and ST:Insurrection) with Kirk brazenly flouting federation principles to “save” Spock – insert needs of the many apologue here. Kirk is demoted, looses the Enterprise to Pike, Pike dies, Kirk gets the Enterprise back. Yippee. Kahn is the bad guy, Kirk gets captured, Spock calls up old Spock to ask about Kahn, old Spock says he won’t divulge information about the future – then proceeds do exactly that (WTF!?).

Then we have the worst scene of the film, the role reversed death of Spock from Star Trek II. Complete with hands on the glass and tears.

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Instead of leaving the revival for a sequel with a second plot device (Genesis) in this new version Kahn’s blood is a magic cure all that revives Kirk and thus the status quo is restored, like a bad episode of Voyager – no harm no foul. The whole anti-apologue lesson about the needs of the one is completely lost in all the over the top special effects and useless teenage sitcom drama (Spock and Uhura) thrown in for no good reason other than to sell Trek to an uneducated, unimaginative market of tweens. There are things I love about these new Trek movies (ship exterior scenes, space gore, the music, even some of the casting isn’t THAT bad (Zachary Quinto)), but there are just far too many things that I hate, why destroy a whole timeline only to then proceed to rip it off, and not even do a very good job. I was thinking J.J. Abrams could save this franchise (new Trek) by revisiting the Nero incursion in a future film and undoing the damage to the timeline, but now I fear even that would be too little too late. I purposely avoided all the teasers, posters and trailers to give this film its best possible chance of impressing me, instead I left feeling uncomfortable and cheated.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad Sci-Fi movie, and judging by the critics, it’s mostly favorable reviews and undoubtedly set to break some box office records, but as a Trek fan I have much higher standards – and this doesn’t cut it. Too many plot holes, predictable story elements, an out of character appearance by old Spock – the whole thing comes off cheap, like some non-canon fan fiction (no offense to the wonderful men and women ST novel authors). I will watch it again, and I wouldn’t go as so far as to tell people not to see this movie – but don’t get your hopes up too much, this is certainly not a return to form for Star Trek and most unfortunately, certainly not the last of this style. Perhaps eventually, once ST Online wraps up, we might be able to get back to proper Star Trek, in the prime universe – and forget J.J. Abrams and his crew ever existed.

Here We Go Again

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Happy to be wrong! I still believe another crash is coming though, perhaps when the last of the GPU/FPGA miners are obliterated by obscene difficulty factors in the coming months.

My prediction, $220 USD on the 27th April, then crash. Hope I’m wrong! Sure looks like an interested party is pumping up the price again, massive trades started about 6pm AEST.

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War on Bitcoin

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The following is an expansion (and update) to Mike Adam’s 6 step recipe to destroy Bitcoin.

Exactly what comes next I’m not entirely sure. But it sure looks like cattle being herded as traders are goaded to Mt.Gox. Bitcoin is in the process of being de-decentralized. This only ends one of two ways, with the total destruction of the Bitcoin economy, or regulated beyond all recognition.

Bitcoin Crash

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Bitcoin crashes over 50% just one day after bold public prediction by Mike Adams of Natural News
Mike Adams
Natural News

April 11, 2013


In what has to be the most accurate currency crash prediction ever made, bitcoin crashed today from $266 to a low of $105 in a rapid “free fall” market crash pattern, erasing $1 billion in currency valuation in a matter of hours. I openly and publicly predicted all this would occur yesterday, in both a Natural News article as well as national radio via the Alex Jones Show broadcast aired on over 120 am stations.

But the real story here isn’t that I accurately made this dire prediction less than 24 hours before it took place; the real story is that this crash was almost certainly caused by a covert central bank “stress test” of the pliability of the bitcoin market.

What’s especially freaky about this bitcoin crash is that it followed almost word-for-word from my predicted “recipe” of how the central banks could destroy bitcoin.
According to The Guardian,
Wednesday’s wild ride came as someone gave away thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoins on Reddit, the social news site. News blog Business Insider calculated a Reddit user under the name “Bitcoinbillionaire” had given away $13,627.69896 worth of Bitcoins to Reddit users over the day.
This giveaway is what apparently caused the bitcoin crash. But I have news for everyone. Having now made, on the record, the single most accurate crash prediction ever publicly announced on bitcoin, I think I’ve earned the credibility to tell you more: Bitcoinbillionaire is almost certainly not a friend of bitcoin. He is likely working for the central banks.
How do I know that? Because the “bitcoin giveaway” that crashed the market today was a calculated stress test to determine the “buoyancy” of the bitcoin market. By injecting a predetermined amount of supply into the market and watching the price reaction, it can easily be calculated how many bitcoins will be required to crash the entire market down to a desired price level, causing a runaway panic.
This engineered crash was, in effect, a currency war probe attack designed specifically to calculate what is needed for a much larger attack planned for the future — an attack that will decimate bitcoin and cause long-lasting distrust in non-centralized currencies.
Again, I predicted this would happen almost word for word in yesterday’s article, in which I outlined a 6-step “recipe” the central banks would use to destroy bitcoin:
Step 1) Central banks buy up massive quantities of bitcoin currency, driving the prices into the stratosphere and encouraging millions of people around the world to jump on board the “get rich” bandwagon.
Step 2) Once bitcoin valuations reach a sufficient level of insanity, start a massive selloff by dumping the bitcoins you already bought onto the market, offering them for sale at any price (i.e. sell into falling prices, accelerating the loss in valuations).
Step 3) Watch panic take hold as the bitcoin crash accelerates, ending in a catastrophic wipeout of “valuation” of all bitcoins.
Step 4) Find “victims” of the bitcoin crash who can tell a good sob story for the mainstream media about how they invested little Johnny’s college money in bitcoin and lost it all. Roll them out on CNN and MSNBC where they cry on camera and talk about how they were ripped off by bitcoin and now they only trust the government from now on.
Step 5) Demonize bitcoin by characterizing it as a “libertarian pyramid scheme.” Lash out against both decentralized currencies and libertarians.
Step 6) Once the demonization gains traction, have traitors in the U.S. Congress announce a “Consumer Currency Protection Act” that outlaws non-central bank currencies such as bitcoin. It’s all “for your safety,” of course. Shut down all online bitcoin wallets and exchanges, calling them “criminal pyramid schemes” and arrest a few people using bitcoin to send a warning message to the rest.