Just think about it for a second or two. Could you go about your daily life without a smartphone by your side? Can you just give it and all your apps a time off? Not surprisingly at all, you can.

So hear me out. Almost two months ago my phone got really acquainted with the wall. Of course it got smashed, not into pieces but really damaged. I threw that fucker like I was playing baseball. At that point I had no working phone and for a few days I actually felt quite good not having to go online or answer some dumb call. This didn’t last long as I live in another city really needed to be contacted by family and friends, I couldn’t go full commando off the grid, hermit style.

I got my hands on a so called dumb phone, just a cheap dual-sim Nokia phone. It’s java based, doesn’t run your usual social media apps, which is really good. The only “app” that the phone has and is quite useful is the Microsoft weather app. Nothing more, nothing less, just your basic call and text phone.

I eventually came to the conclusion that I really didn’t need more and that was enough for me. Yeah, I gave up on social media and all the bull crap that comes with them. I stopped wasting time on things online that really didn’t matter to me, and that I went with the herd culture. I rediscovered reading and I also have more time to game on my pc, because gamers gotta game.

When I had a smartphone by my side I would always click on this and that, view that Youtube video and so forth. Yes, like any other human I was wasting hours and hours on crap. But don’t get me wrong, there are downsides to not having access to smart apps.

For example navigation, I had to keep my eyes always on signs so that I wouldn’t miss a turn or an exit and I also have a map in my car. Remember those? Ordering a taxi is more difficult and Uber or Bolt are not even an option. The same goes to ordering food, but that’s not that bad as I started cooking again and no to brag about it, but I do make delicious meals. Should start posting food pics on Instagram. Wait, NO! I do miss the option of playing online music while driving. If I really want to take photos I’d take my Sony Alpha a6000 and take some cool and professional snaps.

So it is what it is. I don’t really miss my Xiaomi that much, I can manage without it. When I had it I always had the tendency to keep on using it just because, without any reason in particular. I do waste time like any other person, but I limit my online interactions because I have a desktop pc and it’s kinda’ hard to drag it to bed to watch fail videos on Youtube before I fall asleep.

I did order parts to repair the phone, but it’s going to take a long time until they arrive from China. So basically I’ll be a hermit of sorts. Even if the parts arrive and I won’t be able to fix the phone it really won’t matter to me that much. I became free the minute I smashed it. I regret nothing. I did order an LG G6 a few weeks ago, but I returned it, I didn’t even open the box. I’m quite happy now, as I have enough time to do things I never had time for. Work, play, write and eat good.

So the question is this. Can you put away the smartphone for a while? Let’s assume you don’t have a job the requires you to check your email on the go. Can you leave all the social media non-sense? Can your precious online presence take step back?

Yeah, if you’ve ever posted something on youtube or you’re a gamer or all thing in between you might be familiar with the term “copyright claim”. Let me explain briefly what really grinds my gears.

You post something, usually original recorded content such family, nature videos, your cat doing some’ stupid shit, you’d might record your own gameplay video, so people could see your choices and movements and the list goes beyond.

Youtube has an algorithm that detects if there is copyrighted music somewhere in the background of your video. And from there all the shit starts pouring in. Remember that dancing baby with music in the background? Yeah what a scandal…

We don’t care about your song 

I spoke a while ago with somebody that made a copyright claim on my video gameplay. Yeah indeed there was music in the background, but while the copyright dispute was in progress they explained to me what had really happened. I played a game, music in the background, they owned it. Short and simple, erase the song via youtube editor and everything will be fine. They actually told me that they could prohibit user from uploading even video content regarding gameplay, but they said that this would be at their marketing disatvantage.

That gaming studio chose to keep it simple and just flag videos containing music content that they themselves licensed from other companies. I get that, simple and sweet.

But, then comes another issue. I got flagged a few time for a gameplay video that had the slightest music in the background or just a few seconds. Imagine that, hours long gameplay video just to get flagged and not even given the possibility to erase or mute those few seconds. I had a huge number of views, as it was actually a live stream. People came , stayed till the end for my performance, not for those 15-20 seconds of almost inaudible music during the intro. That being said, YOU shoul stop using your corporate power of copyrighting towards youtubers. As I said, call it free promotion. Trust me, if a youtube gamer posts a video containing parts of a song that’s just free advertising. Nobody gives a shit about your song and record label. You ain’t shit, I’ll tell you that! I’d understand using a whole song on purpose, yeah copyright that video.

We need moooar tools

Youtube, for gods sake, we need more uploader tools. Such as a possibility to fight back false copyright claims. Any copyright claim should have a reason, a real one, not just ”copyrighted for content”. Bitch what? What content? What? I could easily make a fake company/studio and start making money by copyrighting other people content. What the fuck is this?

I’m gonna end this post right here, stay tuned for part two of me ranting on of how youtubes policies  sucks and how some people think they can make a quick buck.

Yeah, I still haven’t changed my mind, if you were wondering. I’m going to jump from one thing to another and talk about them as they pop in my mind, no particular order whatsoever.

The cult of Apple…1/2

“Yes, yes, my precious…” – That’s how Apple fanatics sound like and yes they are real. I’m from Romania, Europe in case you’re dumb, somewhere in the East if you’re a real idiot. I would see on youtube people standing outside for hours and even days in front of an Apple shop just to be the “first” of their group to get their hands on a new product, it didn’t matter if it was cold outside or a tornado was about to hit. The people needed that iPhone like they needed food. Well, I guess that’s how dumb people in civilized countries act. I remember people, friends of mine and friends of friends that actually went bat shit crazy when a new iPhone launch was just around the corner.

It was one summer, I remember going out for a run and later at night met with some friends and went of for a drink. Friends of friends came and went but I saw something that made me angry at that time. A few days earlier one of “those” friends asked me for some money, I didn’t judge, he had money problem and I understood so I gladly lent him a hand. Yeah turns out that fucking prick who was so poor and usually couldn’t afford a beer now had the new iPhone. Of course I was mad, told him a few things and they weren’t nice, trust me. Don’t think I was judging, I couldn’t afford a phone like that, I was more mad at the fad, the faux facade that he was putting on. It’s like you don’t have enough money to flush the toilet and you’re getting one of the most expensive phones on the market. Oh, the hypocrisy. Hope that new phone helps you pay the rent. LMAO

The phone wars. Remember when Apple fans always used to brag out loud with their new gadgets, “my new iPhone is better…because”. Just like in those “I’m a mac and I’m a pc” commercials, only this was in real life. Each time we gathered for a party and such, somebody had to mention their phone, be it an Android or an iPhone. Man, those arguments went all night. And one thing lead to another…and you can imagine so many not so funny situations. Damn phones!

[…continues along the article]

The “meh” factor…

Macs baby, Macs! No not really, they were very niche in Europe. Since when? Since always! Europe was ruled by IBM compatible clones ever since the dawn of computers. Hell, even Romania had their own line of computers. Look it up, learn some history boi!! Yeah, there were Macs in western countries, but even there they were niche, mostly used in educational programs and designer and/or art businesses. Productivity was the main factor and so was cost, that’s why PCs became the leading choice. Customization was a huge factor, something that Macs always lacked or had but only to a certain degree. Yeah, even today, people don’t care how stuff looks as longs as it works.

The “wow” factor…

Yeah, nobody can deny that Macs always looked cool, at least starting with the mid 90s, before that they looked horrible. The 2000s brought a new aesthetic to Macs, almost see-through cases, colors. Just wow. They were beautiful, just like the colorful iMac G3, and let’s not forget the laptops. Candy everywhere! I was fascinated, I really was! Then they moved to pipes, to the color white, then to silver, black. Beautiful simplicity! Some do really care about how their stuff looks and feels while they are working.

Music on the go…

Ohh, the iPod, everybody loved it, including me. My favourite was the Mini, because, well, it was small, hence the name. This gadget revolutionized the music industry as we know it and that’s a fact. I came from a time when having a CD Sony Walkman was cool, yo! It was small, but a lot of music was in there, somewhere and all in the pocket of your jeans. Ohh, and colors, colors again, yes a bunch to choose from. Personalization at it’s finest. Good job Apple, you killed the iPod, congrats. You’re now offering that ugly big screen iPod Touch. If I wanted something huge in my pocket or in my hand while I was running or doing any other sport I’d just take my goddamn phone with me. Thanks for killing the mini!

1984 won’t be like 1984…

Well, neither is 2019, it feels like 2014, everything is just a bunch of bullshit, so fuck it. Innovation? I’m gonna talk about that a bit later along the article. Now I’m talking about the ads, the Apple commercials. I don’t remember ever seeing an ad that sucked, they all had that wow factor or had something relatable. I think that’s what got me into Apple products, the ads. Everybody was amazed by the iPod commercials for example, the ones with the black silhouettes dancing on a brightly coloured background while listening to music. Outstanding!

Then there were the iPhone ads, mentioning their use in science and projects for the betterment of mankind, insert Robin Williams, some nature, some African kids and you’ve got yourself an Oscar, for an ad. Yeah they used a large amount of high profile people. To be honest, I’m sold, those ads got me. So you win this round, Apple. Give some beers to your marketing team, they’ve earned them. Make that beer ice cold, baby!

Uhh, let’s not forget the books and the movies. Who doesn’t love a great comeback story, right? You know, Pirates of Silicon Valley, Jobs The Movie. Well these things got to me, they really did, because I was a nerd, mostly. I always saw Apple as one of the greatest tech success stories of all time. Now, not so much.

The hardware…

I’ll skip design on this one. Tell me why is it hard to buy a pc? I’ll tell you why, too many to choose from and not a good one in sight. Garbage, I’ll tell you, and I’m a pc user. Apple made a few products and it was and is always easy to know which type of computer is right for you. Kudos! Macs always had power and I’m not just talking about the architecture, they had more than enough hardware for high load usage such as video, music and so forth. Don’t get me wrong, the Mac Pro packs a huge punch, but I don’t agree with the way that trash can was designed to be upgraded, not at all. Yeah, try upgrading stuff on your own on your Mac laptop, good luck, or on the Mini for that matter. And on the iMac, heck the whole line of computers is a pain in the neck to upgrade components. I don’t need no Mac genius to crawl inside my computer to change my RAM, I’m perfectly capable of doing that on my own. #rant

Design and stuff…

Well iPhones always looked good and some still do, I believe design stopped after 4S, the iPhone 5 was just a 4S that played basketball. Tall, but still the same phone. The others, well, looked nice, but not so durable. Remember #bendgate? It’s happening again with iPods, out of the box and Apple says it’s fine, things like that happen. Wait, what? You stupid motherfucker! Quality control just like a guy with Parkinsons doing eye surgery. Find out more on this here, Rich from ReviewTech made a nice video explaining this issue. Heck I fucked up an iPhone because I forgot it was in my back pocket and I sat down in the car. Bummer!

My cherished iPhone 4S is cool, but I’s covered in glass so I always had to be extra careful with my phone, it was like having an egg in my pocket for crying out loud.

In regards to design, Apple has nothing new to bring to the table, heck they’d might even take things out, just like they did with the audio jack. * Insert Samuel L. Jackson voice: #motherfucker

Well, they could always make the screens bigger and bigger and bigger…there is absolutely nothing I think Apple can do in regards to designing new phones. It’s done, it’s there. Curved screens? Pffff…too niche! How about foldable? You gotta be kidding me!

The cult of Apple…2/2

Nothing brings more sales like some brainwashed fanboys, amirite? Dumb is and dumb do! Keep on buying an ultra expensive phone while you can’t pay rent, just because this offers you some fake sense of higher status. You’re a fucking idiot! I see things from a different perspective, I always try to imagine if a product actually is worth the money I’d be willing to pay for it. Does that cost reflect its actual usage? In most of the cases it doesn’t so that’s why the iPhone is a trap. The iPad used to be cool, but now it bends, or who knows, maybe it’s foldable and that’s actually a feature. Haha, silly me!

I’m guessing it all boils down to choice and money, mostly money. Nowadays I feel hesitant when I think about Apple products, I didn’t before. Strange, isn’t it? Yeah, gimme back my audio jack and maybe I’ll change my mind, a little bit. We all know that’s not gonna happen, but can’t a man dream?

I hope that with this decrease in sales Apple might take that chip of their shoulder and get their shit together.

To end this article, I’d like to say it comes at the perfect time, right with the #10yearchallenge. In all this time, you’ve read what has happened to Apple from my point of view. In the back of my head a voice keeps whispering “if Steve was still here…”. Not a ray of hope in sight.

Goodbye Apple,

Yours truly,

Mike

I’m sorry Apple, I don’t love you anymore. I waited all these years, hoping for something better but now it’s too little, too late.

Sounds kinda’ corny, doesn’t it? Well let me tell you you a little story about me and Apple. I first came into contact with an Apple branded computer in the early 2000s, back when they still used the Power architecture. I was amazed by their performance and their design was awe inspiring. I had a custom AMD computer at that time, so comparing those was just like the saying, comparing apples and oranges. I was in school, a computer nerd disassembling anything I could get my hands on and hopefully putting them back together. I could not afford a Mac for myself so I always hung around a friend of mine’s place just for kicks, his parents were working abroad and they always sent him all the coolest and newest gadgets.

Fast forward a few years, I was in highschool, patiently waiting for any news about the “new” phone that Apple would be announcing soon. It was 2007, I was hyped. And then it happened, Steve was on stage with the phone in his hand. It wasn’t just a phone, it was THE iPhone. I was stunned, worlds had collided at that moment and I definitely knew I had to own one. That launch was and will be a moment in tech history. That was the start of a new digital era.

Later that year the iPhone was available for the US, me living in Europe had nothing, i had to wait. Guess what I did? I had a friend of mine from the US ship me one all the way to Romania. It altmost cost me an arm and a leg. Nice! Well, not quite because it didn’t work on the cell networks from Europe at that time. I was heartbroken. It was cool nonetheless. Even though I couldn’t use it as an actual phone I carried it with me everywhere, mostly as because it had an awesome camera and I could get my music with me. Everybody asked me about it and also looked at me like I was from outer space or from the future when I held that iPhone. I actually felt like the rich kid from the block, with the coolest gadgets and shit.

Apps didn’t work, because of course they didn’t at that time, so I eventually sold it on eBay some weeks later. Yeah, I went back to java and Symbian phones, what a crappy day that was. So I found myself without an iPhone, but after using one even with limited functionality, I knew this was the future. I knew I’ll get another one when the right time will come.

And I didn’t get one, if you were wondering. After using my first Android from HTC I started having doubts about the IPhone. Yeah, I never went for my main idea, never got an iPhone, instead a cheap ass Android phone that started making competition on the first waves of smartphones, and an iPod. Music is life baby, had to own on if you were on the move and needed that specific playlist, wherever and whenever.

So it’s 2010, I bough a Galaxy S1, sold it, couldn’t get myself to spend “that” much money on an iPhone. Yeah they were expensive even then. I got a Lumia phone because I was deep into mobile and game development. It sucked, I knew Microsoft would fail on mobile again. I was stuck with a dumbass java phone, again. So one year later the S variant of the iPhone came out and I bough one. Eventually, the kid in me remembered why I wanted one and believe me, I was very happy with my phone at that time. It was just perfect, fragile nonetheless, it lacked things I had come accustomed to while using other mobile operating systems, but I was happy and made the most of it.

If you’ve reached this part of the article, by now you’d might think I’m some Apple fanboy, well I’ll tell you for certain that I am not and never was. Apple products were never perfect, were mostly hard to get your hands in and upgrade them but they made up by design and functionality. They felt perfectly made. If you’d look at the timeline of products you will see a shift in “design” right after Steve’s death.

I believe that the iPhone 4S was the last great mobile that Apple has made, after this they ran out of ideas.

History time…

If you look back in time, from the garage where Apple stared and the corporate giant it has become. Remember when Steve was giving Big Blue the finger? Well, ironic isn’t it? You’ve may have read books or seen movies about the company and about Steve Jobs. You can draw your own conclusions. I never cried like others when he died but I did feel a void inside my stomach. Yes he was a visionary, yes he went through people like a knife through butter but at the end he came up with design-perfect products.

The Apple cult, where owning an iPhone or a MacBook shows off your economical status. Uuu, look at me, I’m rich, I’m a hipster, I’m an artist and all the bullshit in between. When a new product launches people are attracted to Apple shops like ants to honey. Well, I could never understand that.

Almost at the end…

I always admired the style and functionality of Apple products in a way, but that’s long gone. At the time of writing this article Apple has had its first loss in years now. The smartphone industry is “saturated”, the iPhone doesn’t sell well for the first time since its launch. Boo..hoo! You’re not the same company you were a few years ago.

I’m not gonna buy a Mac Pro unless it’s absolutely necessary, a laptop probably not, an iPhone most definitely not. They took a huge risk in 2007 when they brought it (iPhone) to the masses, but now they are just pulling shit out of the hat. Took out the audio jack, why the fuck don’t you just take out the fucking speakers out for good? Apple doesn’t innovate anymore, that’s why I don’t love Apple anymore. Taking stuff out is not innovation, putting a bigger screen doesn’t mean anything. After all these years people (Apple fans) have started to notice these things and it was about damn time! You assholes!

Apple used to innovate, they made awesome stuff. I loved the way the designed their products. I could never say the same things about, for example Dell or any other computer manufacturer. Back in the day I couldn’t compare an iPhone with any other Android smartphone. They had a certain complexity within their apparent simple design and it took you a while to figure it out. Amazing!

Just a little more…

I went on a rant in this article but I don’t care. Maybe if Steve would have managed to put OSX on a Vaio, things might have turned out a lot different. I still have my iPhone 4S, I love it, it needs a new battery but other than that, it’s a good backup phone. I also keep it as reminder of the Steve Jobs era, when Apple was cool, when I loved Apple. Even today I still wonder if those “amazing” Apple ads made me love the iPhone. They did have quite a thing with those ads, they were catchy, very relatable, maybe that’s why…

I guess I’ll have to order myself a new battery from China and repair my iPhone 4S because I surely won’t get another one, ever. I’m done for now, see you guys in part two…

The simple answer is no, it’s not. To put this into perspective let’s dive a little deeper into what media as a whole is today. Clouds baby, clouds everywhere and everyday, doesn’t quite look that shiny for physical media, be it discs or tapes of any kind for that matter. Think about this, when was the last time you actually used a DVD or  CD, let alone burning one?

Let’s go back in time, in the 90s, the good old days of software, when the suspicious dude on the corner had drugs and pirated discs in his coat. Remember the time when hardware was actually expensive, when you could sometimes afford a cdrom, when you had to choose between a 1x speed cdwriter or speakers or maybe a cheap ass lpt printer. Let’s go back to 1999, everybody is using Microsoft Windows 98, it worked for daily office and home operations, sucked at games. The internet was in it’s infancy, those 56k modems made your telephone lines catch on fire just by trying to access your email account. Magazines were a thing back then, pc games, software, music and videos. Not anybody could afford to purchase them, as I kid I was so very happy when I could run a disc on my computer, didn’t matter what content was on that disc, it was something, anything.

Tis’ the year 2000, a new version of Windows with the same name came along to the masses and also Windows Me. Back in the day, an operating system gave you exactly what you needed, which is nothing, a graphical user interface and some pre-installed software. That was all. People started to afford more and more digital media on discs so content was flying everywhere. Piracy was gaining grown, heck, it actually became a standard, especially in Europe.

Enter Nero, the software that everyone  wanted and needed at the same time. This mighty piece of software offered a user the possibility to back-up, rip and create content from and on physical discs. Windows never offered such features like burning data until Windows 2000, and it sucked bad, really bad.

The business of physical media was booming worldwide, discs after discs, Nero Burning ROM became a household name. Most Windows installations from 2000 and XP had some version of Nero installed somewhere on the hard drive, not because it was needed, but it could come in handy sometime, maybe. Nero was media culture, remember when they tried going multi platform.

While the glory days of Windows XP I was also running linux, which had k3b, the nero alternative for linux and unix systems. Fear not, at one point Nero came out with a linux version, a nice .deb package for Debian derivatives. Never gained traction on opensource operating systems. Mac OS, never released a version.

Then Vista came along, there were some intended issues towards Nero products, yeah, intentionally made by Microsoft. Version 6 on Vista? Not even once! Vista came with some built-in disc features, that’s why.

To be honest, after version 7 around the time of Vista I personally stopped using it. Why? Internet speeds were good, flash drives became cheaper, p2p was a thing and there were websites with downloads for anything.

Enter the “free army”, and by that I mean the bunch of alternative software for burning discs. Dozens of them, free that offer the same thing, maybe even more. Yeah, you’d might get the occasional ad while starting the app, but nobody is willing to pay money anymore for useless software.

Ever heard of Ashampoo? Well, Nero, that was the final nail in the coffin for you when it comes to burning software.

To be honest, I still make a music cd or two per year and even those are rewritable. Yeah, I have an old Sony Xplod player in my car, but I usually use an audio jack connected to my phone so discs are getting more and more irrelevant to me.

If you’ll look at the Nero products today you’ll see some burning software to maintain the legacy and some bullshit mobile apps to sync and throw files around here and there. Nothing worth a penny, in my honest opinion.

So, physical media like CDs are mostly dead, such as the business of software for this kind of media types. There’s only one obvious conclusion, Nero is kind of dead in the water. Maybe they will survive with those mobile apps and that media home crap, I can’t say for sure. Maybe bundle software with hardware like they did back in the day….

Like most good things, they must come to an end, eventually. All that is left from my point of view is pure nostalgia. I salute you Nero, for making the y2ks awesome!

So, that dude and and computer parts are just two parallel lines, couldn’t you guys find someone who has the slightest idea in regards to computer assembly. I watched more than half of the video and those rams sticks still were inserted incorrectly so yeah, dumbasses. I’m guessing  that mounting a CPU in the socket is like brain surgery, you need some thingy to fix it in place and let’s not forget the thermal paste, you spread it like butter on bread. What about that PSU, still don’t know why you just didn’t leave it outside of the case, it was mounted the wrong way anyway so go figure.

Yeah, say something.  You may have taken the video down, but the internet never forgets. Your  content is usually “meh”, but never expected to go full retard. Never go full retard. Yeah, you one of those media outlets that just makes content thinking you’ll make money, bullshit content get you nowhere.  You guys should really hire new staff, people that actually know what they are doing.

For the past days I’ve been watching reaction videos from people that know a thing or two about computers and ohh man, they just took a shite on your front lawn. Here’s to losing subscribers, making  me and millions laugh hard. The Verge just became legendary stupid, and also a meme.

Recommendation: Get your shit together and produce some good quality content because you suck, hard, like those hoes on the edge of town near that broken ass gas station. Get off Youtube and stop trying to play with the big boys.