iPhone Glitch: Remote Shutoff

So if you have had your iPhone shut off for no reason while you are using it, or being constantly spammed with messages with meaningless text and Unicode text, it's because people have found a way to remotely shut off your iPhone.

The instructions are to send a text message using any kind of phone, to an iMessage user with the following contents:

"effective.
Power
لُلُصّبُلُلصّبُررً ॣ ॣh ॣ ॣ
冗"

This should cause the recipient's device to restart, however effects may vary depending on small edits to the code, and may not even work at all.

Apple's response was that they "are aware of an iMessage issue caused by a specific series of unicode characters and we will make a fix available in a software update."

Until that happens, the only thing that could possibly defend against this glitch is to disable banners, iMessage, or jailbreak your iPhone.

Though this prank only went viral a few days ago, this isn't anything new. A few years ago, there was a video game called Tony Hawk's Underground 2. This game was pretty much one of the most innovative games of that time, being able to private message, add friends, stuff that we now have in modern-era gaming. But there was one infamous glitch that ruined the game forever.

When you sent a message to somebody in this game, it limits the number of characters that you can use, much like any other message in console gaming. However, if you plugged a usb keyboard in your Playstation 2, you can bypass the character limit. If you send a message with a long line of brackets to someone, their Playstation 2 will freeze, and be forced to restart. They didn't even have to open the message, only receive it.

It's actually funny how this prank had migrated from a game 11 years old, to common smartphones which almost everybody uses.

Anyways, that's all I have for this post, I know I've been on hiatus for a while, will hopefully start to update this thing again!

-GameKiller

"The Verge" is Biased towards Apple, a Lesson for Reviewing and Comparisons

Reviewing technology is a very difficult task, along with reviewing anything else. I, for one, know how difficult it is to actually write reviews that are actually good reviews(taking a look back at my older posts and reading them, I actually did feel quite stupid.). Often times when reviewing stuff you will have to compare them. You will have to record every important detail and even the smallest ones that don't seem to matter. You must use ALL of this information to write and create a good review and comparison. There is no way around this.

So what happens when you DO shortcut around this? Meet The Verge.

The Verge is a technology news network where they review and compare everything tech related, as well as deliver news articles about real-life stuff happening in the world, as well as discussions about science, arts, cultures and various other things.

But one thing about the way they review and compare tech, one that really irks some people a lot, is when they compare Apple's products to other companies' products.
They are biased towards Apple, and all of their products.

Let's take a look at one of their comparisons...

Right off the bat, you can see that they are favouring the iPhone 6 plus more than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in terms of how the size affects the feel in your hand. However what you can also see is that the iPhone 6 Plus is the same size, if not bigger than, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

Something doesn't look right, and this is a term called "bias."

Bias is defined as "prejudice in favor for, or against, a thing, person, or group, usually in a way that is considered unfair."

It's basically when you make a review or informative speech about one company's product compared to another company's product, but you repeatedly state that company A's is better than B's, to a point where it feels like it's not even truly considering what the other company's product specs are.

And when making reviews, you have to be careful that you don't look biased towards something, because that can land you in big trouble, with reputation, and if you are running a big network, like CNET and their bias accusations towards Microsoft, it can actually prevent you from doing some tasks like choosing the "Best of CES 2013" in CNET's case.

But back to The Verge. So while they are praising Apple like they're their god, many Android users are in an uproar due to their constant ignorance to some popular Android phones.

This didn't go unanswered though, as Vlad Savov made an article about his bias towards Apple... and that's why you should trust him?!?

As if the title didn't aggravate me enough, the second paragraph had definitely got me considered that he had no idea what he was talking about. I'll put a pic of it to show you what I mean.

So off the bat, he admits he makes biased decisions. But he tries to explain why he makes biased decisions. While some people may just take offense and rant about how he admits he's biased, I got angry because he a) doesn't know what bias actually means, and b) he uses parts of facts about bias that actually explains why people .

First off , he explains how "this is the whole point." Sir, the "whole point" of reviewing, comparing tech and eventually picking "the best phone in the market today" is about taking data like specs and features, putting it into consideration and choosing a phone BASED ON WHAT MOST OTHER PEOPLE WOULD LIKE ABOUT THE PHONE, NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT THE PHONE.

Because of this, The Verge was often considered biased towards Apple, because they fail to see things about stuff they're reviewing in the eyes of other people. Sure, they have different people working as different reviewers, but they all seem to lean towards all of Apple's products.

But one of the things that make Vlad's article seem bad was that he had confused the definitions of "bias" and "preference."

Preference means to like something over others. Compared to Bias, "prejudice in favor for, or against, a thing, person, or group, usually in a way that is considered unfair", there is a very big difference, especially in the way people would talk if they were preferring something, or biased towards something.

Let me give you an example if I were to prefer something or to be biased towards something, in this case, the iPhone 6 Plus.

PREFER: ...The quality of the iPhone 6 Plus definitely takes a step forward in some cases, as it's really light, really thin, and brings back rounded edges to give a better feel in the hand. Of course, this also makes it a bit hard to hold considering rounded metal edges would allow for a greater chance of the phone slipping out of your hand and dropping it, plus the reduced mass in your hand, and I definitely would have preferred a chamfered edge better, but those who really need a lightweight phone with a low profile could work with it. The thin aluminum case also gives way to the phone bending, but assuming you don't try to do origami with it, and you update to the next version of iOS 8 and it's new features, it should be one of the best phones to try.

BIASED: ...The iPhone 6 Plus is an amazing phone/tablet hybrid, and completely blows the others out of the way. The new light sleek design allows for greater comfort in your hand, and compared to other Phablets out there, this one isn't as awkward to hold in one hand. The new OS is definitely an improvement, giving it tons and tons of new features that would give Android a run for it's money. The iPhone 6 Plus is definitely one of the best phones to buy.

You can see a bit of a difference, as the first paragraph clearly outlines the good and bad of the phone, pointing out things that some people like and things some people don't like. It also warns you about the bending flaw, and the next update of iOS 8 since the current one has bugs, and stating it's "one of the best phones to try", as opposed to "one of the best phones to buy".

The Biased paragraph continuously states that it's the better phone, even though it's missing a lot of information, as well as views of the phone in some people's eyes. It completely missed the fact that Android actually had most of the "new" features that iOS 8 has, plus it states that "it's one of the best phones to buy", leading to people actually buying the phone without trying it first.

Now that I've given you some examples, let me point out the rest of the flaws in Vlad's article, and if you did not get anything from my examples, hopefully you'll see the problems I'm going to point out.

"To prefer cyan over hot pink is a bias" No, it's not. It's a preference. To prefer cyan over hot pink because you just like cyan better is a preference. To prefer cyan over hot pink because you're a guy, and you are more attracted to blue stuff like cyan is a bias.

"Do you like the feel of soft-touch plastic better than aluminum, rounded corners better than chamfered edges, or stock Android better than it's skinned cousins? All these are forms of prejudice"

No, these are not forms of prejudice. These are, again, preferences, and are not biased. And prejudice means that these are opinions based on little to no actual experience or reason, basically like saying "I like iOS better because I've never tried any other phone other than iPhones, so I think other OS's like Android and Windows Phone are stupid compared to iOS." That's biased prejudice, because you've never tried any other OS, and automatically assume that other phones are stupid even though you've never tried them before.

"Your hands can be a source of bias, too! The only way to judge the size and comfort of the latest phone is by reference to your own dimensions; thus, someone like Shaquille O’Neal might describe a 5.5-inch phone as small while I deride it as being too large."

This is where pointing out information that some people may like is a must in reviews. Even though you may have small hands and can't reach all of the phone's screen does not mean you have to say it's too large for anyone to handle. That is biased because you assumed it's too large for anyone to hold/handle because you can't hold/handle it properly. If you had said that "it's too large for me to handle it, however it may not be a problem for those with large hands", it's not bias, and it informs people of the large phone size as well.

And "reference to your own dimensions" isn't the only way to judge the size and comfort of a phone. You can very simply hold a stand near a busy place asking people a bit of their time to hold a phone, ask them if it is comfortable or not, and record the data.

And one more paragraph to sum it all up:

First, we don't want you to complain about it's bad parts. We want you to STATE bad parts to know WHAT PARTS WE DON'T LIKE ABOUT THE PHONE, helping us decide if we want to buy it or not. We also want you to STATE good parts about the phone, so we know WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THE PHONE, for the same reason.

Second, by applying your biased opinions, you make yourself, your brand, your overall reputation decrease as you constantly prove you are unworthy of writing good reviews. As your comments flood with hate, don't ya think you should try and make things better?!?

Third, you can't just "feed the thing to a machine for it to determine a numerical score." In the end, the quality of a phone is based on the consumer, but a reviewer's job is to outline the specs that people will like, outline the specs that people won't like, give your opinion, and what people would think of it too. THEN it's job done.

Anyways, long post aside, I hope you've learned a thing or two, share this to others to let them know about The Verge(or as some people call them, iVerge), and if some people you know actually listen to what The Verge says about Apple's products, share this to them so they can think twice before buying a new iPhone or giving other phones a shot.

--GameKiller

iPhone 6 Reports of bending, "Wave", and update withdrawals

So if you're into Apple's products, you should have heard about iOS 8, the new iPhones, and most of the "revolutionary" changes to iOS. As a new Android user, I had no reason to buy the new iPhone, but now it seems like I have even more reason not to.(Sorry, Apple fans.)

One of the big reasons why the new iPhone won't have a spot in my pocket is because it will permanently bend if I do. Literally.

The image above is Unbox Therapy's Lewis Hilsenteger bending his brand-new iPhone 6 with his bare hands.

Reports of iPhone 6's bending in people's pockets absolutely flooded the internet, giving birth to the new #Bendgate. As a result, Lewis decided to try bending his iPhone 6 with his hands, and ended up warping his phone. As an attempt to try and bend the phone back, he ended up cracking the screen, which doesn't use Apple's new Sapphire display.

Of course, people don't usually try to fold their phone in half, but even just putting your phone into your pocket, nevertheless putting it into your back pocket(a bad idea in general), can warp the screen by just a bit. Even when the difference is small, the phone's tendency to bend just gets worse with use.

The big reason why this happens is because to cut down on weight and size, they had to reduce the actual metal case with a thin sheet of aluminum. This gives way to a very malleable phone, and ultimately, a bent one.

Although this isn't my second reason why I'm not buying the iPhone 6, this is a bit that I definitely did not want to pass up.

A hoax ad for an iOS exclusive called "Wave".

So users on various websites have spread this hoax about microwaving your iPhone updated with iOS 8. By upgrading to the latest iOS version, you can charge your phone using a household microwave oven.

...Guys, what were you thinking?! I get it, it sounds pretty cool, but looking back did you have ANY COMMON SENSE TO THINK THAT PUTTING AN ELECTRICAL DEVICE INTO A BOX FULL OF MICROWAVE RADIATION WOULD TOTALLY NOT COOK YOUR PHONE?!

This is why people go to school, guys...

And my third bit, which is probably why I won't buy a new iPhone is because the new iOS update CRIPPLES your phone.

For some reason, the new update will render your phone unable to make calls, and the Touch ID finger scanner will be glitched up and unusable.

Apple has stated that they will release an update as soon as they can, but did not reply to their complaints about their new phone bending...
But these glitches only seem to be mostly on the iPhone 6 and 6 plus, and is not confirmed if they are on other devices as well.

Overall, this makes the iPhone 6 probably one of the biggest disasters in phone history, probably reminiscent to Windows Vista's various bugs.

So have you ever had your iPhone 6 bend? Have you ever been tricked into nuking your phone? Share this to your friends and laugh as they weep over their freshly-roasted iPhone 6!

--TheGameKiller