May 17, 2017 Entry

GuuzakaTube                                                                                         05/17/17

May 17, 2017 Entry

It's a warm, sunny Wednesday where I am. Quite liking that. Finally a day that's 20°C+! For some of you, depending on where you are, you experience warm weather just about everyday. For others, it can feel like a rarity at this time of the year. Anyways! Let's discuss the 3 recent videos I filmed. That's right; three. “But I only see two on the channel? Where's the third, GuuzakaTube?” Read below to find out!

Eastdale CVI

Eastdale Eagles. Why is it that every school with that name, has to have an eagle theme? Coincidence? Corny? Lack of imagination or original creativity? Who knows. All I can tell you, is that this place was a large, fun, scenic building to walk around. Well, by “scenic” I guess I should specify and say what exactly made it scenic. You have a large field, likely shared by neighbouring Vincent Massey, lots of big grass patches, a large park across the road, and another one further south of their track. Nothing amazing, but if you wander around the area, you'll have a much better understanding of the Harmony-Adelaide area. You will quickly realize how many “hidden” forest paths and parks there are, if you explore it properly and know where to look. As for the Eastdale building itself, there's nothing extraordinary about its architecture, but its a big school that had a lot of interesting corners and crevices for me to wander around and photograph. I had a few silly suspicions about some of them, but thankfully, there was nothing present to be legitimately concerned about. I know. Laugh at me as you will. I was a little surprised to see that giant track virtually vacant, considering that you normally have a person or two, running or walking around it. During this visit, I only saw maybe a dog owner or two to the north. Let's just hope those dogs didn't poo on the eagle's racetrack or they won't pleased! I didn't see any “no dogs” sign that I normally see on other school's property, but I'm pretty sure they don't permit them. Not that people listen to the signs anyway! They'll go right ahead and walk their dogs on school property when the schools are closed!

Vincent Massey Public School

Eastdale's neighbour. While I've seen plenty of high schools that had elementary schools close to them, this one is only merely separated by a fence with several openings for the Eagles and Vincents to wander onto each others property in seconds. Bad thing? Certainly not! Well, at least for the most part. It makes the transition from Grade 8 to 9 for these guys remarkably easy, since they're super close to each other. Anyways! What did I think of this little school? I found it quite alright. Not as interesting as some of the other elementary zones I've visited, but it has its charms. For Vincent Massey, that would be the things I saw in the windows. I saw some weird things, cute things, typical things and all sorts of other things you may, or may not expect to see at a school. Heh, so important I did this while it was closed! Anyways, so I guess that's all I have to say about this place, so let's discuss the 3^rd mysterious missing video, shall we?

Dead Adelaide-Harmony-King Walk

Yes! What you see in the title was exactly what this video was supposed to be about: a walk along a portion of Adelaide Avenue, Harmony Road and King Street. Disappointing? Very disappointing! Like seriously, why did the phone have to die without saving the video? This used to be something that was usually an issue during the winter when certain precautions weren't performed, but what's the smartphone's excuse now? The battery died while it had at least 30% left in it. For real?! This battery isn't even the old one anymore, but a “newer” one. By newer, it's not “2017 fresh” but I believe that it was bought in either 2015 or 2016 as a supplementary battery to the internal one it shipped with. It is from the original equipment manufacturer, BlackBerry, and was brought brand new, but to be fair, going through cycles over 2 years I guess causes it lose calibration, but cutting off at 30% though? Sometimes it'll be willing to cut off at something lower like 15% or 10%, but either way, this battery is improperly calibrated. Period. “So how many 'dead' videos do you have now?” 5. Thankfully, that's not very many, and 2 of them aren't overly significant, one of them was re-filmed altogether (remember Westhill High School from Toronto?), but two of them are significant. I've detailed the solutions many times during the posts with those videos, so I don't feel like going over it again here, other than to quickly say that it will require expensive tools to repair them. To be honest, for this particular situation with the AHK walk, I could have avoided it if I had tethered the smartphone with its charger, but alas! I didn't and suffered the consequences of that. Common sense; after 30+ minutes of video shooting and photography of Eastdale and Vincent, why didn't I do that? Why did I bother risking it with a measly 2100 mAh battery bought 2 years ago? What a stupid risk! Oh well. I've learned a lot over the past several times these videos that have died in regards to weather, timing and carrying extra power. The days of videos dying will hopefully come soon. It's getting increasingly rare – thank God! So I'd like to work to make it become virtually non-existent! I can do it!

My Thoughts on the Sony Xperia XZ Premium based on videos

Image from Sony

Why am I discussing this phone? Because it's a “premium” 2017 flagship that I found interesting enough to discuss. Now aside from the fact that it's a successor to last year's Sony Xperia Z5 Premium, has a 4K, 5.5”(13.97cm) screen, I admittedly didn't know much else about it, so I watched a few YouTube videos to learn more about this Xperian flagship. In a number of ways, it's similar to its predecessor, but is also different and better in several areas, as it should be for a 2017 flagship. The two look similar at first glance, but when you compare them, you'll see their little differences. So based on what I've watched, here's what most people seem to praise about the Sony Xperia XZ Premium: its gorgeous HDR, 4K display, the IP68 certified water resistance, smooth performance, excellent camera and photo features, and its beautiful looks and colours. What did they hate? The price tag. If this thing ends up truly going with the reported $1145 CAD, then that's just nuts! If they're going to tip the $1000 mark, then they ought to throw in 128GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. Seriously. People have also proven that their backs are too easily stained with fingerprints, especially in the Luminous Chrome colour. I can agree that this would cause the phone to look grimy and gross, so using a case or carrying a cloth would be a good idea. I'd probably recommend using a case though. A screen protector for the front would also be a sensible move. Some have said that it's heavy and cumbersome to hold with one hand, while others say it's manageable for its size. Because this thing isn't even released in Canada, I currently do not have the opportunity to even toy around this. If you know me by know, I LIKE BIG PHONES! I've held the BlackBerry Passport, Samsung Galaxy Note 3, 4 and 5, iPhone 6S Plus, LG G4 and many others! I enjoyed the screen estate very much, so handling this thing won't be a problem for me. Now another thing people pointed out was that the fingerprint sensor will be disable once again for the American market. Not sure if they meant North America as whole, or if it was just strictly the U.S.A, but either way, that's a huge market to mistreat. Even though I don't care for it, a lot of people clearly do, based on evidence from American YouTubers. And finally, there's the issue with the battery. The Sony Xperia Z5 Premium had a 3430mAh cell, while the Sony Xperia XZ Premium has a smaller 3230mAh. Wait, what?! I don't care what kind of battery saving tricks they have up their sleeves, but that size is not going to hold up well for such a powerful, high-res phone. Nope, not without castrating your performance and downgrading your screen resolution. Again, this is why I hate this toxic, ultra-skinny, sealed, unibodied, non-removable battery trend so much! I mean, being sealed and unibodied is one thing, but do you have to make a smartphone so skinny that it chokes the battery size? This smartphone is 7.9mm thick. How bad would it be to make it 10mm thick? Sure, that will make it heavier than it already is, but so what? It's not like it's going to be as heavy as a brick, so I think the weight gain would make it worth it. Finally, with bezels that big, I think that they could have kept the navigation buttons off the screen and put them on that great, big chin of its! Alright so now it's time for the ultimate question: would I buy this phone?! Sorry, no. When you consider the phones that are already out, and that are to come later this year, this phone's got some quirks and issues I've addressed that don't make it worth it for its price. I'd choose it over something like the HTC U Ultra, but I'd rather go with the Samsung Galaxy S8+ or LG G6. To be fair, the latter two are also expensive and have similar storage internals, but they're also larger and look better in my opinion. And mentioning the LG G6 also reminds us that the Sony Xperia XZ Premium doesn't have a dual camera setup. Coming from a company that's supposed to be camera-savvy, it makes you wonder why. Outside of my strange strange biases and nitpicks, this is still a super solid phone. If you're tired of Samsung, LG, Apple and what not, but want a premium phone that's a little different, then buy it! If money, internal storage, a delicate backside, size and weight aren't an issue, then you probably won't regret you choice. If you're not sure, you can probably try it in stores when it releases in June, or from a friend or relative before you shell out $900+ on it.

What's Next & Other Ramblings

The first thing I want to say is THANKS! Thanks for what exactly? Thanks for the view count on my recent Mother's Day entry. To date, it has a higher view count than any other blog post I've done on this blog. I don't know if it was simply the title, or the fact that the Instagram advertisement I used for it had lovely pink & white flowers or what, but I'm just glad to see that my work didn't go unnoticed. Especially when you consider that it was 4000+ words long. Thanks again guys! I must also encourage you to comment, if you feel like it, to let me know what you think of the posts. Mother's Day joys aside, I plan to continue with day-to-day things this week, and nothing much else exciting, unfortunately. If that changes, you'll know with either another entry or a Twitter update. I'd mention the commentary, but I can already foresee that we won't see it this week, so I almost didn't feel like mentioning it all it, but whatever. It's still coming.

Mother's Day 2017 Entry

GuuzakaTube 05/12/17

Mother's Day 2017 Entry

Why is the title in a feminine magenta shade? Because it's close to Mother's Day. Because it is Mother's Day! Happy Mother's Day Bloggers! This blog post was originally supposed to be launched on Friday, as you can tell from the date in the top right corner, but because I didn't get it done on time, I decided to complete it Saturday evening, and launch it on Mother's Day. A much more attractive title than “May 12 2017 Entry” anyway. Just thought I'd answer that question in case anybody was curious, or too afraid to ask. Alright, to tell the truth: nobody probably gave two rat's backsides about this, so this is really just me more or less being lame and corny. So! Perhaps the bigger question is: what's been happening this past week? Well, in terms of YouTube productivity, it hasn't been good at all! This is now the 2^nd week of no videos at all! Kind of feels like three weeks to be honest. I've already detailed the cause of this from last week's entry, so to recap: I happened to strangely get sick on the April 29-30 weekend, and yet freakin' again on the Saturday 06-07 weekend. Oh, and it also rained heavily and coldly during those weekends to add an extra slap in the face. I know, some of you would be like “oh, boohoo! Woe is you!” while some of you might be like, “Sorry to hear that man, that must have really sucked!” Regardless of where you fall, I'm not hear to expect sympathies, pats, hugs and kisses, but to recap the scenario in case you weren't following from last week. Another random thing: the fact that I'm uploading a blog post on a Sunday is a very rare event. I normally upload during the weekday.

What Have I Been Doing This Past Week?

Not as much as I'd like to. I did spend some time working on that commentary I've been talking about forever, but then I decided to put it on the back burner and focus on other things – like getting this blog monetized! Sometime ago, I talked about my plans to get this place monetized, but then dropped the idea when I found out that you couldn't use your YouTube AdSense to connect to your Blogger Blog, and have advertisements serve there as well. Why? I was confused and disappointed about this, because one would think that there would be seamless integration for AdSense between the Google brands, but nope! If you set up an AdSense account for YouTube, you'll have to own your Blogger domain, as in buy one, in order to have advertisements served there. Initially, you could choose to apply for AdSense with a free Blogger Blog, but it would have to be chosen first as your only choice over YouTube or some other Google product. You would then have to find some other way to get AdSense on your YouTube channel. Another thing is that you can only have one AdSense account per person, so this can make things particularly tricky. Don't try to cheat it, because when the payment threshold comes things could get ugly, so just be honest and choose YouTube as your choice for setting up your AdSense account, and then monetize Blogger by buying a domain, or through other legal alternatives. If you're not interested in monetizing YouTube videos, or if you're not interested in YouTube at all, then it would of course make sense to choose Blogger as your choice. Given the 2017 changes with YouTube Creators and advertisement revenue I've detailed in this video, it'll take more work to get advertisements running on your channel.

How Is This Blog Going To Be Monetized?

Good question. To be honest: advertisements on blogs are annoying. Like, really annoying! Especially for the ones that pop up, or the ones that play so many numerous videos in the background. As a result, many ad-powered blogs tend to load so slowly, and create a miserable user experience. Don't get me wrong. I know they're a necessary evil, but too many people and companies don't quite know how to utilize them effectively in way that it'll generate good revenue, without critically sabotaging loading speed. With YouTube videos, once you watch an advertisement, it disappears and you're good to go, unless of course, the YouTuber put more video advertisements along the video timeline. Let's just hope that YouTube will keep it to no longer than 5 seconds for unskippable video advertisements. Sounds a little extreme and short, but again, user experience and satisfaction is key! Alright so let's get to the point and talk about affiliate marketing. “What's that?!” You may ask. Some of you very well know exactly what it is, and are perhaps even making a reasonable or substantial income off of it. Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting another brand, person, or company's products. You do this by finding a product you like and know much about, and earn a portion of profit for each sale that has been made, when the viewer buys the product from your link. The sellers (such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc.) provide you with an affiliate code that's unique to you, and you use that code to refer traffic to the target site. There are tons of in-depth articles on this, so I won't bore you any further, but if you've ever wondered why you see some YouTubers or Bloggers talking about products such as purses, phone cases, eyeliner, shoes, headphones and then you hear them telling you about optionally checking out the links in the description? These are their affiliate links, that they get a commission off of, whenever you buy the product through their links. Pretty neat, eh? Of course, you do not want to sound like a sponsored, desperate salesman, nor do you want to forcibly tell them to click on the links so you can get some money. This is of course obvious, but just something I'd shout out while I can. Be honest about how you feel about the product! Now, while I've been doing plenty of research on affiliate marketing lately, I've discovered that there are tons of programs you can join, but I also realized that you can join an aggregate network like Skimlinks, which saves you the time from joining each and every program separately. There are pros and cons to joining directly and indirectly. Some will insist it's better to join directly, while others will agree that it's better to just take a small cut from an aggregate like Skimlinks. You can research this and be the judge. At the end of the day, I chose Skimlinks. How did it go? Read below to find out.

Thank you for applying to use Skimlinks on atayoutubediscussions.blogspot.ca. Our approvals team has run an analysis and, unfortunately, decided that your site is not suitable for Skimlinks. Your site does not contain enough content that can be monetized, and therefore Skimlinks wouldn't earn you a suitable income. If you think that this was a mistake you can reply to this email at any time. We look forward to working with you in the future!

The Skimlinks Team

Queue the sad violin viola. The content part makes no sense whatsoever. If by content, they meant engaged audience or views, then sure, but otherwise just no. There is plenty of topics and content on my blog that could very well be monetized, so their analytics must have been looking at the extremely low view count on the blog. Part of me was urging myself to ask for clarification of what they meant by content, but then another part of me was like, “It's the obvious; your blog just doesn't have enough products you've used and know about, to allow you to chat about in details” So what should I do? Honestly, I'll just keep searching and applying to different networks until I get accepted. It's just part of affiliate reality; not every network you apply to accepts you, so you just move on until you strike the gold. I'm not one of those guys that does unboxing or review videos everyday, so I mention products when it's appropriate, and not just simply because I can, nor to add “stuffing to the blog”. That's shady, and is a possibly violation of Blogger's terms of service I believe. That said, I will try to make it more advertiser/marketer friendly, but worry not! It will not effect the quality of the blog, and will remain relevant to YouTube. So! I've planned to discuss the following 2017 phones for this entry: HTC U Ultra, BlackBerry KEYone, Samsung Galaxy S8 and the 2017 iPhone. Disclaimer: I have not personally used any of these phones (c'mon, they're expensive as hell!), so these will just be commentaries and nitpicks based on the videos I've seen, articles I read, and pictures I've taken a good look at. I am a smartphone nerd, and I like to commentate, so nothing should surprising here if you've been following for a while! 1, 2, 3 – here we go now!

HTC U Ultra

HTC

Unfortunately, the HTC U Ultra has a pretty bad reputation as being a “wasteful” phone. Why? Because it has seemingly amazing specifications on paper, yet the hardware happens to be missing 3 key functions that people wanted: wireless charging, a larger battery and a headphone jack. Understandable. Thankfully, it does have a microSD card, but with it's numerous shortcomings and a price tag of $999.00 CAD, that's a no go! Worse, it only has 64GB of storage! To some that's a lot, but for that price, I'd expect 128GB! My goodness, gracious me! Were they trying to make this thing flop or what? The sapphire blue colour on it is gorgeous, but not enough to make it justify its foolishness. Next!

BlackBerry KEYone

BlackBerry Mobile

Without a doubt, this is the most unique-looking phone I'm discussing of the bunch for an obvious reason – the keyboard! That's right, it's got a physical keyboard, but why? Why in the day of candybar, slab phones, would someone make a phone like this? To appeal to users who want a physical keyboard. That right there, is a big issue: aside from some remaining BlackBerry diehards, I honestly can't imagine Samsung, LG, Huawei, OPPO, Motorola, Lenovo, ZTE, Asus and all others out there, flocking to this thing for the keyboard, which is the only notable thing it has going for it. Well, a lot of reviewers are also reporting that this BlackBerry has a wonderful battery life. So do other, higher specced' phones out there. As someone using a BlackBerry device to date, would I buy this phone? The answer is ------------------- no. Shocking? Not shocking? I'll explain: this thing is running Android. While I obviously have nothing against the Android operating system, I bought my BlackBerry 10 device a few years back, because of the name, looks, keyboard and OS 10 operating system. For some, a modern phone with a physical keyboard running Android 7.0 Nougat, is a dream come true, but for me, it just doesn't cut it. Call me weird, biased or nitpicky, but it's just how I feel about it. Besides, I'll have you know that these Android-powered BlackBerrys aren't real “BlackBerrys”. I'll explain: you see, the BlackBerry DTEK50 and BlackBerry DTEK60 weren't designed by BlackBerry, nor do they even have their own operating system running on them. Some of you know this and don't care, some of you don't. They're actually badge-engineered BlackBerrys that have the licencing agreement from BlackBerry Proper, to rebadge certain Alcatel phones and put their name and logo on it, while BlackBerry sprinkles a little bit of their salt on top of Android. You see what I am getting at? I'm not saying that this makes them bad phones, but when you dive deep into it, you realize that BlackBerrys truly aren't what they once were: original, unique phones, from inside and out. Now I know this was supposed to be somewhat “short” but now that the opportunity has finally come to discuss this, I felt the need to just spill my thoughts and knowledge on the situation. The BlackBerry Priv was apparently designed by BlackBerry Proper, as is the BlackBerry KEYone, which is said to be the last in-house design. Some care, some don't, but BlackBerry OS 10 is dead, so if you want a newer BlackBerry that has all the applications you've been missing, then you'll just have to grab one of the newer handsets, or a smartphone from another Android manufacturer. Of course, there's also the iPhone, which I'll discuss later. Perhaps I should answer a “serious” question before I move onto discussing the Samsung Galaxy S8: Should you buy a BlackBerry 10 device in 2017? Only if you don't need much applications, accept the platform for what it is, and that it might reach its end-of-life this year. I personally think that “KEYone” should be spelt as “KeyOne” or even “Keyone”. The official spelling looks stupid to me. No word on Canadian pricing to date, but it reportedly costs $550 USD which translates to $754 CAD! You'd be far better off getting something like an LG V20, OnePlus 3T or a used iPhone 6S for less.

Samsung Galaxy S8

Telus

I know, I know. Too much people talk about Samsung flagships whenever they come out, and to make matters more annoying to some, they tend to call them the “best” of their class! Are they really the best? No, they're one of the best, but certainly not the best. It's a shame I didn't go out to get a hands-on feel before typing this, so I could tell you about how they feel, as I did with the Samsung Galaxy S7, but alas! The damn sickness kept me indoors for longer than I'd like. I had the opportunity way before then, but it never crossed my mind. Anyways! Three things peeve me about the hardware: 1) It looks a little too narrow. It should be broader. 2) They got rid of the capacitive buttons! Argh! Why?! Don't manufacturers realize that it wastes a little bit of screen estate when they do that? I much prefer the feeling of clicking buttons, but it looks like most vendors are trying to do away with that. Thankfully, not all... yet... 3) A Bixby button! Seriously?! As some YouTube reviewers have pointed out, this thing is a usesless waste of time and resources! Ok, so maybe they did not say it so harshly, but I'll tell it as it is, in case they were too afraid to. Seriously, not only has Samsung been trying to prevent people from remapping it to another application with updates, but it doesn't even completely work yet! Wow! What's the point? I, for one, never use these Assistants, so I'd hate to have a button wasted for something I'd never ever use! I'm not sure if someone has come up with a full solution at this point, or if Samsung is still being a spoiled-sport, but I hope they just give up and let people choose what they want to do with their $1000+ smartphone. You read that right: in Canada, this phone cost $1,035 for the regular Samsung Galaxy S8 and $1,115 for the Samsung Galaxy S8+. Can you say - SKY HIGHHHHHHHHHH?! Yes, you can! Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the non-removable battery! Yes, this is still considered a flaw that I wish would go away! As I've mentioned sometime back in one of my entries or videos, you do not need to make the battery non-removable to guarantee water-resistance. That's false. Need proof? Just look at the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the Kyocera DuraForce XD for legitimate evidence. Despite the few hardware flaws and sky-high price tag, it still remains a very solid choice for a 2017 Android Flagship. In case I haven't said it already, it's also gorgeous to look at. I just wish that Samsung would stop trying too hard to build their own massive ecosystem (TouchWiz!) on top of another ecosystem (Android!) that already does the job just fine. It's no wonder their phones lag so badly after a while, and it's not just them that's guilty of this, but others too. To date, I know the Google Pixels are of course unskinned, and I believe Nokia uses an unskinned version of Android too. If they want people to use Samsung applications and resources so badly, then spill that effort, time and Samsung Applications onto Tizen, and transform it into a polished, alternative operating system! Seriously, rather than have Tizen sit as a 2^nd class, hobby project that's highly susceptible to malware, and has been absent from high-end phones, put it to good use and quit horsing around! Don't want to take it seriously? Then just axe it, save your money and resources, and free-up your current Android phones from your heavy skin! Again, this entry turned out to be pretty long, but I said my piece and feel satisfied. So! Which should you buy? The S8 or S8+? Buy the S8+. It has more screen estate and a bigger battery than its smaller sibling, yet retains all the other good specifications.

LG G6

LG

Ah, LG. The brand that's often seen as the 2^nd option to Samsung. How do I feel about the LG G6? Well, I have mostly positive thoughts actually. For one, I like that they finally made the G series larger than 5.5” (13.97cm)! About time! One thing I hated about the LG G5 was that they made it so tiny and ugly. Not this time around! They made it large and nice looking. It looks really premium, and it actually has some decent thickness that has allowed them to fit in a respectable 3300mAh battery. Unfortunately, they just had to make that battery non-removable, but we can hope that the more niche LG V30 won't be worried about looks, and will fit in a removable battery while sacrificing a little glamour. Time will tell. Oh, then there's the dual camera setup! A lot of YouTubers have praised the dual lenses for not only their functionality, but also their image quality. The photos that come out of this thing are so good, that it ranks up there with the camera bosses like the Samsung Galaxy S8, iPhone 7, Google Pixel and a few others. With all this said, what would I change about this phone? Well, hardware-wise, I'd probably make it a little broader, change the virtual buttons to capacitive buttons, bring the volume buttons back to the back, and make the battery removable. I know, some would criticize me for saying that you'd make the phone look “dated” but that does not have to be so! You can make a phone, thick, stylish and functional, but almost nobody tries these days. Also, it's important to mention that even though this is a 2017 flagship, a lot of people have singled out LG's decision to go with Snapdragon 821 versus the newer, “more powerful” Snapdragon 835. Truth is, they're both high-end chips, and most YouTubers honestly said that they couldn't notice much of a difference. That right there, tells you that you shouldn't be concerned about it being noticeably slower than Snapdragon 835. Well, the average shopper doesn't care much about chips anyway, but some people do, so it's important to mention this. Like Samsung phones, people say that LG phones are also notorious for aging poorly (slowing down!), thanks to their mighty thick skin they run on top of Android. Never used one extensively, so I wouldn't know, but the numbers that have complained about both brands in this regard, speaks volumes about the situation. Of course, you have plenty of tips, tricks and guides to speed up your Android phone, but it would've helped if they'd just keep the clutter out in the first place. Oh, and if there's two more negative things I should mention about this phone, is the Canadian price tag of $800-$900 and the fact that the North American versions only have 32GB of internal storage! Seriously LG?! Why?! Why not make all versions have 64GB? Sure, you can try to import it from a region that will carry the bands to make it have 4G LTE, but there's no guarantee you will get that everywhere you go, and then there's also other hurdles that can crop up, so LG just messed up there. They better give all regions a 128GB LG V30 to make up for this! Anyways, despite the nitpicks I have with this phone, it's still an attractive piece of art, but I'd personally choose the Samsung Galaxy S8+ if given a strict choice between these two.

iphone 7, 7S and 8

Apple

iPhone 7S? iPhone 8?! What's going on here?! Which one's supposed to be coming out this year?! To be honest with you, I don't know. I was thinking that it would be the iPhone 7S, but then you see all these rumours and what not, pointing towards the iPhone 8, so I'm not sure any more. We'll know in a few months from now, so let's just talk about the iPhone 7 – wait! Unfortunately, I'm not a huge iPhone guy and I haven't watched many YouTube reviews on this thing, so I'll just focus on the glaringly obvious things I don't like! #1 No headphone jack. I know. A very original complaint, but I'm not the only one! Even iPhone users found this move to be a dumb, controversial move, and to this day, still remains a popular joke in many YouTube videos and reviews. It is stupid. Period. Bring it back with the iPhone 7S or whatever they end up calling it. #2 The button isn't a “button”, meaning it's no longer mechanical or clickable. Instead, it just buzzes to replicate that feeling, but what's the point? I'd rather just have a mechanical button I can feel and hear clicking. Not some vibrator. Samsung, you're guilty of this with your S8's too, but at least you have a headphone jack and card slot. Speaking of that, that leads to point #3 No card slot. The iPhone has never had a card slot, and I don't understand why. Sure, you can now buy 256GB iPhone models, but then that very same space has to be shared for both applications and multimedia files like music, videos and photos. With me being an app-heavy, photo & video maniac, I would much appreciate having a card slot for my photos and videos. It's also safer, because if the phone ever completely fails, you could just pull the card out to retrieve your files, as what LG G4 and LG V10 users have done when LG phones of that year suffered from irreparable bootloop problems. Yes, I know you can keep your files backed up in the Cloud and what not, but what if you didn't? What if you don't want to have to depend on the internet? What if you get hacked? What if you just want the convenience of removable, flexible storage? See where I'm getting at? If you never thought about these types of scenarios, I hope that this changes your view and outlook on the importance of phones that possess slots for MicroSD cards. #4 Non-removable battery. Again, something iPhones never had, but should have. I honestly feel as though they'll never bother with this, but they should! Why not build a separate iPhone variant that emphasizes ruggedness and removable components, while keeping the current models for the mainstream? Now that I strongly believe would give Samsung a serious run for their money! Do it Apple! You've got to try this at least once! #5 Price. Boy oh boy! For the iPhone 7, prices range from $899 CAD for 32GB (ripoff alert!) to $1159 for 256GB! But, wait! The iPhone 7 starts at $1049 for 32GB and goes up to a sky-high $1309 for 256GB! Mamma mia! I need not say more! With all the negativity aside, the iPhone 7 is still an attractive phone, and has a powerful A10 Fusion chip that offers phenomenal performance. Let's not also forget the fact iOS ages so much nicer than Android, and receives updates in a timely manner. Something that Android users are still complaining about to this very day, save for Nexus or Pixel users. Buy the iPhone 7 Plus over the teeny iPhone 7. You get more screen estate and a dual camera setup. Big phones rule!

What's Next and Other Ramblings

Whew! I sure had a lot to chat about this entry! So, if you've actually read all of that and are still alive at this point, kudos to you! Claim your white chocolate strawberry cheesecake in the link below. Kidding. Anyways! I've finally had the opportunity to go outdoors this weekend, so you know what means? New videos will be coming very soon! So aside from editing the new videos on Monday, what else will I do? Well, I'll continue my affiliate quest, work on that longstanding commentary, and take care of other day-to-day things. Happy Mother's Day once again, and God bless.

May 5th 2017 Post

GuuzakaTube 05/05/17

May 5^th 2017 Post

“What's this? No May 5^th uploads?” You might be wondering. Last week, I originally stated that I'd hopefully get an outdoors, commentary and gaming video up. That didn't happen. I was a little sick and it rained on top of that, so that didn't happen. As for the commentary and gaming, I wasn't able to find enough time to get those done, because I didn't make an efficient schedule, got busy with other things, and so on. Alright, things happened the way they did, so I was looking forward to getting things done next weekend, only to end up sick – AGAIN! Worse this time too, and on top of it, it's going to be raining yet again this weekend. Heavier and colder too. These unfortunate circumstances annoy me greatly, and the fact that it happened twice in such a short time period is pretty freaky. Slapped with the rain, then sickness, and then slapped by both again, with two times the force?! What could be the meaning of this cryptic occurrence?! Well, for the rain that's just the nature for you, but why have certain parts of Canada and the United States been seeing so much rain lately? Who knows. Well, I'm sure the meteorologists know, but I haven't personally looked into it. I do actually like the rain, but not cold rain, and it's less enjoyable when you're under the weather. My sickness: what's going on here? Why have I been dinged twice in such a short time period? Not enough vitamin C? Cold drafts? Have I touched an unexpectedly contaminated area twice? Or have I not actually recovered completely the 1^st time it struck (April 28), thus what I may be feeling now, could actually a relapse from last week as a result of not tending to it the way I should have? God knows, but I just wish it would go away now so it can stop ruining my plans and productivity! Sheesh, I'm so annoyed! ARGH! Depart from me nasopharyngitis, rhinovirus or whatever fancy scientific name you go by! Oh well. Telling the sickness to go away, simply does not make it leave faster. So as a result of this, there will not be any outdoor uploads for next week. Again. I know, I know: many of you would just say “Seriously dude? You're talking and acting as if people care so much, when hardly anyone watches your videos!” True, but you know why it's such a big deal for me? Because it just feels so weird to me! I'm used to uploading some outdoors shoots weekly, so to go two weeks without them feels mighty bizarre to me. As I also stated last week, I actually enjoy going outdoors to these various places over the weekend, so being unable to get out twice in a row, feels like being trapped. Twice. Guess I should take that time to finally get that automotive commentary up for next week. Thankfully, I've worked on it during the downtime, and managed to gather all the slides I need. I obviously won't bother trying to talk until probably Monday or Tuesday, when my throat improves. Sickness, delays, annoyances, and weather aside, I've setup a few accounts across various sites for the GuuzakaTube channel during the 1^st this month. I've done this various for various reasons: some to expand my presence, others for functionality. I was initially going to announce and link them in this entry, but because I feel that the profiles and what not, are still “incomplete” I'll hold off till next entry. Some of them I admittedly may not end up using very much, but only time will tell for sure. I hope to get back into full throttle soon, so I can try to get 10,000 channel views soon and restore my channel back to profitability. Don't know what's going on? Read last week's entry, or better yet watch this video.