iOS Security Updates just landed
Apple released updates for all iOS devices back to the iPhone 5s, that phone is more than 12 years old and is still getting security updates. I’m on the iPhone X and trying to buy European for my next phone, especially with Tim Apple sucking up to Trump, but 12 years of security updates is impressive commitment.
Know Your Rights: Consumer Contract Regulations
In the UK a 14-Day cooling off period applies where you have the right to cancel most online, phone, or mail order purchases of goods and services. With this in mind I’d like to cancel my subscription to 2026, and revert to an earlier version. I hoped the new version would come with improvements over 2025, but the same problems seem to exist and the price of the optional extras have just gone up. I think you will find I am still within the 14 day window, thank you for your attention to this matter.
Discussion: The world is at war against the USA, we’re just waiting for them to strike.
If I switched on the news tomorrow and the headline is “The USA has bombed…”, any country or continent could be at the end of that sentence and my surprise (or lack of) would be the same. The USA is being run with no guard rails by a deranged dictator, backed up by white supremacists and corporate robber barons. Any country is fair game including NATO members, in response the UK should switch to a war economy.
Policy: Companies should not own homes
I’ve been talking to people about this for a while, and I’ve had very little disagreement but I wanted to put this out into the world outside of my social circle. Companies are buying homes in massive numbers as investment vehicles, who then have shareholders who require increased profit year on year, allowing a tiny proportion of the profits to be paid as corporation tax. Companies should not own homes, when a house is built it should be marketed for a maximum of 1 year at which point it must be auctioned with no reserve and must be sold to a private individual. The same when a bank takes possession of a home due to mortgage default. Private individuals would need to have a cap on the number of homes they are allowed to own, starting at 10 homes with a view to reducing that number over time, but all rental income is taxed at the highest rate. This would allow private property investors to reduce their portfolio over time, with no more tax dodging by having a company earn the money and taking out loans to show a neutral balance sheet. Councils can own/operate as many homes as they need to fulfil the rental needs of the area. This should lower rental costs, and house prices while increasing tax revenue. What do the UK Leftists think? I’ve not heard anyone propose this exact restriction before.
Budget: EV 3p per mile confirmed
This will kill EV adoption, just to put it into perspective this is the equivalent of an average ICE car (38.6MPG) having 25.5p added per litre of fuel, in a single budget. The even more ridiculous thing is plug in hybrids are 1.5p per mile, so people with 80+ miles of range in their Golfs etc. will pay half price, even though they are needlessly dragging around an internal combustion engine for 99% of their journeys.
Teenagers using a VPN for the first time this week
Labour need some leadership turnover
Frugal Flagship iPhone
In 2017 my employer gave me £1150 to buy my own iPhone X for work. I knew I would not be working there forever and decided to start saving £10 per month in monthly saver accounts, 2 years later I left the company and they didn’t want the phone back as it was too old. Yay! I continued saving every month in accounts ranging from ~4-8% interest and my most recent monthly saver just matured and my fund has reached £1121.64 I’ve also been really savvy with my mobile plans over the last 5 years, my current monthly charge is £6 but has been as low as £3, and has absolutely been less than £5 on average. So my mobile phone costs have been on average £15pm. The iPhoneX is not getting software/security updates anymore, but there is nothing really worth having in this years upgrade: - 120hz vs. 120hz with ProMotion - MagSafe - meh! - 12MP vs. 48MP camera with better low light - 4G vs. 5G - but HD video streaming works perfectly on 4G. Do I keep saving and ignore the upgrade again? Or am I silly for running a phone with no security updates because I’m not that interested in a better camera? Either way I thought my little-by-little saving to get something nice and a little extravagant was worth sharing. The number of people with £50-£60 phone contracts is crazy.
20 years after the 7/7 terror attacks, I feel so safe now we are locking up these monsters
