"iMoan" - iPhone Chargers!?!

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As in my first ever post, over a year ago now, I am coming to you with yet another 'iMoan'. I promise you, this won't be the last either. If you are also under the thumb of the world's most valuable brand, Apple, you will know all about the problems that surround owning one of their products.

You don't get to the heights Apple have reached without being smart and that is exactly what they are. From accessories to repairs, Apple have their innocent, tech-savvy market forking out near-enough the same amount they paid for their apple treasure yearly. The product that comes with the most problems is undoubtedly the iPhone, obviously, it is the highest grossing product of all time.

There is an endless list of problems that you should expect to encounter, during your time as an Apple slave, I mean customer.... Here are some of them; POOR battery life (typically after about 6 months usage), over-heating, signal failure, cracked screens, cracked hardware, button failures, microphone issues and many more. If do experience any faults, you'll know doubt be advised to get it repaired by either Apple or a 3rd party, Apple repairs costs are exceedingly high and if you dare go to the cheaper option, Apple will disown you, as they know everything, down to your every move (no exaggeration, check my first post).

The issue that we are ALL familiar is the dreaded cracked screen, whether you own an iPhone or not, you would have felt this pain, either personally or you've felt the pain of a close friend/family member. From day 1, when you first touch your brand new iPhone, amazed by it's simplicity, the fear of dropping your phone will kick in almost instantly. I am sure it's all a scam and my view hasn't really changed much but I'm not really going to push that to you guys, I'm just saying BE CAREFUL.


 A colleague, the owner of an iPhone 5S.. She's had her phone since January 2014 (1 year and 2 months) and it is MINT condition. I know, how the hell.. So unfair.. Here's a picture to rub it in..

She's obviously really careful with her phone, charging it only when it's below 50% and hardly ever dropping it, taking all this into account.. She's still dropped it numerous times, after all she is human and so are we all. We drop things. This admittance prompted me to ask the question, 'How is your phone so prestine?!'. She then told me, it's ALL in the case. She bought a shatter proof case that has well and truly lived up to it's name. So my first piece of advice is.. 1) Buy a shatter proof case.

This post however, is not going to be focusing on cracked screens (we're all fully aware of the possibility of cracking it). I am going to be drawing the issue of iPhones Chargers to your attention. With every new iPhone you can expect a new, unexpected, problem. You might realise that the iPhone wires since the 5s have become quite stiff, this is due to a tougher metal being used inside the wire. Don't ask me why, I'll just day it's all a scam. 

Unfortunately Apple's Lightning cables do tend to fray and weaken at the point where the port meets the cable. It seems that the cable just gets twisted here, and over time the plastic coating wears out. This brings me on to my second piece of advice.. 2) Gaffa that - use either isolation or gaffa tape to support the cable, helping it to stay straight.

If it's starting to weaken and wear away then a similar pre-emptive measure may help to ensure that it lasts a bit longer before giving way. But if you've got to the point where the cable stops working, more drastic measures may be required. 

The introduction of this 'upgraded' wire is coupled with Apple's new and improved software that can detect any charger/accessory that isn't an original Apple product. The world's most valuable brand has now altered the inside of it's products, this change means that the use of a Non-Apple product will actually cause harm to your phone, this is a sly yet in-your-face tactic that Apple have used to completely kill off companies such as Mophie, who invented the 2-in-1 case and charger, specialising firstly, in iPhones.

The main way to prevent this happening is by pulling the charger out by it's plastic port at all times and NOT by the wire itself. This should prevent any future malfunctions and should save you £15-25 every few months..


Here are 2 tips on how to treat this delicate piece of equipment, this should add a few more months, maybe even a year to your cable's life expectancy.

1 - Never pull it by the wire.

2 - Always pull it from both plastic ports, even if you are only using the USB.

3 - For your own good, don't bother using a third party charger as this will be detrimental to your phone's performance.



Gone are the days of phone's that could withstand falls from airplanes. You have to realise what you have in your pocket.. £600! You have to treat it like £600 and not like a Nokia 3310.

I must add before I leave you, that I am totally addicted to iPhones, I love everything about them and I know that a lot of you feel the same way, credit to Apple. It is for this reason and this reason alone that I am warning y'all to look after your precious mobile telephone device. The money Apple gets from it's sales clearly isn't enough, they definitely do want to take advantage of your blind love for this product, so open your eyes a little wider.


Stay tuned and stay blessed.

MVSTER OF GOOD DEEDS - MVRK BUSTOS

Hi guys, I trust that you're all making the most of your Monday and feeling absolutely fab. Just in case this isn't true for you, and in fact, you find yourself feeling down on this blessed day, I've prepared this post especially for you.

I, myself, had a wonderful weekend spent in the company of my amazing friends. Some of whom, passionate as moi, have started a media channel promoting healthy ideals of living, called Collective Truths. I was honoured when I was invited to join the movement and will be blogging more about them/giving you links and updates in the near future.

We are currently in the process of organising a day out, where will be looking to give a voice to the homeless community of our beloved capital. The plan is to spend a day interviewing homeless men and women on the streets of London, shedding light on what homeless life truly entails. The day will be documented by the fabulous Benjamin Bishop as we aim to uncover some of the secrets of the streets and to see what exactly, if anything, is being done for our fellow brothers and sisters. Over the next week will be looking extensively into the history of homelessness, gathering information and knowledge before embarking on a potentially gruelling, yet rewarding day.

My inspiration originally came from the time I spent living in London. During this stint, I met a countless amount of homeless ladies and gentlemen all over the capital, I even had a friend who chose to live with the homeless, in a shelter, situated in Euston. I found that every single person I spoke to, had never received any form of help once they found themselves in that dreaded down-ward spiral of life. It's a growing concern of mine that the country we live in seems to, as the talented Tupac Shakur once said about his own nation, 'eat it's own babies', not caring about those who fall to the bottom of the pile. I would be naïve, however, to think that this is just a national problem.

Today a news story broke of an incident on Skid Row, Los Angeles, where 4 LAPD officers were filmed shooting a homeless man dead. This blatant disregard of life is something that needs to be addressed right away, already this year we have seen 100,000s of people taking to the streets over the abuse of power demonstrated by police officers, especially in the U.S., in the past few months.

Click here for the Daily Mail article.

Thankfully, this is a rare incident, but.. sadly, this isn't the only way the homeless are being mistreated. As stewards of the Earth, it is our God-given duty to look after each other and the planet, two things that we seem to be failing miserably at doing. Maybe there won't ever be a mass pro-homeless movement, this however, isn't an excuse to do absolutely nothing. We can ALL, individually or collectively, make a change. Try and give someone a moment of your time, have a chat with someone who looks like they have no one to talk to.

One man (another huge inspiration), Mark Bustos, has set an great example for us to follow, Mark, who may work in a high-end hair salon in New York but once a week he takes to the streets to give homeless people free haircuts. Bustos has been offering free haircuts every Sunday since May 2012. His girlfriend often joins him and brings the 'clients' food. 

This is a truly beautiful story, where one man, simply lowers himself to recognise what another men and women truly needed and he gives it to them, no questions answered, expecting NOTHING in return.

When cheekily asked if taking photos was a publicity stunt, Mark replied "I didn't take photos of the haircuts, but now he does because he wants to inspire others to do great things for fellow human beings."

Here are some examples of the amazing work that Mark has done for the streets of New York..

His gratitude isn't only exercised in the Big Apple, Mr. Bustos has taken his heavenly hands to Los Angeles where he has performed over 100 haircuts on the ever-receptive, ever-grateful homeless population. Absolutely everyone needs to feel loved.

For constant updates on this man's tremendous work, follow him on Instagram, click here.

But wait I have more for you..

FROM NEW YORK TO HACKNEY

Another story, that pulled on my heartstrings, involving yet another homeless man, broke early last year of a young girl who was out, partying, in the hip area of Dalston, Hackney, when she came across a 'genuine, unassuming man'. The man was a 64 year old, native Jamaican and had one thing he craved. No, not crack-cocaine, not heroin or any strain of opiate, all this man wanted was to go back to Jamaica where he knew he would live a happy life, reunited with his family, free of stress.

Ms Baker said: “He didn’t want money or booze, he just said he loved a ginger beer, so I went and got him a ginger beer and a sandwich. He was a genuinely lovely, unassuming man.

“He told me that all he wants more than anything in the world is to go back to Jamaica where he says he will be fine and happy again.”

Check out the fully story, published by the Hackney Gazette.

The next day she put out a plea on the internet site Go Fund Me, and within 24 hours the target of £800 for a flight to Jamaica had been met 10 times over, with donations coming from as far away as Canada, Cape Town and Dubai.

The plan now is to use the money to help set up Michael in Jamaica and hopefully get him off the streets.

On Monday, Ms Baker set out to track him down to relay the good news, and was delighted to find him in the same spot where she met him.

She said: “He was so grateful, if not totally in shock. I am not sure if he is convinced it’s happening yet. The good news is he has a passport and family that he can go back to, so it should be easier and quicker to get him home than it could have been otherwise. I have a lot to sort out but I am determined it will happen.”

I hope these stories touch you as much as they have me and gives you hope that every single person has the ability to change the world for better. Realise that one of the best feelings you can.. feel, is from making someone's day. Divert some of the attention away from yourself and your iPhone 10 and make someone's day!

Stay tuned and stay blessed all, have the best week!

COOL DEBATES; 'SCIENCE HELP US' - Why Are We Racist?

Good day beautiful people! I hope you've already done your good deed for the day, whether it was helping your mum with the shopping or letting the pregnant woman behind you with two shopping bags onto the bus first.

Recently, I have spoken to many people, family, friends and professionals, about the seemingly eternal problem that is racism. Racism isn't a new phenomenon, and we've most probably all been on the receiving end of it, whether it was 'light-hearted' and 'jovial' or outright, in-your-face, r a c i s m, we've all experienced it. But the question is, why? Why are we still racist, why does it still exist? What is the 'science' behind racism?

If you've viewed my last post, you would have seen that I was talking about our life's number one enemy, fear. Fear is the main thing that stops us from doing the things we want to in life. As people, naturally, one of our favourite things to do is meeting new people, not only is this one of our favourite things to do, but it is also essential for the growth of every human being, no exaggeration. If we all spoke to each other, the knowledge we would gain would make humans, as a collective, one of the most powerful forces in the universe. But anyway, back to fear. How is fear related to racism?

About two nights ago now, I found myself knee deep in a debate on LBC (Leading Britain's Conversation, formally London's Biggest Conversation) 97.3 FM. It was around 2am and I was listening to Cristo Foufas' show, which is AMAZING. Cristo, an exuberant man of the Greek variety from St. Albans, loves to touch on all the topics that a lot of radio presenters are scared to talk about. He began by talking about UKIP and a news story that had broke, where a member of the party, Rozanne Duncan, was videoed saying that she "didn't know why, but she doesn't like negroes or people with negroid features", she then followed this by saying.. "I am in NO WAY racist", when I heard this it had me thinking.... 'what? How can that not be racist?!'...

The fab Cristo then opened up the show for listeners to call in, which they did, in their 100s. The majority agreeing with Cristo in saying that the woman was racist and her comments were derogatory. The mood of the conversation started to alter after a few people (from African backgrounds) phoned in, claiming that categorically, the entire white race is racist for one reason or another, a very racist statement, in itself, the issue was getting nowhere. This massive generalisation was picked up on by the LBC presenter, who said "hold on, we can't be making such huge generalisations.. It makes you just as bad".

After a few more opinionated callers, up stepped 'Anthony', a caller from Greater London, who votes for UKIP. Anthony came on, and some would say, bravely, defended Ms. Duncan's comments, claiming that he too was not racist but also had a problem with some Africans. This instantly alarmed me as I could hear the honesty in what he was saying, I could hear that he was genuinely distressed by his opinions and did believe that he was not racist. He specified, he stated that he was friends with plenty of Africans.. But mainly eastern and southern as he had a problem with the way Western Africans and Caribbeans looked. Cristo then stopped Anthony with a sentence, 'So.. you are basically saying that you don't like the black people that look more black?', to which Anthony replied, 'Yes. But I am NOT racist'. As you can imagine, given this day and age, Anthony was promptly laughed off the air as a racist.

I thought that something was wrong here, something fundamental had been missed and in order to get to the root of this serious problem, an element of understanding has to be applied to the situation. At 3am, eyes half shut, I tweeted Cristo, saying 'I don't think you should be so quick to call Anthony racist' and said that it seemed like he was being very honest and true to his feelings and when that is the case, you must first try and understand someone.

Cristo replied to me asking me to message him privately, where he asked for my number and said that the show would like to have me on, if I didn't mind. I accepted the offer and no sooner than 5 minutes later I received a call from the station. I spoke to the producer of the show briefly about my views and the girl I spoke to seemed to agree with, saying that Anthony seemed 'scared' more than anything.

I said 'exactly..'

Cristo then had me on the show and we spoke for a good 10 minutes on the subject. I explained what I believed the main problem was surrounding racism. I said that Anthony seemed like an honest, good person and pointed out that he wouldn't say he was friends with Africans (eastern and southern), if it wasn't true. This made it clear to me that the problem wasn't the fact that someone was a different colour, it seemed to be more about the features.. 'Why are their noses so much bigger?? Why are their lips bigger? How comes they are stronger?

Naturally, when we don't know why someone looks a certain way or why someone acts differently, you develop a natural fear towards that person. This only means that when something goes wrong, the people that you're unsure of will get the blame and as a result feel the wrath of the vexed individual. This natural fear can be seen as a wall that you put up to people, and it can only be knocked down by talking to people and learning about different people.

If you don't take the time to understand and appreciate the people around you, you are susceptible to having your mind polluted by the current social ideals we have in place.

People who are able to come out and say they don't like someone and they can't explain why, need to be helped and educated. This is clearly a cry for help as they wouldn't say a word if they were happy being labelled as a 'racist'.

The end to racism is only ever around the corner, and will come, it will come once we make social and cultural studies and integral part of the education system. When multi-cultural societies were created, basic essentials were forgotten, you cannot possibly think that throwing a bunch of people together from all the different corners of the Earth into the same place, without firstly educating people as to why we are so wonderfully different, is right. It is always bound to go wrong in some instances.

If you have a friend who seems to have a problem with people who look differently, they may not be a KKK subscriber/Nazi, talk to them, ask them why? What is it that you don't understand about the person and see if some simple explaining helps the situation.

When we call someone racist, it does absolutely nothing to help the situation and the person, it only keeps them in the same place mentally.

Taking offense to these behaviours means that you are turning it into a personal attack, the issue is well and truly global. Don't be selfish, we all do wrong, try your hardest to act with love and first understand where your opposite number is coming from, that way you can sympathise and educate them on what is right and what is truly wrong.

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend and is enjoying 2015 as much as I am. Stay blessed!