I get that anything is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. That's besides the point. My point is, beyond speculation, what do crypto coins represent?

I also understand that the value of the US dollar is being questioned almost as much without the backing of gold.

But what I really want to know is what is at the foundation level of Bitcoin that people are buying into?

I have a basic understanding of the blockchain, etc. I sold 1BTC in 2017 for $1200 when I thought that was as high as it would go. At this point, at over $100kUSD and rising steadily, what is the $ limit and what is that limit based upon? I thought it was based on the value of mining to check transactions but this seems... not worth $100k to me.

I've been thinking, the only tangible value I personally see in Bitcoin, because it's not really being used as legitimate currency, is for criminals. By now, there must be trillions of dollars in BTC acquired by criminals holding corporations hostage. When you've got people like Trump involved (either explicitly or by way of manipulation) with an executive order to establish a crypto czar, this suggests to me that he's creating pathways for bad actors to more effectively gain more wealth. These are the people who are most excited in Bitcoin, beyond speculation.

I mean, there's little to nothing on the up and up with crypto, right? It's a scam. Right?

Please, factual answers only. I'm looking for someone to dispel my speculation with genuine economics of the matter.

I'm looking to get a card for general spending that's not tied to any account. Is a gift card the way to go? Are these reloadable?

Don't say cash - lots of places don't take cash any more.

Given the previews of the new Plex experience, I think I'm going to need an alternative media player.

Here's my background.

• My media is stored on a QNAP NAS. All my devices are made by Apple.

• My library is a decent size. About 1,500 movies, 50 TV series, 75,000 songs, plus 2,000 classical pieces (would love a better way to manage classical music).

• I use PlexAmp on my computer to listen to music all day. If I were to listen to music outside the house, PlexAmp is my only music app.

• I use Plex on Apple TV to watch my movie and TV library. To a lesser degree, I watch home movies, music videos, and various media obtained from archive.org - I call this my VHS library. I also listen to music and look at my photo library from my Apple TV.

• The Plex UX for VOD is bad so I instead use Pluto and Tubi (not that they're much better).

• I'll never watch content on my iPhone. I may watch on my iPad but not often.

• I share my library with family so we can watch home movies during the holidays. They sign into Plex on either Apple TV, Roku, or their phones. I've also been happy to share photos from within Plex but this is being stripped out to another app which will not work for us.

It's evident that Plex is intent to shove VOD down our throats at the expense of an enjoyable experience with our own content. For the older people in my family, this simple will not work at all.

The most important aspects are (1) an Apple TV app and (2) music apps.

I want something that's relatively easy to setup. I'm not going to spend time building docker containers and reverse proxies (unless it's a one-click process).

I upgraded only because the speakers on my 12 Mini were failing making it nearly impossible to have a phone call.

(1) This phone is too big, heavy, and slippery and uneasy to grasp with one hand.
(2) The camera bump is ridiculously large. It’s laughable how much it rocks on the counter as you type on it. Not in a good way.
(3) The Camera button is in the worst place (accidentally clicking it constantly) and too confusing so I disabled it forever.
(4) I also disabled the action button. This seems too easy to disable silent mode which I have enabled 99.9% of the time.
(5) The screen is noticeably worse and has a blue cast. It’s not as sharp and the contrast is dull.
(6) I love the material used on the back, even though it makes it difficult to hold.

I fully understand the hardware is significantly more advanced but the iPhone 16 genuinely feels like a downgrade from the iPhone 12 Mini. I’m not happy at all.

I’m going to stop by the Apple Store this weekend and look at getting the SE.

Update:

After a couple weeks, I can confirm that I still hate how gigantic this phone is. I had to get a case so that I can use it laid flat. It's like packing a laptop in my front pocket so I either put it in my back pocket or carry a bag. It STILL wobbles.

I have to use two hands to do most things. Shockingly, web sites and apps still don't properly fit on the screen. The camera is just ok. Speakers are pretty good. I have no use for Apple AI other than the occasional image edit (which other apps do).

I've replaced the shitty Apple camera app with Halide. I access this from Control Center. I swipe left from the home screen to access the default video camera. I found a cool trick to utilize the Action button - use it to access a menu built in Shortcuts (basically mimicking Control Center). I would one thousand percent prefer to get rid of the camera button entirely.

I guess I've adjusted to the screen though it still seems too blue to me.

I really can't think of one reason anyone would choose to upgrade to this phone.

This phone would be perfect if (1) Apple shifted more of the weight towards the bottom, (2) removed one camera, (3) recessed the camera entirely, (4) made the back from smooth (sticky) glass that wasn't nano-textured, (5) reduced the height and width dimensions by 10mm, (6) got rid of the camera button.

Anytime I watch a video that's somewhat different to what I've previously watch, YT floods my recommended section with these video types. I don't mind some relevant recommendations but it's too much. There's only like six different types of 'genres' being recommended to me now and I've already watched most of these videos.

I know you can use the don't recommend this channel and not interested options. These don't really apply to what I want. I just want more other things.

YouTube is likely the world's largest and most interesting and unique collection of content and I'm seeing the same handful of shit day after day. I'm bored of it being boring. I mean, I like photography and would like more photography content - just not from the same dozen or so creators because I've already watched all their videos.

I'm not interested in the main menu items like trending, music, gaming, etc. I want quality stuff that's creative and informative. I will never click on thumbnails with surprised faces and arrows. Apparently my super power is the ability to discern and easily ignore content that's clearly click bait and rage bait. I guess the issue is that I'm not interested in content that's created to satisfy the algorithm. Algorithm content is all the same.

Do you ave any hacks to purge recommendations or to get new interesting content to appear?

Are there other long-form platforms (not TikTok) I should be looking at outside of YouTube?

I just submitted feedback to Apple because I was shocked that there was no apparent way to add a folder bookmark to the Home Screen. You can save a website to the Home Screen on iOS and created an alias on MacOS. So, I don't think this is something that's technically not possible to do nor a foreign concept for Apple.

Use case: I'm traveling and have all my documents in a folder in iCloud. Yes, you can set that folder as a favorite in Files but it would be more convenient, given. the hectic and stressful nature of traveling, to simply have access to that folder from the Home Screen.

Even better, now that I think about it, it would be great to have a Smart Folder so any document or email or booking confirmation or SMS or WhatsApp message, etc., that I tag in iCloud with "London" could easily be found from one spot on the Home Screen. Perhaps there's a future where we can ask Siri to show me all my documents and messages for my upcoming trip (not that I trust AI will ever be smart enough to figure this all out).