Revelation: The Bride, the Beast & Babylon

As the pope visits America, Bible prophecy takes center stage. Who are the major end-time players? What is the significance of the pope’s visit to America? Be informed and get answers that will prepare you for the future! Watch it, and share it.

If you want to know more, go here: revelationmystery.com

Apple iCar

No. Didn't happen. Bummer...

Although much rumours are going around about the so called Apple car project, with all the engineers from other companies (supposedly) going to Apple to help on that, we didn't get a sneak peek about it. Right until the end of the keynote presentation i was expecting the "one more thing".  No luck. Well, "hair force one" does joke a bit about it...



But don't get me wrong! A lot was covered on the keynote.

It started with no updates. Good. But then i was put to sleep at the sound of the news of the Apple Watch... ZZZzzzz... it was a good nap. The only minor interesting thing about it was the collaboration with Hermès.

Sorry, i did say minor.

No, not this minor:

This is at least an interesting Minor. The Morris one. And it's a racing Minor ute!

Well, but back to case in point.

The presentation was about the upgraded iPhones, and the BIG new iPad Pro. Interestingly enough, what i found most captivating was, despite Jobs hated it, the stylus. But remember Jobs hated them in a phone. And stylus for phones are really small and you do loose them.

But no. I believe what Apple did was reinvent the pencil.  It is not a stylus, it's the Apple Pencil. Or is it just a nice way of ignoring what the founder of Apple believed? Or was this already in the road map Jobs himself drew for Apple before he died?

I don't know, but i believe it might be true. There is something about Jobs vision still at Apple, embodied in his friend Jony Ive, and he is the head designer at Apple. Just hear about the Apple Pencil in his own voice:

It is a great technological evolution for the pencil. Still. You can loose it. And be sure many people will.

Apart from the pencil thing, Apple introduced force touch on their devices. They call it 3D Touch. It opens interesting new ways of interacting with your device.

Let me tell you something, Apple really knows how to make product videos. They are very well made. And i do like the moving pictures thing. It is a nice touch. :) Now, would i buy any of these? If iOS was more open, i would buy an Ipad Pro as my only device. I like the Microsoft Surface idea, but what keeps me from buying a surface is the same thing that will keep me from buying the iPad Pro: the operating system. But, still good products.

Ok, enough ramblings from me. If you want to see the whole keynote presentation, you can do so here:

All in all, yes. I still do miss Steve Jobs.

Little red knife

It was back in 1987. I was 12, and a new television show started that completely grabbed my attention. "MacGyver". It was December 5 1987 when the first episode aired. Actually the pilot episode aired 2 years before, on September 29 1985. But, the first time we saw it here in Portugal (at least where i grew up) was in 1987, on the main, at that time, Spanish TV channel: TVE1.

This newspaper article tells all about it (if you can read Spanish): Comienza 'MacGyver'

Ah, the exhilaration of hearing this tune for the first time...



"The series follows the adventures of Angus MacGyver, or "Mac," as his friends call him. He is a master of improvisation. Using his vast scientific knowledge and unique ability to see items as individual components he can use ordinary objects to get himself and his companions out of trouble. All he carries with him is a Swiss Army knife and, occasionally, a roll of duct tape and some odds and ends having forsaken guns (and firearms in general) after a and tries to avoid violence as much as he can." You can read more here: Macgyver online

The first thing that caught my attention was his pocket knife and the way he improvised solutions. His greatest tool was his brain. And we can see both of them (knife and brain) been used in this scene from the pilot episode:



Short after, my father, that worked in Switzerland at the time, gave me my first pocket knife. It was not a Swiss Army Knife, but it was red. It was (or is, still have it) a German made Solingen pocket knife. I was really happy with that knife. :)

And not just that, MacGyver could survive in any environment. I enjoyed especially the episodes out in nature. It really grew and developed my love for the outdoors. And they always filmed the most amazing and beautiful places. Macgyver was also all about taking care of the planet and environment.

But what really got embedded in our lives and popular culture was another thing, it even got its own expression: MacGyverisms. They are, put simply, things made with simple day to day items to solve a problem.

"While MacGyverisms were based on scientific principles, most MacGyverisms were greatly exaggerated for entertainment purposes. The writers freely acknowledge that many MacGyverisms would require very exact conditions if they were to actually work as shown in the episodes. The writers were always careful to leave out key ingredients of any MacGyverisms which created an explosive or otherwise harmful effect, to ensure that it could not be re-created by viewers." in Macgyver online

But well, all things have an end Everything changes. Or maybe not, like Peter Thornton said "good things don't".

Nevertheless, on April 25 1992 the last episode aired, followed by a "lost" episode, not previously aired, on May 21 1992. A couple of years later, two TV movies came out, both filmed in England. Lost Treasure Of Atlantis and Trail To Doomsday.

Macgyver lives on in our minds and pop culture. Short after Richard Dean Anderson retired from acting and SGA, he made an appearance as Macgyver again, in a MasterCard Commercial. There was also an episode of the MythBusters dedicated to him. And a couple of years ago Mercedes made a short film to advertise one of their models, starring Richard Dean Anderson as Macgyver. You can check all those videos below.

If you want to know more (if you don´t know everything already) check the official Macgyver website: MacGyver online dot com

Have a great day!

“Hey Siri, give us a hint.”

I have to confess that i am somewhat a fanboy. Not to an extreme. You will never find me standing in a queue (or sleeping), waiting for the store to open so i can spend a lot of money in a product i don't need. I just enjoy watching Apple's keynotes. And i have a few of their products. (They are very good!)

The next event will be 3 days from now, Wednesday, September 9. It will take place at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco.

According to macrumors.com "Apple's upcoming Wednesday, September 9 event is expected to be huge. The auditorium where it's being held seats 7,000, and the company may be using some of the available space to demo products that will be released. The event will see the debut of an unprecedented number of devices, including the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, the new Apple TV, the iPad mini 4, and the iPad Pro."

(More here: macrumors.com)

This event will have a lot to see, and i could just go on rambling about all the products, but, to be honest, many of the latest Apple products are just... well, disappointing. For me at least. I don't like the new iPhone's (too big), and the Apple Watch is just a fad. And a very expensive one.

But anyway, it is always a fun event to watch. And i am sure that, at the end of it, i will have the same feeling i always have: i miss Steve Jobs.

"Ei Siri, dá-nos uma dica."

Tenho que confessar que sou um pouco fanboy. Não ao extremo. Nunca me vais encontrar em pé, numa fila (ou a dormir), à espera da loja abrir para poder gastar um monte de dinheiro num produto de que não preciso. Apenas gosto de ver às apresentações da Apple. E eu tenho alguns dos seus produtos. (São muito bons!)

O próximo evento será daqui a 3 dias, Quarta-feira, 9 de Setembro. Vai ter lugar no Auditório Graham Civic Bill em San Francisco.

De acordo com o macrumors.com "Espera-se que o próximo evento da Apple, na quarta-feira, 09 de Setembro, seja enorme. O auditório onde vai ser realizado tem assento para 7.000, e a empresa pode estar a usar uma parte do espaço disponível para demonstração de produtos que serão lançados. O evento verá a estréia de um número sem precedentes de dispositivos, incluindo o iPhone 6s e 6s Plus, o novo Apple TV, o iPad Mini 4 e o iPad Pro ".

(Mais aqui: macrumors.com)

Este evento terá muito para ver, e eu podia apenas continuar a divagar sobre todos os produtos, mas, para ser honesto, muitos dos mais recentes produtos da Apple são apenas... bem, decepcionantes. Para mim pelo menos. Não gosto dos novos iPhones (muito grandes), e o Apple Watch é apenas uma moda passageira. E uma muito cara.

Mas de qualquer maneira, é sempre um evento divertido de ver. E estou certo de que, no fim de tudo, vou ter o mesmo sentimento que tenho sempre: tenho saudades do Steve Jobs.