You need to get off that fence ...... it must hurt after a while!

We do not all have the benefit of living in a despotic banana republic where energy costs to the consumer are no where near the cost of energy production. I am also pretty sure the uptake of bitcoin (or crypto-currencies) in such countries is no where near to that in the countries that have utility companies supplying energy at realistic market values ..... I think that alone qualifies any so called whining (let alone that this is a public forum).

I bet you (and I know their last one was less than a day ago), but if the BTC rate hovers over $300 and looks like holding there, then there will be another price hike today.

If you are not on either side of the fence, by definition you are bang on the fence (and after a while, it must hurt)!
Also I believe you'll find that you speak just as loud with your money if you purchase old hardware ..... but I stand to be corrected on that last one.

Its called "preparing the field" for the next crop of S7

If you can push up the price of the old hardware, then you can "Justify" the massive cost of the "next Product"

My forecast fwifw:-   The  S7 will enter at $700 (3BTC) and the S5 will drop to $300

It most likely is the case that the S7 is on the horizon. I for one am out of this game for a while purely on the pricing, and seeing bitmain control the market to the extent of being able to dictate competitors' pricing, I may be out for a while yet. If however you are right and the S5 drops to (what now is 1BTC) on the S7's release, dependent on the effect the release has on the BTC rate, I may be back in sooner with the S5 or SF100 (certainly not the S7).

You install it just like any official firmware.  And there is the same risks of possibly bricking it if something happens during flash. 

This shows how to flash a new firmware - https://bitmain.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203559969-My-S5-hashes-at-about-600GH-S

bitmain i could understand raise in price, but at least give us back free shipping

Loving the irony of your trollposts getting this post to the top of the Mining > Hardware subforum, thus increasing Bitmain exposure.