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  • 2
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 4:39 am on December 14, 2011 - 54 days ago

    Funny, you guys told me Android already did everything Siri did! I’ll bet that even after it’s released, it will still be just a poor imitation.

    Google’s response to Siri is codenamed Majel, could be released by end of year
    –
    “I wrote about Google’s response to Apple’s Siri voice assistant several months ago and over the last couple weeks I received further details about the secret project. For starters it is codenamed Majel, which comes from Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, better known as the voice of the Federation Computer from Star Trek.
    Majel is an evolution of Google’s Voice Actions that is currently available on most Android phones with the addition of natural language processing. Where Voice Actions required you to issue specific commands like “send text to…” or “navigate to…”, Majel will allow you to perform actions in your natural language similar to how Siri functions. . . .” [continues]

    SOURCE:
    http://androidandme.com/2011/12/news/googles-response-to-siri-is-codenamed-majel-could-be-released-by-end-of-year/

     
    • Nicu

      Nicu 7:14 am on December 14, 2011 54 days ago

      This is probably the first time that seeing a piece of software does not immediately tell you how it’s done (yet, it took 11 years to have Windows ’95 as a poor copy of the Macintosh OS). And it’s so hard to make it good enough, that the details the followers (GOOG, MSFT) will get wrong will be obvious even to ignorant cheapskates.

      It was obvious for anyone with a fraction of critical thinking that declarations from the slavish serial copiers that they had the functionality for x years were just red herrings, meant to cover their scrambling in the background to copy it.

      • JPWatkins

        JPWatkins 3:12 am on December 15, 2011 53 days ago

        Well as I always say, “There’s a world of difference between *features* and *functionality.* Features sound good on paper and all through the design, specification, and manufacturing process. But functionality is something that can only be sensed and appreciated in actual use.”

  • 1
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 10:43 pm on December 9, 2011 - 58 days ago

    Here’s the next development in WebOS story. The saga more twists and turns than a [fill in the blank as you wish.]
    “Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman finally announced the fate of operating system WebOS this morning, after the company previously announced that it was ceasing the development of all smartphones and tablets running Palm’s webOS platform. The actual software’s fate was yet to be determined. HP said today that it will be making the webOS code open source. . . . “

    SOURCE:
    http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/09/hps-whitman-well-make-webos-powered-tablets-in-2013/

     
    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 10:54 pm on December 9, 2011 58 days ago

      I forgot to say that open sourcing is actually is pretty nice since many geeks wanted that. They don’t appear to mention the terms of the license though. The kind of license they choose to release it under is key. Also, despite what they say, one has to wonder if about HP’s commitment to the project, too.
      Other than some Linux stuff, has HP done much in the way open source projects? Is anyone familiar with HP’s record on open source software projects?

  • JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 4:39 am on October 26, 2011 - 103 days ago

    Interesting images and stories.

    Steve Jobs and Me: A journalist reminisces
    Brent Schlender

    http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/10/25/steve-jobs-brent-schlender/

     
  • 5
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 10:06 pm on October 5, 2011 - 123 days ago

    Villo,
    Don’t know where to post this, but was curious what others think.
    Since your changes, I now have to log in every time I come back to the site. Is this by design? Is it necessary? It’s very annoying to me (I can’t remember all my usernames and passwords,) especially since there is no (obvious) keychain on iOS (I say “obvious” because there must be something since I don’t have this problems with other secure websites.
    Do other users have this problem?

     
    • rastard

      rastard 12:13 am on October 6, 2011 123 days ago

      Log in on every visit required here too…

      • nolavabo

        nolavabo 12:19 am on October 6, 2011 123 days ago

        LOL, completely the inverse for me. The annoying need to log in every time that I visit didn’t happen this time.

        <>

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 12:58 am on October 6, 2011 123 days ago

      No it is not by design. I’ll put it on the list.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 9:24 am on October 11, 2011 118 days ago

      John, I’ve been watching the login issue. Only time I had to re-login was when I logged in from other computers in my place at the same time and had multiple logins open at the same time. Otherwise I didn’t have to re-login.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 5:05 pm on October 11, 2011 117 days ago

      Maybe that’s the source of the problem (as I see it.) I’ve been going back between my iPt and my Mac.
      Another problem I’ve had is my iPt crashing when I visit the Traderhood site. It has rarely ever crashed before, and never in Safari (iOS,) but after your site update it did it several times. Now yesterday I finally got around to updating to the newest iOS, and it hasn’t crashed since. This may be the source of the problem. I’ll let you know if I see any continuing weirdness.

  • 1
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 5:22 am on September 30, 2011 - 129 days ago

    Consh,
    sit is having problems where do I email you with particulars?
    John

     
    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 5:44 am on September 30, 2011 129 days ago

      Thanks John, you can send it to vilo-at-traderhood.com. I am actually implementing live chat with it’s own server and so there is some stuff going behind the scenes in that regard.

  • 5
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 10:48 pm on September 22, 2011 - 136 days ago

    And where is the line for golden parachutes?

    HP names Whitman CEO, Apotheker out

    On Thursday September 22, 2011, 6:34 pm
    By Poornima Gupta and Peter Henderson

    SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Hewlett-Packard Co named former eBay Inc Chief Executive Meg Whitman its president and CEO, replacing the harshly criticized Leo Apotheker in a bid to restore investor confidence in the U.S. technology company.

    The decision was made without a formal CEO search and piled renewed criticism on the board, which Wall Street has been blamed — at least in part — for the storied Silicon Valley’s recent missteps.

    Whitman, an Internet retail expert with a mixed track record, is not an obvious choice to revive HP, analysts said. The failed California gubernatorial candidate transformed eBay from a few dozen employees in 1998 into a global Internet retail powerhouse, but the final years of her reign were marked by sputtering growth, intensifying Wall Street criticism and a string of unwise acquisitions, including of Skype.

    While her elevation surprised many with its seeming hastiness — for the second time, internal candidates such as enterprise chief David Donatelli were passed over — Apotheker’s ejection had been a matter of time.

    He becomes the third straight HP CEO shown the door. . . . [continues]

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/HP-names-Whitman-CEO-rb-2082073864.html?x=0&.v=19

     
    • Senator Gronk

      Senator Gronk 3:35 am on September 23, 2011 136 days ago

      Why they didn’t hold out for Michelle Bachman is beyond me.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 6:10 am on September 23, 2011 136 days ago

      lol :-)

    • rastard

      rastard 6:50 pm on September 23, 2011 135 days ago

      “HP’s ousted CEO will take home $25 million”
      http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/22/technology/hp_leo_apotheker_severance/

      $25 million for 11 months of incompetence. Shoot, I would have been incompetent for 10% of that…

    • rastard

      rastard 7:52 pm on September 23, 2011 135 days ago

      Also gotta love the title of this article: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/22/technology/hp_board/

    • GotWake

      GotWake 8:13 pm on September 23, 2011 135 days ago

      They don’t know if they will spin off the PC business. They waited too late to buy Palm. The board is full of idiots. The future doesn’t look very bright for HP.

  • 14
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 10:36 pm on July 15, 2011 - 205 days ago

    Our “amateur” analyst was mentioned prominently here:

    http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/15/apple-q3-2011-earnings-preview/?section=magazines_fortune

    Way to go!

     
    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 11:03 pm on July 15, 2011 205 days ago

      Nice!

    • caruso2323

      caruso2323 11:06 pm on July 15, 2011 205 days ago

      Hey nicu ! … Congrats for being #1 ! …

      But I expect you to back-up your 20M + iP’s with some solid data points … OK :)
      My swing shares depend on you damn it ! … LOL

      • Nicu

        Nicu 5:21 am on July 16, 2011 205 days ago

        Nobody but Apple has solid data points about the iPhone #s. Fortunately they will announce it soon enough. But you know, Apple may grow at more than 100% y/y and still be attacked the week after earnings.

      • Birra

        Birra 11:42 am on July 16, 2011 205 days ago

        Nicu, how about a little more pressure. My continued retirement depends upon you! You’re right, however, Apple will always be under attack, else how will the hedge funds play their option games between slingshot earnings.

      • Nicu

        Nicu 10:33 am on July 17, 2011 204 days ago

        One hint is that : the white iPhone was out of stock in China and Hong Kong basically the whole quarter. Now it ships in 24h in China and 5-7 days in HK.
        http://store.apple.com/hk/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone

        I am the most bullish only in iPhone #s (which implies revenue and earnings bullishness) and if you look at my estimate, it’s “only” 1.6M more than during Q2. Not so for iPads, Macs, iPods not gross margin.

        For the iPhone, my reasons are that until last quarter, iPhone was supply constrained. Apple managed to sell 2M more in Q2 compared to Q1 – Christmas quarter. Now it had a full quarter on Verizon, white model and plenty of supply – still constrained in China and HK for some time (HK is a hub for relatively cheap unlocked iPhones for quite a large area). They also started selling it unlocked in US about a month ago. I am sure Apple continues to expand their market with many small carriers we do not hear about anymore (after 100 carriers, this is no news and the media just gives up reporting that). And among the whole addressable market, I do not think more than 10% know about the refresh cycle of Apple products, let alone the specifics of this year’s iPhone launch schedule.

        Only time (2.5 days now) will tell, but I think the other “amateurs” become more “professional” in limiting their bullishness by fear of being ridiculous (starting with Zacky, especially when he makes predictions 6m or 1-2y out). Most are also following each other or the best of them to some degree. I do not play those games, for better or worse.

        • Nicu

          Nicu 12:49 am on July 18, 2011 203 days ago

          Just found that about herds and I like it : “Most of us know that money managers, analysts and investors tend to follow the herd, but few of us ever really come to grips the unappetizing corollaries that:

          • Unless you’re the leader the view never changes; and
          • If you follow a big enough herd, you’ll spend a lot of time wallowing in manure.”

          source
          http://seekingalpha.com/article/226591-alice-in-evland-6-impossible-things-i-believe

          • Birra

            Birra 12:01 pm on July 18, 2011 203 days ago

            Add an item to the list:

            • If you follow the herd, you are the most likely to get eaten by predators.

      • Nicu

        Nicu 8:42 pm on July 19, 2011 201 days ago

        EPS $7.79
        Revs 28.57M

        20.3M iPhones – Happy now Caruso ?
        9.25M iPads
        3.95M Macs
        7.54M iPods

        41.7% GM

        guidance $5.5 LOL

        • JPWatkins

          JPWatkins 11:46 pm on July 19, 2011 201 days ago

          You were pretty much right on (as I expected.)
          I liked your strategy on estimating the white iPhone numbers.
          Really good work (for an amateur ;-) )

    • Nicu

      Nicu 5:18 am on July 16, 2011 205 days ago

      You know that being singled out in the poll means my inevitable errors will be magnified. I am not fully comfortable about being the most bullish. I just do my own thinking and try to stay uninfluenced by the other’s predictions.

      • caruso2323

        caruso2323 11:59 am on July 16, 2011 205 days ago

        Nicu is Nice to tease you :)

      • caruso2323

        caruso2323 12:01 pm on July 16, 2011 205 days ago

        See Nicu … You have de-throned me from being the Bullishest on AAPL … LOL

    • nolavabo

      nolavabo 8:36 pm on July 19, 2011 201 days ago

      DING DING DING DING! We have a winner!

      Nice job. I owe you another beer.

    • caruso2323

      caruso2323 8:45 pm on July 19, 2011 201 days ago

      Nicuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu You are my HERO !

  • 37
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 7:38 pm on March 2, 2011 - 340 days ago

    http://www.apple.com/ipad/

    Looks great and met or exceeded all my expectations.

     
    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 7:42 pm on March 2, 2011 340 days ago

      With the cameras, improved graphics, even more svelte form, other improvements, and maintaining original price and capacities, I’d say they knocked it out of the park (but of course the android collective will pooh-pooh it all the way into bankruptcy court.)

      • GotWake

        GotWake 2:18 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

        Apple moves to where the puck is going to be. It still amazes me how arrogant some of these companies act. I guess it does make it entertaining. :)

      • rastard

        rastard 2:53 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

        So let me be the first person here to pooh-pooh. :-)

        “Knocked it out of the park”? Really? For what is essentially a minor incremental upgrade? Perhaps my expectations are just overly high, but I’m not seeing *any* innovative new functionality/technology in the iPad2 that wasn’t already available in the iPad or the iPhone4. *That* to me was really disappointing.

        To reach the “knock it out of the park” bar, I’d expect the iPad2 to be something that would have existing iPad owners clammering over themselves to upgrade to a new one. This doesn’t seem like that kind of advance to me.

        Now, is it better than all of the alternatives currently out there? Definitely. Far better? Not so sure about that — had the Xoom been priced competitively I think its in generally the same ballpark, and if Android’s first 2 years as a phone are any indication for the future, we might expect to see a slew of other Android tablets catching up with with the iPad2 before the iPad3 leaps ahead again.

        • GotWake

          GotWake 4:26 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

          This side of Apple putting a nuclear fuel cell in it that only had to be refilled every decade, makes this upgrade a complete failure.

          Why don’t you tell us what Apple could have done with the iPad to make it a ‘worthwhile” upgrade.

          • rastard

            rastard 10:54 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

            Why don’t you tell us why you can’t at least make an attempt at common courtesy with the tone of your replies?

            I never said it wasn’t a “worthwhile” upgrade — I simply said I was disappointed that there wasn’t more and that this wasn’t close to “knocked out of the park” for me. What could Apple have done? I actually don’t know, but I’d know when I see it.

            When Apple came out with the original iPhone, it had all kinds of capabilities/features that I couldn’t have even imagined possible in a mobile phone. Same thing with the iPad – before using one hands-on, I would never have pictured a device of its form factor being as useful as it has proved to be. The iPhone4′s retina display also was such an advancement. Even the sleekness of the latest MBA kind of blew me away.

            Point is, all of these were all hits out of the park because they weren’t just incrementally better versions of something already existing — they represented some form of dramatic leap of technology or usability. Is there something about the iPad2 that represents such a leap for you? I’m not seeing anything…

            • GotWake

              GotWake 1:50 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

              “Even the sleekness of the latest MBA kind of blew me away.”

              What changed about the MBA?
              Thinner and lighter
              Slightly better screen resolution
              slightly faster

              What changed with iPad 2
              Thinner and lighter
              2x CPU 9x GPU – a lot faster
              Two cameras
              gyroscope

              So, the new MBA blew you away and the iPad doesn’t. Sorry, but this wasn’t just a “minor incremental upgrade”.

            • rastard

              rastard 1:10 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              @gotwake

              Seriously? Out of my 13 line post all you can do is attack the one line that my wording identifies as the weakest example? How about actually addressing the meat –which is the other 12 lines?

              You can keep repeating “Sorry, but this wasn’t just a “minor incremental upgrade” all you want, but unless you’re able to point out specific features/technology that weren’t already present in existing Apple products, that’s all this is.

              Not a single one of the things you identified as “what changed with the iPad2″ is something that wasn’t already innovated and present in an existing product that Apple users were already accustomed to:

              1) Thinner and lighter: sure, but only incrementally (offering another option with a smaller form factor would have blown me away, but yes, I’m aware Steve has said there wouldn’t be one).
              2) 2x CPU 9x GPU – a lot faster: Dude, don’t know how to tell you, but simply increasing the speed of something is the very definition of an incremental change.
              3) Two cameras: Already present in the iPhone4 and iPT.
              4) gyroscope: whooptido. Now it has a feature that even the Samsung Galaxy tab already had. Also already present in the iPhone4 and IPT.

            • rastard

              rastard 1:21 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              Oh, and “What changed about the MBA?”

              You actually missed the one change that was most relevant for *me*: SSD drives coming standard. Sure, they apparently were present as an upgrade for the prior models, but the pricing was prohibitive considering the drive size made them essentially useless.

            • GotWake

              GotWake 1:34 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              I just get tired of people like you talking down on a product. You Pooh Pooh on it and then talk about how the MBA really wowed you. You point out that the camera was present in the iP4, then talk about me missing the SSD which was already available for the MBA. I don’t think you can count it when it’s already an option. You just like to contradict yourself on a regular basis……..

            • rastard

              rastard 2:29 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              Truthfully, at the time I originally wrote “Even the sleekness of the latest MBA kind of blew me away,” I wasn’t even aware that the 2009 upgrade to the MBA had offered the SSD option. If I had been, the latest MBA probably would have wowed me less than it did. So I take it back; the advances of the 2010 MBA actually sucked. There. Happy now?

              You’re making false analogies though. The old MBA apparently only offered a 64GB SSD (a size that made it pretty much useless) for a $1000 upgrade cost while the new MBA comes with a 128GB SSD stock, and offers a 256GB upgrade (that makes it highly useable) for only $300 more. The iPad2, in contrast, appears to be offering only a crappy iPT-quaiity camera, a step *backwards* from the great camera on the existing iPhone4. Not exactly the same.

              But your point still stands — my including the 2010 MBA update among my examples really didn’t support my argument.

            • Zee

              Zee 4:23 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              @rastard. Allow me to ramble. The trick in running a business is to grow the business, and in this case to be promethean, while not suffering like Prometheus or Icarus. And whatever historic mistakes Apple made in the past, along with the perceived advantages an open system has, I wouldn’t ever imagine that Apple will allow the same outcome, second, even third etc time around. Conventional thinkers have conventional predictions, and often lose for it. Of course the worry is what will Apple do. And yet when you have the advantage, and no one knows what you’ll do, then that can be the advantage in itself. This iteration was about timing… So far there’s no either evidence that the smart money is trading places. Say the kitty grows to $100 bin and no debt, that’s a lot of powder… which is why the shareholders probably really like Dr. R. Sugar.

            • rastard

              rastard 5:54 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              @zee – Of the ancient Greeks, it’s actually Narcissus, not Prometheus or Icarus I’m concerned about. :-)

            • Zee

              Zee 9:27 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              @rastard. Hmm. Well let me tell you something ;-) *Narcissism* and to be *Narcissistic* are perfectly fine and not pathological under certain circumstances or conditions : 1.) *Naturally* for the sake of *Self Preservation*, it’s okay. 1.1. 1.2, 1.3 etc. 2.) After one has *Survived, too much*. 2.1) Having survived too much one will be endowed with *Spiritual Gifts*. 2.1.1. Typically *Charisma* is overlooked as a spiritual gift : On a more *Practical Level*, an example of one endowed with spiritual gifts as a result of surviving too much would be the stunt motorcyclist *Evil Knieval* who probably broke every bone in his body, at least twice, including the ones in his head. I would wager that the spiritual gifts Knieval received after surviving too much was, he could tell you better than any meteorologist in history when it was going to rain, and probably by a factor of 24 hours :-) Further examples of Americans endowed with spiritual gifts and who were not *Pathologically Narcissistic* might include *Hugh Hefner* or… I would wager that after Hefner had survived too much *Bad Sex* that he’d be able to look with his one good *Hairy Eye* at a camel toe from 10 yards away and immediately know who’d be the next *Kegel Exercise Champ of America* … capable of picking up a pencil from an ordinary squatting position … sorry. I digressed. What were we talking about? Oh yeah : Apple : They’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing. And they’re fine. What about you. How are you doing?

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 3:26 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

      LOL,
      I’m disappointed in *you,* rastard ;-)
      As the saying goes, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a wonderful Christmas!”

      Regarding price, the fact is it’s *impossible* for the Xoom to be priced competitively. They probably can’t make any money on it priced where it is.

      As far as Android devices catching up, I fundamentally I disagree with you that Android OS or Honeycomb can even compete with iOS (and this disregards what I see as inevitable legal problems for Android.)

      Frankly, I was very pleasantly surprised.
      I expected Apple to just dribble out improvements in order to just constantly stay ahead of the competition, but I think they just broke their spirit with the iPad 2. The Androids now must realize for sure that they simply cannot make money competing with Apple in this space.

      The iPad 2 has a back camera ,which I wanted, but did not expect.
      The graphics are better than expected.
      The form factor really stunned me and makes competitors look like they’re back in the 1980′s.
      The only thing I was hoping for that did not materialize is a retina display (I think for the iPad a 220 ppi screen would be sufficient to produce the retina effect.)Bbut I was prepared not to get that since the manufacturing glitches were well known. It will have to wait for iPad 3 which will probably have a quad core processor and something else that will crush the competition. I predict the next obvious big change will be an innovation enabling inexpensive unified hardware.

      • rastard

        rastard 11:14 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

        “As far as Android devices catching up, I fundamentally I disagree with you that Android OS or Honeycomb can even compete with iOS (and this disregards what I see as inevitable legal problems for Android.)”

        Android as an OS (and Android devices) have already leapfrogged iOS and the iPhone4 in a number of different ways. Am I saying that Android phones are better than iPhones? Absolutely not — but there’s enough parity that buying an iPhone instead of the competition isn’t anywhere near the kind of no-brainer today that it was 2 years ago — and as a result today a *lot* of people are opting for Android phones instead (for a variety of different reasons), and the gap seems to be increasing. Considering Apple had a nearly 2 year head start, Android’s growth has actually been pretty impressive.

        What this suggests is that Apple will need to keep executing flawlessly to stay ahead with tablets. From a technology and usability standpoint, Android has already gone from zero to being in the range of the iPad (that was my point about the Xoom). At this time, there’s little reason to buy an Android tablet since they don’t really offer anything above and beyond the iPad2 (and cost more), but if Android continues its breakneck pace of development, it won’t be long before they do have models offering features/capabilities above and beyond (or simply different than) the iPad, that people might be willing to buy despite their costing more.

        Which of us would have thought 2 years ago that Android phones would be outselling iPhones nearly 2:1? Yet some reports have indicated that they already are (personally, I don’t believe that’s actually the case yet — but it now seems inevitable that it will happen sometime soon).

        • conshmillo

          conshmillo 11:36 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

          Judging by Google’s market cap that “out selling” doesn’t do them much good.

          • rastard

            rastard 12:35 pm on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

            I’d beg to differ. If Google wasn’t making headway and “out selling”, their market cap don’t you think that their market cap might have actually receded significantly instead of just having see-sawed laterally?

            Similarly, one could assert that Apple’s market cap growth (and the fact that Apple is generating more profits than all other handset manufacturers combined ) is evidence that Android’s [low-margin] growth really hasn’t had any impact on AAPL. I’d beg to differ on that too though — if Android didn’t exist, Apple would undoubtedly have sold far more iPhones than it has.

            • hoomy

              hoomy 4:42 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

              It bears repeating that “out selling” is not the same as “out doling”: the giveaway model exhausts the market through qualitative failure. Slow + steady always wins the race.

        • JPWatkins

          JPWatkins 4:19 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

          We’ll have to agree to disagree about Android.
          While it has some functionality, I would never use it for myself and think it would be risky to use it for mission critical tasks. But the IT folks will likely overlook the problems since it is designed to appear highly optimized for enterprise administration. In that respect it is much like Windows.

          • Birra

            Birra 4:41 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

            With the plethora of malware and the ease of rooting Android, doubt that the IT guy who approves the use of Android in the enterprise is going to hold onto his job for long.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 8:14 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

      I think the biggest and most pleasant surprise was Stevio showing up and being as enthusiastic as ever. If he is fighting some nasty disease he is certainly not showing it. Whatever it is he is fighting, may the force be with him. As for iPad, it looks good and I’ll be getting one on opening day, but aside from the processor upgrade and having the cameras there is not much to be crazy about. That said, it will still sell like hotcakes. I wouldn’t go with Xoom for enterprise, nor for personal. Not part of my universe. If someone wants to be champion in their neighborhood for keeping up with Android updates (and Windows drivers), go for Xooms and Droids. I’ll rather be focusing on other things.

      • rastard

        rastard 11:22 am on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

        Yeah, Steve’s appearance was very cool.

        Not asking you specifically, but how much of a selling point are the dual cameras? I get the forward-facing camera; although beyond an initial trial I haven’t facetimed anyone, I can see the draw in having one for people to use on the iPad. The rearward-facing camera though? Are people really wanting to walk around using their iPad as a camera/webcam to take/show pictures of other things? The device size/form factor seems to make that not very useful — and the initial reviews I’ve read seem to be indicating that the camera quality is subpar to those in the iPhone4. What’s the draw?

        • conshmillo

          conshmillo 12:16 pm on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

          I think the rear camera is necessity. Apple is expecting iPad to be widely adopted by enterprise. I can see myriad of situations where worker needs to take a shot of something and keep it in records. Insurance agent would be a good example. It would be counter productive to be taking another device from the pocket, taking pictures with it and then having to transfer them to iPad for filing.

          • rastard

            rastard 12:41 pm on March 3, 2011 340 days ago

            Okay. That makes sense.

            Seems like for the vast bulk of users this wouldn’t be much of a draw, but I see your point — if incrementally Apple can sell XX% more iPads due to broader enterprise adoption, that’s a lot of bucks.

            Also, even if virtually no one else ever uses the rear camera in practice, it’ll still be perceived as a plus that it has one… :-) (despite all the marketing, I still haven’t met anyone who actually uses facetime)

            • nolavabo

              nolavabo 9:41 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

              Does meeting one online count? :)

              Our household uses Facetime 3-4 times a week. It’s mainly my wife and my son, and less often myself, talking to relatives who also own iPhone 4s.

              That’s 50% of the reason I’ll be buying an iPad2 ASAP; the iPhone4 is too small for anything other than 1:1, while the iPad can do group:group. The other 50% is my 2.5yr old son who is already hooked on iOS activities, courtesy of our iPhones and his cousins’ iPad1.

            • rastard

              rastard 2:49 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              Sorry, hope I didn’t come across as dissing Facetime. Conceptually, I think it’s a really great idea and it was a big selling point for me, but in practice, I don’t use it — and none of *my* iPhone4 using friends seem to ever use it either* (then again, most of us don’t have kids). It appears that video calls with family members seems to be the primary use case for Facetime — at least that’s what I’ve determined from the large representative sample here of you and SB. :-)

              My point was, even if it ends up that most people don’t actually use the rear-facing camera in practice, it’s still a great selling point to have it, for exactly the reasons that Consh, JPW, and others have already cited.

              * “Does meeting one online count?” You actually triggered a reminder about some friends of mine who *do* actually use Facetime. A buddy of mine travels a lot for work, and apparently he and his wife use if frequently for um, intimate moments, while he’s on the road. ;-)

          • eatingbeets

            eatingbeets 10:48 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

            [IMG]http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f219/jrock666/-1-1.png[/IMG]

            *patent pending

            • eatingbeets

              eatingbeets 10:56 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

              no image embedding… womp womp :(

        • JPWatkins

          JPWatkins 4:12 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

          I agree with Cosh. The rear camera is a necessity.
          It’s not about serious photography, but think of it as a basic input device. Scanning, capturing text, documentation, etc. Also very important for video conferencing. It’s how you show people things. How you make sure both people are on the same page about x (what the job is, what needs to be done, what the problem is, etc.)
          Then for casual use as a camera, fewer devices is better.
          Haven’t seen the specs yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s not as good as the iPhone 4. The thinner you make it the harder it is to get a good camera in there. I consider the iPod touch camera unacceptably low res and the iPhone camera just acceptable.

        • SB

          SB 6:27 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

          Re the usefulness of facetime, I personally held out buying exclusively for that feature – I want the grandparents to be able to chat with their grandkids. That’s at least 2 upcoming purchases. As for the rear camera, my 4 and 5 year old will love playing with it – they try with a regular digital camera, but have trouble framing.

          • GotWake

            GotWake 11:07 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

            So, Which version are you guys getting? WiFi, CDMA or GSM

            • SB

              SB 12:53 am on March 4, 2011 339 days ago

              WiFi, as it is strictly for home use and I can’t tolerate current cellular data rates.

    • caruso2323

      caruso2323 7:08 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

      I agree with both Consh and JPM … The rear camera is a necessity :

      1) Scanning … Just to emphasize JPM’s point … iPad2 being FLAT at the bottom, this makes it handy to lay it on a GLASS stand as it prevents movement and resulting blurring…

      2) One need to remember that the KEY thing about ANY mobile device is having the ability to do things not done before in places NEVER done before the spread of mobile devices … So if one is USING the iPad 2 the need may arise to take a pic, make a scan or get a translation with an app such as Prizmo or Babel.
      The photo management of pics (when not captured on the camera roll) on mobile devices (iP/iPt) is a drag. You would rather have those pics / scans on your iPad taken while not on the go, than on these devices for editing reasons and minimizing the synchronization time.

      But I am rather skeptical about the cam quality as I expect it to be on par with the iPT4 :(
      Also notice that unlike the Xoom , the iPad does not have a built-in flash :(

      4) Real Estate agents are bound to use an iPad (in addition to their cell phones which may not have a video cam functionality for extended recording) to display houses on sales to potential buyers.

      5) It is handy for FaceTime… As it is possible to transmit the rear camera displaying the environment while video calling.

      The only limiting factor of FaceTime is its incompatibility with Windows… and partial compatibility with iP3gs and previous iPT’s … This can be compensated through the use of Skype (which does not take advantage of the back camera) for cross-platform compatibility …

      There must be other advantages besides the above 5 ones…

    • caruso2323

      caruso2323 8:55 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

      My expectations as an INVESTOR were exceeded by the following :
      1) SJ’s launching it while appearing with the same level of energy and little if any thinner
      2) The March 11 Launch date in “volume” quantity sustained by item 3 below :
      3) The End of March availability in up to 26 countries (pending approval of authorities : I take that for the 3g version)
      4) The deployment of A5′s as it bodes well not just for the iPad 2′s but also for iP5, iPt5, and ATV2 as this will help in not just face-lifting the refreshed products but also working the margins down
      5) Those magnetic covers is a brilliant idea that will also help bring down margins due to their appeal.
      6) The “over” 100 Millions iP’s sold data point.
      7) A lighter iPad (-0.2 lb) 8) There was no “Sell on the News” this time … I attribute that to SJ’s appearance than to the investor reaction to the iPad 2

      However , some other expectations were not met regarding :

      A) Apple still playing the “Mountains come to Mohamed” game with Enterprise … (Large Business Corporations ) Still relying on Apple fans to get a toe inside (instead of a foothold)… Hopefully those fans are not just CEO’s but include Middle Management …
      The ONLY Business interest highlighted in Apple’s Video was salesforce.com with people around the conference table…

      B) Muted innovations in terms of the greater capacity at the same price, display quality, battery life, whatever that would have Wow’ed over the Xoom besides the “cool factor”so that I would feel confident that Apple has better chances at dominating the tablet market …

      As a Mac user I will upgrade from my iPodTouch 4g to the iPad 2 because I cannot afford to procrastinate … I need it and avoided buying the iPad 1 because of the lack of cameras (a BLUNDER by Apple who is keen on promoting FT) and the low speed and memory … Had I bought the iPad 1 last year, I would NOT have upgraded to the iPad 2 as I badly WANT a retina display, and leap onto a quad-core processor E/W that new graphic that is touted as being 100 Times faster than that on iPad 1 , and up to 10 times faster than iPad 2… I guess I will upgrade to the iPad 3, and pass my future iPad 2 to my gf so that I could FT with her , while keeping my iPT4 as I will not upgrade to iPT 5 for the same reasons… Hopefully the iPad 3 will have a greater battery life and lose another 0.2 lb, in addition to a ThunderBolt port to accelerate back-ups from a potential 128 GB … :)

      • nolavabo

        nolavabo 9:58 pm on March 3, 2011 339 days ago

        Yes, let’s talk about AAPL, not Apple for a bit.

        By getting it out in March, the big initial spike in sales will be part of this quarter. Throw in the minor benefit that Q1 (the Xmas Q) ended on Dec 25, and you can sneak in an extra holiday week there as well. Also, SJobs mentioned they recently sold the 100millionth iPhone, which puts Apple on track to sell 16mln iPhones this Q.

        Net result? With such explosive growth in iPhone/iPad sales, there will probably two major points at the April 20 earnings CC.

        1) Q2 EPS will match, maybe exceed Q1. This will be huge as traditionally Q2 is weakest, Q1 is strongest. We may see even greater YoY EPS growth than last Q as well. 81% is possible.

        2) iPad revenue will probably exceed Mac revenue. A new revenue stream exceeds Mac, and inside a 12 month period. Incredible.

        How does this translate to the PPS? I am now operating with the expectation that we will see $394-397 (three different TA systems land inside this range) just before earnings as analysts and hedge funds do their homework and start realising what a cash juggernaut this company is. I’ll post more in my other thread about P/E closer to earnings.

  • 15
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 2:44 pm on October 20, 2010 - 473 days ago

    Quite an interesting presentation. I was impressed.
    Like where Lion is going.
    Really see a great value proposition for the MBAs. I see them as real computers now rather than just luxuries.

    What do you think?

     
    • nolavabo

      nolavabo 2:47 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      Facetime for Macs! Facetime for Macs! Facetime for Macs! Facetime for Macs! Facetime for Macs!

      Inevitable, even obvious. But I was waiting on this to buy an iPhone 4.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 2:47 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      BTW,
      Link to video of the event:
      http://www.apple.com/apple-events/

    • nolavabo

      nolavabo 2:48 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      Oh, and the Mac App Store. If I can buy iLife 11 through it, all the better.

      Expect to see the Windows 7 App Store announced before Christmas.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 3:01 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      Yeah. I’m a little surprised this isn’t bigger news.
      I see this as an indication all mobile computing will now go solid state, which means faster, more powerful, instantly usable, and hard times for HDD manufacturers.
      Lots of cool stuff. Some of my faves:
      MBA
      iOS features coming to the Mac (still not too impressed with the Magic trackpad mouse though)
      Loved the new features on iLife
      Lion looks to be a very interesting move. The iDevices, far from canbalizing Macs look like they will reinforce Macs, and visa versa.

      I’m excited.

    • carlmuck

      carlmuck 3:30 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      MBA pricing looks good, its right about where the high-end netbooks were. And MBA is a better answer there. I’ll probably be getting the MBA 11.6 for my daughter to replacer her Acer (and make her very happy at Christmas!)

    • GotWake

      GotWake 4:51 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      That was a great presentation. Steve and Co. have outdone themselves with Mac apps. That is absolutely going to be the biggest thing. It feeds that instant gratification and impulse buying bug. Yet another revenue source for aapl. :) and…… I bet that feeds iAds too.

      The MBAs look great. I’m think it would be a great laptop for my kids. I’m with you JP, I bought the trackpad, but I just don’t like it as good as the Magic mouse. I don’t think anyone touched the trackpad during the presentation??

      The next few years are going to game changing time! Apple’s ecosystem is maturing nicely, while everyone else fumbles around trying to rush their crap to market. Fun times ;)

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 5:18 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      Sorry GW, I meant the Magic Mouse (I don’t have the nomenclature down.)
      I find that it skids away when one tries to use it like a trackpad, which makes it frustrating. I’ve not used the magic trackpad much, but I imagine it would would be similar to to the trackpad on my MBP, which is OK but no substitute for a mouse.
      BTW, did anyone else notice the difficulty the fellow had with either the Magic Mouse (my guess) or the gestures when “Mission Control” was being demonstrated. I felt bad for him.

    • GotWake

      GotWake 6:00 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      I actually like my Magic mouse. You may want to get a new mouse pad. One that isn’t so slick. I’m using my old Falcon pad and it keeps the mouse from moving. It would be irritating to have it skid.

      I did notice the issue during the presentation. I guess he was using a four finger sweep?? Hopefully, it’s just a quirk that hasn’t been ironed out.

      I loved the comment that like everyone, he liked “windows”. I was like WTH, then he corrected it to not MS Windows. If I was the crew as MS, I would use that as a little spoof in the next presentation. But, I doubt the execs over there have that much vision.

    • nolavabo

      nolavabo 8:36 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      Poor guys’ hands were shaking. Public speaking is terrifying for most people, and he has an audience of tens of thousands of people. I recall a bit from a comedy routine back in the 70s (and then stolen by Seinfeld) that surveys showed that people are more afraid of public speaking than dying. So at a funeral, they’d rather be in the coffin than the guy giving the eulogy.

      For some reason, although I’m not a very extroverted person, I never suffered from that particular problem.

    • Birra

      Birra 8:49 pm on October 20, 2010 473 days ago

      “Poor guys‚Äô hands were shaking.” Had that problem once, then discovered valium.

      I’m really impressed with the MBAs and the pricing. These are going to sell really well and put disks suppliers in dire straights. Apparently, Apple will suck up the world’s supply of flash.

    • Birra

      Birra 9:19 am on October 21, 2010 473 days ago

      Here’s an interesting question.

      Will the MBAir cannibalize the MBPro? Does it matter?

      • GotWake

        GotWake 12:41 pm on October 21, 2010 473 days ago

        @birra
        I bought my first Macbook Pro back when the Air first came out. I had actually gone to buy the Air. But, I just could not resist the Pro. I think the Air really drives traffic into Apple stores. That is what Apple wants, either way, you will be walking out with something.

    • Zee

      Zee 12:49 pm on October 21, 2010 473 days ago

      Conditionally yes and no. Does it matter? Only if the percentage of sales growth is less than the existing MBA, and MBPro sales growth and projected curve. Could that happen? Unlikely.

      Pleasure to see you Bir. Charming question, like an echo too. Don’t knock yourself out, sir.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 12:45 pm on October 22, 2010 472 days ago

      Seems to me that the two are very different, at least for now. As I have said before, I consider my 17″ MBP more a portable desktop than a laptop. The smaller MBPs are more laptop-ish. Possibly the smallest MBP overlaps a bit with the MBA, but “Pro’s” need the power of a real MBP.
      I’m sure the MBAs and MBPs will continue to influence future versions of each other though.

    • Birra

      Birra 8:51 am on October 26, 2010 468 days ago

      The MBP and MBA are quite different, but personally I’d have a hard time picking one over the other for my needs. Unfortunately my 4 year old MBP hasn’t aged at all. Sometimes I wish that Apple didn’t make such damn good products. Pretty much how I feel about my 2000 Nissan Frontier. I simply can’t bring myself to buy something new when my old ones are like new. What a dilemma!

  • 15
    JPWatkins

    JPWatkins 11:20 am on September 21, 2010 - 503 days ago

    AAPL at a nice round number this Friday?
    290 or 280?
    Also, when did this weekly options thing start and where can I read about it?

    (I gather from a few references I’ve read here that either there are now weekly options expiring or that there is some external mechanism that simulates weekly options, but I really don’t know anything about it. Just want to get informed. Thanks.)

     
    • carlmuck

      carlmuck 11:57 am on September 21, 2010 503 days ago

      With the volume increasing over the last several days, I think that the option strike price effect will be less evident than over the weeks with lower than average volume. That being said, the current open interest for this weeks options are:

      280: calls (ITM) – 5930 puts (OTM) – 6429 — Total – 12359
      290: calls (OTM) – 8163 puts (ITM) – 808 — Total – 8971

      So pressure would be towards $280.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 12:39 pm on September 21, 2010 503 days ago

      I believe last week was the traditional OE.
      Are there now some options that expire every week?
      If so, where can I see information on them?
      Thanks.

    • carlmuck

      carlmuck 12:52 pm on September 21, 2010 503 days ago

      There are both weekly and monthly options on AAPL. CBOE has listings, if you click on THIS LINK (which is also above in my message on the word “are” (this site doesn’t seem to render links.), you can see the option chain listings for Apple.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 1:36 pm on September 21, 2010 502 days ago

      Oh, thanks.
      I did miss the link. They seem to render only on roll over, and then very subtly.
      So the options are issued on Mondays and expire each week on Friday? No wonder I never noticed them.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 1:46 pm on September 21, 2010 502 days ago

      Never knew there were weekly options.
      I’m confused by the nomenclature on that link (options have lots of confusing minutia.)
      The option selections link lists them by expiration and labels them as expiring on
      “September 10″ but the note above the table says they expire “September 23″ Which is a Thursday.
      Does this mean the weekly options are on a different calendar than the other options? Issued on Fridays and expiring on thursdays? (rather than issued on Mondays and expiring on Fridays?)

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 2:29 pm on September 21, 2010 502 days ago

      Have there always been weekly options?

    • sworoc

      sworoc 3:08 pm on September 21, 2010 502 days ago

      This is news to me as well, JP. I’m as curious as you are.

    • conshmillo

      conshmillo 3:37 pm on September 21, 2010 502 days ago

      So to sum it up, they are very new and being still tested. Only few stocks and ETFs currently have them. They expire every Friday, except for 3rd week of month when regular monthly options expire. During the third week of the month they are not traded at all. That’s why we have not seen weekly pin last week.

      Those September options that you see at that link that expire in 3 days are weeklies, as regular September options expired last week. The other ones are October monthlies. If you use TD Ameritrade or ThinkOrSwim, weekly options have a upper case W next to them.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 11:30 am on September 23, 2010 501 days ago

      Thanks Consh.
      And the link is very helpful.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 5:10 pm on October 5, 2010 488 days ago

      So Consh, please be patient with me ;-)
      At Google Options:
      http://www.google.com/finance/option_chain?q=NASDAQ:AAPL
      The weekly options appear not to be listed. Is this so?
      And at Yahoo:
      http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=AAPL+Options
      They seem to indicate the options expire on Thursdays (although we know they expire on Fridays from the link you provided.) Also, besides the confusing dates on the “view by expiration” links, they appear to be listing the weeklies mixed in with the monthlies, which seems very confusing to me (perhaps they just haven’t straightened it out yet?) Am I seeing this right? Do you have any other comments that might be helpful or informative?

      • conshmillo

        conshmillo 5:47 pm on October 5, 2010 488 days ago

        @jpwatkins

        Don’t use neither google nor yahoo for info on weekly options. They are mess. Google lists just date and no values and yahoo lists wrong expiration day on weeklies and no way of switching to monthlies. Use Schaeffer’s Research for weekly option quotes. Schaeffer is to options what is Zack to stocks. Great resource!

        http://www.schaeffersresearch.com/streetools/options/option_montage.aspx?ticker=AAPL

        • caruso2323

          caruso2323 12:13 am on October 7, 2010 487 days ago

          @conshmillo
          I was not impressed at all at the rational used by Zack about its downgrade for Apple… I wonder why would people pay for such a lousy service assuming it is consistent with other stocks…

          • conshmillo

            conshmillo 12:53 am on October 7, 2010 487 days ago

            @caruso2323
            Zacks’ is not lousy service. Quite opposite. Zacks’ has a very long track record of producing over 30% return a year on stocks! I did not really ever care about Zacks’ upgrades or downgrades, only what matters is the Zacks’ rank which is based on earnings.

    • JPWatkins

      JPWatkins 10:52 am on October 6, 2010 488 days ago

      Thanks.

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