Keys-by-TEARN mobile platform
Diary of a passionate, tech Dad
from TEARN i.e. teach to learn


Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts

Aug 1, 2011

One Picture Speaks Trillions


Tired of the political bickering, overblown press stories, and constant mis-information? What's wrong with Obama's efforts to revive the economy? The data does not lie. This picture says it all.

Debt Ceiling, Game of Chicken is Over

After evaluating the issues in Washington DC this weekend, here are the significant facts.
  • Regardless of your party affiliation, the problem is clearly shown in the graph above.
  • In 2010, voters spoke to replace the Democratic majority in the House with a Republican majority.
  • The House of Representatives has compromised among factions; and voted to pass their plan. It's the only concrete plan that has been approved.
  • The Senate is frozen. Neither party has the necessary 60% to pass any bill. They can only veto the House plan, which they have already vetoed.
  • President Obama can veto any plan.
The people have spoken. So has the new Representatives who they elected. President Obama has no choice, but to agree to the House plan. Attempts to shift the blame is not presidential behavior. Default is not an option. The only issue is some compromise to allow President Obama to save face.

Like sports competitions, is it time to end this stupid, dangerous game?

What's Next?

As the Federal government struggles to balance the budget, learn 100 ways to be taxed.

Jul 27, 2011

Sprint’s Nexus S 4G Gets Final Price Cut: Free At Best Buy, A Penny At Amazon

As anticipated, the smartphone war has begun. The latest Google Android phone is free. Use this app to keep up with the announcements.

posted 37 mins ago
bestbuynexus

Less than two weeks ago, Sprint cut the price of its Google Nexus S 4G by half to just $99 on-contract. That had me pink in the cheek with barely controlled glee, so you can only imagine my reaction when I saw that both Best Buy and Amazon were offering the device for free (and nearly free).

(Full Article at Techcrunch)

Jul 26, 2011

Tax Mess As an App

Are you following the budget mess?

After raising the debt ceiling, what creative way will the Congress devise to tax the public? Here's 100 ideas from comic strips.

Mar 16, 2011

Keys: The In-Depth Weekly of World Events



Tsunami, nuclear meltdowns, Middle East conflicts, and weak economies - the world has struggled to understand each of these complex issues and overcome the problems.

Again, we've innovated using the evergreen magazine strategy for news coverage.
  • Natural disasters has been a recurring theme. The scope of the current disasters in Japan has been experienced in world history. Tap the natural disaster app for an in-depth look. This app reports the current events, as well as provide the historical perspective to learn about these complex human tragedies.
  • World hotspots has been another recurring theme. This app is a photo essay of the current and past conflicts. The Al-qaeda and Black Gold apps provide in-depth video and photo essays of the core issues behind the many conflicts.
  • What's the solution? World Leaders, Top Economists, and Energy Projects provide in-depth analysis of the people and projects focused on managing world economies. Do you know their names!
As more disruptive events occur around the world, our apps theoretically provide self-updated reporting of both the problems and solutions in process - if we designed these apps correctly. Search bots automatically update the links in Keys with the best reports from newspapers, magazines, blogs, and TV broadcasts from around the world - not just from the New York Times, BBC, or ESPN reporters. Our approach also provides the in-depth analysis that is unmatched by any form of media - and uniquely delivered to your phone.

Tap an app above and let us know what you think.

PS: If an app fails to report breaking news, use the new personalization feature to add the breaking story and share with your friends. The app provides the complete background stories for you automatically.

Feb 12, 2011

SoMoLo - Social, Mobile, Local

We coined the phrase SoMoLo in early 2009. Mary Meeger of KPCB now claims that John Doerr coined SoLoMo.


Do great minds think alike? IMHO

Join as we continue our long march toward the integrated social, mobile, and local web.

Nov 19, 2010

Mary Meeker: Smartphones Will Surpass PC Shipments In Two Years

Every year at the Web 2.0 Summit, Mary Meeker gives a ten-minute slideshow packed with great data showing the monetum and direction of different Internet trends. This year, a big focus of her presentation was on mobile. Specifically, she put up the slide above showing a Morgan Stanley estimate that global smartphone shipments will eclipse PC shipments in 2012, with more than 400 million smartphones expected to be shipped that year, compared to less than 200 million last year.

This prediction is reasonable. Smartphones are cheaper and phones, in general, are more ubiquitous. To the extent that all phones are becoming smartphones, they will be much more accessible and portable and than PCs (laptops included). They are certainly becoming just as capable, at least as far as surfing the Web is concerned, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of apps available for platforms like the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry. (See Original Article)

Jul 21, 2010

JP Morgan Slaps A $400 Price Target On Apple (AAPL)

After reading Wall Street's view of the effect, let's take a look at the cause.

After Apple's earnings blowout and big guidance, JP Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz is slapping a $400 price target on the stock.

The Street is going wild for Apple today, but this is the most bullish thing we've seen yet. Moskowitz says the earnings will bring the message back to Apple's amazing financials and away from Antennagate. Here's his bullet points for why Apple will soar:

  • Big results should focus investors back on the model. For F3Q10, Apple reported record revenue of $15.7 billion and EPS of $3.51, versus Street consensus estimates of $14.75 billion and $3.16. Our estimates had been $14.81 billion and $3.11. Gross and operating margins came in at 39.1% and 27.0%, versus our estimates of 38.6% and 26.2%. Apple generated cash flow from operations of $4.4 billion.
  • Gross margins come in well above prior guidance. Gross margins for F3Q were 39.1% and 310 basis points above guidance. We believe F4Q guidance of 35% gross margins is conservative as the ramps of iPad and iPhone 4 platforms should achieve greater economies of scale. We do not expect the gross margin guidance to be a topic that carries much risk as the iPad and iPhone 4 should ride the cost curve just a few quarters out.
  • iPad roars out of the gate. Apple reported 3.27 million iPad unit shipments from 10 countries in the quarter, versus our estimate of 3.75 million units. At this point, we do not think the iPad will cannibalize sales of other Apple products as some fear. In contrast, we think another “halo effect” could be in the making, whereby sales of the iPad drive customers to purchase other Apple products, such as the Mac for home use while the iPad is used on the road.
  • We reiterate our Overweight rating and increase our Dec-11 price target to $400, from $390 previously.Apple is also on the J.P. Morgan Analyst Focus List. While the media-driven frenzy over the iPhone 4 antenna issue is not likely to fade yet, we believe Apple's quarterly performance should restore focus back on the model's high-growth stature. At 13.9x our revised C2011 EPS estimate, versus the peer group average of 12.6x, we believe Apple is trading like a value stock and not as the high-growth story in large cap equities.

Cause Drivers on Apple Growth
  • Digital Libraries - Apple owns customers often for life. iTunes is their collection of music and video. The AppStore is their collection of purchased apps. iBooks is their collection of purchased e-books. MobileMe is their effort to manage user contacts and photos. As long as users buy Apple products, these libraries move seamlessly with each device purchased.
  • Repeat Purchases - Battery powered products have a built-in obsolescence, usually 12 to 24 months depending on how you discharge/charge your batteries.
  • Stickiness - The net effect is that customers buy and stay with Apple products regularly and often for life.
With 70% dominance of the digital music through iPod owners, why would anyone be surprised that Apple would eventually gain the same dominance of smartphones, all mobile phones, and mobile tablets?

Why are Mac purchases accelerating? Millions of developers are required to buy the latest Macintosh and Snow Leopard to develop for iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Why has Wall Street missed this cause-effect relationship?

Keep in mind that AT&T and Verizon are not even in the top ten among global mobile services. Anecdotal observations from the USA about the pissing battle between Verizon and AT&T is like the blind men with the elephant. The market view needs to be global.

Remember that Apple's share of phones is still growing; smartphone share of all phones is growing; and mobile phone use dwarfs PC use by billions. Already, the iPhone share of global, mobile acccess is 70% or higher, far greater than their small share of smartphone ownership. This means that iPhone users are the only mobile users who actually use their phones to surf.

Despite large numbers of Android sold, their users seem to behave like the even larger numbers of Nokia users in the world, which is little use of the phone for web access. That's not a good sign for Android.

What are Apple competitors doing to catch up?
  • Android is free, thus selling lots of phones. But, the platform is suffering from fragmentation among OEM and carrier initiatives, thus making it difficult to build any cohesive user experience. No one company manages the total user experience.
  • Microsoft and Nokia lack the customer loyalty and market credibility to match Apple's success. They have failed too often in this space.
  • RIM, Motorola, and HP/Palm might have a chance to build the same kind of customer relationship with a large audience, but they need to innovate faster.
Global Brand Among Billions

The real message for Apple is global dominance like the Coke brand. Does that justify Apple becoming the highest market value company in the world? If you don't believe their yuppy image, then watch their earnings growth.

It's a matter of time.

Jun 23, 2010

160,000 Android Phones Sold Per Day

160,000 Android Phones Sold Per Day

Android cofounder and Google vice president Andy Rubin just announced at the Droid X event that 160,000 Android devices are being sold per day. That’s up sharply from last month when Google announced that 100,000 Android devices were being activated each day.

As recently as February the number was just 60,000 per day. The Droid X will begin shipping on July 15 for $200. Given how hot the EVO is selling on Sprint, we can probably expect another jump in those Android sales numbers soon.

Jun 17, 2010

Verizon iPhone Signs Send Apple Soaring

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- More reports of Apple's(AAPL) production plans for a CDMA iPhone stirred up the simmering anticipation for a Verizon(VZ) iPhone and has sent Apple shares to a new all-time high. According to Digitimes, Apple's contract manufacturers plan to ship a CDMA version of the iPhone in the fourth quarter. This information confirms a report last month from TheStreet that Apple had told its iPhone manufacturing partners to start full-scale production of a CDMA iPhone to be available as a Verizon iPhone, as early as November.
Apple iPhone 4
Apple iPhone 4

The news comes as pre-orders for Apple's redesigned iPhone 4 have outpaced supply and have even exceeded the sales volume of the previous iPhone by a factor of 10.

Analysts and tech watchers will now try to figure out whether the new iPhone will be a success limited largely to AT&T(T) customer upgrades, or if the shiny new device will attract hoards of new subscribers from other carriers like Verizon, Sprint(S) and Deutsche Telekom's(DT) T-Mobile.

For Apple investors, the arrival of a new iPhone is only one part of a necessary two-part move to unleash an entirely new growth cycle. That elusive second part is, of course, Verizon and its 92 million subscribers.

The fact that Apple and Verizon have never seen eye-to-eye helps complicate the otherwise no-brainer predictions for an inevitable Verizon iPhone.

Apple shares hit $272.90 early Thursday on reheated Verizon iPhone news and the brief reappearance of a rumored 4-for-1 Apple stock split. By midday, Apple shares were up 2% to $271.45.

Apr 28, 2010

HP Buys Palm for $1.2 Billion

Palm Pre

After months of speculation, smartphone maker Palm has finally found a buyer. HP has said it will buy Palm for approximately $1.2 billion.

The move will give HP a foothold in the fast-growing smartphone business, at a time when HP rival Dell has its own smartphone available on AT&T.

Palm’s chairman and CEO, Jon Rubinstein, a former Apple executive, will remain with the company, says HP.


Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/hp-buys-palm-for-12-billion/#ixzz0n5HYFiuH

Feb 15, 2010

Mobile World Congress 2010

Lots of mobile news:
  • Windows Phone 7 devices will hit before the 2010 holidays. Hardware partners include Qualcomm, LG, Samsung, HP, HTC, Toshiba, Garmin Asus, Sony Ericsson, and Dell. Carriers slated to offer Windows Phone 7 devices include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, Orange, Telefonica, and Telstra.
  • Wholesale Applications Community. Twenty four individual mobile companies are joining together to form the group, which will represent over three billion customers world-wide.
  • AIR for Android from Adobe.
  • Nokia and Intel have just announced the creation of MeeGo, a new Linux-based operating system.
  • Sprint said it was the first U.S. carrier to allow its customers to use GetJar, the world’s largest independent phone application store, with 60,000 apps. Read more here.
  • Samsung has a new smartphone out: it’s fast, it’s good looking, but most importantly, it sports an entirely new mobile OS developed by Samsung, called bada

No announcement reaches users immediately. Thus, Apple stock is UP.
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