Monday, February 11, 2013

Size Does Matter

There are rumors that Apple will release iPhone 6 with a larger screen (4.8 or 5 inches) this year.
It was about time!
I am so close to switching to a larger screen smartphone (i.e. Samsung, as there is no other competitor that is in the same league with Apple).

How difficult is to make a phone with a larger screen?

One day Iacocca went to his chief engineer and said, "I want to add a convertible to our line." The engineer responded, "Yes sir. We can have a design ready for you in about nine months." Iacocca fired back, "No! You don't understand. I've made a decision. I want action. Take a car and saw the damn top off."

Just put a larger screen on the 'damn' phone!

I am still happy (minus the battery) with my 3 years old iPhone 3GS but what I need is a larger screen, don't want to carry a mini tablet as well. Give me the phlabet.

I look with jealousy (and desire) at my colleagues who have phones with larger screens.

I suffer from smartphone envy.
With the iPhone 6, the display is said to not only be larger, it’s specifically claimed in a note to be 4.8 inches in size or 5 inches in size. The image you see above comes from iMore where writer/illustrator Rene Richie has mocked up what the iPhone 6 might look like compared with a collection of popular devices. You’ll see the Samsung Galaxy S III, iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 900, BlackBerry Dev Alpha, and Samsung Galaxy Note II. As you can see, it’s been generally accepted thus far that the iPhone 6 will have essentially the same amount of pixels as the iPhone 5, just spread out a bit more as it is with the iPad mini compared with the iPad 2.

From iPhone 6 tipped to team with iPhone 5S inside 2013

AdeleVEVO / Adele - Rumor Has It
 

Sunday, February 10, 2013

"I’ll Miss You Starbucks!"

It is a title like that that fills my heart with joy as I am a Starbucks shareholder, a minuscule one but nevertheless a shareholder (see here Why I bought Starbucks).

My comments were not allowed but this is my blog so I can have them here :):

  1. Laptop Nomad said,
    When I go overseas I stop drinking coffee as it is
    Nescafe which I can’t stand. I drink green tea which
    is one of my favorite drinks. I think I have had about
    Starbucks coffee about three times in my life. Not a big
    fan of Starbucks.
  2. ralf said, Huh? Starbucks coffee is overpriced poor coffee.
    Visit Italy on your EU trip and find out how real coffee tastes.

    NZ has excellent coffee at every street corner.
    There’s something wrong with you…
  3. NB said,
    Starbucks makes some of the worst non-instant coffee in the western world. Pretty well everywhere in Europe (I don’t know the Norwegian countryside so can’t be sure there, but everywhere I’ve been) you can get proper coffee rather than Starbucks’ Disney-esque c*%p. Even in the USA, a country known for poor food and colored water masquerading as coffee, it’s easy to get a liquid better than that which Starbucks offers.
@Laptop Nomad
I do not think I like your attitude :)

@ralf, @NB
I do not like you either :)

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Suncor, BlackBerry and Visa (yesterday)

Suncor down -5%, while XEG, an ETF for energy, is down only around -1%. I keep saying that I will get out of individual stocks but I can't bring myself doing it.

Cause: "Suncor's view is that the economic outlook for the Voyageur upgrader project is challenged. Suncor and its partner continue to work diligently towards determining an outcome for the project. The partners have been considering options for the project, including the implications of cancellation or indefinite deferral. No formal decisions regarding the project have been made and the partners continue to work toward a decision by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
...
Given the challenging economic outlook for the Voyageur upgrader project, at the end of the fourth quarter of 2012, the company performed an impairment test. Based on an assessment of expected future net cash flows, the company recorded an after-tax impairment charge of $1.487 billion,"   


"BlackBerry’s Z10 smartphone has attracted record orders at Canadian wireless carrier BCE Inc. (BCE), and analysts say sales are off to a strong start in the U.K., sparking a 23 percent stock rally over the past two days.
BCE, Canada’s No. 2 carrier, said early orders for the Z10 have topped any previous BlackBerry model, while one Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI/B) outlet in Toronto had sold out of the Z10 by 11 a.m. today on the first day of sales."

BlackBerry Z10 Gets Record Orders in Canada

Amen!
Still at 80% loss, but let's wait for the reviews that will come in. This phone will be make it or break it!
Will BlackBerry (former RIM) go the way of Nortel or the way of Apple some 7 years ago? 


Visa is one of my very few success stories V is from Victory and from Visa
I had 15 shares and after the stock doubled I sold 5 and not half as per my 'strategy' to sell half of any stock that doubles so I would not care what happens with the other half.
I did not sell half because I had trouble figuring how much half is. Is it 8 or 7 shares?
Lesson learnt: buy only an even number of shares not that I will have this problem many times.

But yesterday I decided to sell 3 shares for $161.77 (max. stock price for the last 52 weeks - 162.77). However, after a while I changed the sell price to 160.77, then as the stock was hovering around 160 I changed it again to 160.33 with the plan to just sell it at the market price towards the end of the day. A few cents there would not make too much a difference, I figured. But I forgot and when I checked the closing price it was 160.82 so my order at 160.77 would have filled!
As a matter of fact instead of 160.33 the order closed at 160.36 so quickly it spiked. Why? Visa announced stellar results, but some knew it just before the end of the day, otherwise the sudden spike cannot be explained. So the game is fixed!



Sunday, February 3, 2013

Dow closes above 14,000 for first time since 2007

This is a moment of financial joy but unfortunately not for me.

BearingPoint and Nortel are still dead and nothing will resurrect them. RIM is still at a 90% loss.

Sino-Forest, China Electric, LongTop Financials are still fraud companies (a few more details in a previous post of mine No More Chinese Companies).

My India funds (IFN and IIF) are still 60% lower!

The penny stocks I own are even 'pennier': a few have gone bankrupt, some have been exploring and exploring but to no avail, and the few that produce don't seem to do it too successfully.

Barclays and ING (Dutch bank, and I thought they were serious) are still -51% and -68% respectively.


The natural gas is still very low (I bought it in 2009 reasoning 'how much lower could it go?' but it did and a lot).

And my former darling Uranium stocks that seemed poised to rule the stock exchanges all over the world still have a long way to go to pre-Fukushima levels (they need to double to be more exact).

Dow Jones for the past 10 years

Friday, February 1, 2013

RBC buys Ally

All good things must come to an end, last year Scotiabank bought ING Direct now it is Ally.

I have saved the current interest rate as shown in my Ally account. Let's see how long for they are going to keep it.