iWannaBe's

The HTC Diamond looks like a pretty respectable competitor to the iphone. Manufactured by High Tech Computer Corp. out of Taiwan. I don't know if/where these are available in the U.S. or how much they run, but they look pretty decent.

IBM continues to advance towards the technology of using light to carry data quickly "among cores within a microprocessor, taking the company closer to developing a chip that may one day run notebooks with the horsepower of today's supercomputers."
" Communications between processor cores today...is handled through copper wire that moves electrical impulses. IBM hopes to eventually replace that wire with a light beam that follows a tiny silicon strip...to its destination. Light carries more data in the same amount of time as copper by being 100 times faster."
"But the bigger problem in eventually taking light-driven chips to market will be in manufacturing... Introducing light technology means new equipment and a whole new way of production. Such a major transformation will take time."

Deceptive ETF's

From SeekingAlpha; something to keep in mind is their synopsis of the Q's and other ETF's. Particularly with the weighting methodology - The Q's do not mirror the tech sector. "Only 65% of the fund is devoted to technology, with the rest tied up in healthcare, consumer discretionary and more." Also, "Microsoft (MSFT) is twice as large a company as Apple (AAPL) ($346 billion vs. $164 billion), but Apple has twice the weight of Microsoft in the index (12.3% vs. 6.5%). The fund is also very concentrated in its largest holdings, with 46% of the fund in the top 10 holdings."
Using EPP to get exposure in the Asian markets. However, "As of September 30, 65.4% of the fund was in Australian stocks, with a further 1.5% in New Zealand. Only one-third of the fund was in what most of us consider Asia: 20.9% in Hong Kong and 11.3% in Singapore." Perhaps a better ETF to gain exposure in Asia is their recommendation of GMF.
The Emerging Europe ETF GUR; "As of September 30, the fund had a 58% weight in Russia, compared with 13.5% in Poland, 12.6% in Turkey, 7% in Hungary and 5% in the Czech Republic. Missing entirely are Poland, the fast-growing Baltic states like Finland and Estonia, and places like Austria, Croatia and Bulgaria."
So, knowing the weighting and coverage of these ETFs perhaps one can position their hedges/investments with more concise accuracy.

Vista v. Leopard (Round 1)

Let the comparison commence...Harry McCracken from PCWorld states: "Compared to Windows Vista, Leopard is a meatier, more polished, more immediately useful, less annoying OS upgrade." Meanwhile, if you're looking for a laptop that runs Windows Vista you might consider getting yourself a...well, a mac! Also from PCWorld; "The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware...the MacBook's score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run Windows."

Preventing an Angry Mob

Yesterday Apple's circus show led to the announcement that the iPhone's price would be cut by $200. You could tell a lot of sheeple out there that just had to buy an iPhone for $600 two months ago are now pissed. All those people then felt like Jeff Spicoli yesterday(and Steve Jobs would be Mr Hand) wishing they could say "You Dick!" to Mr. Jobs' face. To remedy the situation Jobs announced an offer for a $100 store credit for all those loyal followers who were duped into buying an iPhone upon it's release. I don't know if there's anything in the Apple store that you could get for $100, but you have to do something to save face.

macAddict

For all of the macAddicts out there, here's a leaked prototype of a new keyboard from apple. We'll probably see it in time for next year's Macworld expo. They are the leaders in stylish tech.

INTC

Intel Corp. (INTC) continues to evolve technological development. "The company said it has fabricated the first modulator made from silicon that can encode data onto a beam of light at a rate of 40 billion bits per second, or gigabits. Modulators are key components in using lasers to send data down fiber-optic cable...Such speeds -- roughly 40 times faster than the most sophisticated corporate data networks -- now require expensive materials, a factor that helps push the cost of existing 40-gigabit modulators into the thousands of dollars. Intel, which boasts the biggest revenue among companies that make silicon chips, wants to use that material to create much less-expensive communication components, an effort it calls "silicon photonics."
The Singularity is Near!

Apple @ $205?

Analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray pegs Apple stock at $205/share. I don't see why not.

For that special woman in your life...

...it's the new Taser C2! For less than the cost of an iPhone you can own a piece of personal protection that's purely priceless. With a range of 15 feet, a lithium ion battery good for up to 50!!! uses (in case you just happen to be a scumbag magnet), and available in designer colors it's the latest family protection device brought to you by Taser International Inc. (TASR).
Recently released (and causing stock prices to rally) this newest product line is smaller, sleeker, and sports a "non-gun design" (just so police won't do an Amadou Diallo on your ass). This baby can penetrate up to 2" of clothing and has a 95% effectiveness rate. But wait...the Taser C2 also has a laser-guided aim!! Need I say more? In case you're wondering; "Doesn't this open the door for every maniac and/or sadist in the world to carry around a taser?" You'll be relieved to know, these weapons can only be activated after the purchaser passes a background check.
Screw the iPhone, I know what I'm getting my wife for christmas. Check out the taser in action.

Can't Wait....

....until the iphone comes out in December. By that I of course mean the next generation iphone. I used to consider myself a macAddict. However, now I simply consider myself a macUser, perhaps a macLover. I wouldn't consider myself a mac"addict" simply because I wouldn't for the life of me stand on line for hours just to spend $500-$600 on a first generation mac product, especially a cellphone. At any rate, I used to consider myself a macAddict based on my predilection for a multitude of their products. The ipod, for one, (which I purchased in generation two stage and wished I had waited until generation 5) and the multiple laptops I've purchased.
What has always chafed me about mac products is their ability to lure you in with the hype/evangelizing only to release the same product a few months down the road with slight upgrades that everyone wishes they had with their first generation hardware. Case in point; my first mac laptop was a G3 iBook. Two months after purchasing it they released a G3 with superior speed and memory. Also, for the money I spent on my second generation iPod (that had to be sent in to Apple for repairs on the screen and which now can barely hold a charge) I could now buy one with twice the storage capacity and a video feature.
I can also reference such product revamps for the G4, G5, MacPro, iMac, macBookPro (which I nearly purchased before they released a next gen with the core2 duo chip). My point in all of this is simply to reinforce the notion that it's always better to wait out the ihype for the technological improvements (and price cuts) that are sure to follow in the future generations of iPhone. Not to disparage any of the iJunkies that had to be one of the first to own the coolest piece of technology since the ipod. Even though some of them simply do it for the thrill of waiting on line, believe it or not. Case in point is this man.
So, now that the waiting is over and the frustration with AT&T begins we will begin to notice articles like this popping up reminding us to be on the look-out for new-and-improved iPhones. Unless of course this gets in the way...Remember the Alamo?
Which, if it ends up like the RIMM patent lawsuit, might end up hurting Apple's stock but providing an excellent buying opportunity eventually.

The Singularity is Near

A future with no power cords! Amazing stuff in store for us in the next few decades. It was only ten years ago that I got my first email address and using a CD player and cassette tapes. Now I've got a 20GB iPod that holds all the music I could ever need (plus a couple miscellaneous files) and a laptop 20x more productive than that first Compaq I had. Now, check out what these kids are up to at MIT. The concept is WiTricity; "based on using coupled resonant objects. Two resonant objects of the same resonant frequency tend to exchange energy efficiently, while interacting weakly with extraneous off-resonant objects. A child on a swing is a good example of this. A swing is a type of mechanical resonance, so only when the child pumps her legs at the natural frequency of the swing is she able to impart substantial energy."
The MIT team explored a system of two electromagnetic resonators coupled mostly through their magnetic fields; they were able to identify the strongly coupled regime in this system, even when the distance between them was several times larger than the sizes of the resonant objects. This way, efficient power transfer was enabled. Magnetic coupling is particularly suitable for everyday applications because most common materials interact only very weakly with magnetic fields, so interactions with extraneous environmental objects are suppressed even further ("important for safety considerations”).
"WiTricity is rooted in such well-known laws of physics that it makes one wonder why no one thought of it before. “In the past, there was no great demand for such a system, so people did not have a strong motivation to look into it...Over the past several years, portable electronic devices, such as laptops, cell phones, iPods and even household robots have become widespread, all of which require batteries that need to be recharged often...Hopefully, we will be getting rid of some more wires, and also batteries, soon."
The Singularity is Near.

Two Opposing (Apple) Views

Here we have two opposing views on the future of Apple Inc. (AAPL) shares. There's Piper Jaffray & Co. and UBS AG increasing their share- price forecasts for the company because of "speculation that iPhone sales may exceed analyst estimates...Apple may sell as many as 45 million iPhones in 2009, according to Piper Jaffray, which raised its share-price forecast for the company by 14 percent to $160."
Then we have an opinion piece (i know, i know; they're a dime a dozen) by John Dvorak for DowJones. Making an argument for the time to short Apple coming around the corner; With design flaws (which we'll have to wait and see how serious they'll be) and hype deflation once the iPhone craze comes and goes. Still, though, Apple is awash in cash and coming on strong with laptop, ipod, iTV, and iTunes sales. We'll have to wait and see were price settles after all the hype has been factored in, I'm looking at the $119 range (maybe down in the $90 range on some bad news).

nice

Remember how far you ever got in a game of Pac-Man with only one quarter?

DRAM

Cheap DRAM costs bad for suppliers, good for buyers. "Amid plunging prices and expanded factory output -- which is forcing some manufacturers to sell their chips below the costs to produce them -- all DRAM makers are expected to lose money this quarter for the first time since 2001, according to one semiconductor researcher (iSuppli)."
Weak prices are hurting chipmakers Micron Technology Inc. (MU) and Qimonda AG (QI), among the world's largest providers of DRAM, and pinching the order books at Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT), and Lam Research Corp. (LRCX) who supply the equipment to make DRAM chips.
Meanwhile, PC makers Hewlett Packard C0. (HPQ) and Dell Inc. (DELL) have been able to buy up cheap DRAM, which may help profit margins. Dell, for instance, posted its best gross margin in six years in the first quarter, thanks in part to low DRAM cost.

WOW

Another cool post found on BoingBoing....Sony demonstrates what is " billed as the world's first flexible, full-color OLED display built on organic thin-film transistor (TFT) technology. The 2.5-inch prototype display supports 16.8 million colors at a 120 x 160 pixel resolution, is 0.3 mm thick and weighs 1.5 grams."

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) recently signed a new deal with NASA worth $5.6 billion to provide them with a wide range of hardware. "HP will provide NASA and other federal agencies with desktops, workstations and blade PCs with Linux and Unix capabilities. In addition, the Palo Alto, Calif., company also will provide servers, printers and other equipment."

Stronger, Faster, Cheaper

Cisco Systems (CSCO) announced it is making a 10Gigabit Ethernet more affordable. Coming in June, they will be releasing the optical fiber transceiver adapter for $1,495, compared with about $4,000 for existing 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces.

Chips A-Hoy

Two power-houses in the chip-making industry are announcing more progress in their exploits. Intel (INTC) will spin-off their flash memory unit to focus on their microprocessor line. "By merging the two units, the companies will realize cost savings that should boost profit margins. Intel should see its profit margins immediately expand. Gross margin, which was 51.4% last year, should improve by two percentage points."
Meanwhile, IBM has released its POWER6 microprocessor, which they claim is the world's fastest chip with twice the clock speed of their previous generation while consuming roughly the same amount of power. "The POWER6 chip, which operates at 4.7 gigahertz, will allow businesses to consolidate servers and handle substantially larger workloads, doubling the speed of the previous generation POWER5 chip while using the same amount of electricity for running and cooling. This means customers can use the new processor either to increase their performance by 100% or cut their power consumption in half. POWER6 also claims to be nearly three times faster than the latest HP Itanium processor that runs HP's server line." The Singularity is Near!

What Time is it, again?

If anyone has ever actually read my blog they might have seen this post about some cool time pieces put out by Tokyoflash.com. Recently they added some new watches to their product line. Check 'em out, they're gettin' crazier and more creative. Pretty sweet. For a little help pricing them out - currency?

Who Would Buy a $499 Cellphone?!?!

After watching this, I think....I WOULD!!!