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Record profits announced. iPhone 6 will have incredible worldwide demand. I believe I read that they are ramping up production for approx 70 million units. I'm gonna put a $120 price target for Dec 31.

:)

Cool vid, enzo. That is a major improvement and an appropriate material design choice. The fragile phone/ ibobble... that's so last decade. People LIVE with their phones. The design needs to meet the real environment. --not meet some imagined world were the phone is always gently resting on a velvet pillow next to my B&O sound system.

And how many years have I been ribbing Apple for offering only tiny screens? ...tiny OSkeys for dainty little hipster fingers.. Anyway, iPhone 6 might be the one for me. We'll see; but it's looking good.

100.38....:)

This Jlaw hack thing is slamming aapl today. Its in the news that the breach was not Apple's fault, and due to weak passwords, but the sheeple are unloading anyway, it would appear. Hope this blows over quickly.

it may also be that the wristwatch could miss the Xmas season... rarely only one thing brings a stock down 3+%. But in any case, it's a buying opportunity.

Didn't one investment house recommend doing some profit-taking before Sept 9th? Just in case the product launches (iPhone 6 & iWatch) are not perceived to be as strong as the market expects?

Investment/brokerage companies make money on both ends. In one breath, they will suggest you to buy and sell. One article this morning suggested Sell (iCloud intrusion for naked pics), then they go on to explain why APPL is a good Buy (cash on hand, new product rollout, low P/E ratio, etc.) :rolleyes: Resist their efforts to yank your chain. YMMV.

Sherwood
(the usual Howard Johnson's caveats)

Yep :)

Watch is rather conservative, or maybe traditional, in appearance. That might be smart

That's a smart, smart-watch move. Nothing says, "jack me" like an blingy $????? hi-tech watch displayed on your wrist. It would be like dangling a $600 iPhone around your neck with a sign.

Sherwood

As activity monitor - the watch uses accelerometer and heart rate monitor, and the iPhone's GPS. That should make it more capable than any other activity monitor. The Garmin Vivofit, up to now tied for the best monitor, requires you to wear a HR chest strap, and doesn't have position/speed data nor get it from another Garmin device. AFAIK. The Bodymedia Core, previously the most accurate calorie burn measurement tool, doesn't get heart rate or position/speed.

As smartwatch - it is a wrist UI to the apps on your iPhone, much like other smartwatches. The dial interface is interesting. It will really help if Siri has been improved. The watch will have Apple's Pay functionality, which no other smartwatch will have. I didn't catch anything about water resistance, which is a big deal for me.

$349 seems an accessible price, given Apple's customer segment. But not available until early 2015.

Edit: Uh-oh, there was no mention of battery life . . . if the Watch has to be charged nightly, then it is a non-starter.

On the phones -

Apple Pay is of great interest to me, considering the problems I've been having with my debt card getting misused. Apparently you load the debit or credit card info into the phone, where it is presumably encrypted as well as protected by the phone's passcode/fingerprint sensor, and each payment is made with a one-time code, so the merchant and its employees never get your card information.

I've been using Google Wallet now for quite a while and really love it. My biggest problems are finding places that accept it and telling cashiers how to set up their POS terminals to use it!

Here is what interests me - from Apple blurb:

your actual credit or debit card numbers are never shared with merchants or transmitted with payment.

Apple doesn’t store the details of your transactions so they can’t be tied back to you.

you never reveal your name, card number or security code to the cashier when you pay in store.

Looks like they have VISA MC AMEX partnered, most of the major banks, and some larger retailers signed up so far.

I don't know much about Google Wallet but Google's blurb says:

"When you use Google Wallet to conduct a transaction, we may collect information about the transaction, including: Date, time and amount of the transaction, the merchant’s location, a description provided by the seller of the goods or services purchased, any photo you choose to associate with the transaction, the names and email addresses of the seller and buyer (or sender and recipient), the type of payment method used, your description of the reason for the transaction, and the offer associated with the transaction, if any."

And why do people mistrust Google?

Apple's policy with Apple Pay sounds much better, plus the thought of having a credit card at your finger tips whenever you are out jogging with just a phone sounds great.

Shutting down google drive this week, will quit using the email as well - then no more google other than maps.

Did some reading on smartphone battery life. Seems to vary widely, Moto 360 is the worst (reviewers report 14-24 hours) and Samsung Gear 2 is the best (reviewers report as much as 2-3 days). I'm not including the Pebble. The Moto and Gear 2 have similar capacity batteries (300 mah) but the Moto 360 uses a four-year old 45nm Texas Instruments processors that is a power suck compared the the latest Samsung processors. The Apple Watch uses a custom Apple processor, the "S1". I am hoping that Apple has used its semiconductor design skills and proprietary control of OS and apps to get better battery life than the Gear 2. A week of battery life would be great, 3-5 days would be okay. I would have to think hard about buying a smartwatch that got only 2 days battery life. And I cannot believe Motorola released the Moto 360 at all.

My Samsung Gearfit (released in March, 2014) has accelerometer and HR monitor built in. GPS is via my cell phone. It has multiple exercise modes, including running, cycling and general fitness. It will record the HR via a sensor on the wrist. And the battery life is 3 days.

Style is more "fit bit", but it comes with a screen.