Note to Audiophiles: Get Over It!

I must have read twenty articles today about Apple’s purported acquisition of Beats. Most of them droning on and on about how Beats headphones and earphones are a far cry from audiophile quality and what a mistake it is for Apple to blow $3.2 billion on the company. To all of them I say, “Enough with all the second-guessing, already!” I’m sure these pundits are loving yet another opportunity to dump on Apple’s business practices and to paint Tim Cook as some sort of buffoon, but in my opinion they are just a bunch of link baiters shooting their mouths off for attention.

When someone tells me that Beats aren’t audiophile quality cans, my first response is, “Duuuuuh!”  When I’m done being a smartass, I would say, “So what?” I would then ask them if anything in Apple’s product lineup (past or present) could be remotely considered “audiophile quality?” Let’s go down the list:

Click to read more ...

Apple is DOOMED!

How many times do we hear that statement from tech journalists and/or market analysts in any given week? How about, “Has Apple lost its ability to innovate?” Or this drumbeat: “Tim Cook ain’t no Steve Jobs!” This drivel seems to increase both in frequency and intensity every week that goes by without Apple creating a new product category.

All those negative vibes have served two purposes. 1.) They provide link bait for the publishers of the rags they’re written for and 2.) they artificially depress Apple’s stock price. The first, while boring beyond belief, doesn’t really hurt anyone. The simple formula of providing fodder for Apple haters is a sure-fire way for “market analysts” to keep their page views up and their advertisers happy. But, sooner or later those chickens come home to roost. Negative sentiment serves as a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that feeds on itself. When you have enough people saying AAPL is crap, every down-tick in the stock price vindicates their “analysis”. The poorer the stock performs, the more “analysts” jump on the bandwagon…

…until those pesky facts get in the way.

Like the ones revealed in yesterday’s earnings call. Again, Tim Cook and his minions prove the baiters wrong. With another near-record quarter that topped predictions, margins approaching 40%, a seven-for-one stock split, an increased stock buy-back and a dividend bump, Apple has proven again what a money-minting machine it truly is. This isn't rocket science. How can they continue to perform so well? They refuse to sell anything but premium products at premium prices BECAUSE THEY ARE WORTH IT!

I would like to personally thank all those baiters and haters for making AAPL one of the best equity values on the planet. Their inceasant droning convinced the investing world that the world's most cash-flush company wasn't worth the price of their stock. That's quite a feat if you consider: Based on yesterday's earnings, if AAPL were trading at the same P/E ratio as FB (Facebook), it's share price would top $4400! Those of us who refused to get caught up in all the “woe is Apple” claptrap and stuck with (or increased) our long AAPL positions,** just made 8% in one day!

I anticipate more good news for many quarters to come.

** In the interest of full disclosure: For the past 8 years, the MacTexan's portfolio has contained a high percentage of AAPL.

The Sun is Starting to Peek Through iCloud

Anyone who takes more than a cursory glance at this site will know what an Apple fan I am. They would also know that I'm a professional technology consultant who regularly deals with a variety of hardware, environments and operating systems. What may not be as evident is my opinion that on-line services are making all that stuff less and less relevant.

For me, the "light bulb" moment was when I first installed Dropbox in 2008. The capability to save a file once and have it instantly available on all my devices was a nearly magical experience waaaaay back then. I instantly became a Dropbox evangelist and remain one to this day. Thanks to their referral plan and other special offers, my Dropbox folder is now 10 gigs (up from the initial 2 gigs included in their free service) and I've never given them a cent.

Click to read more ...

Woz Is Officially "Round th' Bend"

According to a Cult of Android post, Woz thinks Apple should start making an Android phone. Saying, “We could compete very well.” Well...yeah, but why would Apple want to? Oh hell. Woz's statements are so silly, I won't even counter.

What the hell has gotten into the boy? I mean, we've always thought the guy was a nerdy genius in the '70s (he wanted to give the Apple I boards away) and thanked God every day it was Steve Jobs making the business decisions back then, but this is crazy on a whole new level. While they're at it, Apple could make a Windows phone too. Hell, why not a trifecta? Build a Blackberry model just to show everybody they really know how to lose billions with the best of 'em!

Woz, Woz. What are we going to do with you? Im starting to feel about him the way I feel about my 84 year-old uncle Gene who puts his shoes on the wrong feet, forgets to zip his pants and still talks to aunt Sally who's been dead for fifteen years.

Here in Texas we just say, "Bless his heart!"

Businesses: Keep using Windows. I need the money!

I just finished with a visit to one of my clients. We were investigating why several users could not use a specific invoicing site. The first thing I did was connect my MBP to their wireless network and try the site in question. Bing! Everything worked great. That eliminated the possibility of there being a systemic network/firewall problem preventing the site from functioning properly. Next I went to the user who submitted the problem. When I sat down at his desk and tried to get to the same site that just worked fine on my Mac I was deluged with popups, redirects and more ads than I could sift through. Holy crap! I wondered how this guy gets anything done on this machine. He had TrendMicro installed as his security suite so I decided to run a quick scan of his C drive. Within 5 minutes with only 10% of the drive scanned, TrendMicro found 18 threats. I immediately went to the next room and shut down my Mac. This network was completely compromised.

Click to read more ...