YOUR MONEY

The Sword of Damocles -- times 2

The EU continues to spiral into dangerous territory. 

Spain and Greece officially have some 25% unemployment.  Greece is still trying to ‘cut back on spending’ to meet more bailout requirements and now Cyprus is revealed to be in the same boat – supposedly as its bank became insolvent after lending heavily to Greece.  Remember that euphemism -  ‘the haircut’,  which the EU imposed on lenders to Greece, so that they only got back some 25 cents on the dollar (calculated in U.S. and Canadian terms.)!

So Cyprus may have a valid point – in part.

Hungary and other eastern European states are also rumored to be needing bailouts and Germany has only so much money and cannot save the entire EU even if it wanted to -- and it doesn’t!

Meanwhile, nationalistic fascist or neo-Nazi parties are gaining support across Europe: Jobbik in Hungary and Golden Dawn in Greece and there are many other such groups rising in popularity in 12 of Europe’s countries (as outlined by Wikipedia under neo-Nazi parties).

So, the toxic mix of high unemployment, rising taxes (or the collection of taxes that were long avoided), fear and anger, and looking for scapegoats other that one’s own spendthrift socialist governments – is creating stresses that echo those of the Depression years of the 1930s -- which  led to the rise of Mussolini and Hitler.

Will history repeat itself in Europe?   

I don’t know, but prolonged ‘austerity’ mixed with high unemployment are surely the ‘kindling’ for such a bonfire of hate, racism, war and genocide.

 

TECHNOLOGY and MEDIA  

Oh how we North Americans delude ourselves!

The United States may be the world leader in patents and prides itself on the ingenuity and innovation its capitalist economy, but at least in the world of electronics, North America is really the tail of the dog, not its head!

Think Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation.  Think flat panel TVs.  And think QR codes and NFC!!!

QR codes, those now ubiquitous advertising square boxes with lines and ink blots is the bar code of the future and invented by TOYOTA,  to track parts in its Japanese auto plants (see Wikipedia).

And now, Canada and the U.S. are introducing ‘new’ NFC technology that allows smart phones to wirelessly communicate with various vending machines and other devices to instantly make purchases and payments.    No money or credit card/debit card needed.

This ‘revolutionary’ way of paying is lauded in a full 4 page ad in the Globe and Mail, Nov.8, 2012, MC 1-4, with partner companies prominent in the photos.

Too bad that NFC, i.e., near field communication technology, is OLD news in the Far East and Europe!  In 2006 Nokia, Philips and Sony set up the NFC standard and the Nokia 6131, released in 2006, was the first phone to offer it (according to Wikipedia).  In the 6 years since, the technology has become standard on some 75 phone models worldwide, including Blackberries and even the Google Nexus 7 tablet (see full list at www.nfcworld.com/nfc-phones-list) !!!

Scenes of Japanese teenagers buying from vending machines using this technology is a common sight.

While Apple is glorified and its new iPhone 5 is the darling of the general North American media press, it is a disappointment to many who prefer the fine tune adjustments the Samsung Galaxy phones offer.  To them, the iPhone is like a good point and shoot camera while Samsung and others are selling ‘professional’ level equipment for the same price – or even less. And the iPhone 5 does NOT have NFC capability!

So much for American technological leadership!!!  

So much for Apple leadership!!!

 

P.S.  And don’t even ask me about chip cards. North America has only recently introduced them for banking purposes, but that is old hat in much of the world. In Indonesia and elsewhere you get ONE CARD to replace the various and incomplete I.D., driver’s, SIN or Green card, health, hospital, insurance cards, etc. that we carry around.  A smart card can hold all this and more – including one’s allergic reactions and full, updatable medical history that any doctor or emergency first responder can scan and call up!!!!

Again, North America is dragging its feet and lags behind the rest of the modern world!!!

MEDIA and YOUR MONEY

Oops, the cat is out of the bag – times 2

This last few days has been surprising as two closely guarded economic ‘secrets’ have been let out of the bag!

EU 

This week the EU’s official statistics agency, Eurostat, reported that the 17 member EU has had two negative quarters with a reduction of 0.1% and now 0.2% - meeting the standard definition of a (new) recession.  However, as Barrie McKenna and Eric Reguly have pointed out in the Globe and Mail business section, November 16, 2012, B1 “In euro zone, the return of recession bites like depression” , the Eurostat’s current and preceding reports have been highly misleading.  If Germany is pulled out of the 17 nation calculations, Europe has been in recession for 5 quarters or 1 1/4 years!!!!

This last FACT has been hidden by the EU and North American media and business reporting until now.  We have heard and seen news on government austerity, higher unemployment among government staff and protests in the streets, but the steady and ongoing decline in the overall economy , the recession/depression element, has been well covered up for over a year!!!!

 

China

Communist states, be they the Soviet Union, North Korea, Cuba or China, lie about their economic growth and success all the time, and as they have absolute media control they get away with it far more than western governments do.

Communist targets for improved production have been exaggerated  from Lenin’s first 5 year plan onward as the Party, to stay in power, must continually promise ‘good news’ to its people; and to proclaim communism’s superiority to the outside world.  

Consequently, I have never trusted China’s official government data even after China embraced a mixed economy with strong capitalist elements.

That is why two recent media items are so important.  Gordon Chang of Forbes.com, while interviewed last week on TVO’s the Agenda regarding China’s changing-of-the-guard leadership convention, mentioned in passing that the recently announced Chinese economic growth of 7%  is really 1% or less- based on electricity use data he has access to. 

The same picture of a struggling Chinese economy on the verge of recession was also presented in a CBC National news report of November 14, 2012.   The segment by Adrienne Arsenault entitled “China’s Chill” is available at CBCnews.ca. While the first half focuses on the centrally planned, ghost city of Ordos in Inner Mongolia, which at least 4 year years after its construction is still devoid of people, let alone the planned 1,000,000 residents (See Google, Ordos ghost city for reports and YouTube videos), the second half is a tour of the Beijing  industrial zone with an economist.  He shows Ms. Arsenault how he tracks China’s real growth: by looking at the supply of coal in storage and its local selling price, and the amount and condition of steel pipes and beams at a local factory.  In both cases, the news is bad:  the price of coal has dropped (due to less demand) and manufactured pipes and beams sit untouched and turning to rust.  

 So, those in the know, who do not rely on self-serving Chinese government numbers and who look to independent sources for economic evidence – such as electricity use, coal costs and factory surplus goods, find China is close to or already in negative growth – i.e., recession.

China depends on world demand -  Europe and North America in particular – to buy most of its factory output, and it is in trouble as the western world cannot afford to buy as of old.

And Canada, which has been relying more and more on China to buy its raw resources – from lumber to coal to copper to oil – should also take note and expect Chinese purchases to drop.  According to Ms. Arsenault, it could mean a whopping hit to Canada’s resource based economy!

YOUR MONEY

America - Do what I say, not what I do

 The United States government has been endorsing the austerity programs implemented in Britain and imposed on the near bankrupt countries of Europe: the PIIGS of Portugal, Italy, Iceland, Greece and Spain, and now Cyprus, with Hungary and possibly Latvia and Estonia soon to follow.  European governments are told that they cannot continue to spend excessively more that they get in revenues.  Belts must be tightened and taxes increased and collected!  Central banks and the IMF cannot be expected to provide free bailouts!

Most Americans have watched the ongoing European crisis with a smug smile. After all, the American ethics of self-reliance and distrust of big government have saved the U.S. from such socialist government disasters.

But has it?

Today, the talk on Wall Street and Main Street is about the U.S.  ‘fiscal cliff’ set for January 1, 2013.  On that day, , by a set of laws enacted in 2011, called the Budget Control Act, the U.S. government’s federal budget for 2013 is to be AUTTOMATICALLY cut and taxes AUTOMATICALLY increased (by almost 20%) for a total ‘savings’ of 600 billion dollars U.S.

The feared outcomes include a new recession and higher unemployment. And everyone is hoping that some compromise between Democrats and Republican,  and that President Obama can ‘work out a deal’ to soften if not eliminate the Budget Control Act measures. 

What Americans want, put simply, is to delay or reduce the pain and keep the dream of the ‘good life’ intact.

But while Americans do not live in a socialist European style fantasy, they still live in a country and under governments that have so mismanaged their accounts that they also are at or near bankruptcy!  Think California, whose citizens passed a referendum to INCREASE STATE TAXES!

Between Bernanke printing money on the fly in what is calls “Quantitative Easing” and  governments spending way beyond revenues – for years on end – the U.S. has hit the same financial wall as many countries in Europe!!

Just go to the website, www.usdebtclock.org which uses official government data and see how bad it is - federally and by state (top left tab).  At this moment, the U.S. national debt is a whopping $51,656.00 for every single U.S. citizen and $141,752 FOR EACH TAXPAYER!

Even with prime interest rates at 1% or so, that is an unmanageable debt and a crisis.

And heaven help the U.S.A. if world investors smarten up and no longer buy American bonds and Treasuries at well below real inflation rates. 

While this makes me sound like a Tea Party member or right wing Republican,       I am neither, but the truth cannot be hidden any longer!

                                                               + + + + + +

So, Americans, if President Obama were honest with you, you would be told what is being heard in Europe.  

 

Our government(s) cannot continue spending at this pace and our taxes are way too low to cover the bills.  We too must do what Europe is doing, because we too have been fiscally irresponsible and the day of reckoning will soon be upon us.

The 2011 Budget Control Act is the truth, and what must be done!

 

 

 

 

TECHNOLOGY

The typewriter lives on!

I now regularly hear experts in education and media gurus proclaim (or bewail) the technological trends of the last 5 to 10 years that, they claim, are returning our society to an audio- visual based culture, rather than the text/print culture that has created the civilized world ever since cuneiform, hieroglyphics and the alphabet. Gutenberg and Marshall McLuhan The Gutenberg Galaxy, are no longer relevant to our world’s future.

According to them, talk on cell phones has replaced writing letters, YouTube videos have supplanted manuals and books for enjoyment, and tablets will soon displace desktop PCs, Macs and laptops – ending the reign of the keyboard.

I am sure many kids today have no idea what a typewriter is or was, and may well have never seen one.  They know of keyboards on computers and laptops , but, so say  the pundits, will soon no longer need these archaic add ons as tablets and smart phones go well beyond the written/printed word.

* * * * * * * *

Yes, today’s youth are cell phone addicts and facebook and social media are how most young people spend their time: both free-time and even when in class or at work.

But Mankind’s love of writing is not going away.  It’s too fast and convenient, and a more or less ‘assured’ method of communicating one’s thoughts  – and kids know it. 

That is why text messaging has replaced cell phone chat and voice messages for most young people. They know their friends are not at their phones 24/7 and someone might  pretend not to have gotten a voice mail. But text messages are ‘guaranteed messaging’ that cannot be ignored.

The skyrocketing of Twitter is further proof of mankind’s love of and the power of the written word.  One tweet and you can sound off to almost everyone on the planet!  Granted 140 characxters does not allow for long ‘speeches’ and great detail, but they do force people to think, and write concisely and clearly.   Think epigram or haiku!

It is therefore noteworthy that Microsoft, in entering the computer hardware world decided to add a real keyboard to its tablet, the Surface.  Microsoft knows that a keyboard that is actually quick and easy to use cannot be replaced. 

And the reviving Research in Motion has just announced the January 30. 2013 launch of its newest BlackBerry handsets and BlackBerry 10 system.  RIM, after all, is the company that added a full QWERTY keyboard to a phone and made everyone’s phone typing oh so much faster.

 

So, typing and keyboards are not disappearing any time soon, if ever, and the crystal balls pundits have been using need a good cleaning.

 

 

P.S.   If you don’t know, the QWERTY keyboard, which gets its name from the first 5 letters at the top left of the letter keys, is not an intuitive or alphabetical layout and takes a fair bit of time to learn.  It was designed to SLOW DOWN typing because the original machines used long armed letter keys and if two keys were activated too closely together, the key arms would bind up and freeze.  The typist would need to stop and manually separate the key arms – and hope no damage resulted such as throwing off the alignment of a key either up or down, or sideways.

QWERTY layout was created to minimize such possibilities as its layout  separates most commonly used letters and allows more time between strokes for common words.

I had a professor who in the 1970s invented a better – i.e. faster – layout but manufacturers were not interested in ‘retraining the world’.

And so QWERTY rules forever!

YOUR HEALTH 

 OMA and junk food insanity

The Ontario Medical Association in news releases October 24, 2012, is recommending that certain foods should be treated like tobacco, and through a combination of higher taxes and health danger warning labels and gross images, should to systematically targeted so people – especially young people – can be forced to ‘kick the habit’ and avoid the growing obesity epidemic, type 2 diabetes and other ill health consequences.

The foods – labeled by the OMA as JUNK FOODS – are high in calories, high in sugar and low in nutrition – according to the OMA.

The list especially targets pop containing sugar, Chocolate milk, fruit juices and pizza among others.

 

* * * * * * * * *

 

However, there are a number of problems with this list of ‘harmful foods’, and the overall OMA mindset.

Pizza – some dozen years ago the U.S. Health Dept. declared pizza a ‘healthy food choice’ and removed it from its junk food list.  Pizza has a balance of grains, dairy, fruit and optional meat that the U.S., department realized was actually good for you.

Drinks:

While diet pop is sugar free and now the only pop available in school cafeterias and machines across Ontario, aspartame, the replacement sweetener, is itself now under attack for causing individuals severe health repercussions.  The Internet is full of such warnings.   So the choice seems to be added sugar or a potentially more harmful substitute.  I’ll take the natural sugar, thank you,  unless I am dieting!

Chocolate milk was also on the death list in Ontario schools until someone pointed out that chocolate milk accounts for most milk/dairy sales in schools as most children avoid plain milk or yogurt.  As milk, even when brown, is a great source of protein, vitamins and essential nutrients, the Ministry backed down and allowed chocolate milk – which today is 1% skim milk (read low fat) – to survive.   So get real, OMA.

Juice is also an OMA target.  Not coloured ‘drink’ packages which are now banned in Ontario schools (as they are really coloured sugar water that misleads buyers into thinking they are real fruit juice—a cheap con if there were was one.) but real juice – apple juice, grape juice, orange juice, etc.  Too much sugar, I suspect, but, again, juice is the next best thing to eating raw fruit.  Filled with vitamins and essential nutrients, juice, till now,  has been considered  healthy and part of Canada’s Food Guide recommendations!

 

So, what is one left to drink besides white milk in the OMA’s world ?   Only water.

   

The Obesity Epidemic --- Lie

Yes, I believe it is a lie that 1 on 3 people under 18 are significantly overweight or obese and we have an obesity epidemic among our young.

The youth obesity epidemic does not seem to exist in my part of the GTA.  Go to any high school in York Region, go to the Vaughan Mills Mall or Yorkdale or the Eaton Centre and sit and look. Obese people are extremely rare and for every one I see, there are at least 4 to 5 others - females usually - who look anorexic.

The BMI weight scale is the real problem and why, suddenly, there are more overweight and obese children than ever before – despite the fact sugary pop, milk chocolate (with much higher fat content) and pizza have been staples of children and teen diets for over ½ a century.  (And don’t forget chocolate bars and potato chips filled with salt).

Put simply, people and children haven’t changed, only our medical guidepost – the BMI –  has changed how doctors and the public perceive normal weight.

The creator of the BMI, on a CBC radio interview soon after its release, gave some caveats:
1. it is a statistical formula based on data from mostly white adult males. It therefore poorly fits adult females and peoples of other genetic and ethnic backgrounds -- i.e., Hispanics, Hawaiians, Chinese, South East Asian and those of African descent.

2. As he also warned, it does not apply to anyone under age 18 as they were not part of the data base and children have different and changing body norms.

As well, as the Globe and Mail editorial a while back pointed out, Sidney Crosby is 'obese' by BMI criteria -- and I would add so too are all WWE wrestlers, and Olympic weight lifters - both male and female.

 

So, OMA, get a reality check and stop your distorted and unreal obesity mania mindset.

Next, you’ll be telling us to eat just bread and water – super low in calories, sugar and fat.  … Oh, sorry, that was how prisoners and concentration camp inmates were abused in the past.

TECHNOLOGY and MEDIA

Welcome to the party – Apple

This week Apple released its newest product, the iPad mini.  As the name indicates it is a clone of the iPad 2 but smaller.  If you go to the Apple website,  http://www.apple.com/ca/?cid=wwa-ca-kwg-ipad-00020, and watch the promotional videos, you would think Apple has created a whole new and revolutionary product line, but that is the company’s spin on things. 

In reality, the iPad mini is a late comer to the small-size tablet market which was long ago developed by such well known names as  Kindle, Nook, Blackberry Playbook, Sony Reader, HP, Dell, and practically every computer manufacturer in the world!!!  

And just do a Google search for “iPad mini vs. Samsung Galaxy Note 2” and you will find reviewers are consistently rating the new Samsung product far superior to the iPad mini.

The long anticipated Galaxy Note 2, the second generation of the Samsung Galaxy Note (combo smart phone-tablet)  goes on sale in the U.S. October 24 and 25.  Is Apple’s ‘announcement’ of the iPad mini on October 23 a fluke or is Apple running scared?

The iPad mini will not go on sale in the U.S. until November 2, or 10 days after the Samsung Note 2.  It will be much pricier (as is Apple’s long standing markup policy), has no slot to add/change the memory card and no access to change the battery -- unlike all other manufacturers!!!

Steve Jobs, when the Blackberry mini-tablet Playbook was released in April, 2011, publically and on camera berated the mini-size Playbook and all similar sized devices.  Only the large tablet size, he asserted, would meet consumer needs.  So no mini-tablet from Apple or, at least, only over his dead body.

Well, now that Steve Jobs is no longer, Apple has blinked and joined the crowded market.  Its video promotional says it all:  the iPad is too big to hold in one hand while walking or moving and needs a table underneath; and it is too big to fit into a woman’s purse!  So the iPad mini was designed to solve both problems. 

Wow, what an insight!!!!   Surprising how the same ideas occurred to and were marketed by Sony in 2006 (and whose Reader mini-tablet computer is now on its 10^th version), Amazon in 2007, Barnes and Noble in 2009 to name the best known.  The Samsung Galaxy Note 2  is the second generation of this remarkable mini-table series, so who is kidding who when Apple claims it is being ‘innovative”?

Apple may be the most valuable stock in the world and the darling of North America’s media hype but its sales worldwide are nothing to brag about and its latest invention, the iPad mini, is proof that Apple is no longer – if it ever was – a world leader in computer innovation.

Welcome to the real world, Apple, and, sorry, Steve Jobs, you were wronnngggg!!!

YOUR HEALTH

Local or loco?

Maclean’s magazine (Oct. 22, 2012, pages  84-85) had an article extolling the trend to using urban building roofs as farms.  The article extolled a Brooklyn New York project where a warehouse’s massive roof has been turned into a farm “in the city’s navy yards”.

The concept, the ultimate in feel good ‘local’ food (outside of your own backyard) uses large roofs on top of 3 storey or higher buildings. There is even a YouTube video extolling the Brooklyn, New York project and one for Chicago. (See YouTube, roof farms).

But to me this idea has dangers that are being ignored.

I have no objections to using such space if enclosed in greenhouse fashion, but growing food in open air atop buildings strikes me as potentially more harmful than pesticides.

Rooftops are closer too and therefore more exposed to all sorts of air pollution and dangerous chemicals – from chimney exhaust to manufacturing  air waste.  Smog and air currents from power plants and industrial smokestacks expose rooftops to all kinds of pollutants we do not get at ground level or in sheltered back yards..

So while rooftop crops may be ‘local’ and look and taste good, beware!!!

MEDIA

Will the U.S. election end with a tie?

This 2012 U.S. election will end with a tie.  No, not a tie in the popular vote on November 6 nor a tie in the Electoral College. What will decide who in the next president of the United States will be the ties the two men wore in their final debate.  Do you prefer Obama’s solid blue tie with tiny squares or Romney’s bright red and with broad stripes that looked purplish on my monitor?

While this may sound ludicrous, so too have been the post-debate ‘popularity polls’ and American reaction.  Issues are of little import in the world of TV broadcasting. ‘Looks’, not words are key as McLuhan long ago recognized.  Style, not substance, rules in this visual medium as Neil Postman lamented in Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Put simply, on TV, whoever ‘looks’ more dynamic and assertive – in dress and body language - wins the audience over at the emotional/subconscious level.

Winners are the male lions and male peacocks who expand their manes or feathers to look more powerful and impressive. Losers are sloths and worms – slow moving or simply yucky.

What Americans should be paying attention to is their different world views on the role of government: minimalist vs. active on the economy, social change and foreign policy.  Those are the three real issues of this election.

 

But these get lost in combative exchanges filled with – at best -- half-truths from both sides. In such a confusing environment, and given TVs visual bias, ‘looking good’ is the deciding factor. 

 

After watching segments of the first debate I knew within minutes Obama was in trouble.  His cropped haircut with visibly grey curls sprouting everywhere was no match  for Romney’s distinguished grey sideburns and jet black mane of hair.  Obama rarely moved his arms and looked wooden, tired and ill while Romney used every chance to stand broad shouldered, with a glowing smile, leaning forward aggressively.  In brief, Romney looked the star quarterback and Obama the 90 lb weakling who couldn’t ever make the team.   

These visuals revived Romney’s presidential numbers among viewers polled the next day and has since given his campaign huge momentum.

 

Question:  How did those listening on RADIO react?  Did Obama do so poorly when only his voice and tone were available for judgement – alongside his positions on the issues?   No one seems to have bothered polling such people or even asking the question.

 

In 1960, the first televised presidential debate between Vice President Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, radio listeners gave Nixon a 60% to 40%

victory, but the larger TV audience reversed the ratings.

On TV, Nixon, recently hospitalized, showing             5 o’clock shadow and sweating under the studio lights was no match visually for the tanned, non-sweating and constantly smiling Kennedy.

And the rest is history.

 

So, why are the two fabric ties worn in the last debate so important?  Because by now most pundits and the public believe the two men are each at 47% of the popular vote.  The earlier debates have ‘balanced out’ as one win for each – based on demeanor and flash.  Obama, the reigning champion, rose from the ring floor and did well in debate # 2 -- like a Rocky.

 

In the final debate, forced to sit at a round table inches apart, physical dynamism was minimized. Both men sat and spoke with little body language or energy.  Poor lighting and camera choices did not help either, as Obama’s dark skin looked two dimensional on my screen and Romney’s often wrinkled forehead and pale face were not inspiring.

Both men wore what seemed to be identical black suits – same colour and cut -- and only their ties were distinctively different. 

As they constantly threw conflicting information and numbers at each other, their ties, for once,  galvanized my attention and probably that of most viewers.

My wife did not see the debates but when I asked her which tie she would prefer – as described above – she chose the blue one. 

So, based on this scientific poll of one, and a female perspective at that, Obama will win.

MEDIA and TECHNOLOGY

The Apple has fallen

I have never been a fan of Apple/McIntosh but encouraged my daughter to learn to use both PCs and Steve Job’s products  -- as they both exist in the real world.

So, why am I not an Apple fan after all these decades?

1.     Apple is a very greedy and controlling firm – reflective of Steve Jobs’ personality rather than its original computer whiz, Steve Wozniak.

Unlike the PC world were competition drives down consumer prices, Apple maintains a standalone approach with the principal that every product must return a 50% profit or it won’t be made. Maximum profit in the PC world is 33% and often closer to 10%.

 

2.     Over Wozniak’s objections, Apple computers from the start have controlled and limited consumer options by restricting or refusing to allow non-Apple devices or companies to ‘dock’ with their units.  CD and DVD drives are no longer built into units and industry leading Adobe Flash has been blocked from installation on Apple device. Sending a PC document or graphic to an Apple computer – and vice versa – is often a nightmare – unless you have an Apple which has Microsoft pre-installed on it (a concession the company made when near bankruptcy and was bailed out by Bill Gates. Microsoft owns some 5% of Apple still.) or Open Office on your PC -- a Linux style ‘international language’.

 

3.     Steve Jobs was a master of cool and minimalism in design, but almost never had an original idea (except for his introduction of diverse fonts into the DOS world and colour screens.)  He created nifty icons and desktops, loved white bodies and ethereally thin casings with rounded shapes.  He created with an artist’s spirit and eye, but copied others ideas too often, claiming the innovations as his own.

 

Contrary to U.S. media hype and legend, Steve Job’s company:

 

·        Did NOT create the first home computer.  The Apple 1 (1976) was based on existing home computer kits such as the seminal and inexpensive Altair 8800 and the very pricey IBM 1500. When the Apple 2 came out in 1977 with a keyboard and monitor, it had two rivals: Commodore PET and Radio Shack’s TRS-80. (Apple’s only iunique aspect was a colour monitor.)  [See about.com “Inventors of Modern Computers.”]

 

·        Apple did NOT invent selling internet-streamed music. The concept  first appeared in 1998   from Miami entrepreneur Ivan J. Parron’s Ritmoteca.com -- which sold songs for 99 cents. Major labels such as Sony also created their own stores, but Napster and the illegal, free market gained the upper hand before iTunes’s arrival in 2001.

 

·        Apple’s iPhone line is NOT the original smart phone with an interactive touch screen.  It followed in the footsteps of Nokia and others who created phones with internet connectivity and (small) screens,  and especially Palm’s PDA keyboard-less large screen hand held devices.

 

     The finger Touch Screen was also NOT an original Apple invention as

      bank machines and even restaurant cash registered were using the

      technology long before.

 

·        The iPod, again, was NOT the first mobile music storage device using electronic memory and compact design.  MP3 players were already in the market from various manufacturers before the original iPod came along.

 

British scientist Kane Kramer is recognized as its inventor in 1979. In 1998 a South Korean company manufactured and released the first electronic music player and four other manufacturers were well into this field before Apple’s iPod arrived in October 2001. [See Wikipedia “Portable media player”]

 

 

·        The iPad (2010) is NOT the first tablet on the market.  Microsoft in fact created the category and name in 2001. The Microsoft device used a pen to touch the screen and allowed for handwriting as well. Others got into the field, including HP.

 

The e-reading feature so popular on tablets is also NOT an Apple creation. Sony already had an internet downloading e-reader tablet in the market by 2006, the popular Amazon Kindle began in 2007 and Barnes and Noble’s Nook arrived in 2009.

 

As well, the world wide set of lawsuits between Apple and Samsung includes Samsung’s claim that the Apple iPad infringes on its own tablet’s patents. (As Samsung is one of Apple’s major suppliers and ‘partners’, idea and design cross-contamination is very possible – both ways.)

 

 

4.     FINALLY, the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and new iPhone 5 have been released with major flaws.  Things Steve Jobs when healthy, would never have tolerated, but such is the frantic world of electronics competition that Apple is often RUSHING TO MARKET before the ‘bugs’ are resolved:

iPhone 4 – antenna redesign needed as original units would often loose   signal or not get reception.

iPhone 4S – new Siri voice system was draining battery life as it was ‘on’ in the background all the time.  You had to go to the company’s store or website to be shown how to disable the feature and keep your phone running.

The Siri ‘link’ was also a costly surprise as the phone generated internet data minutes all the time.

 

iPhone 5 – Bigger screen than before and slimmer.  Sounds good but:

a.     The larger screen - at 4 inches -  is not a first but a ‘catch up’ to Samsung and others who already had larger screens designed to handle movie size 9 x 16 dimension images.

 

b.     The larger and more powerful  battery is so thinly encased that testers at the Globe and Mail found the unit ‘hot’ to hold when doing heavy power applications and imaging – think movies and games.

A recall should be done but this is Apple, so the problem will probably be covered up – both literally and figuratively.

 

c.      Jettisoning Google maps – now a ‘competitor’ – was not well thought out or well executed as the new Apple map applications have become the butt of jokes – requiring an admission and apology this week from the new CEO, Tim Cook.  Newspapers from Toronto’s Globe and Mail and elsewhere mocked the distorted images of world renowned sites such as the Eiffel Tower (squished pancake) and Boston had a field day criticizing local major bridges and tourist sites that were ‘melting’ or bizarre looking.

 

 Some famous landmarks also went ‘missing’ such as the Statue of Liberty!.  [G&M Sept. 21, 2012, B1 and B3]

 

d.     As the Globe and Mail has also noted in two recent articles, the voice activated map directions - turn by turn software -- is handy but not when it misplaces the object of your trip. Erroneously putting your destination 2 blocks away from its true location, or on the wrong side of the street is a common problem that the G&M reviewers felt was unacceptable, as better products – unrelated to Google – already exist.[G&M Sept. 27, 2012, B14 “Apple’s map app misses the mark” and Oct 1, 2012, B8 “Apple’s Map app error is a path to lost customers”]

 

So:

What does this all mean, especially after 3 years of rushed, inferior iPhone releases?

What does it mean for a company who realizes the iPad’s current size is often too unwieldy and is rumoured to be working on a ‘reduced size’ model -- copying the Blackberry Playbook and similar, smaller Samsung or Sony products?

What does it mean when the Samsung Galaxy Note (released last year) is considered a breakthrough, the almost perfect size phone, internet vehicle and tablet all rolled in one?  Its oversized movie screen – at 5.3 inches   outshines the newly released iPhone 5.  And the new Samsung Galaxy Note 2 is even better -- starting with its 5.5 inch screen and quad-core processor.

 

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It means:  if you own Apple stock, rethink your investment and take the money   and RUN!!!

 

Steve Jobs is gone, and the Apple is falling.