Monday, July 25, 2011

"Grand Central Terminal’s iconic main concourse, with its ceiling of glittering stars, will likely welcome another icon later this year: a single, glowing white apple."

"Grand Central Terminal’s iconic main concourse, with its ceiling of glittering stars, will likely welcome another icon later this year: a single, glowing white apple."

"During his presentation, MTA Real Estate Director Jeffrey Rosen announced both the Apple store and a new Shake Shack for the terminal.
“I can’t imagine why any kid in Westchester would want to do anything other than go into Grand Central and shop at Apple and eat at Shake Shack,” Rosen said.
Board members wryly noted that Penn Station, Grand Central’s less glamorous sister across town, will not be offering such sleek retail any time soon.
“Kids from Long Island and Jersey can take the 1 and 2 and then the shuttle” to buy iPads and Shackburgers, said Pat Foye, the board member from Nassau County.
The board member from Suffolk, Mitchell Pally, followed his lead:
“It makes the Penn Station customers no longer second-class citizens,” he said. “It makes them third-class citizens.”

AppleGrandCentral.com - Grand Central Apple Happening!

Grand Central Apple Happening!

"First Glimpse of Apple’s Plans for Grand Central Terminal"

"First Glimpse of Apple’s Plans for Grand Central Terminal"

"Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials offered a glimpse Monday morning at the Apple store proposed for the train station, near the terminal’s east staircase. Apple plans to start building the gadget shop immediately, should the agency’s board give its approval Wednesday. Construction is expected to take about four months.
Apple is paying Charlie Palmer’s Metrazur restaurant $5 million to vacate its space on the terminal’s east balcony more than eight years before its lease expires. The MTA will get significantly higher annual rent: $1.1 million from Apple vs. $263,997 from Metrazur.
In addition to the space currently occupied by Metrazur, Apple will move into an adjacent, currently vacant balcony on the northeast side of the terminal."

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Spies in China Said to Be Behind IMF Hacking

Spies in China Said to Be Behind IMF Hacking

LivingSocial Sales Up Close: Deals Sites Are Bubbles In For A Major Correction!!

LivingSocial Sales Up Close: Deals Sites Are Bubbles In For A Major Correction!!

"Are you going out and talking to merchants and are they over it?

The not so nice people say "you're the 12th F-in guy that's called me today!" and I'm always the 12th guy that's called that day.

When you started hearing things like that, you start thinking "Wow, this is going to correct soon and this cannot last."

So what do you, as a guy that has to find these deals, how do you do it? Do you make twice or ten times as many calls? How do you end up getting your quota?

Actually no. I'm a firm believer in that book "Cold Calling Is A Waste Of Time," which states that a smart contact is how you make the most money, not the most contacts. Fortunately, I've established so many contacts from the business that I did last year that it's easy for me to call them and say "Hey, it's me," and because I did right by them, I can get in the door easily and they'll hear what I have to say. 

You could say "let's do it again."

Yeah, but you can't do that anymore because doing it again means doing the exact same thing that they did the last time, and a lot of these guys are savvy to how you need to control the way you structure a deal in order for it to really make sense for you to get the exposure and for you to not lose your shirt on the revenue side.
What I'm finding is that people want a million and one restrictions. They just won't run a deal. In order to get the business, you have to confine the deal to certain parameters, like instead of "$20 for $40 of food," you say "tasting menu of wings and a beer" so that it's only limited to that product. That's how you're able to work with merchants now."

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

AppleGrandCentral.com - Apple's China boom continues with 6 TIMES revenue growth to $3.8B

Apple's China boom continues with 6 TIMES revenue growth to $3.8B

AppleGrandCentral.com - Chinese counterfeiting extends to full-blown fake Apple retail stores

Chinese counterfeiting extends to full-blown fake Apple retail stores

AppleGrandCentral.com: Apple expected to deliver $25B quarter on 16.5M iPhones

Earnings preview: Apple expected to deliver $25B quarter on 16.5M iPhones

"On average, analysts expect Apple to report sales of around 16.5 million iPhones, according to StreetAccount data relayed by Piper Jaffray. That would be nearly double the 8.4 million iPhones the company sold in the same quarter a year ago.

Analysts are also calling for Apple to sell a record 4.2 million Macs in the June quarter. That sum would best the 4.1 million Macs Apple sold in the holiday quarter of 2010.

It's also projected to be a record quarter for iPad sales, as Wall Street anticipates the company announcing sales of 7.8 million units of its hot-selling touchscreen tablet. That would be a half-million units more than the previous high of 7.3 million sold in holiday 2010.

Apple tipped its hand on iPad sales in early June, when the company announced at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference that total sales of the device had topped 25 million. At that pace, Apple was on track to sell more than 8 million iPads in the June quarter, though overall analyst predictions are slightly lower."

AppleGrandCentral.com - Tuesday Apple Look: Earnings CAN Be Very Bright SPOT!

Tuesday Apple Look: Earnings CAN Be Very Bright SPOT!

Why No One Should Believe Apple's Earnings Guidance?

Why No One Should Believe Apple's Earnings Guidance?

"Ultimately, Apple’s tendency to low-ball its guidance and analysts’ willingness to play along with the charade tends to harm shareholders who are left with an inaccurate picture of the company’s true financial standing and a stock that may be leaving value on the table. 


‘Mutual Self-Deception’
In any case, it’s hard to place all the blame on Apple as it’s clear the analyst community has gone along with the game. Rather than sharply ratcheting up their EPS and sales projections to account for the fact that Apple low-balls its guidance, analysts tend to hike them just moderately. That results in deceptively-low consensus estimates that the markets compare the results with. 
“If analysts accept the low-balled guidance and accept the quarterly results that consistently exceed the estimates, then they’re both playing in a game of mutual self-deception,” said Stevenson, who led the IR and communications departments of Kraft (KFT: 35.42, +0.24, +0.68%) and R.J. Reynolds. “The ultimate loser is the investor who can’t count on either one of these two pieces of information.”

Monday, July 18, 2011

India Government’s Use of Hotmail, Gmail ‘Recipe for Disaster’ - REALLY???

India Government’s Use of Hotmail, Gmail ‘Recipe for Disaster’ - REALLY???
"After a triple bombing in Mumbai killed 21 people last week, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office issued a statement condemning the terrorist attacks -- from a Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) Hotmail address.
Singh’s staff’s use of a free e-mail account is typical of most government workers, who log into Hotmail, Google Inc. (GOOG)’s Gmail and Yahoo! Inc.’s e-mail to conduct official business. They also list those addresses on agency websites and business cards.
Bureaucrats avoid the government system because it covers only 10 percent of federal employees, doesn’t include the latest security patches and can’t be accessed via India’s 840 million mobile-phone connections. That preference for free e-mail accounts threatens the safety and veracity of government information because the data is moving through computer servers outside India, cybersecurity experts said.
“It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Pawan Duggal, a New Delhi lawyer who argues information-technology cases before India’s Supreme Court. “It’s really quite amazing that, as a nation, we haven’t yet woken up to the idea that sensitive government information should be shared through secure channels, not Hotmail or Yahoo.”

AppleGrandCentral.com - Is Netflix Killing DVDs like Apple Killed Floppies?

AppleGrandCentral.com - Is Netflix Killing DVDs like Apple Killed Floppies?

AppleGrandCentral.com - Trade Idea: JPMorgan: Buy Apple calls before earnings

AppleGrandCentral.com - Trade Idea: JPMorgan: Buy Apple calls before earnings

AppleGrandCentral.com: Sears Briefly, MISTAKENLY Prices iPad 2 at $70

AppleGrandCentral.com: Sears Briefly, MISTAKENLY Prices iPad 2 at $70

AppleGrandCentral.com - Apple's VICTORY over HTC may set HIGH royalty precedent for Android devices

Apple's VICTORY over HTC may set HIGH royalty precedent for Android devices

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Microsoft and Facebook Relationship = Win Win?

Microsoft and Facebook Relationship = Win Win?

'Microsoft’s Android Goldmine'

'Microsoft’s Android Goldmine'

How A Notorious Banker (Incompetent & Responsible for part of Indonesian Financial Crisis) Left Intellectual Ventures With A Poorly Performing Fund

How A Notorious Banker (Incompetent & Responsible for part of Indonesian Financial Crisis) Left Intellectual Ventures With A Poorly Performing Fund

"According to the public records of one of its investors, the University of Texas Investment Management Co., Invention Development Fund has not returned a single penny to investors in four years and posted an internal rate of return of -74.01% as of the end of May. UTIMCO has committed $50 million to this fund and handed over $18.3 million–an investment currently valued at $3.86 million. UTIMCO records suggest the fund raised $590 million."