Two “news” today:
+ Apple will announce more on its Watch. 10 AM PST. 1 PM EST.
+ There’s talk of an imminent Fed rate hike, though a New York Times editorial cautions against it. Writes the Times:
The Fed should hold off until wages are growing in tandem with inflation and productivity. In the meantime, it should use its regulatory tools to ensure that low-interest-rate credit is put to productive uses and not speculative bubbles. Of course, Congress should do its part for job creation and economic growth — say, by financing infrastructure projects. Its inability to act is yet another reason the Fed has to get its response right.
For more click here.
The Apple Watch will change your life, saving you time and cutting your addiction to, and obsession with checking your iPhone constantly. That’s what some of early testers have found.
9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman highlights some heretofore unknown features from sources with hands-on experience, including longer continuous and mixed-use battery life, on-demand heart rate monitoring, a fully independent and customizable Notification Center and Bluetooth audio accessory connectivity. While a previous 9to5Mac report put battery life at between 2.5 and 4 hours of continuous, active use, new information indicates Apple has managed to extend that to five full hours, along with normal mixed daily use allowing the Watch to work past the one-day mark, though nightly charging is still necessary to ensure it’ll last the next day.
I’m hooked on the Apple Watch and will buy one. Some of my friends are buying them for their privileged kids.
The BIG thing I learned. You can’t trade bonds or treasuries on Fidelity’s Active Trader Pro. Moreover the price they assign to the bonds in your portfolio is provided by “a third party” and is often flat-out wrong.
Active Trader Pro is a useful piece of software Fidelity provides its customers for buying, selling and keeping an eye on their holdings. But it’s totally misleading on bonds and on treasuries. I bet that’s the case with your “trading platform” also. CHECK. CHECK. CHECK.
Stupid Pills: The Politics of Fraudulent Dietary Supplements.
… to the tune of $13 billion a year in sales. And here in Utah, which is to the dietary supplement business what Northern California is to marijuana, a huge industry has taken hold, complete with a network of doctors making unproven claims, well-connected lobbyists and entrenched politicians who keep regulators at bay.
For the article, click here.
Better Software Lets You Kick Back and Do Your Taxes. A good overview of tax software. Click here.
Matt Taibbi on Scott Walker. Many people believe he will be the party’s nominee. For the Rolling Stone piece click here.
How to Remember People’s Names. A short useful article. Click here.
The New Health Care: If Patients Only Knew How Often Treatments Could Harm Them. Click here.
Best PDF Reader for PCs is PDF-XChange Viewer. I use it everyday. Click here.
Three wonderful New Yorker cartoons.
Australian sensitivity.
Three Aussie blokes working up on an outback, mobile phone tower: Mongrel, Coot and Bluey .
As they start their descent, Coot slips, falls off the tower and is killed instantly..
As the ambulance takes the body away, Bluey says, ‘Well, bugger me, someone’s gotta go and tell Coot’s wife.
Mongrel says, ‘OK, I’m pretty good at that sensitive stuff, I’ll do it.’
Two hours later, he comes back carrying a case of Beer.
Bluey says, ‘Where’d you get the grog, Mongrel?’
‘Coot’s wife gave it to me,’ Mongrel replies.
‘That’s unbelievable, you told the Missus her husband, was dead and she gave you a case of beer?’
‘Well, not exactly’, Mongrel says.
‘When she answered the door, I said to her, “you must be Coot’s widow.”
She said, ‘You must be mistaken.. I’m not a widow.’
Then I said, ‘I’ll betcha a case of beer you are..’
Aussies are good at that sensitive stuff.
Harry Newton who was an Australian before he became an American eons ago. He’s now been sensitized, though there are many in his family who might disagree. Eleanor is now walking. It’s nice to have videos of these precious, historic moments. I love Apple’s shared PhotoStream. One parents photographs the kid’s latest brilliance. Everyone instantly receives the photo evidence. It’s pure magic.
