Cutting Through The Mysteries of 4-G

4-G is much advertised and talked about, but what’s the real story?  The Wall Street Journal has an excellent explanation in yesterday’s issue.  But here are some skinny facts.

1.      4-G is somewhat internationally certified, that is ‘defined’.  Verizon’s version of 4-G most closely adheres to the standards and is called LTE.  AT&T version is similar but different.  AT&T might eventually move to LTE to make it a standard.

2.      How fast is it?  WSJ tests show it varies from 10 to 20 megabits per second.  That compares with only 6.1 megabits from wired internet averages in the USA.  But many of us have wired internet that is faster than 6.1 megabits.   That compares with only 1 megabit speed for crowded free wi-fi in some airports.  In one airport, Mr. Mossberg of WSJ found the 4G speed on his iPad to be 32 megabits – incredible speed.

3.      Does it cost more?  Maybe – if it encourages you to use more megabits of data (HD instead of normal video quality and so on).  That’s too big a topic for the Blog.

4.      Where is it available?  Verizon has more locations, but AT&T has a fall-back speed service called HSPA+ that they call 4-G (but is not as fast as LTE) and it kicks in when there is no real 4-G LTE available.  So, it depends on where you are spending most of your time as to which carrier, is, overall, the fastest. It’s a variable at this point.

5.      Cost?   Similar to the older 3-G if you use the same amount of data, but plans can be costly for big users, $80 a month for 10 GB with Verizon.  But only $20 a month for 1 GB.

6.      What should you do?  Personally, I am with 3-G and for e-mail and most things I do, that’s very fast and cheap.  But I use wi-fi almost all of the time, so I would be less happy with 3-G if that was my primary source of internet.  4-G approaches Wi Fi, and to me, Wi Fi is slower than wired signal from Time Warner Road Runner.

7.      Mi-Fi – is available in 3-G or 4-G.  I have 3-G but will be upgrading it to 4-G.  Mi-Fi takes the cell phone signal and converts it to Wi-Fi for 5 devices or less.  Great for my old PC when I travel or am not where there is a wired internet like Road Runner.

Please leave your comments as to your experience and happiness with 4-G if you have tried it.

No-Contract Cell Phones March to Glory

No contract phones were sure to come, as the USA was one of the few places where the actual cell phone itself was paid for and/or subsidized by the carrier, such as Verizon.  Most of the world required the customer to pay full phone price, and then sold them a pre-paid amount of time.  But, unfortunately for much of the world, the air time was expensive compared to the USA.  So, in some ways we have lived a charmed life – cheap phones and high priced two year phone contracts. That has propelled smart phones to a deep penetration of the market, and convinced many of us “we can’t live without them”. 

I have been hearing from friends and magazines lately that new deals are on the horizon for cheap “no contract phones”.  One friend uses Boost, and has good coverage and service, and pays only $35 a month for unlimited use and no roaming charges.  Net Zero is pushing the envelope with a new announcement, $9.85 a month, no contract, for 4-G service for data (wi-fi type modems or hard wired modems to desktop PC’s)  Limits on usage are not too bad, and for more money you can buy more time, and you can be notified when you need to buy more “just for that month”.  Or purchase a stronger program if you like.

Now a good friend tells me Wal-Mart sells an inexpensive no-contract plans under the brand name "Straight-Talk".  ST operates on the Verizon network, which is my favorite network.  He says a good friend living in Falls Church, Virginia bought a couple ST phones and is very happy with the service.  Neither Sprint or AT&T provided a usable signal at his house.  ST obviously works fine. 

Is It Time To Buy A New Car? Or A New Home?

As I have blogged before, new cars are a better buy, overall, than used cars for two reasons:  Interest rates on new cars are low, and discounts are available, including some very cheap lease plans.  Used cars were in high demand the last two years, driving their prices dangerously close to new cars in many cases.

Today, a news report says:

1.      Half the cars in America are now 11 years old, or older  -- an all time high

2.      Car sales fell from 17 million a year to 10 million a year in 2009 .. huge drop

3.      Pent up demand has pushed new car sales up dramatically this Winter

4.      They were up 16% over last year in month of December.

5.      US based car factories are approaching 90% capacity (could that trigger price increases ?)

6.      While Detroit based auto companies are smaller, so-called foreign cars are now made in the USA and so, overall, the USA is producing a lot more cars than before.

Other economic factors – young people in the recession bunked in at home with parents, that is not going to last, they want to leave the nest, and now.  It used to be that household formations followed population growth, but now, for the first time ever, they are lagging --- because so many people are remaining single, living at home, and half the adults in America are not married (maybe an all time high).  This trend has not been good for the home building industry, but should not affect car buying, as people do like to be mobile.

There is no change in American underlying society, kids do not WANT to be at home, so, once they get a job, they will leave their parent’s homes, and that should drive smaller home sales, and condos or at least apartment building.  Any thoughts?  Please leave comments.

KeyChain or Smart Source Express?

For readers who own retail stores, or for readers that just shop at stores, these two new app’s for the iPhone (not so useful for the iPad) might be of interest.  I predict these will become a wave in the future.

What do they do?  They take all those customer loyalty cards that every store seems to have now, and puts them into your iPhone.  Then you don’t have to carry plastic junk into the store; just call up the store on the iPhone app (Keychain) and show them your electronic card.  There is a bar code that appears, and most scanners will scan the bar code right off your iPhone screen as well.

The appeal doesn’t stop with convenience, the Keychain stores load in deals and even substantial discounts for you to view and use – enticements to shop their stores.  They don’t give all these deals to people with plastic only.  Why?  My guess is they are trying to attract the electronic first-movers to this idea.

Today, a competitor to Keychain , (which I have on my iTouch) Smart Source Xpress was announced.  This app says it goes farther than the Keychain app.   It says it will download “cardholder only” special prices to the app, so when you shop there, you don’t have to take the paper coupons we see everywhere in print ads these days.  This could be a good deal, since sometimes those 2 for 1, or deeply discounted items are invisible to in-store shoppers, you have to bring in the coupon.  Walmart appears to be more honest than some.  Walmart gives everyone the deep discount sale price, even if the shelf doesn’t mention the item is on sale.  Frequently I see prices ring at the Walmart register that are less that what I thought it would be based on shelf sticker pricing. And Walmart doesn't bother you with loyalty cards. 

If anyone has tried either of these, and would like to share their feelings or experience, please use the comment link below and sound off!

Is Housing Bullish or Bearish? Read This.

Did you know there is an ETF (electronically traded fund) for publicly traded home builders?   It is called I Shares US Home Construction ETF, symbol ITB.

This ETF contains shares of KB Homes, NVR Homes, Pulte Homes, DR Horton, Toll Brothers and Lennar.  All well known home building companies.  Buy one share of the EFT, and you own a little of all of them, and can trade in and out anytime, any day.

Short interest is the highest ever in this ETF, meaning, many folks think publicly traded home building companies are over-priced right now.  Is that a bearish sign or a bullish sign ?

Here is how much some of them have gone up just since January 1, 2012

KB Homes  6.95 to 13.10 ..   up 90 %  (where else could you have made so much profit so quick ?)

Pulte Homes  6.47 to 9.68           up  almost 50 %

DR Horton  12.89 to 16.37         up almost 30%

Lennar Homes   20.00 to 27.00  up almost 35 %

Toll Brothers  20.83  to 24.83  up almost 20 %

With CD’s paying half of one percent, who would have thought that you could have made so much, so quickly, in home building stocks ?  Which have been depressed for many months since “people are not buying new homes” ---  or are they?   Something is driving this, is it irrational exuberance?

Wish I had had my entire investments in KB Homes this year!!  Who would have predicted that kind of run up?

Please post your thoughts, comments and ideas on the future potential of these stocks.

News for iPad Owners (or the curious)

Today’s WSJ has a good story on the new iPad (3).  Mossberg says it is an amazing device and solidifies Apple’s total leadership in the pad phenomenon.  The retina display is twice as sharp as HD TV.  Read the story if you have time or interest.  He said the 4-G phone connection was seamless, and it made the pad run at wi-fi speeds all the time, no matter if you had wi-fi or not.  The really good news is, normally 4-G saps the battery fast, but Apple has more or less solved that, and this one works super well.

I just downloaded 5.1 for my Apple iPad 2.  I don’t know if you have tried downloading 5.1 yet, but the download was ragged last night. So I tried again today, and it came down fine.  Hint – pre-close all open apps before attempting to download.  If you don’t know how to do that, e-mail me.

Also, once 5.1 was downloaded, suddenly 5 of my 40 or so apps gave off an update signal.  So I updated them. In the past few days, 10 or more apps have issued updates, my guess is “in response to the 5.1 software upgrade” that everyone is doing. 

I have a new app called App Deals, by Appsfire (search for it in the app app).  It is not that great, but was highly rated.  Their today’s best app suggestion is AppZilla2, 120 utilities in 1.  With 2.5 million downloads and mostly 5 star rating, it might be worth a look.  I am searching for better app-suggestion app’s.  If you know any great ones, let me know.

End Of An Era For Britannica

It was just announced that the Britannica (which was started in 1768), will cease printing traditional paper encyclopedias. In another sign that the printed page is being extinguished as a profit making enterprise, Britannica said they would concentrate on selling their data bases to others, and on “apps” for iPads and other tablet computers.

1.      Tablets are racing into the classrooms of America in lieu of books

2.      Universities are switching from printed books to electronic books in their libraries.

Example : the new library in the “about to be built” new facility for the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business is supposed to be radically different from the existing one.  The new one will have nearly all electronic books instead of paper ones (the library looks like a small room on the blueprints I saw)

Distributed Processing:  this is an old term, that is relevant again.  As the books go electronic, where a student reads them won’t matter as it did in the past.  So a library table and chair is no longer essential. The work (or in this case the information) is distributed to the person, the person doesn’t go to the information location.

Garmin GPS, Perhaps a Better Model

Garmin nüvi 1450LMT 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Map & Traffic Updates

At only $129 on Amazon, this model appears to be even better deal than the 1350 in my previous blog.

This is the # 6 best seller on Amazon in electronics.  That is such a strong statement, I don’t know how you could go wrong buying this unit.  It has good features the 1350 doesn’t have, and might have solved some of the battery issues.  Free map upgrades and more make this an excellent value.

Check out the many favorable comments on Amazon as well.  At Amazon or at your local store, $129 or thereabouts is a mighty good deal !!! 

Housing Finally Rebounds

Today’s Wall Street Journal features a story about how Phoenix, AZ housing is turning around, and for-sale inventories are falling.  This is after being one of the worst markets for foreclosures and short-sales in the country.  Why are things turning around?

1.      After falling 55% in price, housing is now a good value (or a true bargain)

2.      Inventories are finally falling since new construction has been slow or non existent

3.      Consumer mood is improving, especially when a potential buyer sees an opportunity to sell their home (at a low price) and buy a better home (at a low price).  This move-up market was stagnant in the past few years, since selling existing homes was a sticker-shock event (or didn’t happen at all).

4.      Life moves on, in spite of recessions, children get older and closer to leaving the nest – if parents ever want a bigger, better home for the last few years with their teen children they have to make the move now.  

Everyone has a story to tell about their primary home’s current market price, or their vacation home being stuck in the no-sale zone.  But, in the past few months, my friends in real estate tell me the phones are “ringing off the hook”.  Buyers are coming back into the market, and new stories will be told.  In fact, they already are.  Two of my family members have sold properties in the past 2 months, that had been on the market for years. I predict we will hear more and more stories about how “X finally sold their home”.  “Y got a bit more for their condo than they expected”.  “Z turned down a low offer, since they think more buyers are in the market”. 

If you would like to join this discussion or tell your own housing sale story – just post a comment.  All my readers would love to hear real stories, not stories from the Wall Street Journal.

Update on Garmin Deal-of-The-Day at BEST BUY

Best buy has a deal of the day for $109 on the Garmin.  Model number  Garmin nüvi 1350 Series 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator.  This is a considerable deal, I believe this is a $200 unit, and this one comes with free lifetime map updates – which used to cost $90.   This one speaks, and does many things that their lesser models do nor do.

Amazon has it for the same price today, and I sort of prefer Amazon for online buying, free freight and easy checkout. 

On the down side, read some of the reviews.  One person has discovered charging difficulties (won’t charge in sunlight or when it is over 113 degrees).  This could be a major fault if you are driving somewhere on a trip, and the battery gives out and the car charger won’t keep it going.   And might apply to all Garmin models, not just this one.

There are work-arounds, but it is best to read the Amazon review on this topic before buying.
I particularly like the new lane-feature, that tells you which lane (on wide roads) to be in for the next turn, or the right lane at the moment.  This is often confusing in large metro areas where many interstate exits are very close together.  

 Arrival time and speed limit features are included on this model, I believe. 

Inflation is 3 to 6 %. Are You Earning Only 1.5%?.

Try Micro Lending.  Never heard of it?  Read on.

Interest rates on CD’s are very low, but you don’t want to take the risk of investing in dividend paying stocks?  A recent article suggests you can make up to 10% annual without investing in stocks or bonds using a web-based version of micro lending.

With official inflation hovering above 3%, and the real rate - including the types of things every consumer needs to buy, like energy and food - well above 6%, half-a-percent interest simply doesn't make the grade.

Thanks to technology, new alternatives have been developed that allow individuals to earn serious interest without investing in the stock market or bond market.   It’s called Peer to Peer lending (or P2P)

Companies with websites will allow you to invest in consumer loans, loans normally made in the past by banks.  Consumers pay 10% or more (or less with high credit scores) and yet they find borrowing from these P2P websites better and cheaper than borrowing from banks.  Apparently default rates are not that bad either.

With P2P lending, an individual investor doesn't make a single $10,000 loan. Instead, he can buy 200 or more different loans, taking only $25 or $50 of risk per loan. You can choose your risk tolerance, the more risk you take, the better the return, but some will default, of course.

"A" grade loans might earn you only 7% and predictably low defaults.  The other extreme might be debt-consolidation loans for borrowers with much lower credit scores, but you could earn 10% or more.

At  Lending Club   www.lendingclub.com you can read all about how this works.  This website or “club” lends about $36 million a month.   Investors with more than 800 notes in their account supposedly have earned positive income after fees, with (supposedly) 93% of those investors earning between six and 18% interest

Lending Club is not the only one; there is a site called Prosper  www.prosper.com  Prosper is more like Ebay, an auction format, where the interest rate is set by the lenders through bidding. Lending Club sets the interest rate based on a formula, and lenders either accept that interest rate or not; there is no bidding.

A name sometimes used for this type of lending is Micro Lending.  I first heard about this in an overseas environment, where other sources of lending are not available for typical borrowers. These borrowers (I have read) tend to be very thankful for the working  capital and use it wisely, and pay it back.

Prosper has funded some $300 million in loans since its inception in 2006 through the end of 2011, compared to the $500 million funded by Lending Club in the same time frame.

Both sites, I think, lock up your money for 3 years. If you are to comment, or have invested in one of these, please write up a comment to this post.  We would all be interested in real life experiences of real investors.

DOW Headed for Drop? Sell Apple Stock?

WSJ points out this morning that the DOW has gone 45 days without a single 100 point decline.  That is the longest time since 2006 for this kind of “event”.  Does that mean we are ready for a big one day drop soon ?

Apple, the stock, is the subject of two stories in WSJ today.  “Is it time to sell Apple ?”

is one headline. Point is made that, the stock runs up on the news of a new product (iPad3) and tends to fall after the product actually launches.   Apple announces the iPad 3 tomorrow.

All I have read indicates the iPad 3 is a wonderful product upgrade, a screen with amazing resolution, a great new camera, longer battery life, and has the 4G type cell phone connection speed, and wi fi as well. It is 1 mm thicker than the iPad 2.  Is that enough to sell millions more?  I think it is.

Apple iTunes APP store has

1.      Reached a milestone 25 Billion downloaded apps  (happened on Monday)

2.      Has 550,000 apps you can choose from

3.      All this and the app store is only 4 years old, when has anything been this successful before ?

4.      There were those that said there was no need for a tablet computer right before Apple launched theirs.  Where are those negative opinions today? In the dustpan of history.

My Rolltop, a Computer Concept You Can Invest In

http://www.myrolltop.com  video , worth viewing

This is a very clever idea, and also a clever way to “sell” the idea early to those people who want to have first touch on new products.  It is self explanatory.  Just click at the end to see when it will be for sale and how you can participate. 

Minature Wonderland in Germany

http://devour.com/video/miniatur-wunderland/   Video Link

Minatur Wonderland, in Germany.  This is a world-class attraction, the video will excite you, I am sure.  Over 1 million visitors a year come to see this marvel, and  you will see why when you watch. 

I recently visited the Ringling scale model circus in Sarasota and this is far more vast and automated.  I think it would be an all afternoon visit. View the video and you will see why.

Miami Condo Sales Boom Again

Businessweek Magazine story this week tells of the turnaround in Miami Condos.  At one time 20,000 condos were under construction just as the recession hit.  Many got in big trouble.  Today things seems to have turned around.  Now, a new one, called "23 Biscayne Bay" not quite finished, is sold out.  “23 Biscayne Bay” is not a very imaginative name.

The buyers these days seem to mostly be from Latin America, and they see prices here as a bargain and a hedge against troubled governments in their home lands.  Nothing new there, but what is new is the fact that sales are surging.  At reduced prices.

New condos are under construction and sales are strong, some new construction is very high end buildings. They expect Miami condos to be at full occupancy by the end of the year, and it is only 8% unoccupied now.  The article says 4,500 new condos are under construction in South Florida.  Many buyers plan to rent their condos out – and, apparently the rental market is strong and maybe rents are rising.

In an almost related story in this morning’s Parade Magazine Enrique Iglesias (the singer) says that he has lived most of his life in Miami.  And I thought he and his dad were from Spain?  Miami is a safe haven, warm water, big airport, and gateway to the Southern Hemisphere. Someday I guess Miami will be the US Spanish Speaking Mini-State soon, if it isn’t already.   

A website covering the Miami condo debacle for years is called  Condo Vultures, it still says it has deals on condos and lower rents.    http://condovultures.com/

Garmin GPS , Portable for Car -- Downloading Updates

I use my Garmin Nuvi  265 all the time, and really haven’t used a map in several years.  It has helped me decide to go places and do things I don’t think I would have done prior to GPS.  I can get to specific addresses for meeting people or to private homes with ease. Here is what I love about my Nuvi:

1.      It shows me the speed limit on the screen, so I don’t have to look for highway speed signs

2.      It tells me the arrival time at the destination – not “how long I still have to drive”  That, to me, is the perfect helper.  I can call ahead and tell the person I am meeting a precise time of arrival.  And it is never off more than a few minutes, often within 1 minute.

3.      It is perfect when driving, alone, at night.  I can’t read a map and negotiate traffic in a dark car.  I used it on a recent trip to Florida, and it found my hotels with precision, something I appreciate at 10 PM. 

4.      It lets me choose “places” not just specific addresses. Example: a WalMart or other store is in the system and it will let me choose the one I wish to drive to, and then it gives me the arrival time and takes me there.  Helpful for finding many things, hospitals, banks, and many more commercial or recreational locations.

5.      The subject of this Blog is updates.  Mine is an older unit, so I have a pay-for-download option.  I bought a lifetime of updates two years ago.  Tonight I downloaded the new maps.  I hooked the portable Garmin to my PC and through a multi-step process it led me through complete updates.  Allow 2 hours or more for such a process.

I know many readers use their iPhones for navigation, but I haven’t gotten into that for several reasons.  Email if you want my opinion on that.  The iPad is better, than the iPhone (IMO) in that it will show the car moving on a satellite map, but I am not convinced it is in the same league as a real, Garmin, GPS.  I have used the iPad once or twice, but not while driving myself.

Once upon a time I had a GPS built into a car I used to own.  I didn’t like it nearly as well as the portable Garmin.  I can take the Garmin in the house and program all my stops on an elaborate trip at the breakfast table.  Much easier than sitting in the car.  Also I think it works better, has a better looking screen, and voice directions are better than built-in units.  I hear this from people who own new cars with GPS.  They don’t like programming and features very much.

Overseas, I think Garmin is even better than in the USA. Hertz and others rent them at the airport pickup counter.

New Photo App for the iPhone -- Awesome

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204520204577251374236240422.html

http://www.awesomize.com/  (the new app website for greater understanding)

A news story in Feb 29, Wall Street Journal.  A Photo App That Makes “Awesome” a Verb  by Katherine Boehret

Katherine really applauds this new effort, and the App is free.  She says it is light years ahead of existing iPhone camera app’s, in features and benefits.  It also has unique video capability.

1. Video : starts 5 seconds BEFORE you push “record” --- so if a child is doing something interesting, and you are fumbling, it is recording for 5 seconds before you push “record”  so you get the beginning of the smile, not the middle or end, for example.

2. It offers other adjustments found in Camera +  but seems to improve upon them, (and camera + is $2.00)  Examples in the story were pretty impressive.

3. A big problem for most of us is, the iPhone camera takes a decent picture – but when it e-mails it or uploads it to Facebook, it cuts the megapixels and quality for ease of transmission.   This app has some solutions, read the whole story above.

4. It offers many other nice features, you can set it to automatically upload a full sized photo to the “cloud” not long after you take it, and or put that photo in a file-saving and sharing website called “SmugMug”  I had not heard of this site, but I will check it out.  It offers $5 a month or $40 a year for unlimited storage of photos , full resolution type.  http://www.smugmug.com/  

5. If you order up a year’s supply of SmugMug when you download the app – you get it for half price – that might be well worth looking into … free storage is risky, as we all know – I lost all my photos on free storage with Sony, they closed their photo site with little or no notice and didn’t send us our photos back.  Other such free sites could do likewise over the coming years, because. when they are broke, they are broke, and operations will cease – gone will be our photos. 

6. Therefore, I cheerfully pay Google a few dollars a year for “extra storage” of my photos, I want them to have an incentive to keep the big-cloud-in-the-sky open for business.  I use Picasa.  But will look into SmugMug very soon.

8. I will probably download this new Awesome App to my I Pad and I Touch later today.  IF  YOU TRY IT, let me know what you think.