Apple In the news

[Windwaver]

I've never bought any Apple products before including iphones because like what TS has mentioned, total control freak. Buy something and get restricted by it? No way

[Joseph22]

I've never bought any Apple products before including iphones because like what TS has mentioned, total control freak. Buy something and get restricted by it? No way

 

you not rich enough... if not you will buy Iphone, Android, WP7 and symbian and wont be restricted at all.

[Tigershark1976]

Kudos to both of you.. Me too, so far, i refuse to buy any Apple product.. I hate their controlling business model, so don't want my money to go into their bank account.

 

 

me 2, i have not own any apple product due to the way they made their product... typical control freak... try to tie they customer down. im wondering how come no 1 in US is taking legal action toward them... my colleagues n friends always laught at my samsung android cause everyone os using iphone but who cares?? so long Im happy, i buy what i like...

[Bystander50]

you not rich enough... if not you will buy Iphone, Android, WP7 and symbian and wont be restricted at all.

 

I'm still using my 3.5 year old E71.

Till today still serves me well.

I've a video streaming sw over 3G through my home network that I can control my Starhub STB. Symbian and Android versions support 3G, but Iphone/Ipad versions are restricted to wifi only.

This is another reason that puts me off the Iphone.

 

[Hermitage]

Watch: http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episo...1-humancentipad

 

Much better if you've seen the B-grade gross-out horror movie "Human Centipede".

 

"Mumm...could I borrow your lipstick? 'Cos I'd like to at least look pretty the next time you decide to FARK ME!!!" - Cartman

 

Waahahahahahahhahaahaha!!!!

[Babyt]

im ditching my first apple product - iphone 3gs this aug. i m going to android.

 

no flash on browser is dumb. till now i find the itune sync very slow and troublesome to use.

 

 

[Requiemdk]

I don't use any of the Apple products for the simple reason that I don't like being told how to use my stuff after I've bought it. I don't get how a Mac "just works" while a PC with Windows 7/Vista doesn't. The most insidious thing that Apple has done is to convince a whole horde of people that the PC is too complicated for them to use. Seriously. I've never had issues with 7/Vista ever and on top of that, I can damn well upgrade my hardware cheap without jumping through all sorts of hoops to get around crappy Apple limitations. We're not talking about installing Gentoo here ffs.

 

As for Macs being used for photo/video editing... my friends who do big time jobs in that have shifted away from the Mac Pros to their own custom built PCs running.... Windows 7.

 

I don't usually have any beef against Apple users mind you, unless they start shoving their "it just works" crap to me.

[Nightkids]

i used to have no apple products... but no choice their product damn popular.. so bought Iphone 3GS for wife previous year, bought iphone4 this year & sold it for profit, and now buy ipad for wife...and damn the ipad2 Jailbreak is not yet!!!!!!!!!! Its damn irritating & apple is really control freak. I dun feel so restricted using my Android phone..

 

 

Same here bro, never own a single Apple product due to its " selfishness "....... but like wat you said, so popular that my wife ask for an Apple mp3 player for her last year's birthday, this year's an Iphone 4 white.......

 

[Happily1986]

I've never bought any Apple products before including iphones because like what TS has mentioned, total control freak. Buy something and get restricted by it? No way

 

i beg to differ. the reason that puts me off from getting an apple product is because i myself, am a control freak and i demand total control of the gadget which i spent good money on as simple as that. it may have something to do with prudence, financial in some sense. i shell out money and something is deliberately hardlocked to deny me access. no way!

[Alpha78]

i beg to differ. the reason that puts me off from getting an apple product is because i myself, am a control freak and i demand total control of the gadget which i spent good money on as simple as that. it may have something to do with prudence, financial in some sense. i shell out money and something is deliberately hardlocked to deny me access. no way!

 

There can only be one control freak, the user or the seller. Same reason why I don't own Apple products, but I use Android phones and Windows PCs. I prefer to be in control.

[Pchmj]

PC users want to be in control, but must know how to control well. Many complains about PC are either user fault or poor hardware choice. Those built by neighbourhood shop and SLS, very rare they will use reasonable good parts. Many just use the cheapest parts, assemble and sell cheap. Then with the low quality parts (especially power supply and m/b) and user ignorant, problems sure arise.

 

If DIY well, can last as long as any mac out there. The era of lousy windows OS (win98, winME) has passed. Windows 7 is very good now, give me 0 problems since launch. Cheaper, better, faster.

[Alpha78]

PC users want to be in control, but must know how to control well. Many complains about PC are either user fault or poor hardware choice. Those built by neighbourhood shop and SLS, very rare they will use reasonable good parts. Many just use the cheapest parts, assemble and sell cheap. Then with the low quality parts (especially power supply and m/b) and user ignorant, problems sure arise.

 

If DIY well, can last as long as any mac out there. The era of lousy windows OS (win98, winME) has passed. Windows 7 is very good now, give me 0 problems since launch. Cheaper, better, faster.

 

Agreed. I built my current PC in 2006, it's 5 years old and all I did since new, was to increase RAM, get a better graphics card, and increase hard disk size. The PC is still working damn fine, none of the parts broke down. Of course, I don't play much games, so processor speed isn't something of a worry to me.

[Requiemdk]

Agreed. I built my current PC in 2006, it's 5 years old and all I did since new, was to increase RAM, get a better graphics card, and increase hard disk size. The PC is still working damn fine, none of the parts broke down. Of course, I don't play much games, so processor speed isn't something of a worry to me.

 

Mine has lasted me since 2003 Same thing - the processor is still running. Over the years, all I did was up the RAM to 4gb and add a couple of hard disks for storage. The graphics card is old but still performs decently by today's standards. I still play games on this thing and even Starcraft 2 runs fine. This computer will only die when I want to do stuff that absolutely requires something like a Core i7 processor and nothing lesser.

[Meanmachine]

im ditching my first apple product - iphone 3gs this aug. i m going to android.

 

no flash on browser is dumb. till now i find the itune sync very slow and troublesome to use.

 

IF you can afford to let it go, the time is now, MArket taking in at 250-300 dollars depend on resale quality and performance.

 

Once iphone5 comes out, the price will dip lower.

 

[Bystander50]

There can only be one control freak, the user or the seller. Same reason why I don't own Apple products, but I use Android phones and Windows PCs. I prefer to be in control.

 

IIRC, the prototype of the Iphone 3 was picked up and sold to a tech site for review after it was left behind by a careless employee.

The scary part is Apple can remotely disable the phone.

 

By doing so, Apple is already telling us that they have the cpabilities of doing it, and with contacts and work information in my phone, I won't want to take the risk and held ransom by Apple should they decided to "turn my phone off" prematurely.

 

I'm not surprised if they've included a countdown timer to disable the phone after a certain threshold is hit so as to force the user to upgrade, giving the impression that the phone is spolit. In face if you google, there are many writeups on how to recover the phone after it's disabled.

 

 

[Happily1986]

IIRC, the prototype of the Iphone 3 was picked up and sold to a tech site for review after it was left behind by a careless employee.

The scary part is Apple can remotely disable the phone.

 

By doing so, Apple is already telling us that they have the cpabilities of doing it, and with contacts and work information in my phone, I won't want to take the risk and held ransom by Apple should they decided to "turn my phone off" prematurely.

 

I'm not surprised if they've included a countdown timer to disable the phone after a certain threshold is hit so as to force the user to upgrade, giving the impression that the phone is spolit. In face if you google, there are many writeups on how to recover the phone after it's disabled.

 

that was the iPhone 4. the product engineer's employment was terminated subsequently.

[Bystander50]

that was the iPhone 4. the product engineer's employment was terminated subsequently.

 

Yup, I just read in the news, not an Apple fanboy, so didn't really pay too much attention to it.

 

[RadX]

Wow!

 

 

REUTERS: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc revealed a more than US$1 billion stake in Apple Inc in a rare foray into the technology sector, which Buffett has largely shunned apart from a poorly performing investment in IBM .

 

Shares of Apple rose 3.7 percent on the news, closing up US$3.36 at US$93.88. Berkshire made its investment in the first quarter, before the iPhone maker in April reported its first quarterly revenue decline in 13 years.

 

The investment was announced amid an increasing view among investors that Apple may deserve a lower valuation because its heady growth days may be over. However, Apple has a strong balance sheet and management, attributes long favored by Berkshire.

 

"It makes sense because it's a consumer company disguised as a technology company with a great business model, strong cash flow and a cheap valuation," said Jeff Matthews, author of books about Buffett and a principal at the Ram Partners LP hedge fund. "It's not a leap of faith."

 

In a regulatory filing detailing most of its stock holdings, Berkshire said it held 9.81 million Apple shares worth US$1.07 billion as of March 31.

 

The value of the stake has since fallen to about US$921 million, even with Monday's gain. Berkshire's largest technology bet has been Buffett's roughly US$12.1 billion stake in International Business Machines Corp, an investment now more than US$1.6 billion in the red.

 

Apple stock "is stunningly cheap, and it has a massive pile of cash," said Steve Wallman, founder of Wallman Investment Counsel in Middleton, Wisconsin, who has owned shares of Berkshire since 1982 and Apple since 2003. "Apple is not getting credit for research and development it is doing behind the scenes."

 

An Apple spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

 

MIXED VIEWS OF HEDGE FUNDS

 

The Apple investment was made by one of Buffett's two stockpicking deputies, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, his assistant said in an email to The Wall Street Journal.

 

Combs and Weschler, who ran hedge funds before joining Berkshire, each invest about US$9 billion and usually make smaller wagers, while Buffett, known as the Oracle of Omaha, makes bigger investments such as IBM.

 

Investors said Combs may have been the Apple buyer. He invested in chipmaker Intel Corp for Berkshire in 2011.

 

Buffett's assistant did not respond to a request for comment.

 

In April, Apple said revenue for the quarter ended March 26 declined as an increasingly saturated smartphone market hurt iPhone sales, which fell for the first time.

 

Chief Executive Tim Cook is looking to develop other technologies for the Cupertino, California-based company, and last week unveiled a US$1 billion investment in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing.

 

Apple's market value last week dipped below that of Google parent Alphabet Inc , even though Apple generates roughly triple the revenue and profit. Before Monday, shares of Apple were down by a third from their April 2015 peak.

 

Synovus Trust Company portfolio manager Daniel Morgan, noting that Buffett is known as a value buyer, said; "That kind of puts the icing on the cake that Apple now is probably considered more of a mature technology company, like we would think of Microsoft, Intel or Cisco.

 

"I don’t think we can put them in the same bracket right now as Google, Amazon or Netflix ,” said Morgan said, who owns Apple because of its low price-earnings ratio and high dividend yield.

 

"It's a value stock that has the potential for a big growth," said Steve Chiavarone, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors in New York who also holds Apple stock.

 

Hedge fund manager David Einhorn is also a fan, and his firm Greenlight Capital on Monday said it boosted its Apple stake by 31 percent in the first quarter.

 

Other prominent investors have retrenched.

 

Last month, billionaire Carl Icahn said he sold his Apple stake on concern about the company's relationship with China.

 

David Tepper's Appaloosa LP sold its stake in the first quarter, while Ray Dalio's Bridgewater Associates and Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management slashed their stakes. Leon Cooperman's Omega Advisors also shed its Apple stake, a person familiar with the matter said.

 

BUFFETT ON YAHOO

 

Despite his traditional aversion to technology sector, Buffett told CNBC on Monday that he offered to help Dan Gilbert, the chairman of Quicken Loans and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team, finance a bid for internet company Yahoo Inc .

 

Reuters first reported Buffett's involvement on Friday.

 

While Buffett told CNBC he would not be an equity partner, he could collect dividends or interest on the financing, and perhaps take an equity stake later.

 

"Buffett has always restricted himself from investing in things he doesn't know or understand, and staying within his circle of confidence," said Richard Cook, co-founder of Cook & Bynum Capital Management LLC in Birmingham, Alabama, which invests 8 percent of the US$350 million it manages in Berkshire.

 

The Apple investment may have been made with proceeds from the sale of AT&T Inc stock, as Berkshire exited what had been a US$1.6 billion stake.

 

In Monday's filing, Berkshire also reported higher stakes in IBM, Bank of New York Mellon Corp , Deere & Co and Visa Inc , and lower stakes in MasterCard Inc and Wal-Mart Stores Inc .

 

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by David Randall in New York, Noel Randewich in San Francisco and Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Jennifer Ablan, Cynthia Osterman and Leslie Adler)