Archive for July, 2010

Apple held a news conference on Friday.

A perfect iPhone? There’s no app for that. Apple Inc. will give free protective cases to buyers of its latest iPhone to prevent reception problems that occur when people cover a certain spot on the phone with a bare hand.

CEO Steve Jobs apologized Friday to people who are less than satisfied with the iPhone 4, even as he denied it has an antenna problem that needs fixing.

Good News:

Toymaker Mattel Inc.’s second-quarter net income more than doubled, boosted by strong sales of Barbie, Hot Wheels and “Toy Story 3″ toys.

Bad News:

Shares fell as analysts had expected even stronger results.

You take the good with the bad.

A giant oil skimmer brought in from Portugal is too big to be used in the Gulf cleanup effort.

The Taiwanese vessel “A Whale” was deployed last week along the oil-slicked Gulf Coast. But it’s been determined the skimmer didn’t collect enough oil.

Pretty sad when this ship is turned away because it didn’t help “enough”.

Consolidations and mergers can have an effect two years after they are complete.

Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N), the fourth-largest U.S. bank by assets, said on Wednesday it is closing more than 600 Wells Fargo Financial offices and will no longer originate non-prime mortgages.

The bank said the Wells Fargo Financial offices are no longer necessary after its 2008 acquisition of Wachovia Corp and it will offer mortgage services through its other banking locations.

Translation: More layoffs.

I have almost no coverage at home. I hardly ever get a bar. Now that is too much? Wait. How can ‘barely any’ be too many, if I can still make calls?

Apple Inc. said Friday that it was “stunned” to find that its iPhones have for years been using a “totally wrong” formula to determine how many bars of signal strength they are getting.

Apple said that’s the reason behind widespread complaints from users that the latest model, iPhone 4, can show a sudden plunge in signal strength when they hold it in a way that covers a small black strip on one edge of the phone. Users have jokingly called this the “death grip” for the phone.

Nice try guys.

At the Carioto Produce and Seafood warehouse, shrimp from India and Vietnam stock the freezer, while a refrigerated aisle is stacked with bags of clams from Rhode Island, cockles from New Zealand, a fresh 5-pound fillet of lane snapper from Nicaragua and mahi-mahi from Ecuador.

The Gulf may be soiled with oil, but Al Hecker, Carioto’s seafood specialist, has had little trouble getting what he needs in a global market — even for Gulf staples like snapper and mahi-mahi.

“My supply hasn’t diminished, I’ve just stepped sideways,” says Hecker.

In other words, the disaster in the Gulf is probably saving him money. How much you want to bet he won’t buy Gulf seafood in the future, after it’s safe to eat seafood from the Gulf again?

With the current disaster in the Gulf, BP needs to make sure they start generating some revenue. The Obama Administration is going to bleed them for any bit of cash they have anyway.

BP Plc for the Libyan well and says it has prepared extensively for the operation.
“Just like with any deepwater exploration activity, we have undertaken extensive, rigorous and detailed preparations with our contractors and by ourselves for this drilling,” Nicholas said.

How deep will this one be? Deep enough to hit the bottom of the pocket?