Amazon Abuses Consumers?

March 29, 2018 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman, MD

So recently I’ve noticed that when trying to purchase items on Amazon that an item which might cost $5 elsewhere is now $20 dollars on Amazon (AMZN).  I’ve seen this type of manipulation of consumers by sellers before on their website  These sellers think someone will pay 400% of the value of an item due to ignorance or possibly desperation, but now what I’m finding is different.  Now Amazon is only allowing you to purchase certain staple items at the actual retail price if you join their club.  That is an abuse of consumers.

For example, just now trying to buy Softsoap aloe vera refill bottles, the actual price is $4-$5, but you can only get that price if you join Amazon’s delivery club, every other option is at least 200% the cost of the item.  The same thing has happened for other products on past searches.

This isn’t very intelligent, and possibly illegal.  Customers can now get delivery from Target, Walmart, Peapod, and even local grocery stores.  What is Amazon thinking?  I guess billions in profit wasn’t enough, they didn’t get the power and control over others that they needed to feel “successful,” so now they feel the need to abuse and control consumers?  This points to another example of the many apparent sociopaths who control the majority of our country (US).  They are truly everywhere, check out my expository articles on them as they roll out and you will see what I mean.

Note that Walmart is paying attention, at the top of their website, when I went there instead to spend my money, their banner reads “No membership fee!”  🙂  Somebody’s paying attention, good for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Stocks and Economics, What You Need to Know Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

The Hottest Item this Holiday Season, the New Apple Watch, Get it Now!

September 13, 2017 by Leave a Comment

by, Suzanne Coleman

After Apple’s new product announcements yesterday I am surprised that more people aren’t seeing what I am seeing.  The important take away message is this:  the Apple Watch will be an independently-functioning device that you will be able to  use to make and receive phone calls.  People can leave their cell phone at home, at work, or in the car.  They no longer need to lug their heavy, awkward devices around 24/7 to stay in touch.

THIS IS HUGE.

If my predictions are correct, the Apple Watch will be this year’s have to give it/ have to get it gift at Christmas.  Everyone will have to have it, it will be the new COOL.  Think Sony Walkman, Apple iPhone… and now the Apple Watch.

Just wait and see.

My Apple price target for during the holiday sales period is 200-210 and up to 240 during that quarter’s reporting period early next year.  Buy now, make money.

That’s all for today people, I hope you are paying attention 🙂

 

____________________________________

Yes, I do own Apple stock, but I also report my observations as objectively as possible.

 

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics, Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Rotten Apple, iPhone SE review

June 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

 

For years I have wanted a new iPhone and a couple weeks ago I finally got one.  I bought the new iPhone SE in the rose gold 64 gigabytes.  I was really excited when I got it in the mail, finally, after waiting for about three weeks; the stores were all sold out.

When I opened it up, it came in a beautiful white box with a raised image of the phone on it, and all the text on the box was in the rose gold color.  Nice touch Apple.

I opened the white box and liked the way the phone looked, for the most part.  The problem started though, when I turned it on.  I immediately found the screen very glaring and difficult to look at, in fact really difficult to look at.  I went into the settings after I was able to activate the phone and adjusted them for contrast and other vision options under the accessibility feature, it did help, but not enough.

I also had issues with the phone after about 12 hours asking me to reenter all the data from the very beginning, starting with the white screen with the Apple on it.  According to the Apple Store staff, that was not supposed to happen.  The other issue I noticed was that the phone was rattling, but when I asked the Apple Store staff about that, they said that that is the auto-focus on the camera.  

I tried to give the phone a chance.  So I tried the video out, and after recording for five minutes my phone got extremely hot which made me concerned.  The main reason I bought the phone was for video and photo, especially macro photos and high-quality video, as this is something that I do as a pretty serious hobby.

What did the video look like?  I tried out the “60 fps 1080 p video” and wasn’t very happy with it.  I was videotaping a bird as it was flying, and I was moving the phone as I filmed it, to follow the bird’s motion.  I had two major issues with this.  First of all, the results were not 60p 1080.  The camera did not properly capture the number of images.  The video was very jerky, the images were not smooth.  It seemed more like i than p.  The moving birds’ wings were only showing at a few positions on the video instead of a smooth motion which I get using my 30p 1080 iPod touch 5.  The other issue was that when I moved the camera to follow the bird, the camera couldn’t keep up with the data and the background image became pixelated.  This has never happened with the 30p iPod and is unacceptable.

On the plus side, the images had good resolution; they were very sharp for the most part.  The video result had a much higher resolution than on the iPod for distant images (but not for macro, tested later).  Also, the brightness of the image on the phone while filming was great.  The exposure values were good, though there were some issue with over-exposure.  

Then I switched to 4K video to try that out (supposedly at 30p).  When I went to play it back on my iMac in iPhoto it was terrible, the video image was jerking as the video panned slowly to the right.  When I tested it again by playing it back on the phone, I did not notice this jerking, so this may be a software issue with iPhoto.  I’m also running an older version of the OS which may be the issue- though you would think that they would have updated the software to properly handle 4K. 

Also, when I first connected the iPhone SE to my iMac, iPhoto went crazy and kept flashing back and forth between different screens.  This was very disconcerting.  After I disconnected the iPhone and restarted the computer it seemed to be ok.  When I re-connected the iPhone the next time, it did not do this.

Then I went to try the camera for still images.  The images were OK, they were not outstanding at all.  Next, I used the macro camera and macro video.  In one case the video was good, but in another it was poor.  The camera was ok for macro pics, but not outstanding.   It did not measure up to the iPod in this area.  The macro video was also not able to properly depict the motion of  a moving subject (running carpenter ant).

Since my main interest was the camera and video capabilities of the phone, I decided that this was not the right tool for me.  Plus, its overall cheap-seeming construction and components were not worth the price at all.

I went into the Apple store and I was able to return the phone without any issues within their allotted time frame.  I am pretty disappointed in the quality of the phone, having both hardware and software issues.  And with the company for not properly identifying these problems before releasing the phone to the public.  But this has been their M.O. for quite a while now.  I think there are some deeper issues that need to be addressed at Apple.

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics, What You Need to Know Tagged With: , , , ,

Delayed Product Fulfillment, Apple and Nikon

May 3, 2016 by 1 Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

After not receiving my very eagerly-anticipated newly released Nikon camera on April 29th, I started looking into what had happened.  When I called the store I ordered it from, they had no information, so I turned to Amazon.

Amazon’s item page now states a release date of July 1, instead of what it said before, which was April 29th, but there was no reason for this sudden and significant change in release.  So I had to dig further.

I searched Nikon’s website for info and they revealed the reason behind the delay.  A recent earthquake in Japan has impacted their ability to produce or deliver the item.

Dang.

So I thought, maybe I can just use my new iPhone camera in the meantime?  The phone I ordered almost two weeks ago but still have no tracking information on?  The one that is still unavailable in the stores all across my area?

Yeah, that looks like it’s not going to happen either.

On a hunch, I researched where iPhones are produced and learned that their screens and some chips are produced in the area where the earthquake hit.  Double damn.

This is not good on many fronts, not good for Apple (I still own some of their stock) as its stock price drops on decreased sales due to their own outstanding product successes in the past, not good for Japan and its people, and not good for people hoping to upgrade their electronics in the wake of this natural event.  It cannot be determined how long it will take for this area to recover and be able to produce and supply these products again.

I had finally found the “perfect” camera after years of considering the options.  Now I will likely need to choose another, less perfect option to complete my upcoming documentary.  Any suggestions?

And I guess I’ll be keeping my old phone number a little bit longer too…

 

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics, What You Need to Know Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

iPhone SE flies off the shelves, yet production is “slowed?”

April 22, 2016 by Leave a Comment

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by,

Suzanne Coleman

I decided that I wanted to buy the iPhone SE, so I went to the store to check it out and make sure it offered the features that I wanted.  While its camera isn’t very good and the 4K video looks ok, on a tiny screen, it did have dictation capabilities  which I think will be great for writing my books more efficiently (though Apple gets to screen everything you say, wonder what the fine print is on that??  NSA….).

I asked the store representative if they had any of the rose gold (I call it pink) 64 G in the store and she said they were sold out.  They’ve been mostly sold out for weeks.

Hmm…

If this is the case, then why are news outlets reporting a pull back on production of the iPhone?  Is this information accurate?  It seems to have been, in the past, when similar reports were released in the US.  This report was very vague though.  There were no indications of which phone/s’ production was/were slowed.  Maybe they slowed production of only certain models, like the iPhone 6.  Apple is expected to release the new iPhone 7 this year, so it would make sense if they decreased production of last year’s model, no well-managed company (not that they are…) would want to have tons of unsold overstock.

I asked the store’s staff how could I find out when they have the phones back in stock.  They told me that I could use http://www.apple.com to select the phone I want, and then I should hit “check availability” to see if the store has it.  So when I went home I tried this.

On Saturday, a couple of days later, most of the stores in my search results (about 15 stores) had the phone.  But the next day, all of the stores in my area were sold out.  I repeated this search over the next 10 days or so and none of the stores seemed to receive a new shipment (poor management…).

This is “vaguely” familiar, Apple not fulfilling customer demand.  Now as a stock-holder (not sure for how long that will continue), I have a problem with that.  You can’t bring in income if you don’t have the product available.  Apple has had so many issues with this over the past decade or so, yet management is the same as far as I can tell.  There is clearly demand for the phones, but there are no phones to fulfill that demand.  Why?

Then we hear that they are slowing production.  If that applies to SE, are they saying they made a mistake in selling this phone?  Do they want to pull back on it for some reason?  I don’t know.

I finally decided to order one for delivery, it “only” takes 3-4 weeks, though the website said 2-3, the dates were 3-4, another oddity.  So here I sit, iPhone-less for now.  Typing this article with my own two hands.  The old-fashioned way.  Man are they tired.

Why do I mention all of this?  As a shareholder the stock has performed poorly over the last year.  This company makes billions in profit annually (well, quarterly) yet investors are losing money.  Something needs to change, and as an analyst, I see the issue being at the top.  Management isn’t making the best decisions when it comes to production, sales and distribution.  There are also innovation lags compared to the competitors.

Maybe those nay-sayers were right, in fact they were, the stock was $135 and now it’s around $105.  That my friends, is not how you want to invest your money.  Waiting for a turn-around may be a long wait.  Maybe it’s time to take the losses and invest in another business…

 

Filed Under: Apple, POP News, Stocks and Economics, What do YOU think? Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bernie Madoff, Another Sociopath?

February 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
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“Inmate of Elmira Reformatory showing four views of head”. H. Havelock Ellis, The Criminal. See page for author [CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)

 

by,

Suzanne Coleman, MD

Since we’re on the topic of sociopaths and psychopaths lately (being that this is the biggest issue in governments, big banks, wall street, wars, ect.), let’s talk Bernie Madoff.

Over the last two days ABC has aired a mini-series about his massive Ponzi scheme which they say defrauded investors out of fifty billion dollars.  Yes, you read that right, fifty billion dollars.  Wow.

He was arrested for his scam and is now in jail for the rest of his life.  Apparently there have been 61 additional Ponzi schemes discovered since this occurred in 2008.

As a human behavioral analyst who has been studying people with personality disorders (psychopaths) over the last ten years or more, I find it important to discuss how things like this happen, so that we as a society can try and avoid having them happen over and over again.  Or at least, some of us can learn to identify psychopaths before they take all of our money, or harm us in any way.

The TV mini-series revealed several behaviors of Madoff that led me to think that he has several personality disorders or strong traits.  The obsessive attention to his watches and the order of his table-top possessions is seen in obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).  But what isn’t as easily seen, but is also a part of the same mental illness, is the obsessions over things in one’s mind.  For example, the show discusses his need to continue to raise the number in his fake account.  This is a type of obsession.  He also appeared to have obsessions over gaining people’s trust and having them believe in his manipulations and lies as he smiled to their faces.  The lies and manipulations, especially accompanied by what I have coined as “the sociopath’s smile” or “the psychopath’s smile” are all signs of a sociopath or other type of psychopath and I have never observed them in anyone else.

Madoff’s situation as portrayed in the movie was almost like a high-stress balancing act, him standing on top of a triangular rock, trying not to fall off.  This represents his obsession with increasing his accounts at all costs.  I wonder if he even enjoyed any of the money he stole, probably.  The show did not reveal much of that side of his life.  It did show however, that his obsessions caused him to lose one of his son’s love early on, and the rest of his family appeared to follow after his crimes were revealed.

The other sociopathic behaviors that were shown were seen in how he tried to bully and control others around him.  This control issue can also arise from the OCPD.

He also treated the people around him like pawns, buying them off, buttering them up.  All to continue the scheme.  He was shown receiving a nice present from his top worker, and then turning around and giving it away to someone else.  He viewed his employees as pawns, not friends, which after decades, is a bit odd.  Or, you could say psychopathic.

He seemed to have no emotions regarding other people and their lives, including his own sons, though this was a movie and I can’t say if any of what they showed is or is not true.  But this lack of empathy towards others is a classic sign of a sociopath.

The other personality disorder (PD) or trait that they mention is narcissistic PD.  He is very abusive towards others at times when they don’t comply with his every whim and demand.  This can be due to narcissistic PD where a person’s mental illness precludes them from understanding that they are not the center of the universe and that other people have feelings and priorities of their own that have nothing to do with the self-centered psychopath.  This overlaps with the sociopath as they have no feelings so they cannot understand how their behaviors harm others.

How did this man’s mental illness impact society?  It harmed his family extensively, as would happen in any family with a sociopath.  One in 75 men, and one in three hundred women is a sociopath.  One in seven people or less has a personality disorder of any type.  Identifying and treating anyone and everyone with mental illness will only help everyone around them and I strongly recommend seeking help from a qualified therapist to start.

In addition, the show said that over 20,000 people were scammed by Madoff, and that more than 30,000 additional claims were still waiting review to see if they were also valid.

A whistleblower of sorts reported the scam to the SEC several times over the years, starting in 2000 or 2001.  According to the show, the SEC employees did not do their jobs and the scam continued and harmed more and more people.  Since much of the lost money has still not been recovered, those people impacted should consider hiring an attorney to ask them if the SEC can be held negligent in their losses.  If so, they may be able to require them to repay any monies lost since the initial whistleblower report was filed with them.

So many people have a personality disorder, or more than one like you see in this movie about Bernie Madoff.  It can be people you work with, people you live with or near, people who run your banks, your religious groups, your non-profits, your hospitals, and your government.  Isn’t it worth reading up on how to identify them?  I think personality disorders may be the biggest social issue of our time.

 

 

Filed Under: POP News, Stocks and Economics, We LOVE TV!, What You Need to Know Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Will Apple Continue to Shine? The Future of Apple

January 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

Apple (AAPL) reported its holiday quarter earnings today and they were pretty much in line with expectations.  You can get those details anywhere, so I will talk about some observations you might not.

“The Wall Street Journal” reported in its earnings blog that one billion Apple devices are out there.  That means that about one out of every seven living human beings world-wide uses an Apple device.  What?!  That is crazy.  The impact that the “i” products have had on the world is anyone’s dream.  To be so wide-spread and utilized as to become household names, categories within yourselves in our languages, is amazing.

Tim Cook says that the Apple Watch had its best quarter ever.  That correlates with my personal observations that the watch is spreading throughout the populace.  I see more and more as I move around society.  I think that the key to the watch is a slow but persistent adoption rate, which will be greatly boosted by an untethered device which I hope they do have and release this upcoming holiday quarter.  I believe that the watch will become a part of everyday life, while not for as many as the iPhone has.

In the future I would like to see new devices, which I will not detail here but Apple is free to contact me to discuss ideas.

Samsung had a bad quarter, Apple is holding steady with its high sales numbers world-wide.  Will this be the relative end of Samsung?  This comparison should give some perspective to the doom-sayers out there who think Apple has become rotten.

Tim Cook (CEO) goes on to discuss that Apple is looking to the future with long-term growth in mind.  China still has room for significant growth due to an exponentially expanding middle class.  I wonder if this factors in China’s overall growth retraction though.

He mentions an important note, 60% of iPhone users are still in the iPhone 5 category, so there is signifiant room for switch-0ver there to new products, plus the 6+ billion potential new customers and carrier-switchers.

Wow, as I finish up my report, I review other sources’ articles from this evening.  Yikes.  It’s interesting how manipulative “journalism” has become just to get clicks.  Readers, please review the numbers for yourselves, don’t get sucked into headlines which are inaccurate or misleading.  Apple had a record year with their 6-series phones last year, they are not breaking out of that this year as they did not release a similarly-new phone product.  They aren’t falling apart, they are doing amazingly well for the current world-wide market conditions, and as that stabilizes over the next 2-3 years and the market again booms (at least relatively) they will boom as well I expect.

Oh yes, I still own Apple shares, but I’m no institution 🙂

———————

Sources for the earnings report information are the WSJ and Marketwatch.com’s blogs plus my own analysis.

 

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With:

Apple Stock Dives, but do you know Why?

September 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

Apple stock (AAPL) is down 3.66% as I write this story.  Not good.  Is this because Apple sold a record number of its new iPhone model this past weekend?  No, that’s not it.  Is it because Apple is coming out with a free software upgrade for its computer users?  No, I doubt it.  But, I think I know what it is.

I own Apple stock (let’s question why another time…) and I just received a margin call on this equity.  E-Trade raised its capital requirements SIGNIFICANTLY and the call is due on Thursday.  Previously requirements were only 30% equity, they raised it to 45%.

As the stock fell yesterday, people are likely selling to cover their margin requirements today.  I could call around and see if other brokers have also raised their requirements, but since this is an unpaid gig, you’ll just have to include that as a likely possibility based on the stock’s recently unstable and unpredictable performance, with no underlying logic.  I wouldn’t throw my money at it without securing it either, at this point.  The company is good, but it could be better in many aspects, but that’s America today.  It’s one of the best though and I repeat myself yet again, there’s no logical reason for this drop in price.

In fact, today another analyst has started coverage with a 12-month price expectation at $150.  The average is now an expected $145.77 per Yahoo! charts.  With a PE of 12.51, that’s pretty good.  Exclude all the lofty dreams of google glass (oh wait, different company…), a magical Apple iCar, Apple streaming TV service, etc., this company still outperforms most businesses today.

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Apple To Buy Netflix?

September 8, 2015 by Leave a Comment

by,

Suzanne Coleman

I think the best next move is for Apple to buy Netflix.  Why not?  What do you think?  Maybe we’ll find out more tomorrow…

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Apple Beat Expectations for iPhone

August 24, 2015 by Leave a Comment

By,

Suzanne Coleman, MD

Ok, so let’s review this one more time.  I am tired of the manipulations and lies.  In the most recently-ended quarter Apple BEAT expectations for the iPhone sales.  Many bloggers/”journalists” are saying that they missed, and that everyone should bail out of Apple (wow, great analysis, based on literally, nothing).  No, they beat.  No one even mentions that their “miss” is actually based on hyper-inflated dream-idealogy numbers, not analysts’ consensus expectations.

So there you have it folks, something I like to call “the facts.”  Beware of what you read on other blogs, or even “news” outlets.  There are many people/organizations out there who have some kind of issues with Apple doing well, and are doing whatever they can to destroy it.  In medicine, we call those people psychopaths.

By the way, if you are investing based on what people are writing about stocks, you need to do some more homework, and get your information from several sources.  That way it will be closer to fair and balanced information, which is always the best for you and your portfolio.

_______________________________

Yes, I still own Apple stock.

Filed Under: Apple, Stocks and Economics Tagged With: , , , , ,
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