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Apple Is On Track To Become A Trillion Dollar Company

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Recently, Apple’s stock closed at $175.88, giving it a market valuation slightly above $900 billion. A Drexel Hamilton analyst named Brian White predicts that over the course of the next twelve months, the company’s stock could be trading as high as $235 per share, and at that price, Apple’s market valuation would be over one trillion dollars, making it the only trillion-dollar company on the planet.

“With a market cap of over $900 billion, we believe Apple is on its way to becoming a ‘trillion dollar baby’ as reflected in our price target. We were the first on Wall Street to project that Apple would reach a $1 trillion market cap as reflected by a price target; our current price target of $235 equates to approximately a $1.2 trillion market cap.”

Mr. White is not alone. Another analyst, Amit Daryanani, working for RBC Capital Markets, has made a similar prediction, stating:

“In our view, Apple’s quarterly results will be less important this summer as investors are focused on the iPhone 8 this fall, along with the company’s raised capital distribution initiative, depressed valuation, and potential new innovations. We believe Apple remains among the most underappreciated stocks in the world.”

If you don’t yet own stock in the company, now would probably be a great time to buy. As Apple edges closer to the one-trillion-dollar threshold, it’s sure to generate an increasing number of headlines, which will increase interest in the company and push the stock price higher still, hastening the day when it hits the mark.

If you already own a stake in the company, hold onto it, and if you concur with Daryanani’s assessment, add to it as you’re able. You could soon be the proud owner of a tiny slice of investment history.

New iPhone X May Be Susceptible To Burn-In

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Apple’s new iPhone X is a technological marvel that boasts the best display in the industry today, featuring Super Retina OLED display technology and offering a mind-boggling 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem, as revealed by a new support document the company released on the iPhone X. In it, Apples states that users may experience shifts in hue and color, and burn-in with the new display, especially if they maximize the phone’s brightness and keep the same image displayed for long periods of time.

According to the support document itself:

“If you look at an OLED display off-angle, you might notice slight shifts in color and hue. This is a characteristic of OLED and is normal behavior. With extended long-term use, OLED displays can also show slight visual changes. This is also expected behavior and can include ‘image persistence’ or ‘burn-in,’ where the display shows a faint remnant of an image even after a new image appears on the screen. This can occur in more extreme cases such as when the same high contrast image is continuously displayed for prolonged periods of time. We’ve engineered the Super Retina display to be the best in the industry in reducing the effects of OLED ‘burn-in.'”

The company also recommends a simple workaround users can employ to minimize the chances of this occurring. If it’s something you’re concerned about, simply adjust your phone’s brightness as follows:

• Go to Settings, and then into General

• From General, tap Accessibility, and then Display Accommodations

• Adjust to taste from there

Another simple thing you can do would be to set your phone to auto-lock after a shorter period of time. To make changes to that feature:

• Go to Settings

• From there, select Display & Brightness

• Then, go to Auto Lock and set whatever time period you deem appropriate

While neither of these is perfect solutions, they will certainly get the job done for the overwhelming majority of users.

Latest iOS Version May Have Bug That Changes Your Letters

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If you’re using an Apple device running iOS 11.0.3 or 11.1, you may have noticed some oddities when sending text messages. For reasons that aren’t quite clear, the letter “I” is being replaced by the characters “A[?].” It’s not a game-breaking bug, but it is annoying, and if you’re not paying attention, it can make for some rather mystifying text messages.

Fortunately, Apple is on the case, and the company has announced that they’ll have a fix for the issue in their next release. If you’d rather not wait, there are several things you can do in the meantime to work around the issue. In no particular order, these are:

• Simply disable Apple’s predictive text auto-correct feature. If you rely on it frequently, this may slow you down some, but is probably the most straightforward approach to take at the moment.

• Install a third-party keyboard app because these use their own predictive text features.

• Or, take Apple’s recommendation and set up a text replacement rule (essentially replacing “I” with “I”).

If you opt for this last approach, you’ll want to go into your phone’s settings, look under the general tab, then keyboard, and choose “Text Replacement.”

Tap the plus sign (+), then, for “phrase,” type in an upper case “I”. For a shortcut, type a lower-case “I.”

Save that change, and you should be all set.

To reiterate, this isn’t a huge deal, and it’s hard to see how this could cause anything but a bit of annoyance and perhaps a few scattered miscommunications. Even so, if you send more than a handful of text messages during the course of a typical business day, it’s probably worth spending a few minutes implementing one of these simple workarounds until Apple can ride to the rescue with a permanent fix.

Microsoft Officially Pulls Plug On Windows Phone

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The Windows phone is officially dead, with the announcement from Joe Belfiore that there would be no new feature updates and no further development.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now, with Microsoft gutting its phone division and laying off thousands of employees. But until Belfiore’s announcement, the company hadn’t made it official.

Microsoft was very slow to recognize how big a footprint smartphones would ultimately have on the market, and as such, paid little attention to them when they were first introduced.

Their first serious effort to try and gain a foothold in the market was with the introduction of Windows CE, a “lite” version of Windows that was plagued with problems almost from the start.

The company tried again with Windows 8, which was redesigned with apps specifically in mind.

Unfortunately, it represented too much of a change and was introduced too quickly. The new OS was not well-received.

Windows 10 essentially represented a “do-over”, and to the company’s credit, it was much more well-received than its predecessor. However, by the time the company hit upon something that may have worked, the market was already too mature, and the big players were already too well-entrenched for the company to have a realistic shot at gaining significant ground.

They struggled to get a sufficient number of developers interested in writing apps for their phone, and even if they had, their app store was plagued with problems. Thus, the company’s decision to pull the plug was not terribly surprising.

Mr. Belfiore stressed that the company would continue to support the platform, providing bug fixes and security patches to all those who wish to continue using them, but as the already small user base continues to shrink, it will eventually reach a point where it’s simply no longer financially viable to do even that.

Microsoft Edge Browser Coming To Android And IOS

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Since ditching its beleaguered Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft’s latest offering, Edge, which is bundled with Windows 10, has been struggling to gain a foothold in the market.

Yes, it comes preloaded on Windows 10 machines, and that fact alone has prompted significant use. However, the browser has its share of weaknesses and limitations, one of the largest beings that it has, until now, completely lacked a cross-platform, multiple device experiences.

That has changed. Users can now install the Edge browser on iOS and Android devices, which makes it easier to surf the web seamlessly across multiple devices.

It should be noted, however, that “smartphone Edge” is Microsoft Edge in name only. The variants created for iOS and Android devices have little in common with Microsoft Edge for the PC, other than the name, and a similar look and feel.

In the case of the iOS version, this is because Apple doesn’t allow the development of third-party browsers, so iOS Edge is essentially the Safari browser, wrapped in a different skin.

Google’s Android platform doesn’t have rules quite as restrictive, and as such, Edge for the Android platform is built around Chromium, which is an open source Chrome variant.

Even with these limitations, though, the multi-platform, multi-device Edge does get the job done, allowing for basic tab syncing across devices.

This development, while encouraging, is likely to do little to change the equation much. Most users are pretty happy with whatever browser they’re currently using, and unless there’s a truly compelling reason to switch, they simply won’t.

This development, while certainly a nice addition, is not something most people are likely to find compelling enough to switch browsers for. However, it may have some impact at the Enterprise level, if and where there are applications and web portals that have been optimized for use with Edge. If your company has one of these, then this is welcomed news indeed.

Google Has Announced Earbuds That Translate Language In Real Time

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Google Labs has produced some amazing ideas. Some of them have found their way to the market, and many others have not. The one thing they have in common, though, is that they’re all intriguing and exciting.

That’s especially true of Google’s latest offering, Google Pixel Buds.

If you’ve ever read “The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy,” then you know the term “Bable Fish.” If you grew up watching Star Trek, then you know all about the Universal Translator. Well, Google has built the version 1.0 of that very device.

The new earbuds are able to translate forty different languages in something close to real time. Close enough, in any case, to be useful in day to day conversation.

Obviously, there are some glitches and limitations at this point, just as there were in the first smartphones and computers, but the fact that this new technology exists at all, in any form, is nothing short of amazing.

The potential applications are limitless, and the number will only grow as the technology matures. We can see the possibility of seamless global communications that cut across language barriers. It boggles the mind.

If you do business with vendors all over the globe, imagine how much simpler this is going to make your life. As mentioned, it’s a given that early adopters will face certain limitations and no doubt chafe under the shortcomings of the early versions of the device, but that’s been true of just about every invention we’ve ever seen enter the marketplace.

Consider speech-to-text technology, for example. The early versions were quite buggy and you could count yourself lucky if they successfully interpreted 40 percent of your words, translating them into text. These days, that percentage is closer to 98.

The best way to help this new product succeed is to jump in and start using it, bugs, flaws, shortcomings and all. Kudos to Google Labs!

5 Keys for Switching from an iPhone to an Android Phone

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IT BlogAre you considering switching teams by turning in your Apple iPhone for an Android phone? Well if you hope to make the transition as smooth as possible, here are five key points to help you along the way.

  1. A Seamless Switch – Whether you are using Microsoft Exchange or Google Apps, be sure you are able to successfully transfer your email, contacts and calendars. It’s always a good idea to keep this info backed up just in case you run into any problems along the way.
  2. Analyze Your Apps – Your iOS apps are obviously no good on your new Android phone, so plan ahead. Be sure to find the Android version of any apps that are crucial to your personal or professional life before making the switch. Don’t leave yourself faced with last minute panic when you are left without the apps that you need.
  3. Tune In – Transferring your music over should be nothing to beat yourself up over. Simply transfer your music over from iTunes to Google Music using the music manager option in your iTunes.
  4. Camera Keepers – Be sure to download any videos and pictures you want to keep to you computer. From there, simply upload them to your new Android phone. You can also use a wireless cloud sharing service to transfer files wirelessly between the devices.
  5. Text Transfer – If you have important text messages you want to keep, try using the iSMS2droid app or Samsung Kies program to restore you iPhone backup data.

One final word to the wise. If you are switching over from an iPhone to an Android, take the opportunity to upgrade. To make the transition as smooth as possible and stay happy with your decision, go with a higher-end model such as the Samsung Galaxy.

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