Money Green Life

There was a Bloomberg article that was released yesterday indicating that Apple will launch iPhones under Verizon Wireless in January, 2011. We all anticipated this move, whether it be soon or much later in 2012 when AT&T exclusive agreement runs out. One of the most common complaints iPhone users have now are the dropped calls and weak 3G signals. I am a current iPhone user and even stood in the line for 10 hours to get my iPhone 4 and I get dropped calls at least 1 time every day. Other friends have complained that they started experiencing dropped calls as soon as they switched over to the iPhone. It’s very frustrating. It’s also very frustrating when I have zero signal on my iPhone and my friend has full signal bars on his phone. When I ask him who his carrier is, he says Verizon and then starts laughing at me for having no signal on my phone.

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It took me a while, but I finally pre-ordered my iPhone 4. I tried to do it at Apple’s website but nothing was working. Kept on getting error messages. But when I read some forums, people were having some success pre-ordering through Apple Store App on iPhone. So I quickly installed the App for free and went ahead to start the ordering process. The process couldn’t have been easier. I just picked my store location and selected the iphone and that was it!

It now appears that the website is working now as I was just able to get passed the error messages I was getting earlier. So go ahead and reserve yours! Don’t you want yours right away like all the other Apple product fanatics?

A few years ago, I had the privilege of buying Apple stock (AAPL) for a price of about $133 per share. Back then it was a real good time to buy as the price had dropped significantly due to poor iPhone sales. The stock recouped all the losses and climbed as high as $200 per share. I thought it was a brilliant move. However, I failed to capitalize on the profit and the stock began to fall again. I committed the cardinal rule of trading by buying high and selling low. A year later, the financial crisis hit and I ended up selling  at around $85 per share for almost 35% loss.

The only good thing about this is that I had only invested a mere $1600. The bad thing about this is that had I not panicked and sold my shares, I would be at 100% gain today. It so happens that AAPL is at $266 per share today.

The reason I reflect back on this is that I’m CONSIDERING buying back in to Apple stock once again. Although the cost per share is sky high, if you look at the financials, the price is considered “cheap” by some analysts. With the P/E (profit to earnings ratio) at only 22, it’s is considerable undervalued at $266. But then again, I hesitate because I don’t want to make the same mistake by buying HIGH and selling LOW again. I wrote an entry previously about investing wisely and I definitely do not want to be a hypocrite by getting into AAPL to hastily. I have to do more due diligence on this stock but it’ll definitely be on my radar for my next stock purchase.

The truth is we are currently living in personal hand-held gadgets era. If you own a cell phone, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own an ipod, you own a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a Playstation PSP or Nintendo DS, you are an owner of a personal hand-held gadget. If you own a kindle, yes you own a personal hand-held device. The truth of the matter is wherever you go, you will see dozens of people carrying their own personal hand-held device. Sometimes, people even carry their own personal laptops wherever they go. Admittedly, I am a proud owner of iPhone and I carry it around with me everywhere I go. Without it, I feel so lost and confused and empty. If you own an iPhone as well, you probably know what I am talking about. One of the worst thing that could happen to me is running out of battery on my iPhone when there is no charger nearby to be found. I’ve been in countless situations when my phone died and I couldn’t charge it back up. It’s just an awful feeling. It’s those moments when I wondered about the battery inside my phone that allows me to take advantage of its many features.

iPhones, like most of the modern hand-held gadgets are juiced by lithium ion batteries. Because of these batteries, gadgets nowadays last more than a few hours with just a single charge. Nickel Cadmium and Nickel Metal Hydride batteries have come and are now pretty much gone. The properties of lithium ion batteries are just more superior than these other counterparts and thus have dominated the rechargeable battery market. Because the average consumer have gone through so many technological generations of rechargeable batteries, we are often confused about how lithium ion batteries work.

How many times has someone told you to drain your batteries completely before recharging because it’ll last longer? Do batteries really last longer when you drain them completely? Unlike NiCd and NiMH batteries, Li-ion batteries have no memory effect where discharging completely is recommended to prolong its life.

Li-ion batteries last about 2-3 years from their birth independent of use. So make sure that when you buy these batteries from the store, the batteries are brand new and fresh and has not been sitting on the shelf too long. These batteries also can hold their charge much longer than their nickel based counterparts. Li-ion batteries will only lose about 5% of the charge in one month as opposed to 20% from nickel batteries. Moreover, the battery life can be maximized when stored in cool temperatures, such as inside a refrigerator. At higher temperatures, the batteries will tend to degrade at a faster rate.

So, now that you know how lithium ion batteries work, you can take advantage of this knowledge and make maximum use out of your batteries. However, due to the make-up of these batteries, along with every other batteries, practice of proper disposal methods are recommended to protect the environment from hazardous chemicals that may leak from the batteries. Please check with your local recycling center and inquire about their recycling programs for batteries. You may also go to your local stores to drop off you batteries there. These stores include Batteries Plus, Best Buy, Black & Decker, The Home Depot, Radio Shack, Sears, Staples, Target, and Wal-Mart. If none of these retail stores are available to you, you may visit Call2Recycle.org website for more information.

There are many way to have an impact on the environment. We all know that the world is slowly dying, with more and more trash being buried in the landfills and signs of global climate changes becoming more evident. If you’re like me, I’m always searching for way to save energy in an around my home, whether it be using compact fluorescent light bulbs, a programmable thermostat or purchasing Energy Star rated appliances. As long as it can save me energy, I’ll be interested in it. Not only do I save energy and money through these changes, I contribute to help saving the environment. Another way to have a positive impact on your environment is recycling. Although more people are recycling nowadays, people aren’t still fully aware of their local recycling programs.

If you’re an iphone user, there may be yet another solution to help you recycle more and become more energy conscious. Earth911 has released a new iphone app, iRecycle, that allows the user to easily find recycling locations anywhere in the United States. If you don’t know what to do with your old compact fluorescent light bulbs, you can easily find a recycling center closest to you using iRecycle. So when you’re on-the-go and need to find the closest recycling center, iRecycle can come to your rescue. You can access stories and events given on their website through iRecycle as well. It’s free so check it out.

http://earth911.com/iphone/