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Twitter Stock, the Galaxy S6, and How to Bootleg Movies

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John P on GeekBeat Episode 1020

Is Now a Good Time to Buy Twitter Stock?

If you don’t normally pay attention to finance news, the Nasdaq, Dow Jones and S&P 500 are all at or near their historical all time highs. Although it’s a pretty different story for each of ’em. The NASDAQ, for example, has yet to actually reach its all time high set back in 2000, while the Dow Jones and S&P are up around 33% from their 2000 highs.

But in the tech world, Apple and Google are a whole different story. For example, if you invested in Apple in 2000 you would have bought in somewhere between $3 and $20. Today that stock is selling for nearly $130 meaning worst case you’d have a 650% return on your investment. And while Google doesn’t actually go back to 2000, if you picked it up near the launch in 2005 you’d have bought in around $50 to a stock now trading around $575 for a whopping 1,100% ROI.

Of course, for every winner there are losers. Microsoft, for example, still hasn’t quite recovered to its high in 2,000, which makes sense in hindsight seeing how its two biggest competitors have been crushing it for 15 years. And Yahoo, which seemed to have everything going for it in the early days is now sitting at less than half of it’s former glory from 2000.

If you’re wondering why we’re taking a walk down financial memory lane, it’s because while I was traveling someone pointed out to me that a little over one year in, Twitter’s stock seems to be lingering at just a little more than it IPO’ed for, and they compared that to Facebook, which stagnated for about the same time before tripling in price. They wanted to know if I thought it was a good time to buy Twitter.

So, I’ll tell you all what I told him. I have no idea…

BUT! Here are a few things to consider. Fifteen years ago, Yahoo had a business model based on taking advantage of the eyeballs they had coming to their site. The proposition was simple, pay money to have your listing at the top of the page! But Google came along with a disruptive search technology that promised far MORE, and more RELEVANT, content.

What happened next was classic. For four years Google’s stock shot up 500% while Yahoo’s plummeted 50%. Sucks to be Yahoo, doesn’t it?

Well, actually no! Because over the last year, while Google’s stock has remained flat, Yahoo is up by 20-40%!

Of course, over the last quarter while Google’s stock was up 5%, Yahoo dropped by 25%!

But why? Why did all of this happen? Well, there are a thousand reasons, but it doesn’t matter. The bottom line is that investing in stock is a game of timing. Everyone’s gonna win, and everyone’s gonna lose. But deciding when to buy and sell is a lot harder than it seems, and getting back to the original question about whether it’s a good time to buy Twitter or not… the answer is SURE!

If you intend to hold it for a while.

And as long as you own plenty of other non-correlated investments.

The Camera on the Samsung Galaxy S6 is Amazing!

By the way, if you didn’t see it, yesterday was the big Apple announcement. And Apple’s stock is actually down a little compared to last week, whereas Samsung’s stock went up after Mobile World Congress when they announced the new S6.

Of course I was there along with Amber Mac and Colin Furze helping launch the new S6 with our live talk show after the Unpacked event in Barcelona. And if you didn’t get to see it, you can check it out right here…

My favorite thing about the new phone was actually the camera. And I got to carry one around for about a week shooting all kinds of ridiculous stuff.

Now, the Note 4 has a great camera, but the GalaxyS6 is even better! Especially the front facing camera which now has an F1.9 lens and a 5MP sensor, not to mention real-time HDR. Selfies are absolutely amazing!

The new camera incorporates a “PRO” mode which lets you control some of the camera’s functions. Not nearly as much as a DSLR, but I was able to lower the shutter speed for this night time tracking shot of a scooter which puts the background in motion while the subject is in focus. [Sample 1]

Low light performance is also very, very good, and the improved HDR functionality along with much improved speed with both the startup time and the time between pics makes this the best phone camera I’ve ever played with.

Oh, and the phone is nice too.

How to Bootleg Movies

Finally today, I’ve had several people ask me how to become a criminal. You wanted to know what the best way to steal movies is, that you should be paying for, and you know it… you dirty little rats, you…

Well, according to Netflix, the bootlegging software known as Popcorn Time has popped up as one of their biggest competitors. It’s an app that basically gives BitTorrent a graphical user interface complete with movie thumbnails, descriptions, IMDB ratings, previews and a choice of resolutions.

The thing that’s got to be driving the MPAA and RIAA insane is that Popcorn Time, which can be found at Popcorntime.io, makes bootlegging movies and music so simple your mom could do it. And so many people are using it that – your mom is probably one of them.

Flixtor is another alternative to Popcorn time, although a little quirkier. Interestingly, it incorporates a BUY link so that if your conscious gets the better of you, you can pop over to google and search out a legal copy.

And then there’s Isoplex. It’s a derivative of Popcorn Time, only without the ability to easily save the movies it’s downloading. Some people think that not saving the movies makes it somehow legal.

Finally, if you have Kodi, the open source home theater software formerly known as XBMC, you can install an add on called Genesis which includes something formerly called Go Movie, which essentially gives you Popcorn Time on steroids built right into your media player.

It lets you look up just about any movie you can think of and find multiple versions to stream. In essence, it allows you to turn your whole family into a bunch of pirates.

Well, that’s it for today’s show! Sorry it was so long, but since I haven’t been around for a couple of weeks I wanted to make sure you got your money’s worth.

Even though the show is free. But of course you can go to GeekBeat.TV/Patrons and pledge a little coin to help support our efforts! God knows… we need all the help we can get.

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The post Twitter Stock, the Galaxy S6, and How to Bootleg Movies appeared first on Geek Beat.


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