Nothing About The Bakken -- The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 2, T+5 -- June 5, 2018

Updates

Later, 1:54 p.m. CDT: at lunch I asked the two older granddaughters, age 14 and 11, if they had heard of "Group-FaceTime"? Wow, did their faces light up! They had both heard of "Group-FaceTime" -- remember, it was just announced yesterday at the Apple worldwide developers conference. But the teens were so excited about this the "news" moving through social media like nobody's business, as they say. The older one said this will make it so much easier when "they" are working on group projects. Right now, it's passing e-mail back and forth when working on a group project. The younger one, age 11, says they used Skype, but some parents won't let their children use Skype. The 11-year-old says everyone is asking why it took so long for Apple to copy Skye. She thought it could be a win-win for both Skye and Apple but, at the end of the day, thought it was a huge plus for Apple, and at best a small plus (maybe a negative) for Skype. The older one said that Google/Android has something similar but the audio quality if not as good as Apple's "FaceTime" so she is thrilled with this announcement. She did say that Skype was better than Google/Android.

I was amazed that they both knew about this new application less than 24 hours after it had been announced. I was even more amazed how excited they were about this. They also noted that the application can only be used on Apple products but they said that would not be a problem, because "everyone" has an iPhone.

Investors in Apple? This is not rocket science. AAPL is up $1.33, setting new all-time highs.

Original Post 

Apple, Inc.

Interesting.

Generally there's a lot of negativity "expressed" after an Apple event: the annual software conference, the annual hardware announcement, or the quarterly earnings reports.

But this time, something different.

Closing price on May 18 or May 21 -- about $187.

Today, about $193.

In between, the annual Apple software conference.

Apparently there was a lot of good stuff that came out of that conference, but the "FaceTime" development might have been the easiest to understand and the most important. Who knows? Maybe.

"FaceTime" can now accommodate 32 people. Thirty-two little tiles on the screen, but they all fade into the background and one large tile comes up for the person speaking.

I remember all the conference calls I attended during my years with the US Air Force. It took an administrative assistant at each site to call the operator and get access to the conference. I assume the same thing occurs these days with earnings conference calls.

I don't know how many readers have used "FaceTime" but it's an effortless process. You click on a telephone number and you are instantly connected to "FaceTime." Seriously, that's it.

Now, with upgrades to Apple's operating systems, it sounds like "FaceTime" will work across all Apple platforms (which I think it already did).

Now, there's no excuse for 31 analysts not to be able to call in on "FaceTime" for earnings calls.

A CNBC talking head noted one downside. The CNBC talking head noted that "FaceTime" can only be used in the Apple ecosystem. He/she noted that Microsoft tried the same things some years (decades) ago -- trying to limit Microsoft products to Wintel products, and excluding Apple. Microsoft, the CNBC talking head noted, failed. The talking head wondered if Apple was making a mistake by trying the same thing -- limiting "FaceTime" to its own platforms.

Answer: no.

I'm blogging in the homeless shelter near where I live. There are eleven people in the shelter right now. Seven of the eleven brought their laptops with them. An eighth is on a tablet. Of those eight mobile devices all but one is an Apple product.

[Later: decades ago, most folks had only one option -- Wintel and Microsoft. Today, folks have many, many options. The Apple option is generally the most expensive.]

I may be wrong about Apple. But don't tell me. Don't bring me down. LOL:

Don't Bring Me Down, Electric Light Orchestra

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Notes to the Granddaughters

Our oldest granddaughter has a water polo tournament this weekend on the south side of Houston, Texas. I will be taking her.

Her first game is around noon on Friday. Her last game is mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Because of her busy, busy summer schedule, we can't start driving until after 6:00 p.m. Thursday night.

Because it's always impossible to get through the city of Houston, we will stay overnight on the north side of Houston, Thursday night. We should get there about 9:30 p.m. local time.

Friday morning we will drive the last hour or so around Houston. We will get to the tournament with plenty of time to spare.

But this is why I'm writing the note. On our return trip home, we are so close to the terminals on the Gulf Coast east of Houston and so close to the swamps and bayous of Louisiana I am tempted to drive east through Lake Charles, LA, and then up to Shreveport on our way home. It's an 8-hour drive, but we could stay overnight in Shreveport, and still get back to Grapevine early Monday morning.

I haven't been to Louisiana in a long, long time, and this could be an opportunity not to be missed. One hundred ten degrees, hot, humid, buggy, what's not to miss? LOL. I just checked the weekend weather forecast for Lake Charles: 90 degrees and no rain. Partly cloudy. Looks like a road trip.

If anyone in the Lake Charles to Shreveport, Louisiana, region has "one-don't-miss" thing in the ara, please let me know.