Just last week the stock made it back to its previous record value of  $427.61.   RBC Capital Markets just days earlier raised its Apple price target to $525 per share, which now seems to be a worthy estimation.  Anyone who can get his paws on Apple stock right now could see some tremendous gains within as little as one year.  There are some upcoming projects Apple will be revealing throughout 2012, which is scheduled to see several changes in Apple’s well established mobile product line from the iPhone to the iPad.  In fact, there are now three rumored iPad upgrades scheduled for the upcoming year, which would give stock values another few bumps in an upward direction, likely shortly following the release of each product.

Apple is also rumored to be developing a new television that will “revolutionize” tv, according to many rumor sites and Apple speculators.  There is something to that, since Apple has several patents registered for televisions and components and features.  Design style is under careful wraps right now, since Apple is known for its secrecy about upcoming products.  Don’t expect to learn anything new about this for quite some time, but there is a chance that we might see this new device, whatever it may be, sometime before Q4 of 2012.  If it doesn’t actually make an appearance, there will likely at least be an announcement.   One patent contains a clause that is straight forward: the Apple device would be able to receive and store television content from a content provider or partner company. Nothing is detailed as to what kind of content provider this might be. Possible vendors would include satellite television and cable companies, finally delivering a product that could put true a la cart television programming in the households of millions of subscribers, effectively changing the way people consume television programs.

More support for the idea of a revolutionary Apple television product comes from the late company co-founder Steve Jobs himself, who reportedly spoke of the project as his greatest work before he died in October 2011.

There is good news on the underemployment front though.  In December the amount of people clocking in for a full week’s worth of work bumped up to 113.8 million people.  That was the most since February of 2009.  The lowest of amount of people since January 2009 who need full time work, worked part time in December.  Only 8.1 million people who need full time jobs worked part time.

This shift from part time to full time work is just another piece to the recovering job market puzzle.  In turn many suspect that these changes will lead to more household confidence and more spending.

Businesses are also benefiting from the part-to-full time increases.  When your employees are full time, there is better production because of the permanency.  Employees are more willing to put in more into their jobs if they are sure of the fact that it is more permanent.

Who knows if this shift will continue on the current path, but if it does so it might mean brighter days ahead for the financial front.  More people with full time work will spend more and put more back into the economy, hopefully giving that boost we all really need in the right direction out of the red.  We will just have to wait and see.

Online stores, taking  a cue from major retailers, actually started their Cyber Monday sales early and offered deals throughout the holiday weekend.  They’re still going strong today, so don’t worry about having missed out on anything spectacular.  Unlike Black Friday events in stores, Cyber Monday deals don’t tend to have the quantity caps that can result in standing in line for hours only to miss out what you really hoped to get.

This year’s online holiday sales are already showing record figures, and are expected to really send the shopping season into a flurry of profits for e-tailers hoping to get back in black before closing the books for the year, and for shoppers, this means great deals are out there just waiting for you to add to cart.  You can find deals on everything from Apple computers to ADT by shopping today.

Check out the following infographic  for more on the online shopping uptick this year:

How has Wal-Mart made its way into practically all of our lives?  Maybe it is due to the fact that 90% of people in the United States live within 15 minutes of a Wal-Mart.  The stores have around 100 million customers each week.  That total is equivalent to Australia’s population times four!  Take a look at the infographic to find out more about this huge corporation and how it reached the top.  There are many strange things, like building over burial grounds that make me wonder what connections and who Wal-Mart is in cahoots with to accomplish it all.  I doubt that a lot of business owners would do some of the things that Wal-Mart has done in order to get ahead, but then again most will not ever have the finances to take on all that the company has had to.

On top of it all Apple also offers volume purchasing so you and your entire team can benefit from the features offered to your business by utilizing the iPad.  So, are businesses really using iPads?  The answer is yes.  You see I found an infographic that displays who is using the iPad and why they are using it in their business.

Slower sales in September could be the result if Apple Inc. holds out on the release of the next model of its iPhone until the end of that month or the beginning of the next. Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Ittai Kidron made the statement above and cut his price target on the company.  The stock value of Apple is subject to many factors involving human emotion and fan base enthusiasm, but even a company well immersed in the fandom of its primary users faces the ultimate bottom line when it comes to sales.

Kidron reduced his 12 to 18 month target on the stock, bringing it down to $420 from $450.  His projections and predictions for iPhone sales in the quarter ending in September likewise was cut from 20.5 million units to a much more conservative 19 million units.  This is slightly amazing, considering that people will be holding off on purchasing the current iteration of the iPhone (Apple’s iPhone 4) with a new model possibly right around the corner.  Either Kidron is counting on iPhone 4 sales to remain high despite that probability, or he thinks sales of the next model will be unusually low for some reason.

Apple entered the handset market in 2007 with the debut of its flagship smart phone device, the original  iPhone. The Direct TV company became the fourth-largest mobile phone producer by unit shipments last quarter, accounting for roughly 5 percent of all shipments.  This was up from 2.8 percent a year ago, according to market researchers. The success of the iPhone and the iPad assisted Apple in trouncing Microsoft Corp. as the world’s most valuable technology company in 2010.

Kidron also noted that a less expensive and possibly smaller iPhone would be a great help in gaining the company a larger share of the smart phone market.  Sales of the company’s massively successful iPad tablets continue to skyrocket.  As long as this holds true, Apple can expect to weather any temporary downturn that might result from missing the end of the current financial quarter with a new iPhone — but an extended iPhone delay could actually backfire on the company, hurting its sales of the iPad.

“I think Kidron’s projections are spot on,” said Ludwig Gerald, analyst. “This is a delicate matter of timing.  If Apple lets it go too far outside the typical product introduction cycle, it will indeed begin to affect iPad sales.  Nobody wants that now, do they?”

Biography Coming in August

Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. founder and CEO, and the public face of the giant tech company, is the subject of a new biographical comic book published by Bluewater Productions Inc, and available this fall.  The biography, a 32 page comic book style production, will be called, simply, Steve Jobs: Co-Founder of Apple.  On August 24, online stores will be selling copies, as will brick-and-mortar comic book stores and retailers around the United States.  This biography will feature art right alongside information about Steve Jobs’ life and career.

So, what made the company hone in on Steve Jobs as a subject of biography?  “His innovations command front page news, speculation of his health affects the stock market. Not bad for a college dropout,” Direct TV HD Packages and Bluewater President Darren Davis responded.

C.W. Cooke is the book’s writer, and illustrator is Chris Schmidt.   The comic biography profiles the technology innovator who helped co-create the company known as Apple,  and who later oversaw its return to the mainstream in popular computing with products including the iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone and the iPad.

People tend to either love or hate someone with a magnetic personality like Steve Jobs, who’s rockstar cult following had engendered feelings across the spectrum of emotions.  Sometimes associated with insensitive outbursts and cruel temper tantrums, Jobs is also known for his genius and vision.  The world has mixed feelings about him, even as it yearns to better understand the man behind some of the world’s best technological inventions.

Bluewater is working on a series of similar comic biographies about other celebrities who stand out in their fields.  Stephen King, Martha Stewart, Donald Trump, Brittney Spears, and Sarah Palin are but a few of the famous people in their library.  The comic books are drawn in super hero style, and the colors really do pop.

“I think this is great,’” said Phillip Targo, a 6th grader from a public school in New Jersey.  ”I think these will make people read more and want to learn more about famous people from the news, especially the ones like Obama who are running from president and want to be in charge.  People ought to know more about those kinds of people, so they make better choices when they vote or buy a new album.” - cableinternetbundles.com

And that, my friends, says it all.

Sotomayor says her family first suspected she had diabetes when she realized she was constantly thirsty.  No amount of water could sate her thirst.  She also experienced increased frequency of urination, and at age 7, started wetting her bed at night.  Then came weight loss, and  irritability.  All classic symptoms diabetes.

The 56-year-old justice shared her story because she wanted to help children with the same disease to know that  they can have diabetes, that it is manageable, and that they  can still do anything they want with their lives. Home Security protects your home, and medicine protects your body. Disease can be a powerful part of any person’s life, but children should be aware that they can enjoy all life has to offer and realize their dreams just like people who do not have diabetes.

Sotomayor has said she has the job of her dreams. Coping with diabetes has now become second nature to the Supreme Court Justice. She injects herself with insulin four to six times a day, but hardly notices it any longer.  Many times before approaching the bench for Supreme Court cases, Sotomayor has just injected the insulin to keep her blood sugar stabilized so that she can perform her job duties as needed.

Sotomayor’s diabetic condition has been public knowledge for a few years now, but this is the first time she has openly discussed her battle with the disease and her management of it.  She decided to come out with the information after realizing that it could be helpful to children going through the same thing, and might offer them hope for leading a fairly normal life despite the hardships of managing diabetes.

Because it is such a big interest to many people, there are now television channels that are dedicated to providing people with easy workouts they can perform simply from any room inside of the house with no need to go to a gym and pay hefty gym fees.  Certain channels, like FitTv give viewers the opportunity to choose from workouts that are typically about 30 minutes in length.  Just 30 minutes a day can give you the boost you need to feel better.

If you find that you are looking to eat healthier too, then tune into a food channel that you might be able to find on all direct tv packages D3Q.  There are so many shows on food channels and even on network channels that will help you figure out ways to get your healthy foods in without spending a ton of time and money on preparing healthy meals and snacks.

So, if you’re looking for some help in the health department, then turn on your television.  Just remember that anything you do see on television to help you get healthier you should talk to you doctor about it first.  You will probably find though that getting healthier is just a remote click away, and that’s something to feel good about.