<p>I don’t know if these things have Bluetooth but I suppose that you could use a USB hub if you wanted to hook up a few devices. One that I looked at had two USB ports.</p>
<p>Well…</p>
<p>Oil, gold, silver…crushed…</p>
<p>Retail sales dropped 0.4% for March. Gasoline took a big hit. It should be interesting to dig into the details. The retailers that reported yesterday (like TJX) seemed to be doing quite well.</p>
<p>"Well…</p>
<p>Oil, gold, silver…crushed… "</p>
<p>Yeah - they’re hitting the targets at which I want to buy</p>
<p>This is going to be a boring expiration for me…</p>
<p>Sold the nke may 52.50 puts for .10. </p>
<p>I guess I am going to hit the gym.</p>
<p>BCEagle, most of those devices have both wifi and bluetooth (since you don’t have to worry about battery life, who cares about bluetooth’s rough performance), so you can pair them with a BT mouse & keyboard. I know a lot of people are using these as media centers for their TV. Either plug in a USB stick with whatever you want to watch or stream it locally over your network. You can also control most of these things with your tablet or smart phone.</p>
<p>Are these gadgets going to become easy to use for those of us who are not technology savvy?</p>
<p>One day they probably will. I recent bought a Roku instead of going the Android Mini route and I think I’m fairly satisfied with my choice. There are some of those android devices that come preloaded with XBMC (a media center type of program) which are supposed to be easier to use…but they still look like a pretty big hassle for people not into that scene.</p>
<p>Right now I think they’re at a stage similar to when PCs had to be built by hand. You need to install everything in a somewhat difficult way, it has limited capabilities, and it really only solves specialized purposes. I think a few years down the line we’ll see cheaper, easier to use versions.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in what the future holds, look up the Raspberry Pi, though. I’ve seen neat things such as wiring a whole bunch of lights in your house with them. You can then control lighting via your smartphone, set schedules, etc. I think I even saw one that had automated door locks where you carried a proximity key (similar to those in some cars). So you get home, the door automatically unlocks! With a little bit of extra engineering I’m sure you could make them open the door for you, too. ;)</p>
<p>Lol…</p>
<p>Ok… I guess I can wait until these gadgets get easier to use…</p>
<p>These are still geeky gadgets; back in the 1970s, you’d see these sorts of things in Popular Science. Today, though, there are lots of teenagers and older geeks willing to play around with them and the pricing is compelling for businesses that need cheap and good enough computing solutions. So I think that there’s a lot more interest today compared to hobbyist stuff thirty years ago.</p>
<p>The other thing about these devices is that they are incredibly cheap and there are guys like me that will throw a few bucks just to play around with them. Could I replace my wife’s desktop with one of these things? I’m asking myself that now. Android can be a pain if you’re not technically inclined. There are a lot of things that I like about iOS - particularly that it’s pretty easy to use if you’re not technical. I can use Android but it requires more effort. I personally feel that iOS is more reliable in terms of me not having to dig around. But Android is so cheap so it’s compelling to me too which is why I have an iPhone and a Nexus 7. Some ideas that I have are replacing the TV in the basement with something newer with one of these internet devices bolted on. Right now, the TV is hardly used. It would be nice to have an additional device that’s convenient to use and uses little power. My wife’s desktop probably uses about 200 watts of power for the PC. I’d love to replace it with something that uses 10 watts of power. Are these devices good enough?</p>
<p>BTW, I closed out QLD, TNA, TJX, ORCL and DIA this morning. I have a list of economic reports to read but there’s more stuff in there that I think that I’m not going to like. There are a bunch of tech earnings reports out next week that could kill the market too. If the Fed wasn’t doing QE, then I would be shorting now.</p>
<p>BCEagle91, I can understand the appeal of these gadgets. If I was a gadget person, I would play with these.</p>
<p>You sold a lot today… Nice trades or investments.</p>
<p>Playing with gadgets helps to keep you current and I need to keep up with tech as I work in tech. You might also get ideas on creating a product or service related to these devices or it could help you in a trading idea. Android works nicely on mobile phones but a new area for software development could be set-top boxes. Imagine Guitar Hero or Wii games running on a cheap Android device.</p>
<p>I agree…</p>
<p>Wow - gold’s falling even faster than my tech picks!</p>
<p>I hate gold. I didn’t change my mind as gold rallied… Not going to change my mind now. Lol</p>
<p>Bitcoin prices were down 35 percent this morning. Nice currency. Lol</p>
<p>You must have the Warren Buffett view of gold - all you do is dig it up and then just put it back into the ground. I may sell iau 14 5/18 puts.</p>
<p>Something like that. Lol</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.ouya.tv/]OUYA[/url”>http://www.ouya.tv/]OUYA[/url</a>]</p>
<p>There you go. ;)</p>
<p>Had a chat with a gamer co-worker. He told me how annoyed the gamer development world is at Microsoft and Windows and how there’s a big move to Linux. He told me that games are the only thing holding him back from dumping Windows. One approach would be to run a Windows VM server at home and then connect to that from a Linux desktop for any Windows stuff. No need to upgrade Windows licenses or to go around upgrading them on all of your desktops and laptops. This guy tends to be on the pulse of future tech stuff (he’s the one that told me about the Nexus 7) so I give his thinking a lot of weight in investing.</p>
<p>It’s nice working in a place with a lot of smart, creative and inventive people.</p>
<p>A link from a coworker: [To</a> Find Insider Trading, Follow The Kids’ Money : NPR](<a href=“To Find Insider Trading, Follow The Kids' Money : NPR”>To Find Insider Trading, Follow The Kids' Money : NPR)</p>