Apple stock (AAPL) hits a new high of $159.99, and from the discussion boards, it looks like people are waiting for it to break the $160 barrier.

Back in May if you had read my, “Did you invest in Apple?” post and bought some Apple stock at $106.24, then today you would have been enjoying a sick over 50% gain!

Is it still too late to buy this stock? Probably not, that is if you are a patient investor. Even with competition from Microsoft and Amazon heating up, Apple is still way ahead of the game, and doing the right things to stay ahead.

While writing the previous post about T-Mobile taxes, fees and surcharges, it began to really sink in how powerless an individual consumer is when it comes to being taken advantage of by the big companies. So how can a consumer become more powerful, where they can force companies to act instantly to consumer issues? Could grouping together in the form of simple consumer unions be the answer?

The concept of consumer unions is nothing new. There are already consumer groups like Consumers Union and Consumer Federation of America which work as a group on behalf of the consumer. But these are larger groups, more into advocacy, research, reporting, and usually very passive in their approach to representing the consumers.
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Normally when it comes to cell phone bills, my wife and I rarely go over the free minutes, and usually auto-pay the bill, which normally is around $90 per month ($69.99 for T-Mobile Family plan with 1000 whenever minutes + $4.99 for text messaging + taxes, fees and surcharges). However, we exceeded the minutes last month, and was hit by the dreaded $.35/min charge for an extra 107 minutes we went over.

New Bill: $127.87 up ~40%

So, I decided to take a look at the T-Mobile bill for a change; yes, the much talked about long cell phone bills, to see all those impressive taxes, fees, and surcharges the cell phone companies have come up with to get an extra 20-30% from the dumb consumer. Even credit card companies don’t seem as bad, at least they let you know the interest rate up front.
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If you are an Apple fanboy, and have been regularly buying Apple products since 2004, but never invested in Apple, then this is probably what you missed out on:

So if you had done some simple investing in Apple; in less than three years, you would have made ~$343,988, an astounding 2310% gain! from an initial invest of $14,890. So, next time you buy an Apple product, think about maybe investing in Apple too.

Logoworks, a company based out of Lindon, Utah, is changing the way small businesses handle branding, by providing high quality logo services at prices affordable for small businesses.

Logoworks.com is another example of how the Internet is dramatically changing the landscape for small businesses. In this case, it allows them to have a logo worthy of a multinational corporation at a reasonable cost.

Source: BusinessWeek