Is Google Chromecast a good deal?

Google's new HDMI streaming dongle just got released today on Google Play and Amazon.  While Amazon shows out of stock, Google play still have those neat little devices ready for order.

What is Google Chromcast? What does it do?  

The Google Chromcast is a dongle that can be plugged into any display with HDMI port and stream media from your mobile devices.  In terms of functionality it works like Apple's Airplay and Google's miracast.  However, that's the only similarity.  It doesn't stream directly using your device;  it first find the source of the media content and grabs those content directly from the net, which theoretically should give a better video streaming experience compared to Miracast and Airplay.  Currently, this device only works with a few mobile applications such as Netflix, Youtube, and Google play.  However, knowing Google, they will update the firmware and make this device work with more applications in no time.

Value Comparison

Here's a list of Chromecast's direct competitors and their market price:

Apple TV - $99
Roku Devices - $50-$99
Android sticks and other android based streaming hardware - $30 - $90

Chromcast is $35 with 3 free month of Netflix subscription (worth $24) which drops the device's cost to $11 with the Netflix subscription taken into account.  This is definitely a steal.  Although other devices might have more features, most people probably want to easily and quickly stream some Youtube video from internet.  And to do so, using a phone or table is much simpler and easier than using the smartTV's slow and cluncky built-in interface.  In addition the competitor's streaming solution is arguabaly more expensive.  Compared to the HDTV's cost to the cost of the Chromcast, it's pretty much nothing compared to the cost of HDTV itself but neverthless could drastically improve the HDTV's internet streaming's usability.

I currently have a Panasonic smartTV and although it can also stream internet content on its own, the user interface is really clunky and responds slowly to the remote controller.  It's also hard to browse through and search for Youtube videos as compared to using phones or tablets to select contents to watch.  Another good thing about this device is that you are only sending the information of the media content you are streaming from so you can still use your phone and table while watching Youtube on TV, while with other similar streaming devices, you are essentially mirroring the display so you cannot do something else with your phone during the streaming.

Final Verdict

For $35 ($11 if taking into account the free Netflix subscription), Chromecast is a very good deal.  With a click of button, whatever you were watching on the phone (limited to Netflix and Youtube at this time) will be displayed on your HDTV up to 1080p resolution and it cost almost nothing compared to your HDTV cost .

The only major competition for Chromecast are android based streaming devices or sticks.  Those devices have functionality similar or better than Chromcast and could be as low priced as Chromecast. However, those android hardware are mostly sold and serviced in China and are not made by a big name company like Google.  If you purchased Chromecast and happened to have issues, you can safely bet that you can get it taken cared of much quickly than if you were to purchase an android stick with questionable quality and service.

At this time, I would say just buy this device if you often watch video on your phone or tablet, have a HDTV, have a decent internet connection (WIFI), and likes the convenience of streaming media from the internet with a simple click of a button on your mobile device (iphone, ipad, android phones, and android tablets).

I will post my own review of this device if I have time but in the mean time, feel free to watch the following reviews and hands-on's from other sources:

Phandroid's Review and Walkthrough:


CNET's review on Chromecast-
http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-media-receivers/google-chromecast/4505-6739_7-35823617.html

TheVerge's hands-on with Chromecast -
http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/24/4553368/hands-on-googles-35-chromecast-a-streaming-tv-stick

AndroidCentral's hands-on with Chromecast -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5z38pXtd6tI


Other useful information:
-http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/99426/amazon-google-chromecast-wireless-hdmi-streaming-dongle-3month-netflix-subscription
-http://www.androidauthority.com/html5-and-webrtc-the-technology-behind-chromecast-248968/
-http://chromecastcast.com/   (I like this one alot, they talked about many interesting things about this device)



Update:  The Netflix promotion is over so that makes this device a bit less appealing.  However, it's still decent at it's price point.

Updates to my portfolio and watchlists

Today I exited all of my YHOO positions and added a few new stocks.  I will keep YHOO in my stock watch list.  I did not keep YHOO in my portfolio because currently it's only fairly valued, and I found more interesting stocks to hold than YHOO at the moment.  I added the following stocks and will share my 2 cents on this move:  MX, MXIM, and ANV.

• MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp (MX) is a small CAP company with low P/E, low short rate, and a potential upside of  ~20% within 1 year.  It has a relatively steady earning and has a good potential to grow bigger in the long run.  
• Maxim Integrated Products(MXIM) is a well known semiconductor company with good balance sheet and lots of good engineering talents.  Most importantly, the company is doing well recently and it shows on its stock price.  The earning is good, the P/E is fair in my opinion, and the potential upside is in the ball park of  ~ 18% within 1 year.
• Allied Nevada Gold Corp(ANV) is a small CAP gold mining company with huge upside (~100%).  However, due to my lack of knowledge of the gold industry, I only entered a small position in this stock.  This is more of a speculative play by me with short/mid term trading in mind (up to 1 year term).  I compared this company with two other gold mining companies (AEM and NGD) with similar valuations and ended up chosing ANV for its relatively fair P/E, fair fundamentals, and huge upside potential.  Note that this stock could go down due to the volatile nature of this stock so bear this in mind.  I will write an update when I decide to exit my position in this stock.  I think I would do something similar to a trailing stop or a stop loss of 5-10%.

As you can see, I am fairly confident in MX and MXIM, not so much in ANV.  MX and MXIM are the two stocks to buy now if you want to trade in the tech/semiconductor sector.

Updates on INVN and AMBA
-Good news for Invensense (INVN) regarding to their recent deals with Google (http://www.theflyonthewall.com/permalinks/entry.php/INVN;GOOGid1841885/INVN;GOOG-InvenSense-advances-after-analyst-reports-Google-deal)

- Ambarella (AMBA) will have Q1 FY2014 Earnings Conference Call today (June 4th, 2013).  If interested, webcase is available at http://investor.ambarella.com/index.cfm.  

- More AMBA news (earning jump, EPS beat, and revenue increases):

1. http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2013/06/04/ambarella-jumps-9-fyq1-revenue-eps-beat/?mod=yahoobarrons
2. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ambarella-inc-announces-first-quarter-200500136.html

Updates on ADNC
-Good news.  Audience partners up with China Mobile (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/audience-partners-china-mobile-redefine-201855520.html)

Updates on ANV
-Long term gold prices is still more toward the downside so I've decided to exit this posititon for a loss.


Note1:  One should never buy a stock without doing research yourself and never invest more money than you are willing to lose.  Everyone's strategy is different and there are no right or wrong answers to stock investing, it's about risk tolerance and your current finacial situation - how conservative you are, how much cash you have, and how much you wanted to earn each year.

Note2: Ones strategy could evolve or change through time.  So far I've transitioned from conservative to more aggresive stocks and so far I've been doing well.  This is due to the fact that the overall stock market trend is up the past year and for aggresive stocks, although more risky, the reward is much larger.

Note3:  Another thing is to never invest too much money in a field you are not very familiar of.  For example, if you just started learning about the semiconductor market, you should not invest too much of your money in that field.  I invested in many technology stocks because I am familiar with this market and know many people who works in the tech industry.  For example, Audience(ADNC) is not a very well known company since it's relatively new, but ever since my ex-collegue started working there, she had nothing but good things to say about the company.  At the time, its share price price is only 6 dollars and in one year it's more than doubled.  So I did the research, had some luck finding this small company, and profitted a little from the stock, but most importantly, I am confident about how the company will do because I am very up to date about the chip industry.

Note4: Stock trading is not for everyone but I hope I can help some people out with what I know from investing in stocks for several years, eventhough my knowledge is still fairly limited compared to the GURUs out there.  I think stock trading is fun and exciting.  If you feel the same, feel free to to join the ride :)

Note5: Never believe in any good news or bad news right away, but you should always be prepared for bad news.

Note6:  It is wise to take some short term gains from time to time and buy back the stocks in your portfolio when the market is taking a breather or have a correction.

Future of digital paper tablets?

The response of the tablet to the stylus is a bit laggy judging from the videos but the concept is still great.  I think the future is bright for note taking specific notepads that has long battery life, large storage, and fast stylus response.  I am hoping that they will sell the standard grade of this device for less than 100 dollars, which is quite doable.  They could sell a higher grade device with more and better features (i.e. faster CPU, better screen resolution, better stylus...) for a higher price.  If they are able do all of these mentioned, Sony will be back in the game since every student and working professionals probably will buy at least one of them (it saves time and money, long term, including paper and pencil costs).  Another thing they should do is to make the GUI more intuitive for sharing data wirelessly.  In addition, it would be cool if it can be charged wirelessly as well.




Other blogs talking about this device:

• http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57585367-1/13.3-inch-sony-tablet-is-like-etch-a-sketch-on-steroids/
• http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/13/sonys-got-a-13-3-inch-e-reader-with-pen-input-which-is-sort-of-like-a-dodo-with-antlers/
• http://www.geek.com/tablets/sonys-13-3-inch-digital-paper-prototype-lets-you-scribble-on-e-books-1554888/

I will follow up with more updates about this device in the future.  Stay tuned

Update: Moved MTGE back to stock watchlist. Two stocks to watch more closely (SCTY and TSLA)

MTGE is now a hold stock considering that it would only gain 5-15% including dividend.  There is not much room in the upside.  Also, considering the downside risk of holding onto MTGE, I feel at the moment it's not that great of a buy.  I chose to take it off my portflio because I've decided to invest in something more exciting (still researching).  You can still choose to hold it for receiving a solid dividend return.  Either way would be fine.


Stocks to Watch More Closely (SCTY and TSLA)

As most of people interested in stocks knows about the great run that SCTY and TSLA had recently, and there were many debates about the stock in regards to their relatively high valuation (~10 B now).  From fundamental point of view, both of the stocks mentioned is vastly overvalued.  However, if you look at it long term, it could be like investing in Apple when it just first started getting profits when they had a big slump.  You could also say that this stock is similar to Netflix, LinkedIn, and Amazon, where they had very high valuations and still going strong.  Those stocks had some correction but eventually back to the same projectory as before.  The long term price for SCTY and TSLA will last unless really bad news came out which causes insititution to sell off their holding in those stocks.

The reasons why SCTY and TSLA's valuation is this high were due to many factors.  The main reason due to the battle between Ellon Musk and the Naysayers (short sellers).  Without this many short's covering, the stock price wouldn't have this high.  However, even without the short sellers, Tesla Motors indeed executed well this year with good customer service, sales (first time profit), and the innovation of the cars as well as the car charing infrastructure plan, and thus created a sense of "hype".

No one can predict the future.  Intially I had doubts about SCTY and TSLA's profitability in the short term, but I am starting to believe this so called "hype" will last for a while as long as TSLA continues to innovate and improve their sales and margin, and as long as peopel are still buying and loving Tesla cars.  Innovation is what we need right now to improve the sentiment of this beaten down economy and I feel we do need more companies like SCTY and TSLA in the US.  Therefore, regardless of investing in the stock or not, I will be rooting for them.

I did put a small position in TSLA with long term thinking in mind but it's more of a gamble then higher percentage bets.  I don't consider I am really investing in this stock considering the amount I put into TSLA stock is only small percentage of my portfolio.  However, if the stock happens to go down due to correction, I would be watching closely to add some position for short term gain.  On the other hand, I might exit some positions if I think I gained enough from the stock if it did go up in price and will put in more later if opportunities arise.

Updates:  

-To replace MTGE with a more intereting stock, I found a promising small CAP company worth investing in. This company is Amberalla Inc. (AMBA).  This stock has a sound fundamental and is a niche chip maker with good IP in HD video and image processing SOCs.  I am not sure how well this company will do long term but it definitely still has room to grow.

-In addtion, I've also decided to add Yahoo (YHOO) in my portfoloio considering the recent buying pressure and their new bets.  It's worth the risk considering it's low P/E ratio and long term earning growth potential.  

-Another good buy that I've added in my portfolio is Synaptics(SYNA), it's the market leader for touch panel solution.  They seems to do fairly well recently with design wins and the buying pressure is there.

- Added Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), LinkedIn (LNKD), and Sina (SINA) to the stock watchlist.  

New Good Buy Alert - added ADNC

Earlier this week I posted update on my watchlist and my good bet list.  I talked about Audience(ADNC) could potentially become one of those dark horses in tech stocks, but was still trying to wait for better pricing as the current prices look about fair value.  However, this is only assuming that there are no good catalyst for the stock.  Yesterday's after hour trading made me curious as to why it's still going up when it seems to be fairly priced.  After some research and I've decided to put this on my good bet list for now.  Here are the 3 main reasons:

1. Signs of heavy insider buying.  Potential buyout?
2. More upsides than downside due to good fundamentals
3. More than usual volume and the stock is trending up

Another factor is that I know some people who worked there who used to be my collegues.  From what I've heard, the company seems to be very enthusiastic about their new products and everyone is working hard.  This is yet another sign of good future prospect.  If you want to invest in a company this small, how much potential a company has is very important.  Ofcourse, management is very important, but we should also look at people who works there.  Are they very optimistic and enthusiatic at what they are working on?  Are they willing to take the challenge and make products that are much better than their competition?  Are there good talents?  It seems to me that answers to all these questions will be reflected on the stock price and I am willing to bet that it's more toward the upside.  If this optimism in the company kept on going, it would also influece the likelyhood that a big company who are looking at acquiring Audiance's to make the deal.

The main bet is that it will get acquired by big company at the much higher valuation.  This seems like a more likely scenario due to Audience's CFO's massive insider buy even at a relatively high stock price.  There's only one major reason why people (especially executives) buy a stock(especially their company's), and you know what it is.

There are many ways to play this more safely by hedging or having a stoploss just in case something went wrong with the company.  As long as you are carefull with each trade.  I don't see a reason not to buy this stock at the current price for it has a potential of going 25-50% sooner or later (if it will happen, it will).

Now, have fun with trading and good luck!!!   :)

Update: JPMorgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference Call May 14, 2013 - http://seekingalpha.com/article/1435551-audience-s-ceo-presents-at-jpmorgan-global-technology-media-and-telecom-conference-transcript?source=yahoo

Updates on Stock List

Sell in May and go away. This is not just a saying. It's accurate up to more than 60-70% of the time. The stock markets hasn't been doing all that well this first half of the year. It wasn't very bad.  It's just that it wasn't very spectacular. So I am going to talk about the stocks that I am watching and the stocks I am betting on.

 Stocks I am Watching

 AAPL GOOG TSLA ADNC AMZN GOOG DDD WMC AGNC

 Most of the stocks I am watching relates to technology and are fairly well known by the industry. TSLA(Tesla Motors) is the leader of electric cars in terms of technology standpoint and could possibly be the next Apple, however, it's balance sheet is still horrible and the price is high for a company that's in debt. DDD(3D Systems) is very expensive right now but I do think 3D printing technology has a future. Google (GOOG), Amazon(AMZN), and Apple(AAPL) are fairly well known and I feel they are fairly price now, however I might snatch some shares if price looked right in the future.  ADNC (Audience) is one of those dark horses I would say that could also be a good bet but it's currently fairly priced.  It used to look really great under 10 dollars but now it's been trading 14-15 dollar range.  If some how market behaves irrationally and oversell it, it could be a good opportunity to grab some of these little gems.   Last but not least, I am into low P/E and high dividend stocks, which AGNC(American Capital Mortgage Investment) and WMC(Western Asset Mortgage) provides. AGNC just reported a disapointing quarter and slid about 7% on Friday, it if slide more this week I might snatch some for short term gain or receiving dividends . As for WMC, it is one of those small cap MREITs that I feel is doing ok but now the price point is just fair, not a good time to buy yet.

Stocks I am Betting on

INVN MTGE

 MTGE is also one of those small cap MREITS that are doing ok but not great. However, it's still one of the most stable stocks that I've owned so far that provide a huge dividend.  The price of MTGE should be in the ballpark of 26-27 dollar range but now it's been sitting at 24-25 dollar range which I believe is cheap for what the stock is worth. It is a grade B stock on Navellier's portfolio grader and was rated well on the street. It is a no brainer buy at the moment. Ofcourse there are much more to MREITs that people have doubts with but I feel that goes with most stocks out there. We cannot forsee the future, but we know at the present, the price is quite good and if we bet the wrong way, we can always stop loss and or wait to receive the 14% dividend.

INVN is the one I am most excited about and is the one that I had been holding, buying, and selling for a while now ever since 2012. It's what I called a rollercoaster stock which could make people dizzy  but some what predictable. It's a low volume small cap stock and the company is the leader in motion sensors. It's major competitor ST Microelectronics had been losing the design wins to them. The chips are in many mobile phones now, primarily in android phones (i.e. Samsun Galaxy S4). But rumors has it that Apple will also start to use their chips in the future. At the moment the price of the stock should be around 13.5-14.5 dollar range if they are just doing about the same. However, the fact that it is possible they can be bought up by bigger companies and that they could partner up with Apple makes this a very good bet at this time. Short term and long term trend are favoring the upside.  All in all, Invensense as a company has a competitive edge against competitors for it's low profile MEMs technology and it's decent fundamentals (no debt and growth is great year over year).

Update:  Add GLW(Corning) and AEM (Agnico Eagle Mines) to the stockwatch list.  Corning has very broad range of technology and is the leader in the glass sector for mobile devices and is used in many mobile devices.  Agnico Eagle Mine could be a bargain since it could be oversold; however, I do not know enough about the gold market right now to make the bet yet.