Now a common man like you might wonder what this has to do with you. How will your lives be affected? Basically, this rating is meant for investors who want to invest their money in US. AA+ rating means that they need to do some thinking before investing in US. This rating downgrade affects the investors’ confidence in the US economy. Lets not forget that these investors are the ones who fuel the market.

For a common man like you and me, this downgrade will impact us by making loans and mortgages more expensive. Wanted to get that new house? Forget about it. Due to this, people stop spending more and start saving (which is a good thing for you personally because you should always be saving for bad times) but that hurts the economy and it starts to shrink. If the economy continues to shrink that it may lead to depression which means job cuts.

In fact, a lot of experts are currently discussing whether US is heading for another recession. US had started to make recoveries from the 2008 recession but recent debt issues have brought up the issue once again.

While this is almost a 50% change in the fees, the banks were slightly relieved that the change wasn’t as much as 75%. Initially, Federal Reserve had laid out plans to cut the fee to 12 cents per transaction.

If you are a merchant, this should be a great sigh of relief since nowadays, a majority of payments are paid through credit/debit cards.

This fee cap is a direct result of an act called Dodd-Frank financial regulation act that was signed just few months ago in last July. Simply put, this law pushed Federal Reserve to investigate the amount of fees charged for debit card processing by the banks and card companies and whether they were reasonable or not.

This is so far the biggest deal this year and has already gained a lot of attention for numerous reasons. Once this deal finalizes, Verizon will drop to the second position as AT&T will become the No. 1 U.S. mobile service. Furthermore, experts believe that this deal will not be welcomed by T-mobile users as it might mean higher wireless service rates. There will be a lot of scrutiny from the regulators as well which we will get to hear about in the coming days.

This deal is extremely important for AT&T as according to estimations, it will raise its market share from 32 percent to 43 percent. This acquisition will also provide AT&T with T-Mobile’s spectrum which it needs to meet the users’ data and media needs.

The deal is yet to be officially finalized. Lets see how it goes in the next few days.

So what should be done? I believe that the first thing that Americans should do is get out of the habit of depending on credit cards. Why is it that we like to carry 2-4 credit cards from different banks in our wallets and purses? Why is it that we have no shame in spending money that we don’t have? If you have money (cash…not credit) then go ahead and shop all you want but don’t go out shopping when you have no money. Would you really be happy watching TV on a plasma TV knowing that the bank paid for it and that you will be in debt until you pay them back?

Americans have to change the way they look at debt. They have to change their attitude about buying products when they have no money. The reason why the average American man was hit so hard when recession began and unemployment rates soar is that Americans had too much debt accumulated that needed to be paid back. And without any source of income, it became extremely difficult to do so. They couldn’t pay their mortgage payments, credit card bills, telephone bills, car payments etc.

Moreover, Americans need to start saving. Yes, saving. If the American citizens had some kind of saving, then the recession wouldn’t have had such drastic impact on their lives. Couple months of unemployment would have been difficult but not so miserable. I know so many people that have no problem living their lives from one paycheck to another. It’s almost impossible for them to spend any money or pay any bills without first getting their paycheck. And the money that’s left every month after paying the bills, rent and tuition fees doesn’t go to savings but instead in buying products that they can do without. What is this immediate need of having the most sophisticated cell phone, getting the biggest LCD TV (even if there is not much space in the small one bed room apartment that they live in) and a car when public transportation will do just fine? One should always have some sort of savings so that when bed times come (any yes they always do), there is some sort of back up plan.

If you want to avoid getting hit hard again by a recession, then learn something from this one. Learn to stop accumulating debt and start saving for a bright future.

Apple’s latest results have surprised everyone by surpassing all the forecasts. Apple enjoyed a profit of $6.43 per share in the quarter which is greater than $3.67 per share last year. This main reason for this jump is increase in sales from $15.683 billion last year to $26.74 billion.

The Wall street experts had predicted profit of $5.40 per Apple’s share and total sales of $24.433 billion.

The most popular reason for such profit is Apple’s latest product: iPad which surpassed all expectations by record sales of 7 million in the recent quarter. Furthermore, Apple experienced 86% jump in the sales of iPhone in this quarter.

While the numbers are positive, Apple’s iPad will be facing a lot of competition in the upcoming quarter now that several major companies such as Dell, HP & Samsung among others are releasing their own tablets as well. But then, we hear that soon Apple will be releasing iPad 2 with more features.

Recently, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has accused Ernst & Young, a reputed accounting firm, of covering up Lehman Brothers ill condition before it went bankrupt.

Cuomo has blamed Ernst & Young for assisting Lehman Brothers in covering up its true condition by focusing on few short-term transactions that enabled Lehman Brothers to look more secured than they were actually at that point in time.

So far several accusations have been made in order to put blame on someone regarding the financial crisis. It is interesting to see how Ernst & Young will handle this situation.

Lets take a more detailed look at some of the main features of Google TV.

Features

Search – It is GOOGLE TV, so there has to be search feature. This feature will allow you to search your TV channels, programs, applications and the entire web on your TV. Pretty handy, if you don’t know where you saved your last episode of Two and a Half Men.

Web – Probably the most exciting feature about Google TV. Aren’t you curious about how it would feel to be able to watch TV and surf the web on the same piece of technology? No more going to your bedroom to check the program listings. Just relax in your living room and enjoy your new Google TV.

Apps – They are everywhere these days and they make the existing technology even better. What would your iPod be without all those apple apps? Currently, you can download apps like twitter, pandora, netflix and many more. Wait few more months and you will have tons of more options.

Remote Control – The TV comes with a QWERTY remote control which you can use to both change channels and surf the web. You can also use your phone as the remote!

Dual View – Torn between watching TV and surfing the web? Well, no need to worry. Google has taken care of that problem for you by enabling dual view. You will now be able to do both at the same time!

DVR enhanced – If you have this service, you can find and record your favorite TV shows (like The Big Bang Theory) and watch them at a later time.

Retailers

Google TV technology can be bought as a standalone TV from Sony or you can buy the Logitech Revue and use it with your current HDTV.

The standalone TV comes in four sizes: 24″, 32″, 40″, 46″ with prices starting from $599.00.

Opinion

I personally cannot wait to try out this revolutionary piece of technology that will change TV forever. However, if you are considering buying it, right now might not be the best time. I would suggest waiting a while so that you get more options.

If you have just bought a motorcycle and are looking to hit the road, make sure you first get an insurance. Motorcycle accident rates are very high these days and you need to make sure that you are prepared for any such incident. When you go ‘shopping’ for motorcycle insurance, it will be hard for you to pick the right one. Thus, it is very important that you do lots of research beforehand.

There are several factors that you need to consider before picking an insurance.

1. Types of incidents covered – you don’t just want to have protection against collisions but also against theft and vandalism.
2. Flexibility of payment plans – How flexible is it when it comes to payments? Are the premiums affordable?
3. Customer Service – Are they helpful when you have inquiries? Or do they constantly ignore you?
4. No. of bikes supported – if you have more than one bike, then you would want both of them to be included in the same plan.

There are several other factors that you need to consider before getting a motorcycle insurance but these are some of the most important ones.

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Now it’s Google’s turn. As you know, Google offers a service called Street View which provides street pictures around the world on Google Maps. Google’s cars come equipped with cameras and take these pictures. However, is that all the information that they take?

Google had admitted to collecting bits of information that are sent over unsecured networks. Google’s engineering chief admitted in a blog post that Google has been doing this for more than three years. This confession is a result of series of questions asked by European regulators about Street View. They were intersted in knowing What information was collected and how that information was analyzed.

According to Google, the information that was collected can be used to improved advertising services.

Alan Eustace, Senior VP, Engineering & Research, said in his blog post that Google “never used that data in any Google products.”

Google said that it will stop collecting the data and delete any old data that they have.

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If you are an important person and need to be discrete about your life then sure, you should be upset. But if you are a common person like me who only uses Facebook to talk to your friends, stay in contact with old friends living in different time zones, share your pictures and join stupid Facebook groups then there is nothing to worry about as of now. I would understand people getting worried if they have shared their credit card numbers with Facebook, but if you haven’t done anything like that then you shouldn’t spend too much time looking into this matter.

Several of us, just use Facebook to stay in touch and nothing more. So what if one of your co-worker or boss saw what you did last Saturday? If it is something that can get you in trouble then you should not really talk about it online anyways.

Facebook has provided me with a way to communicate with my old friends that I had lost touch with for several years. I have some friends who barely use Facebook yet they are so hyped about the privacy issues. Yes, it is not fair for Facebook to share too much sensitive information with third parties but the situation is not that bad yet and especially not if it doesn’t apply to you.

If you do think that these privacy changes will affect you negatively then sure go ahead and protest. Otherwise, just lay back and enjoy the benefits of Facebook. (Just make sure you get some work done too!)

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