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Although Apple stocks and Microsoft stocks may fluctuate, both companies are still very much worth investing in. They are still both the forefront winners in all that is technical. A Capital Markets analyst named Tim Long feels that Apple will show much  growth in high-end smartphones in 2015. It is believed that iPhone units will grow at an 8% compound annual growth rate from 2015 through 2019. There is also the potential for growth of more than 10%.in other parts of its business as well. You can expect share gains to continue for Macs, and also expect a very strong growth from Apple watches.It is believed by analysts that  2016 will be a year where Apple pulls together the fabric of this ecosystem and will expand its total available market. This would include the enterprise from both hardware and software, healthcare, and fitness thru Apple Watch, Apple Cloud, financial services from Apple Pay that goes beyond purchase transactions, Apple TV, and potentially a few years down the road an Apple Car. Another company that with a solid core business that is fast growing is Microsoft. Microsoft Corporation”s stock has performed very well in this volatile year. Their stock prices have  surged an impressive 19.0% year-to-date. One l advantage Microsoft has over its competitors is the wide existing adoption of its products. This advantage extends to Microsoft’s cloud services. Many companies are already using Microsoft’s “Windows” operating system and “Office 365.Microsoft is focusing on a hybrid cloud approach using a mix of on-premise, private cloud, and public cloud services called “Intelligent Cloud.” Recent quarters show, revenue from Intelligent Cloud increased eight percent year-over-year to $5.9 billion. Another growth driver for the company is its two-in-one “Surface” tablet. The device was first introduced in June 2012, and its newest  tablet is the “Surface Pro 4. The market share of the Surface tablet has climbed over the years. According to the latest data of online tablet sales, Microsoft has surpassed all companies to become the largest tablet vendor in the U.S. Microsoft’s dominant position in its industry is Microsoft Windows (including all versions that are currently being used). It soared nearly 90% of Microsoft’s newest productivity software and Office 365, has also become the most popular choice for enterprises. Office 365 is in use at four out of five Fortune 500 companies. Microsoft is definitely a company that given its steady performance,should show stock prices with a great deal of potential.

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I would choose to buy AT&T over Verizon because it is just a better stock. One reason why I would purchase this stock is because of the consistent growth that is has been sustaining over the past 5 years. I believe they have been able to accomplish this feat because of their ever changing plans and promotions that they are able to put out to entice new people to join AT&T. In Dylan's first article, it shows 3 different plans that users can choose from. This gives the consumer a lot of choices to buy what they believe is the best plan for themselves. I also like the Beta of 0.49. This is a really great number for investors to look at. This makes it a non risky stock that that sticks with the market and doesn't fluctuate on its own or to an extreme.

I believe that the steady growth makes this stock one to invest in. This is a great opportunity for long term investors to let it ride and watch the money slowly grow over a long amount of time.

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Verizon was rated #1 for Baltimore, Maryland. This is a huge step for becoming better and having more of a stake in the wireless industry in such a largely populated area. This is going to impact the stock price in a good light because it will allow for the people in Baltimore to open their eyes to such a great company and it will allow for them to maybe want to get a stake in the company. Though this most likely will not happen, current investors in Verizon might invest more money to continue the growth of the company.

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AT&T reputation may take a blow from reports suggesting.telecommunications company had a deeper level of involvement in U.S. government surveillance programs than had previously been disclosed, analysts said. AT&T had a longstanding relationship with the National Security Agency that may have superseded those of competitors. AT&T has confronted a long decline in demand for landlines in the U.S. and price pressure in the wireless industry. AT&T follows the law in dealing with government requests.

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Microsoft is preparing Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs. So they can make a more aggressive Windows 10 upgrade. This is new behavior from Microsoft. And it does leave your PC vulnerable to unwanted Windows 10 upgrade behavior.The latest update to GWX Control Panel, which shifted the version number to 1.6, added background monitoring so that users did not have to repeatedly relaunch the app to detect changes in Microsoft's upgrade strategy.

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Microsoft has been preparing Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs for a more aggressive Windows 10 upgrade strategy that the company will kick off shortly, according to the developer of a tool that blocks such upgrades.

"Over Thanksgiving weekend I started getting reports that the Windows Update 'AllowOSUpgrade' setting was getting flipped back on on a number of peoples' PCs, and it keeps re-setting itself at least once a day if they switch it back off," said Josh Mayfield, the software engineer who created GWX Control Panel. The tool was originally designed to make the "Get Windows 10" (hence GWX) applet go away after Microsoft installed it on consumer and small business Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs starting in March, then activated in June.

"This is new behavior, and it does leave your PC vulnerable to unwanted Windows 10 upgrade behavior," he said.

Mayfield has been tracking Microsoft's various moves since last summer to keep his GWX Control Panel up to date with new features required to block the upgrade from appearing on PCs, and from automatically beginning the install process.

The latest update to GWX Control Panel, which shifted the version number to 1.6, added background monitoring so that users did not have to repeatedly relaunch the app to detect changes in Microsoft's upgrade strategy. Mayfield released GWX Control Panel 1.6 -- which is a free download -- on Nov. 24.

Concurrent with the release of GWX Control Panel 1.6, Mayfield began hearing from users that their PCs were being switched from a "do-not-upgrade-to-Windows-10" status to a "do-upgrade" state, often multiple times daily.

In an interview Friday, Mayfield said that the Windows 10 upgrade setting switcheroo on Windows 7 and 8.1 PCs was apparently due to continued updates that Microsoft has shoved onto the older devices. The Redmond, Wash. company has repeatedly re-served its original GWX app to PCs, often with undocumented changes, even if the machine already had the app, or even if the user had managed to uninstall it previously.

"Microsoft has released this update several times," said Mayfield. "It doesn't change the name of the update, but every version is new, with new binary files."

Also in play, said Mayfield, were updates to the Windows Update client on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs that Microsoft has also pushed to customers: Windows Update was refreshed last week for both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1.

Documentation for the Dec. 1 updates to Windows Update did not spell out all the changes, but did state, "This update enables support for additional upgrade scenarios from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and provides a smoother experience when you have to retry an operating system upgrade because of certain failure conditions. This update also improves the ability of Microsoft to monitor the quality of the upgrade experience."

There's more to those updates than that, Mayfield argued. "They're telling [the PC's] Windows Update client that this computer can be upgraded to Windows 10," Mayfield said. "[The Windows Update client] is constantly checking settings several times an hour. It's fully aware of the Windows 10 upgrade."

The Get GWX updates and the more recent refreshes to Windows Update on Windows 7 and 8.1 are running in tandem, Mayfield said. "They're working together," he argued. "They're laying the groundwork for something."

That "something" is likely the next step in an unprecedented scheme by Microsoft to boost adoption of Windows 10.

In late October, Terry Myerson, the Microsoft executive who runs the Windows and devices teams -- dubbed the "More Personal Computing" group -- outlined how Microsoft would try to convince users of Windows 7 and 8.1 to upgrade to Windows 10. Rather than wait for customers running the older editions to request a copy of the new OS -- the original idea from the summer -- Microsoft will instead begin to automatically send the upgrade to PCs via Windows Update, the default security maintenance service.

The new push will be a two-step process, with the first kicking in this year, the second in early 2016. First, Microsoft will add the Windows 10 upgrade to the Windows Update list on Windows 7 and 8.1 systems as an "optional" item. That list can be examined by users, letting them choose -- or not -- each optional update.

Sometime next year, Microsoft will shift the Windows 10 upgrade from optional to the "recommended" list. Updates on that list are automatically downloaded and installed on most PCs.

While the Windows 10 upgrade delivered as a recommended update will automatically begin the installation process, the user will be able to refuse the OS change early in the process. "Before the upgrade changes the OS of your device, you will be clearly prompted to choose whether or not to continue," Myerson promised in October.

Microsoft is counting on a large portion of users to allow that upgrade to proceed.

Many Windows users, however, are not yet ready to upgrade to Windows 10, and are tired of being bombarded with the nagging messages to change operating systems. That includes Mayfield, who wants to remain on Windows 7, a desire that prompted him to create GWX Control Panel.

Because he's been closely monitoring how Microsoft force-feeds the upgrade to Windows 7 and 8.1 devices -- necessary to keep his app in step with Microsoft's changes -- he's become an expert on what the company has been doing, often surreptitiously, to prepare PCs for Windows 10 and execute its "get-Windows-10" game plan.

By monitoring his own test PCs -- eight all told -- and from the reports he's received from GWX Control Panel users, Mayfield has concluded that Microsoft is manipulating Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs with behind-the-scenes changes, part of its effort to ensure Windows 10 ends up on as many devices as possible.

Microsoft's original GWX app, for example, does more than just display an icon in the Windows 7/8.1 taskbar and let customers "reserve" a copy of the Windows 10 upgrade. "It's pushed down three different processes that each had different jobs and were unrelated to the icon," said Mayfield Friday. Currently, his GWX Control Panel monitors 10 different Windows settings that may leave a Windows 7/8.1 PC "potentially vulnerable to unexpected Windows 10 upgrade behavior," Mayfield wrote in a Nov. 26 guide to his app.

Microsoft keeps changing those settings, sometimes adding new ones, without the user knowing, Mayfield said. For example, users have reported that their prior GWX Control Panel settings have been overridden by recent updates from Microsoft. In some cases, even Mayfield has been unable to figure out which components of Windows 7/8.1 were responsible.

It's unknown whether Microsoft has, in fact, begun placing the Windows 10 upgrade on older OS-powered devices as an optional item in Windows Update. Microsoft has declined to provide more information than what Myerson gave out on Oct. 29 about the timetable for the upgrade hitting Windows Update. "We will soon be publishing Windows 10 as an 'Optional Update' in Windows Update for all Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers," Myerson said five weeks ago [ emphasis added]. "Early next year, we expect to be re-categorizing Windows 10 as a 'Recommended Update.'"

The lack of reports online, including on Microsoft's own Windows 10 support forums, argues that the company has not yet started adding the upgrade to Windows Update on Windows 7/8.1 PCs.

The first move may happen as soon as Tuesday, Dec. 8, which is the month's already-scheduled "Patch Tuesday," the day Microsoft historically serves up security updates. Microsoft often uses Patch Tuesday to deliver other, non-security updates.

In Mayfield's eyes, the background machinations conducted by Microsoft's GWX app and the recent changes to the Windows Update client on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 systems are clues that the company is preparing for the upgrade reaching the optional list.

The GWX Control Panel app can be downloaded from Mayfield's website. While the app is free, Mayfield does accept donations from appreciative users via PayPal. But he's not getting rich from those donations. "I get a donation from about one in every thousand downloads," he said Friday.

When users allow GXW Control Panel to run in the background, what Mayfield called "Monitor Mode" -- and which debuted in version 1.6 -- the app detects any behind-the-scenes changes Microsoft makes to Windows 7 or 8.1 to grease the wheels for the Windows 10 upgrade. Users can then use GWX to restore the PC's settings to a "do-not-upgrade" state.

Josh Mayfield

GWX Control Panel detects any changes to a Windows 7 or 8.1 PC that Microsoft has made to enable an upgrade to Windows 10. Version 1.6 now watches in the background for those changes.

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Microsoft sets stage for massive Windows 10 upgrade strategy

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Microsoft has been preparing Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 PCs for a more aggressive Windows 10 upgrade strategy that the company will kick off shortly, according to the developer of a tool that blocks such upgrades.

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AT&T Inc.'s reputation may take a blow from reports suggesting the telecommunications company had a deeper level of involvement in U.S. government surveillance programs than had previously been disclosed, analysts said.

AT&T had a longstanding relationship with the National Security Agency that may have superseded those of competitors, the New York Times reported Saturday. Documents provided by former government contractor Edward Snowden that were reviewed jointly by the newspaper and investigative journalism group ProPublica described AT&T's relationship as "highly collaborative" with the NSA.

It's no secret phone companies have been compelled by various agencies to turn over data as part of U.S. surveillance programs since the Sept. 11 attacks. What's unusual in the fresh revelations is the extent to which AT&T may have shown, in the words of one document, an "extreme willingness to help." That may give AT&T a temporary image knock without hurting its long-term business, analysts said.

"They might get blow-back," Roger Entner, analyst at Recon Analytics LLC in Dedham, Massachusetts, said in a telephone interview. While he expects no effect on the company's stock price, "this story is one of those triggers that will let them evaluate if they want to continue this program and what extent they want to continue."

AT&T follows the law in dealing with government requests, Fletcher Cook, a spokesman for the Dallas-based company, said in an e-mail. "We do not provide information to any investigating authorities without a court order or other mandatory process other than if a person's life is in danger and time is of the essence," such as in a kidnapping, he wrote. Cook said the company didn't have anything else to add.

An e-mail and voice message left after business hours with the NSA weren't immediately returned.

Reputation Risks

AT&T, the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, has confronted a long decline in demand for landlines in the U.S. and price pressure in the wireless industry. To shore up its business, it completed a $48.5 billion takeover of DirecTV last month to become the nation's No. 1 pay-TV company.

The Times reported that AT&T gave the spy agency access to billions of e-mails and installed surveillance equipment on at least 17 of its Internet hubs in the U.S. The company wasn't named in the documents, but its identity was apparent by other details such as dates and events mentioned in the documents.

In AT&T's case, customer reaction might be muted because people assumed it was violating their privacy already and that "they were in cahoots with the government," said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit group that describes itself as defending civil liberties in the digital world.

"Their customers deserve to know what they are doing with their most private and intimate communications," said Cohn, whose group sued the NSA on behalf of AT&T customers in 2008.

Most prior disclosures of cooperation with the NSA by telecommunications companies didn't move shares of AT&T by more than a percentage point or two. The shares have gained 1.4 percent this year, closing Friday at $34.05.

"Optically this doesn't look good for AT&T," said John Butler, senior telecom analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. That said, "I fail to see any material impact on its business coming from this."

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AT&T Risks Hit to Reputation After Report of Data Spying for NSA

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AT&T Inc.'s reputation may take a blow from reports suggesting the telecommunications company had a deeper level of involvement in U.S. government surveillance programs than had previously been disclosed, analysts said. AT&T had a longstanding relationship with the National Security Agency that may have superseded those of competitors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

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AT&T is helping simplify wireless for business customers with the Mobile Select plans and Equipment Installment Plans. The new Equipment Installment Plans allow business customers to lower their upfront costs for eligible devices. Also all the plans offer pooled data functionality, and plans for smartphones.

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Satya Nadella's brief tenure as head of Microsoft has been marked as a increasingly urgent struggle to win back the attention consumer, for the last decade by innovations from Google and Apple. But even the launch of a Windows update that could arguably be the tech giant’s most important product in a decade may not be enough.Nadella is pointing Microsoft in the right direction by focusing on mobile devices and cloud computing. Google and Apple have already swayed too many consumers.

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Verizon is collaborating with Star Wars and Google for an exclusive Google Cardboard Virtual Player. This is something that has not been done before. This exclusivity is something that will drive up the price of the actual product and will generate hype for Verizon stores, Google Cardboard and the new Star Wars movie. This could drive up the stock price because of the new found product with an insane new movie. They could also continue to release products similar to these to generate hype for the company.

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Sonos is becoming a partner with Apple. Sonos produces wireless speakers that could be used for surround sound or just individual listening. They are the higher end of speakers and are featured in a lot of homes in Ridgefield. I think this is going to be extremely beneficial for both companies but it will make Apple Music much more marketable and will increase sales. This in turn will raise the stock price and create a better opportunity for investors.

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The tablet market isn't as popular as the cellphone or computer market because of their 'inbetweeness'. What I mean by that is that they are an oversize phone that has certain capabilities of a laptop. Though sales have been dropping rapidly, production of the tablets are going up by a lot. They are beginning to market to higher end business professionals to create a more classy feel to their product. I predict that Apple will continue to drop because of this. They will try to get into competition with these other companies and end up getting bit in the butt because of it.

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Apple Music subscribers will soon be able to queue up songs from Apple Inc.'s catalog to wireless speaker systems from Sonos Inc. When the public beta launches on Dec. 15, it will mark the first time Apple pairs with an outside hardware maker on deep integration of its music streaming service.

Everyone using a Sonos speaker will be able to take part in the beta program provided they subscribe to Apple Music (which offers three-month free trials). Like any other Sonos-compatible music service - Spotify, Tidal, Pandora and Google Play, for instance - you send songs from Apple Music to one or more speakers using the Sonos app itself, on iOS, Android, Macs or PCs.

The defining features of Apple Music will all be available in the Sonos app, including human-curated "For You" playlists that are suggested based on your listening habits, Apple's Beats 1 radio station, and "My Music" which is a library of songs made up of each particular user's iTunes purchases plus favorite streaming albums and singles.

The two companies have been working on bringing Apple Music to Sonos speakers since Apple Music was first introduced, back in June. The partnership is unique for Apple in that Sonos speakers access the Internet to pull songs directly from a music service's servers. Songs aren't simply streamed via the phone, tablet or PC. The Sonos app is just a controller, letting you tee up what's next.

Apple doesn't typically grant that level of access to outside companies. With Apple Music, though, the iPhone maker is loosening its constraints a bit. For example, a dedicated Apple Music app is available on Android phones and tablets.

An extended version of this report appears at WSJ.com.

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Apple Music's first outside hardware partner is Sonos

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Apple Music subscribers will soon be able to queue up songs from Apple Inc.'s catalog to wireless speaker systems from Sonos Inc. When the public beta launches on Dec. 15, it will mark the first time Apple pairs with an outside hardware maker on deep integration of its music streaming service.

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By

When reports first emerged that Apple was building a larger iPad, some expressed concerns about the reception to enormous tablets as the overall market for the touchscreen devices declined. But less than two months after Apple Inc. Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. introduced larger tablets with PC-like abilities, evidence is suggesting strong demand.

While the overall tablet market is still in decline, high-power tablets may be sparking a paradigm shift in the industry: Devices like the iPad Pro, Microsoft's Surface Book and Alphabet's Pixel C could spur sales of higher-end tablets that seek to also function like laptops in terms of productivity. Global shipments of tablets are projected to fall by 8.1% year-over-year to 211.3 million this year, yet the market for detachable tablets, which includes all of those devices, is expected to double in size over the next year, according to new estimates from industry tracker IDC.

The transition to detachable tablets signals a shift in how people are using the touchscreen machines, from casual interaction to productivity, IDC research director Jean Philippe Bouchard said. This is one reason why companies like Apple and Microsoft, which also makes the Surface Pro 4 tablet, are marketing these higher-end tablets to creative and corporate professionals.

With a more attractive value proposition that might spark more sustainable growth trends, this transition could be a lucrative one for the companies. It ushers in two notable trends, said IDC analyst Jitesh Ubrani: "The growth of Windows and a turnaround for Apple's iPad device line."

iPad sales plunged 19.5% in Apple's fiscal fourth quarter, but the company's finance chief, Luca Maestri, said on a call with analysts in October that iPad customer metrics remain "extremely positive." Corporate buyers, which are the main target of the higher-priced iPad Pro, reported a 95% satisfaction rate for iPad and 90-day purchase intent of 73%, he said.

On that same call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook touted the iPad's growth in emerging markets. Sixty-eight percent of the iPad's growth in China last quarter came from people who had never owned a tablet before, he said, while 40% of those buyers had never owned an Apple product before buying their iPad.

Analysts, meanwhile, have been bullish on tablets and Apple products overall this holiday season. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research said the iPad Pro has been outselling the MacBook at Apple Stores.

"It's an Apple holiday season," he said in a note to clients.

Specific types of regular tablets are also helping, but to a limited extent. Parents are seeking the iPad Air 2 for their children this holiday, according to Chowdhry, while Amazon.com Inc. said a tripling in sales for the 7-inch Fire tablet over the Black Friday weekend contributed to a record-setting weekend for its branded hardware.

"We're witnessing a real market transition," Bouchard said.

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iPad Pro and its rivals are changing the tablet market

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By When reports first emerged that Apple was building a larger iPad, some expressed concerns about the reception to enormous tablets as the overall market for the touchscreen devices declined. But less than two months after Apple Inc. Microsoft Corp. and Alphabet Inc. introduced larger tablets with PC-like abilities, evidence is suggesting strong demand.

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Microsoft 6 month- Percent Gain=  -5.29%

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Microsoft 6 month- Percent Gain=  -5.29%

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-Telecommunications

-Cellular

-Market Capitalization- 198.8 B

-P/E Ratio- 37.39

-Beta- 0.49

-Sales For Last 3 Years-

-2012- 127.43 B

-2013- 128.75 B

-2014- 132.45 B

-Net Income For Last 3 Years

-2012- 7.26 B

-2013- 18.25 B

-2014- 6.22 B

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-Telecommunications company

-Cellular

- Market Capitalization - 183.26B

- P/E Ratio - 18.07

-Beta - 0.688408

-Sales Last 3 Years

-2012 - $115.85B

-2013 - $120.55 B

-2014 - $127.08 B

-Net Income Last 3 Years

-2012- $53.15 B

-2013 - $59.06 B

-2014 - $60.64 B

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-Technology/Company

-Technology

-Market Capitalization- $428.55 B

-P/E Ratio- 30.63

-Beta- 1.07

-Sales For Last 3 Years-

-2012- 77.85 B

-2013- 86.83 B

-2014- 93.58 B

-Net Income For Last 3 Years

-2012- 21.86 B

-2013- 22.07 B

-2014- 12.19 B

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- Technology company

- Technology

-Market Capitalization - 651 Billion

-P/E Ratio - 12.62

-Beta - 1.00

-Sales last 3 years

-2013 - $170.87B

-2014 - $182.35B

-2015 - $231.28B

-Net income last 3 years

-2013 - $37.04B

-2014 - $39.51B

-2015 - $53.39B