1) Screenshots and icon file. Apple is very strict on those files. Icon file has to be 57×57 (in png format). “The iPhone/iPod touch screenshot must be a .jpeg, .jpg, .tif, .tiff, or .png file that is 320×480, 480×320, 320×460, 480×300, 640×960, or 960×640 pixels, at least 72 DPI, and in the RGB color space.” (quote Apple)

2) SKU number, tax information (iTune connect). I found this MacRumors discussion thread on SKU number to be useful. As to fill out tax information, iphoneDevSDK has a good thread.

3) Rename a project (target, app) in Xcode. This is a tough one in Xcode 3.1.4. It has been solved in Xcode 3.2. That being said, I saw one interesting article for changing project name in old Xcode.

(Original) Got it from “Prepare for App submission” section of iPhone dev center (subscription required). I need to work on the bold material.

Application Name
Application Description, a working page is over here. I think it can also be used for Application URL below? How about a Support URL, is that something user can talk about problems by filling out a form?

Primary and Secondary Category
Subcategories
Copyright
App Rating
Keywords

SKU Number
Application URL
Screen shots
Support URL

Support Email Address
End User License Agreement
Pricing, Available Date, Territories: English only at this time, should I spell out English speaking countries US, UK, Australia, Canada, etc. etc.?

Large App Icon 512 x 512

(Original 8-16-2010) Got the offer from my AA membership letter. Choose one of the three cards:

Citi Platinum Select /AAdvantage Visa Signature card, Citi Select /AAdvantage American Express card, or CitiBusiness /AAdvantage Visa card.

Here is the link www.away5.citicards.com.

I applied the card before getting the mail, via another link. Today I received the letter says my card got approved. I hope the 75k miles offer applies to my application (and I got a free round trip ticket back to China

(Picture credit: edmunds.com)

(Original) As much as I love my 2001 family sedan, recent repair bills made me think hard on my options. Year to date I’ve paid $1,500 to fix the engine noise and windshield motor problems, not a small sum, considering the car itself is worth about $3,000.

Car problems show up as it ages, this is normal phenomena. I remember spending pretty money maintain my 1991 Corolla back from 1998 to 2002 (can not afford a new car). I bought my current car brand new a little over 9 years ago, now it’s aging fast, esp. since I started to commute again this Feb, after working from home for 15 months.

Besides the cost issue, another reason is we will need two cars, because now I need a commute car (better to be reliable), and my wife will need to take our baby girl sometimes, she will need the car to do her own thing too. Couple days ago I said “rent a car” is an option, but after 2 days of renting, I do see some of the inconvenience of renting as well.

I thought about getting a used car, but after recent my own car issue, and my own inability to diagnose and fix the car problems, I am thinking new car should also be an option. I know, financially buying a new car is not always smart, but a new car comes with warranty, and a piece of mind.

Buying a used car

The above was written a while ago when my 2001 family sedan was in the shop. I started more serious car shopping yesterday. I did this little survey-like Auto calculator (by Bankrate) which evaluates whether I am more suitable buy a new car or a used one. The result? I am OK with either. Another investopedia article explained the upside and downside of the new/used car fairly well. With the tool/article in mind, I am letting my pocket solve it by itself

We have much better tool to track used car nowadays, such as tools like Carfax, AutoCheck etc (Edmunds article on Carfax or AutoCheck). I used AutoCheck for a car I am interested, and it turns out the result is clean. I ran it on my current family sedan, and the result is mostly correct. BTW, I am using mostly Craigslist for the used car info (with some reference from AutoTrader.com). It looks like tomorrow we (my wife, our baby and myself) will check out the car I checked out using AutoCheck report.

Last not not the least, to the loyal readers of my blog, if you are in the market for used car, please let me know if you like to have AutoCheck report (just send me the VIN, and I will send you back the report). Note this offer expires on Aug 21.

Have a cool summer.

(Original)Costco American Express Card
3% gasoline
3% Restaurant
2% Travel
1% everything else (including Costco purchase)

Discover card
5% gasoline, hotels, movie and theme parks (July 1st to Sept 30). Discover rotates the 5% cash back category every quarter.
1% for everything else (after meeting those $2,000, $3,000 spending requirements, as I said in earlier post)

Citi Dividend Card
Citi Dividend changed its policy from July 1. It no longer offers 2% (3%?) cash back on groceries etc. Instead it’s taking a page from Discover Cash Bonus Card, doing the rotating category thing. For instance, for this quarter (July 1 to Sept 30) it offers 5% for restaurant (needs enrollment).

It offers 1% for everything else.

Citi Professional
3% cash back on gas station, restaurant, office supplies and car rental;
1% on everything else

Summary

So for this quarter, I will use Discover Card for gas station, Citi Dividend for restaurants, Citi Pro for office supplies, Amazon Chase Card for Amazon (3 points per dollar) and Walgreen (2 points for $1 at drug store) shopping, and so on. It seems I need an app for that

MyMoneyBlog has a nice post “New Credit Card Trend: Rotating Rewards, Swiss Army Style” explaining the rationale behind the rotating category and tips (not apps) using those cards.

Wiki; Official web site of Ag Bank China’s (ABC, 中国农业银行股份有限公司).

(source: ForeignHR)

Bear case
Ag bank of China primarily serves the less-developed regions and people in China: the rural areas, the villages, the farmers and peasants, the agriculture related business. Since the founding of People’s Republic (and Ag bank shortly after), farm produce price has been kept artificially low by the central government (in a way subsidize other industries), and since 1978 the reform of economy, the situation has improved, but the economy gap between rural and urban has increased in last 30 years.

Bull case

ABC boasts more than 300 millions of customers, more than the US population. It has 24,000 branches, also the most in the world.

China central government has realized the widening gap between rural and urban areas, the gap between middle/west the coast areas, and are working on the narrowing the gap, by the way of better policy and more investments (including infrastructure). Couple examples on this one: the setup of Chongqing city as provincial level (same as Beijing and Shanghai) in recent years; the (potential) move of manufacturing plants from coastal area to inland.

Saw this Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX credit card special offer from dealsea.

SPG has a new promotion - free 30,000 Starpoints after you spend $1000 in 3 months. No annual fee for the first year (then $45). Offer expires 7/6/10.

Here is a review for the card. And another review which talks about points redemption. Quote:

Starwood Preferred Guest program was the first program that had no blackout dates, which meant that if they had a room, they will give it to you. You need 2,000 points for a weekday stay at a category 1 hotel and 3,000 points for a weekend stay. You could also use a combination of points and paying cash. For example, you can use 1,250 points and $25 for a category 1 hotel stay. Starwood also allows you to get a fifth night stay free at category 3,4,5 and 6 hotels. The minimum points required is 28,000 points for a category 3 hotel. Room upgrade requires a minimum of 1,000 points. You can also get 50% off regular rates by using just 1,000 points for any category hotel. Points can be used to redeem for an entire vacation - with hotel stays and flights as well.

Starwood hotels include brands like Four Points, Sheraton,Westin and W Hotels. It seems to me Starwood program is better than HHonors program (Hilton family hotels), and SPG points worth more than HH points. For instance, 3,000 points can get one free night stay at Four Points Daning in Shanghai. So I took the bait: applied the card just now, and got approved

With your Amazon.com Rewards Credit Card, you will earn points for every dollar you spend on the card.

Earn 3 points on eligible Amazon.com purchases
Earn 2 points on eligible gas, dining, and drugstore purchases
Earn 1 point on purchases everywhere else

This is probably the most straightforward reward card.

Sample rewards
2,500 points can get you $25.00 Amazon gift card;
5,000 points can get you $50 check;
……
90,000 points can get you an air ticket to any where in the world (disclaimer: worth about $1,600).

One point is roughly 1 cent ($0.01).

Maradona (Lu Gu Sun, bu xu lian xiang)
I know, I know, he is a controversial figure. But I still remember he is the best player in 1986 (when I was in middle school), basically my impression is the only way to stop him, is to put him down. Despite so many up and downs after 1986, I am glad to see him back. That being said, I found this Maradona comment from Lu Gu Sun (one of the best English professors in China) and another comment form Wang Xiao Feng to be interesting.

(source: The Sydney Morning Herald)

Other old timers
Less known than Maradona, I saw both Jurgen Klinsmann (the German guy, wiki) and Rudd Gullit (wiki, one of three Holland guys in 1980s to 1990s) on ESPN as commentator. I did not recognized Gullit initially because he has short hair nowadays

China presence
Did you see the China Yingli Solar (Chinese and English interchangeably) Ads bulletin at the stadium? According to marketplace, Yingli paid pretty money ($100 m) on this one, hope they can get their money worth. One thing I noticed, they could learn from and Budweiser/Harbin beer (English with Chinese ), so that people (assume they know English) could understand the company name better.

1) Automatic payroll deduction and investment in 401k vs. manually deposit/buy fund in IRA;

2) Dollar average cost (DCA) for the investments (mutual funds) in 401k, vs. picking the best time to buy mutual fund cheap (not easy to time the market);

3) Choosing from about 10 mutual funds vs. choosing from thousands of mutual fund Scottrade offers (a daunting task, which I talked a bit in my earlier post).

Anyway, here is the new mutual funds and their respective weight I chose for my new 401k plan.

Schwab S&P 500 index fund: 10% (from MorningStar, I saw S&P 500 index performance in last 10 years is negative, maybe the next 10 years will be better?)

American Funds Washington Mutual (large cap value): 20% (WaMu is a Scary name, it’s the first time I heard about American Funds, I did a little research and put the Wiki link below).

CRIMX (CRM middle cap value): 30% (I had this one from my previous employer 401k plan, seems like a good fund, hence the heavy weight)

American Beacon Small Cap Value: 20% (I like both small cap and value fund)

American Funds international growth: 20% (got to have some international, although nowadays most S&P 500 and many US middle cap have international exposure; thought to take advantage of recent Europe weakness).

My thoughts:
1) Long term, 5 year, 10 year performance is more important than one year, year to date;

2) When look at each year performance vs. benchmark, I don’t look for “big beat”, I am more interested how the fund performance does in a down year, for instance year 2008. Defense is more important than offense.

3) Rebalance: it’s the first time I saw an “automatic” rebalance option. Here is a good one written by mymoneyblog on rebalancing. I think rebalance makes sense here (once a year) because star managers don’t have winning streak forever, case in point, look no further than Legg Mason’s Bill Miller, he has 15 years beating S&P, then in 2006, 2007 an 2008 he lost all that money and clients.

Wiki entry for American Funds. Note the parent company The Capital Group Companies is one of the largest investment management companies in the world. Before this new 401k thing, I am mainly a Vanguard person, and I am aware of Fidelity, T.R.Price, Legg Mason etc. Hopefully this American Funds can bring me some good performance.

Yahoo sells direct stake in Alibaba.com (cnet, 2009-9-14). Quote:
======
Yahoo has sold 1 percent of its stake in the Chinese-based business-to-business trading site Alibaba.com, the company said on Monday. Reuters first reported on the story.

In November 2007, Yahoo invested approximately $100 million in Alibaba.com when it went public on the Hong Kong Exchange. Writing in an e-mail, a company representative said that Yahoo’s “sale of its shares in Alibaba.com is expected to generate pre-tax proceeds of approximately $150 million.”
……
According to Yahoo, it maintains approximately 40 percent interest in the Alibaba Group. “Alibaba Group owns approximately 70 percent of Alibaba.com,” Yahoo wrote in the e-mail, “and as such, Yahoo continues to own an approximately 28 percent indirect interest in Alibaba.com.”
======

1% of Alibaba.com (1688.HK) = $150 m
28% of Alibaba.com = $150 m * 28 = $4,200 m = $4.2 billion

Note this is not the end of calculation, note Alibaba group also owns Taobao and Alipay, both are valuable assets. How to value those? I don’t know exactly. But I noticed eBay market cap is about $27 b today, Baidu $23.5 b, Tencent (QQ, 0700.HK) HKD 272.5 billion (roughly $35 billion). Let’s use $5 billion for the value of Taobao and Alipay stake owned by Yahoo.

Note Yahoo also owns Yahoo Japan (co-owned by Softbank). Yahoo market cap as of today is about $21 billion. Apply 50% discount to the Alibaba $9 billion ($4.2 b + $5 b) stake, that’s $16.5 billion for Yahoo (US and international) + Yahoo Japan. Do I miss anything here? Maybe Alibaba stake is overly optimistic? One thing I noticed is Yahoo is not going to sell its Alibaba stake in the near future (CEO Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s Bartz On Alibaba Stake: ‘Very Good Investment For The Future.

This (intension to hold for long term), plus the size of Yahoo’s stake (40%), makes it unlikely to unload the Alibaba quickly.