Facebook is getting ready to sell shares of stock. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

For the tech community, the IPO of the year was announced. Now everyone is waiting with baited breath on getting shares of Facebook. But what about those of us who really don’t want to play the stock game and just have one share to say they have them?

Well, you can do that, too.

How to get a Single Share of Stock (in any company)

If the company is a publicly traded one, you can get a single share of stock. That includes Walt Disney stock, Harley Davidson stock, Microsoft stock, Apple stock, and many more.

You will need to go through a single stock broker to do so. This means you will be paying more for your stock, but you will not only get the one share, you will also be able to get a frame and engraved plaque for that stock.

There are a few single stock transaction services – GiveAShare and OneShare. These companies work with you to acquire one share of your favorite stock to keep, or give as a gift.

Is One Share of Stock going to make me rich?

Probably not. It’s more a novelty than anything. However, there are instances where you can cash in that share and make a little $$ on it. Especially if that stock splitsseveral times.

The Initial Public Offering (IPO) Prospectus for Apple Computer Inc. in December 1980.(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Apple shares were around $8 in 2002. Now they are around $535 a share. The stock split 2:1 in 2005, which meant that your stock went from 1 at $44 dollars, to two shares at $22. Therefore, the stock owner would have 2 shares of stock, equalling $1000.

So a one share holder could make a little bit of money. Additionally, if the stock pays a Dividend, you can get some cash back on your stock. Most dividends are a few cents a share, though. High Dividend stocks can pay out a couple bucks a year.

Reality of Stock Trading

The best way to make a million is to have more than one share of stock. Yes, your stock can grow. If it splits 10 times in 10 years, and shoots up to $100 a share, you could see selling your 512 shares for half a million dollars.

But many stocks don’t do that. Some make hard fluctuations and don’t split. Some don’t even see dividends. So the chances of you making a lot of money are not going to be great.

When the dot com bubble burst in 2001, many companies IPO’s were worthless. The stock itself may become a collectors item in the next 10 years, in which you might make some cash back.

If you are buying one share of stock, it’s mostly for the novelty. Just like buying a scratch-off lottery ticket. You may win $1000, but then again, you may win nothing.

Did you buy one share of Facebook, or another stock? Let us know! Twitter @Methodshop

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South Korea on Thursday unveiled a next-generation bullet train with a maximum speed of 430 km/h, the HEMU 430X. The HEMU on a test run covered a 28.2 km distance at a speed of 150 km/h from a station in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. The faster and bigger successor to the KTX-Sancheon is Korea’s second bullet train developed with local technologies and its production has been carried out in the city by Hyundai Rotem, the train maker.


HEMU stands for Highspeed Electric Multiple Unit, but the acronym also means “auspicious sea fog” in Korean. The HEMU 430X is the fourth fastest high-speed train in the world, after France (575 km/h), China (486 km/h) and Japan (443 km/h). It can travel from Seoul to Busan in 90 minutes.

The advanced next-generation bullet train increases space for passengers by 16 percent compared to existing KTX trains and enhances the train’s performance overall. As a result, the HEMU can carry up to 456 passengers at a speed of 370 kilometers an hour, which is 70 kilometers per hour faster than its predecessor, the KTX, which carries 363 people.

Wintech from Japan today announced the launch of iPhone / iPod docking clock radio CD. This product is certified as Made for iPod. The docking tray of Wintech (KW-211 iPH) iPhone / iPod docking clock radio CD can be pushed in when not using as a docking port. This way it becomes a table clock/ CD playing device. Besides playing music, you can choose a voice alarm function corresponding to the iPod / CD / radio / buzzer. iPod/iPhone can be charged while listening to music. Time display on the blue black light can be selected for12/24 hrs. The brightness can be adjusted in steps.


Speaker output is 1W × 2ch (RMS). You can play other media players via the external AUX input. MP3/WMA CD playback is possible. The CD player comes with an FM radio also with 20 station preset memory. Power consumption is about 15W. The dock measures approximately, 139 × 128 × 150mm and measures 210 × 128 × 150mm with docking tray is open. Wintech (KW-211 iPH) iPhone / iPod docking clock radio CD player will be available early June for approximately 10,000 yen ($126).

Samsung announced today that it has begun producing the industry’s first four gigabit (Gb), low power double-data-rate 2 (LPDDR2) memory using 20 nanometer (nm) class technology. As large-screen tablets and smartphones equipped with quad-core CPUs lead rapid growth of the mobile market, there is greater demand for more energy-efficient and higher-capacity memory products that guarantee longer battery life, as well as faster processing speed. Samsung’s 20nm-class 4Gb mobile DRAM represents the thinnest, highest-density, and highest-performance mobile memory, which enables ultra-slim mobile designs, as well as superior next-generation systems for both mobile manufacturers and enterprise solution providers.

Furthermore, based on the 4Gb components, Samsung can deliver 2-Gigabyte (GB) solutions that boast razor-thin thickness of 0.8 millimeters (mm) , which stack four 4Gb LPDDR2 chips in a single LPDDR2 package. This new package is approximately 20 percent thinner than 2GB packages that stack four 30nm-class 4Gb LPDDR2 chips. Samsung expects the newly introduced 20nm-class 4Gb LPDDR2 will rapidly replace 30nm-class 2Gb-based 1GB LPDDR2 that was in limited supply at the 0.8 mm thickness. The mobile DRAM (dynamic random access memory) chip, which went into mass production last month, will help the market to deliver advanced devices that are faster, lighter and provide longer battery life than today’s mobile devices.

We’re crossing our fingers and toes so hard we can barely type and walk, since it looks like the oft-delayed Dragon launch will take place tomorrow. SpaceX founder Elon Musk confirmed that the company had passed final launch review with NASA and that everything was set for the Falcon 9 to lift off at 4:15AM ET on May 19th. The lift-off will be broadcast live from the official website and is on course to be the first private spaceflight to dock and deliver essential supplies to the International Space Station. For our part? We wish the craft (and the ground crew) all the best and hope it’s a perfect flight — we wanna stay in a space hotel sooner rather than later.

Continue reading Space X’s Dragon launch… is go!

Space X’s Dragon launch… is go! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 10:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HTC gave us a quick session to play around with its latest handset, the Desire C. No, it’s not part of the consolidated One series, nor is the company revealing precisely what that “C” stands for — heaven forfend it’s “cheap”. While a humble 320 x 480 touchscreen and 600MHz processor might not set many smartphone obsessives’ hearts a’ racing, it still manages to eke out a HTC Sense-skinned Android 4.0 UI — no mere feat, in our opinion. A 5-megapixel camera and expandable microSD slot are some other welcome specifications and it’s all wrapped up in an attractive matte finish — you can take your pick form black and white in the UK. Catch our quick video run-through of the sub-$300 handset right after the break.

Continue reading HTC Desire C hands-on (video)

HTC Desire C hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 10:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Out friends at Plex have shuttled out a new Local Media Agent that’ll enable you to make your TV shows look great. The updated software lets you add show and season posters, banners, background art, theme music and individual episode thumbnails to your recorded shows to make each one really, really good-looking. It’ll happily handle PNG and FLAC files for those lossless enthusiasts and it’ll even overlook a messy file structure to get everything looking great. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to catalog our Community episodes with thumbnails of Dean Pelton’s outfits.

Plex shows you how to make your TV shows look great with its new Local Media Agent originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the most wonderful time of the week once again, pals. Like most seven-day periods, this one comes to a close with the latest issue of our e-magazine for your gadget reading pleasure. Front and center this time around, our own Darren Murph pays a visit to the South Carolina HQ of accessory maker Twelve South to chat about making a big splash while staying small. On the review side of things, we take a gander at the TiVo Premiere XL4 and the HTC EVO 4G LTE to see how they stack up and we go hands-on with the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon and Sounder’s iOS app. Reaction Time makes an appearance too — taking a long look at Max Payne 3 while listing this week’s must-have game releases. The usual suspects fall in line as well, as you might expect. Switched On discusses RIM and Nokia, IRL sneaks a look in at our gear collections, former Doctor Who script editor Christopher H. Bidmead pauses for the Q&A and Dustin Harbin has the Last Word on what killed dinosaurs. Go ahead. Grab the device of your choice and hit the appropriate download link to grab a copy of this week’s e-publication.

Distro Issue 41 PDF
Distro in the iTunes App Store
Distro in the Google Play Store
Distro APK (For sideloading)
Like Distro on Facebook
Follow Distro on Twitter

Distro Issue 41: a visit to the Lowcountry’s Twelve South, TiVo Premiere XL4 and HTC EVO 4G LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last we heard, Chinese manufacturer K-Touch was quite busy showing off its Treasure V8 at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Now, the company’s taken the wraps off of its budget-friendly, TD-SCDMA T660 smartphone, marking its first intelligent handset on China Mobile. The device itself features a 4-inch, IPS display alongside a 5-megapixel rear shooter and a 1GHz, Marvell PXA920H CPU (the same one found on the ZTE U880E and Lenovo A668T). Specs aside, however, this is K-Touch’s first crack at the TD-SCDMA market and it’s doing so on the cheap, pricing the Gingerbread-loaded T660 at a mere 1,000 RMB (around $160) without any contracts attached. Not a bad way to kick things off, right?

Continue reading K-Touch joins China Mobile with Marvell-powered T660, waves a $160 price tag

K-Touch joins China Mobile with Marvell-powered T660, waves a $160 price tag originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 08:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

If you’re an Android tablet owner, you’re likely very familiar with the drill: after you unlock the device, you’re presented with a static home screen full of apps and widgets, which may or may not be relevant to your current need. The creators of Chameleon, a home screen replacement for Android 3.2 / 4.0 tablets, would like to change all that with a dynamic environment that’ll adapt to your current GPS location, WiFi network or the time of day. Users may design and customize their ideal layouts, which may include news and social feeds in the morning, a calendar and tasks for the work environment and an assortment of entertainment options for the evening at home. Switching between these layouts isn’t a problem, either, as you’ll be able to flick between home screens just as you would with the standard Android interface.

Like a good rug, the interface is attractive and really pulls everything together. Chameleon is currently a Kickstarter project, and its creators intend to unleash the creation into the Google Play Store this September. Those who donate $5 or more can expect early delivery of the app, which is currently slated for August. It never hurts to be early in line, and Chameleon might just rekindle your love for Android tablets. For a quick peek of what’s in store, check the video after the break.

[Thanks, Greg]

Continue reading Insert Coin: Chameleon adaptive home screen replacement for Android tablets

Insert Coin: Chameleon adaptive home screen replacement for Android tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 May 2012 08:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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