It's no secret here that we're Apple fans at Firewheel. Apple makes quality products that we're proud to use. They may not always be perfect, but they're generally much better than the alternatives.

I'm also a fan of Apple stock. For the record, I do not have a lot of money in the market, nor do I spend a lot of time trading. I can count on two hands the number of companies I've bought stock in. Over the years I've lost money on Gap, Portal Player, and Enron (no worries, I got out early... heh). I've made money on Home Depot, Whole Foods, and Apple. Gratefully the gains outweigh the losses at this point, and my biggest gainer has been Apple.

I don't day trade, and my focus is longer-ish term. But I do watch Apple's price on a daily basis. And boy has it been interesting lately.

In case you didn't know, Apple has been under some scrutiny about some options that Steve Jobs received that were reportedly backdated (a no-no). However, word is that Jobs actually never exercised the options, and thus received no financial benefit. So this should be a moot point. In fact, I hope it's a moot point. Obviously Apple ships quality products that sell—unlike Enron who did a very great job of selling air. Even so, I guess the SEC will have the final word here.

What intrigues me more though—far more than the potential of an options scandal at Apple—is the semi-blatant manipulation of Apple's stock price by so-called stock analysts. Let's take a look, shall we?

On December 12 Forrester Research released a report saying that Apple's iTunes' sales were "collapsing." Never mind that Apple is unloading more iPods than ever and that iTunes recently moved into the top 5 music retailers period. My personal purchases through iTunes have greatly increased this year. Maybe I'm an anomaly?

But we all know better. The report was flawed. The data was sketchy. But the damage had been done. Before the refuting data could hit the newswire, Apple's stock had dropped about $3 a share because of questionable report.

The following day Apple issued a press release and several other analysts countered with data that showed iTunes sales were not collapsing, but going gangbusters. Within 48 hours Apple's stock had regained that $3 a share and even put a little extra change on top of that.

Nice.

Somebody had a great opportunity there to pocket some cash with a quick, substantial two-day stock swing. Especially if you knew in advance that a damning (but flawed) report was about to hit.

Apple's stock has the perception that it's too good to be true. In fact, Apple's recent business history is almost too good to be true (failing tech company with overpriced products revived and made relevant by prodigal enigmatic leader). It's very easy to look at Apple stock like a card house. We're all just wondering when then party is going to end.

And this makes it very easy to throw some ugly story out there to down the stock for a few days, knowing that you'll make a tidy profit a few days later once Apple weathers the storm. I'm no investigative reporter here, but honestly I have to wonder if the Forrester guys have their broker on the phone minutes after they publish a report like that.

Now we have Take Two: The Options Scandal.

Two days ago Apple stock was hammered again by a report from Law.com that Apple falsified documents related to their back-dated stock options. Apple stock dropped overnight about $4 a share (to $78). Today Apple has issued the results of investigations clearing Steve Jobs of any wrongdoing. Apple stock is now trading at $85 this minute. A $7 per share swing in 48 hours.

Once again bad news followed within a day by good news. Somebody just made a boatload of cash. It pays to be in the know.

It would be nice to simply invest in a dynamic company whose products you believe in. With Apple it seems you get an extra slice of drama as well. I doubt I'll be selling my shares anytime soon. I'm content to have my fun for a bit longer. But someday when we all hear that the Forrester guys pocketed some serious coin on December 13, 2006, I won't be surprised.

Between now and midnight CST on December 20th, we will be accepting submissions of your most imaginative constructions using the newly-released Kyoto Geometry icon set. The best entry (judged according to the whims and predilections of the Firewheel staff) will receive the IconBuffet set of his or her choice. That means any IconBuffet set -- whether it's $5 or $239.

Kyoto Geometry is one of our many Free Delivery icon sets that IconBuffet users are going crazy for. You'll need to create an IconBuffet account and persuade someone to send you Kyoto Geometry if you want to participate.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind around the Firewheel office the last couple of weeks, hence the lack of activity on the blog. It's not that we don't love you, it's simply that we have a lot of irons in the fire (and not much important to say until now). So without further ado, here's the lowdown on what's been going on.

Blinksale Update

Over the weekend we completed a fairly substantial server upgrade for Blinksale. The move went probably as smooth as could be expected, and Blinksale is skipping along at a happy pace. Unfortunately we had to change some IP information during the move, and while we did everything we could to alleviate any DNS update hiccups, a couple of our friends experienced a slightly longer downtime than we had hoped for. The DNS is happy now though, and when the DNS is happy, everybody is happy. Our new setup is well geared for the future, and we're happy this one-time event went off with very few hitches. Mucho props to our Blinksale subscribers. Thanks for helping us make Blinksale the easiest way to send invoices online.

Much Ado About Icons

Also keeping us busy is more client work than we can ever remember. Currently we're working with a couple household-name software companies to design and refine interfaces for forthcoming applications. Hundreds of icons are being created every week, and we're pretty thrilled with the results. Sadly, the attorneys won't let us yap about whom or what we've been working with, but that's par for the course.

The Buffet

With the Blinksale update mostly behind us, our attention is moving towards getting the new IconBuffet out the door. Most of the new design is complete. The backend simply needs to overhauled for all the goodness that is forthcoming. Hopefully this update will see the light of day in the next month or two. Until then you can check out some screen grabs.

What We Like (DS Buttons!)

It's no secret that we're huge Nintendo DS fans around here, so we were enthused to learn about the launch of DS Buttons from the fellas over at Left Bracket. We're keen on Mario Kart, but if you're out and about it's not always easy to find other willing wifi opponents. Now you can pimp your DS allegiance with your own collection of these small 1-inch buttons that look pretty swell on a messenger bag or backpack. We just got a set here. My personal faves? Toad, Samus, Fox, and Mario Hoops. If you're a DS lover, you won't want to miss these.

Twitter

And finally, if you're not using Twitter, you're missing out. I'm not sure what you're missing out on, but you're missing out.