Well, it's not like I can get an Apple, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPhone today, but say I was an American (or living in the U.S.) and say I wanted to buy an iPhone. Okay, so say all that were true, and I bought the iPhone and brought it home and ... and ... and I decided to return it. Why? Dunno, maybe cause I just couldn't get used to that really amazing touch-screen. Okay, maybe because it drove me nuts that there was no voice recognition. So I could just return it, right? Wrong!

According to TUAW, I'd have only 14 days to return my coveted iPhone and at the original point of purchase no less. I would have to return it unopened and shrink wrapped or else I'd "be charged a 10% open box restocking fee." Canceling the agreement will cost me as well, especially if I was slow and did it after three days.

Basically, TUAW calculated the rough costs of returning the phone and it ain't cheap: $50.00 for trying it out, returning and canceling the service within three days, or $86.00 within 14 days. I already mentioned before I was upset with some of iTunes policies, now this makes me a little uneasy as well.

Well, I'm not going to get an iPhone today, nor tomorrow and probably not even when it is finally released in Canada (September?) as my plan is with Bell (NYSE: BCE), not Rogers Communications, Inc. (NYSE: RCI). Even if I could get it today, you'd probably not see me standing in line for it (yes, yes, it's the bitterness talking...) However, TUAW already has two people in line and is inviting you to join them as "die-hard Mac zealots" dissect the device over the weekend.

Yum! Analysts and investors alike eagerly gobbled up the first quarter earnings surprise for Yum! Brands (NYSE: YUM), sending the stock up 6%, to $66.91 as of late afternoon, an increase of $3.79. The shares were briefly over $69, an all-time high for the company. The 70 cents-per-share profit was a 14% increase from the year-ago quarter and six cents ahead of analyst consensus.

The favorable results are even more of a surprise given that Yum! has taken several hits with its brands this year, from a rat infestation at a combined Taco Bell/KFC restaurant in New York to a lawsuit over the E-coli outbreak of Q4 2006, and has yet to discover any benefit from the removal of trans fat at its KFC restaurants.

Despite all the world's concentration on the obesity epidemic, the rise in popularity of organic foods, and the general frowning-upon marketing of fast food and other unhealthy choices to children; it seems like a great time to be the owner of some fast food stock.

[Photo kanepsphotography.]

BCE Inc. (NYSE: BCE) rose another nearly 4.5% today after The Globe and Mail reported a possible bidding war for BCE. The consortium of Canadian pension funds, led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., might soon have two other groups considering the same deal.

To remind you, first there were rumors BCE is in talks with buyout firms. Then came a denial, followed closely by an acknowledgment: BCE is indeed considering taking the company private. Here are the reported players:

• KKR is considering taking control of one-third of the company with partners Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and two other pension funds, thus fulfilling the required majority Canadian ownership.
  
• Ontario Teachers Pension Plan is apparently assembling its own consortium and preparing to formally enter the bid process early next week. The group is said to be financed by Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) among others.
• And just to make shareholders happier, it is reported that two more U.S. private equity firms, giant Blackstone Group LP and Cerberus Capital Management LP, might form a third group. How this group would abide by the majority Canadian ownership law is still unclear, although Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec might be shifting allegiances.
• Last time I also mentioned a possible merger between Bell (BCE) and smaller rival Telus Corp. (NYSE: TU). This might be more difficult from a regulatory point of view.
  

So far it seems that the groups are aligning themselves and preparing financing as "BCE has not prepared the data rooms that bidders need before deciding what they are prepared to pay."

After BCE closed up some 6% and Telus up over 3% during my last post, I was going to ask if you think hubby should sell his shares in both these companies. He wanted to sell all, I talked him down to selling half, but then he never got around to it. Lucky, or he would have missed today's 4.5% and 2.3% run for BCE and TU respectively.

Thank you Don for the FT link this morning.