Powell’s Hits Wall, Unsaved By Google eBookstore

BREAKING: Powell’s Lays Off 31 Workers

From their statement:

Consumer behavior — how, where, and what people read — has changed dramatically over the past several years. It’s a story that’s hard to miss with daily articles about the book industry, the future of physical bookstores, and the rise of eBooks. As technology evolves, Powell’s expects consumer reading behavior to continue to change as new options and formats for reading develop and improve over time.

Boldfaced emphasis added by me.

Powell’s was one of the first to be there with a big-splash Google eBookstore the day it launched.

It didn’t help them.

I could have told them that. But me? I’m just some nasty crank who spoils the party by bringing up CDs vs iTunes and VHS vs DVD vs Netflix.

Bookstores thought they were Special.

They’re not.

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The Long Night Of webOS

It’s been a long, dark night for webOS.

HP Touchsmart 610 Adds webOS Card-Like UI?

Click = big

The new HP Touchsmart 610 site has a bunch of screensnaps under Touchsmart Apps. All of them are too damn small to really make sense of, but a few of them show the above, which seems to be a new webOS Card-like UI grafted onto Windows 7. These are mixed in with screensnaps showing full-screen apps too.

Aside from the site being announced prematurely — the formal introduction isn’t until Wednesday, February 9th — there’s a Buy Direct from HP button that doesn’t lead to information about the 610 at all!

See, it’s this kind of poor coordination that makes me fear for webOS. A basic mistake like this shouldn’t have happened, period.

They should have STFU about the 610 or provided full information about it. This glass half full stuff is just frustrating and makes me wonder if anyone is really in charge of overseeing everything.

After the break, two videos showing aspects of the 610. They don’t show the Card-like UI, however!

Brilliant TV Advertising!

Now this should have been on the damn Super Bowl.

It uses Bernard Herrmann’s classic and memorable Cape Fear theme. I heard the music and rushed to the TV to see what the hell was playing!

Then I went to YouTube to find the ad. And now I’m posting it here too. That is how to get someone interested!