Apple To Exhibit At BookExpo America 2011

Nate of The Digital Reader clued me into this.

Apple will have a booth at BookExpo America here in NYC next week.

Click = big

Next to them will be Scholastic. The two large booths behind — right on the map — are Macmillan and Random House.

It’s odd that Apple is going to be there.

They’ve avoided it until now.

Update: Despite that very convincing floorplan from the BEA site itself, it has since been revealed that the “MR” prefix actually designates a Meeting Room. So even though that looks like a booth, it is not. Nothing to see here after all. Move along.

Now I Fear For webOS

Hewlett-Packard CEO Girds for ‘Tough Quarter’

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) Chief Executive Officer Leo Apotheker told top executives that he’s bracing for “another tough quarter” in the July period and urged his deputies to “watch every penny and minimize all hiring.”

The company’s existing headcount plans are “unaffordable given the pressures on our business,” Apotheker wrote in the May 4 memo to deputies including Todd Bradley, executive vice president of the personal systems business, and Chief Financial Officer Cathie Lesjak. The memo was obtained by Bloomberg.

Here is a newsflash for Apotheker:

It’s only a quarter!

You have a major industry- and company-defining product about to launch: the HP TouchPad.

Do you think Steve Jobs stays awake at night worrying about one quarter? Do you think Jeff Bezos does? Do you think the guys at Google do?

Man up!

You really have only one shot to get this right.

You understand that, don’t you?

Instilling fear throughout the company when so much is riding on this launch makes me wonder if you should just resign and get the hell out of there. This is poor leadership.

Is iTunes Live Debuting This Week?

A Strange Two Weeks Ahead

1) Apple planning major product launch for 10th retail anniversary?
I just have no idea. I know of nothing imminent in the pipeline. The only outstanding Apple trademark not yet used is “iSlate.” (Hm, I’ve just found some new ones. Separate post coming.)

2) Samsung postpones May 24th New York City press event
I was looking forward to that! Not that I was invited, but I hoped the U.S. release date for the Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 would be revealed.

3) Barnes & Noble new “eBook device” is announced next week

4) Microsoft, I think, also has some kind of announcement

Rubicon: Sekrit Message

I got something in the mail today.

Seagate In 2011 Is Toshiba In 2002

2011:

Seagate’s GoFlex Satellite portable hard drive streams content over WiFi (review)

2002:

Toshiba brings Bluetooth(TM) Capabilities to Innovative Mobile Storage

Toshiba Bluetooth hard drives for mobile devices

Toshiba’s device never hit the market.

It’s surprising they never jumped back in with one for the iPad.

TEPCO Finally Admits Fukushima Meltdown

As I said on April 12, 2011: Fukushima Was A Disaster From Day One

And now today:

TEPCO admits nuclear meltdown occurred at Fukushima reactor 16 hours after quake

Fukushima Reactor 1 melted down, 2 and 3 may have too

It was a disaster from day one.

You’ve not seen additional coverage here because live quake news via streaming video from Japan has stopped.

Japan has closed ranks around itself. Yet again.

The Lodsys Issue Is Bigger Than We Know

http://twitter.com/#!/jamesthomson/status/70095343605391360

This is not good.

Apparently no one looked at the extent of what Lodsys claims its patents cover. This is a lot!

The inventions described by these patents are used by companies to interact with users of their products and services to, among other things:

provide online help, customer support, and tutorials

conduct online subscription renewals

provide for online purchasing of consumable supplies

survey users for their impressions of their products and services

assist customers to customize their products and services

display interactive online advertisements

collect information on how users actually use their products and services

sell upgrades or complimentary products

maintain products by providing users notice of available updates and assisting in the installation of those updates.

I wonder how many other companies have had to pay up? I wonder how long that list is — and how much bigger it’s going to get. It seems to me this is a landmine everyone can step on.

$#*! Twitter Hype Says

CBS Cancels ‘The Defenders’, ‘$#*!’ & ‘Mad Love’

I never watched the show. Never Followed the Twitter account.

A year ago, this was the darling of Twitter and the poster child of how Social Media Was Changing Things.

Now it’s been booted from CBS.

Learn the frikkin lesson.

R.I.P. Actress, Songwriter Dolores Fuller

Dolores Fuller, actress and muse of inept filmmaker Ed Wood, dies at 88

Dolores Fuller, an actress and early muse of Ed Wood, a 1950s filmmaker who single-handedly redefined cinematic ineptitude, died May 9 at her home in Las Vegas after a stroke. She was 88.

In a long show-business career, Ms. Fuller contributed lyrics to Elvis Presley movie musicals, co-owned and operated a record company and managed entertainers including Johnny Rivers. In later years, she helped book talent for Vegas casinos.

It’s an obit worthy of Ed Wood — because it’s mostly about him!

Wood would have cackled over that.

Additional:

The Church of Ed Wood