It didn't get any bigger for techies than the opening of computer giant Apple's first southern hemisphere retail store in Sydney Die-hard Apple fans Reminding the world to get a little creative
Imagine all the people Thinking Differently The Cult Of Mac: Die-hard Apple fans
The fanaticism of Apple fans is renowned. Outside the Sydney store yesterday, a handful of people had already started to queue for the official opening at 5pm tonight: Thousands queue for Apple Store Sydney
They had jackets to help them survive the winter chill and some had Apple laptops to keep themselves occupied with iTunes as Apple: iTunes sells more than 5 billion songs
A few held grey-market iPhones that had been imported from the US and unlocked to work in Australia – a process that voids the warranty, but has so far been necessary to use the phones on local networks.
• New Apple Store is a glass act Drive change so it doesn't drive you ; [The Apple store “experience”; Smile I'LL SCREAM LATER ]
• · At Stanford University's commencement address on Sunday, Oprah Winfrey advised the nearly 4,700 graduates to trust their gut. "When you are doing the work you are meant to do, it feels right," she said. "Feelings are really your GPS system for life. Check your ego at the door and check your gut instead. Every wrong decision was the result of me not listening to my voice. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it." Afterwards, each graduate received a copy of Book Club selection A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle and another Winfrey favorite, A WHOLE NEW MIND by Daniel Pink. Oprah Speaks, Gives Away Books at Graduation Ceremony; Oprah tells Stanford grads to do what 'feels right'
• · As with other book clubs, authors will receive royalties of 4 percent of the cover price for books sold for $1 apiece, and 8 percent of the cover price for books sold at regular club prices. Daily Kos blogger Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, one of the book club's "alliance partners," said he did not expect the club to generate much revenue for his company. "I'm not doing this for financial reasons," he said. "I'm doing it for movement-building reasons. Book Clubs, the Progressive Way; If the move had happened earlier, it would have affected the book club. But this is a new channel on UKTV, and it will be on the first page of the electronic programme guide. After 10 years, I think the club has a life of its own. What we need is the support of the retailers. If they keep faith and the books are still in the shops, then people will still buy them because they have Richard & Judy stickers. Richard & Judy's Instant Summer Bestsellers
• · · The Wall Street Journal tracks the growing number of books written by consultants, real-estate moguls, retailers and other entrepreneurs The Entreprenurial Book Boom ; Agents are supporting Hachette Livre UK's confrontation with Amazon. Curtis Brown managing director Jonathan Lloyd says: I think the entire industry of publishers, authors and agents are 100% behind [Hachette]. Someone has to draw a line in the sand. Publishers have given 1% a year away to retailers, so where does it stop? Using authors as a financial football is disgraceful Community Supports Hachette v. Amazon UK
• · · · The AP reports that Pershing Square Capital's Bill Ackman is encouraging the unloading of his money-losing big stake in Borders to Amazon. Ackman Hopes for Amazon Bid for Borders; The memoir by Lynne Spears--mother of Britney and Jamie Lynn--"delayed indefinitely" last December, is now likely for September publication by Thomas Nelson Brand Leaves Hodder; Spears' Book Back On
• · · · · Savannah Knoop, who played the role of JT Leroy in public, is writing a book about the charade for Seven Stories, GIRL BOY GIRL: How I Became JT LeRoy. JT Leroy Body-Double Has Book; Southern novelist George Garrett, "who never received the wide literary renown that his decades of glowing reviews would suggest," died olast week of cancer at age 78. On Garrett
• · · · · · It was also the event at which Amazon ceo Jeff Bezos showed himself as bold enough and strong enough to show up in front of the industry that launched his enterprise and stick a big fat thumb directly in their eyes. And perhaps so lost in his own world that maybe he didn't realize how insulting it was to offer book professionals (and booksellers who compete with him) a warmed-over version of the Kindle pitch he's been making since last fall as if no one had heard of the device. Booksellers talk big, act quietly at convention;
It's not quite The Shack, but Leinad Zeraus (aka database consultant Daniel Suarez) has had help moving his self-published debut technothriller DAEMON from bloggers and influential techies like Joi Ito, Stewart Brand, and Craig Newmark. As Wired reports, the book "tells the story of a terminally ill game designer who unleashes a diabolical, self-replicating Web entity that enlists disaffected Netizens in its mission to destroy civilization." After numerous rejections from agents, the author and his wife "approached bloggers whose writings on gaming, warfare, AI, and social media Suarez had mined for the book. Self-Published Novelist Gets Geek Cred