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from MediaFile:

Apple’s iPhone 4 press conference LIVE BLOG

Apple is expected to announce a fix for the iPhone 4's reception problems, rather than a recall, at a surprise press conference on the device on Friday. The event, which comes only days before Apple reports its quarterly results, may find the company offering hardware or software tweaks, ranging from a rubber bumper case to something more drastic. Or perhaps no fix at all.

Reuters is live at the event, and we are hosting a live blog with updates as fast as we get them. Stay tuned for more, and please post your comments about Apple's decisions.

from MediaFile:

Target makes the scene with a magazine

You know how it is when you take a trip to Target: You're going to buy just that ONE THING that you need, and you're going to keep it cheap. As you leave the store, you wonder how you dropped hundreds of dollars on things that you didn't realize you needed until you walked into the store.

Target is hoping to spawn a similar phenomenon on its website, where it has begun offering a magazine newsstand. Rather than starting from scratch, it has signed on Zinio, a digital publishing company that offers magazines and books from more than 350 publishers.

Zinio will sell electronic versions of magazines on a page on Target's website, either as single editions of current and older issues, or as annual subscriptions - usually at a discount. People can read them in a Web browser version or through an application that Zinio offers for download. This is similar to what they've done on other websites, like the one operated by Barnes & Noble.

Yes, you can already look at online versions of magazines, Zinio Chief Executive Richard Maggiotto said in an interview. This is different, however, he said: "It's a high-fidelity, robust magazine." In other words, these titles, ranging from Elle to Woman's Day to Seventeen, are meant to look -- if not feel -- like the print magazines they are replacing. Zinio and Target will share the revenue they get from each sale.

Maggiotto declined to reveal specific goals, but said that he would be happy to see 1,000 or more new subscriptions (a month) come in during the first year of the Target partnership. So far, he said, Zinio sees about 60 percent of its magazine sales coming from archival or current issue sales, and about 40 percent from subscriptions.

This might not be such big news on most other days, but it is coming after some cataclysmic events transpired in the magazine industry. With ad sales suffering, big publishers such as Conde Nast are cutting workers and titles, making some media experts wonder whether the good times are over forever. Digital revenue has failed to make up for print revenue losses, just like in the newspaper world. But every little bit helps, right? Apparently so. Maggiotto would not say who Zinio's next partners are, but said that "there are 10 more in the queue."

(PS: Apologies to Tom Waits for stealing one of his lyrics for the sake of a headline. It's from "Nighthawks at the Diner." The photo is all Reuters)

Food sellers: I’m no Twit!

Just when it seems like everyone is using Twitter, we learn that is not really the case. 

A panel discussion on Thursday at the CIES World Food Business Summit in New York featured four prominent industry leaders: Sara Lee CEO Brenda Barnes, Cargill CEO Greg Page, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld and Jeff Noddle, executive chairman of grocery chain Supervalu. The conversation turned to how the panelists’ companies would stay relevant with the next generation of consumers.

Understanding Generation Y, whose oldest members are already in the work force, will be key to success in the future, said Noddle.  

Very broadly defined, Generation Y includes more than 70 million Americans born from 1977 to 2002.  

“They will measure their purchases on different criteria than those who came before them,” Noddle said, noting that younger consumers were more concerned with issues of sustainability and health. “We’re trying to understand that and trying to project how do you respond to that. Even though they may not have the dollar power today, they will. And I think that’s a critical element.”

Sara Lee’s Barnes agreed, noting that today’s younger consumers “grew up on the Internet” and that they “have every bit of information at their fingertips in a nanosecond.”

Moderator Bill Rancic, the first winner on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice” reality television show, asked who on the panel was “tweeting” (and therefore a “twit”). 

from MediaFile:

Beam me up…Barbie?

Yes, it's true. Mattel has gone where it has already gone before, but only differently!

Pictures of Mattel's new Star Trek Barbies were released on Wednesday causing a stir among Trekkies, eagerly anticipating Paramount's May release of the film, "Star Trek," chronicling the earliest days of Captain Kirk and Spock.

The toys' images, released by CBS Consumer Products, which owns the licensing rights for Star Trek consumer products, show the three dolls, which are modeled after the three actors playing Captain Kirk, Spock, and Lieutenant Uhura in the film, which is set to be released in theatres on May 8th!

The dolls will hit shelves in April, over a decade after Mattel released a Barbie and Ken Star Trek themed collectible set in 1996 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the cult hit TV show. Unlike the new line made to resemble the actors, the 1996 set features Barbie and Ken themselves dressed as original series characters.

Mattel also released a Barbie and Ken Star Trek watch in 1996.