I was definitely not expecting this from the slight, sweet-looking singer:

Intel didn’t say much about what he’ll actually do. Intel’s statement on the partnership says he will “collaborate with Intel on many creative and technology endeavors across the ‘compute continuum,’ which reaches across traditional notebooks and into smart phones and tablets.” It’s on those last two where Intel has tended to struggle with market penetration, mainly because most device manufacturers favor chips built around the ARM architecture.

The company did reveal that he’s already working on music for Intel. He did say in an Intel press release that “nearly everything I do involves processors and computers, and when I see an Intel chip I think of all the creative minds involved that help to amplify my own creativity.”

Meanwhile, it’s not Intel’s only promotional endeavor in the world of pop music. The company teamed up with the Korean girl-group sensation Girls’ Generation, which our friends at The Wall Street Journal profiled last week. The video below is supposedly inspired by Intel’s “Visibly Smart” 2nd Generation Core processors, and, if nothing else, you can hear the word “core” throughout the lyrics. However it’s worth watching if only for the last few seconds, when the group does its take on the well-known Intel chime from its TV commercials.

Not going to happen. At least not anytime soon, says Jeff Bewkes. The Time Warner (TWX) boss was asked about that scenario during yesterday’s earnings call and promptly batted it down. The short version goes something like this: The cable business is a very good business for us. Why would we want to screw with that?

The longer version, via Seeking Alpha, is worth reading, too:

Don’t get ahead of yourself. I would say, yes, HBO could easily do that. The question is, is whether it would in its interest to do that. Remember, HBO GO means that all the HBO subscribers in the United States are going to have HBO programming on demand across every device for no extra charge. So that is a powerful offering. And that will mean, if they want to access it on the broadband device, including any device made by any company, could be Korean, could be Apple, when they turn the thing on, they’ll be looking at HBO. So they don’t need to make a deal or an arrangement or diffuse some of the money or leverage to a device maker because they’ll view on every device for no extra charge. It’s a very powerful position. Not only HBO will be in that position, every network on the dial is going to be in that position, and so is every magazine.

There’s a twofer buried in there:

• A reiteration of the “TV Everywhere” strategy Bewkes champions, whereby paying cable subscribers–but only paying cable subscribers–get to watch their shows on the Web, too.
• And some chest-pounding about not letting Apple (AAPL) or anyone else dictate how Time Warner distributes its stuff.

Still! Note that Time Warner’s Time Inc. unit is falling over itself to rush out magazine apps for Apple’s iPad. Apple has a great deal of say over how those apps work, and it gets to collect 30 percent of the sale price. So Bewkes’s position has plenty of flexibility.

In fact, I wouldn’t be shocked if HBO does market an online-only subscription in a couple of years, especially if cord-cutting moves from apocryphal trend to documented fact.

The cable guys won’t like it, but the cable guys didn’t like it when HBO and other networks began selling their stuff to the satellite guys back in the 90s. As long as Bewkes can tell the cable guys that he’s selling his online stuff at the same price as his offline stuff, there’s not a lot they can do.

This morning, Corning CFO James Flaws said in a statement that third-quarter glass shipments grew 2 percent sequentially, which was lower than expected. Corning said volume was was up 12 percent at Samsung Corning joint venture, but down 10 percent at the wholly-owned business.

The company still expects Q3 EPS of 43-45 cents a share before special items.

Flaws is not providing specific Q4 guidance at this time. But he did offer some cautionary comments. “We believe that many Taiwanese panel makers may decide to continue to run at lower utilization rates for much of the fourth quarter,” he says. “We actually think this may be more beneficial to the supply chain heading into the first quarter. If this happens, we would not be surprised if volumes at our wholly-owned business decline sequentially in the fourth quarter. Regarding SCP, we believe their volumes could be higher if the Korean panel makers continue with their higher utilization rates.”

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