The VAR Guy hopes to watch this evening’s Miami Heat-Chicago Bulls Game 3 showdown. But before our resident blogger turns his attention to South Beach, Miami, here are six channel partner-related blog entries that The VAR Guy didn’t have time to write for the week ending May 20, 2011.

7. Who’s That Girl?: The VAR Guy is happily married. But our resident blogger must concede… he has an innocent crush on the ConnectWise StreamlineIT Girl. Who is that girl? Lots of single male bloggers on The VAR Guy’s staff would like to know… Any clues from Arnie, Jeannine and the IT Nation would be welcome…

6. Retreat to the Enterprise?: The Register reported that Cisco may sell off its Linksys and WebEx businesses. But if you read the Register’s report you should avoid the temptation to analyze Cisco’s reply. Cisco has never — ever — commented on speculation (as far as The VAR Guy knows). What does our resident blogger think? Linksys consumer WiFi may be at risk but Cisco has to maintain a presence in the small business market. Also, selling off WebEx — in theory, of course — would require finding a buyer that keeps WebEx deeply integrated with Cisco’s TelePresence efforts… Hmmm…

5. Exit, Stage Left?: Apparently there are more management changes at Hewlett-Packard. In recent months, HP has been under financial pressure while rival IBM has shined. Now, a spoiler alert: Stay tuned for some key HP cloud surprises in Las Vegas really soon.

4. Summer of Tablets: It’s a safe bet HP’s WebOS tablets will debut this summer. Meaghan Kelly, VP of SMB and channel, says the HP sales force will be armed with the new tablet devices. Meanwhile, Lenovo will deliver ThinkPad and IdeaPad tablet devices running Google Android this summer.

3. Power Play: Apple TV is a hit within The VAR Guy’s house. But the little Apple TV box kept failing while connected to a Dell Plasma TV. Hmmm… could there be a software bug between the Apple and Dell devices? The VAR Guy tried all sorts of software updates and HDMI changes to fix the Apple TV. But the solution involved the most basic step of all: Unplugging both Apple TV and the Dell Plasma TV for about five minutes. The “reboot” of both devices seems to have done the trick.

2. Delivery Day: Multiple sources say Microsoft Office 365 will very likely debut in time for Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (July 10-14, Los Angeles). Office 365 is Microsoft’s SaaS application suite, which will compete with Google Apps. Hmmm… This could be the Summer of the Cloud… Given the potential debut of Office 365, Google Chromebooks for Business and Apple’s cloud-based streaming media service.

1. Check the Headline: This is a Top Six list. Always has been. Always will be. So there is no Number 1.

Side note: Our resident blogger truly appreciates your continued readership — and interaction — on this web site. Thanks for stopping by regularly to share your perspectives and insights. This virtual room would be lonely without you.

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