The winners for the 15th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards are decided on by members of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. (Just like the Oscars are voted on by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

The ceremony covers mostly hardcore genres across console and PC, including action games, massive multiplayer games, adventure games and more. It also has categories for casual, mobile and social. (Update: See a list of some winners at the end of this post.)

The event is taking place in Las Vegas at the Red Rock Resort, a swank location way off the Strip, where industry leaders gather annually as part of the games conference called DICE.

DICE, which stands for Design, Innovate, Communicate, Entertain, is a three-day summit featuring a number of talks by bigwigs from game studios like Bethesda Softworks, which published The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham City, which were both wildly successful over Christmas.

Because the show is far off the Strip and only has a few hundred attendees, it allows people to speak intimately about recent trends and key issues facing the industry. They even get to pat each other on the back; this morning, one grown man got on stage and bowed in front of some of the original game developers who worked at Atari back in the 80s.

The event tonight will be hosted by actor and stand-up comedian Jay Mohr, a former cast member on “Saturday Night Live” and self-described games enthusiast, who is known for roasting some of the industry celebrities being recognized.

The ceremony kicks off at 7:30 pm PT. To follow along, GameSpot will air a live Webcast of the IAAs here.

Update: Here are the winners from some of the major categories:

• Game of the Year: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Bethesda Softworks
• Action Game: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Activision
• Online Game Play: Star Wars: The Old Republic, Electronic Arts
• Mobile Game: Infinity Blade II, Epic Games
• Sports Game: FIFA 12, Electronic Arts
• Social Networking: The Sims Social, Electronic Arts
• Casual Game: Fruit Ninja Kinect, Halfbrick Studios

Which is why this pitch-perfect impression, from “The Soup,” of Richards rating the Oscars — nominations for the annual movie awards were just announced — is even better, if possible.

On “War Horse,” for example: “There was war. And there was a horse.”

Exactly:

In fact, Bartz practically sounded like a gushy “Entertainment Tonight” flunky when talking to Wall Street analysts about Yahoo’s Oscar news, games and other offerings. She proudly noted the site’s efforts generated more than a billion pages views.

There will be more of that, it seems, with the elevation of Yahoo exec Sam Silverstein (pictured here) as head of its special events coverage. Sources said it will be a major area of emphasis, given obvious advertiser interest.

It’s all part of a lot of dramatic changes being made in the media unit at Yahoo, which is run by its newish Audience head Mickie Rosen.

Previous to his new duties, Silverstein has been mostly focused on major sports events for Yahoo, but has also been managing content on its front page and in tech and green arenas.

The move to taking over more comes after Lawrence Yee–who led Yahoo entertainment efforts and was once the managing editor of its omg! celebrity site–headed to TMZ.com, the competing and much sassier celebrity site, owned by AOL. His new job is as managing editor of its TooFab site, TMZ overlord Harvey Levin confirmed to me.

Also gone recently is Annette Cardwell, who was managing editor of Yahoo’s Shine women’s site, who is now working as director of digital content and games at Future US, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Now it will be up to Silverstein, who is well-regarded at Yahoo, to run the upcoming Royal Wedding coverage by himself.

William and Kate, as well as Bartz, will be watching.

MicroHoo is funky!

At least according to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz on the Silicon Valley search giant’s first-quarter earnings conference call about its recent financial performance.

Yahoo’s results showed a continued worrisome revenue growth stall, due in large part to a search advertising fall-off, and a still-turning turnaround.

Yahoo reported revenues of $1.06 billion, down six percent from a year ago, on net earnings of 17 cents a share, down 28 percent.

The results were essentially in line with Wall Street expectations.

2:03 pm PT: The call started right on time, as per usual. Maybe they can’t get search right anymore, but Yahoo execs sure know how to start an analysts’ confab.

Bartz started off the call, noting “overall, our turnaround is proceeding on schedule.”

Well, the schedule of a three-toed sloth, I suppose, but it’s on schedule!

Bartz is too smart, though, and quickly noted the problems with search revenue declines, related to its search and online advertising partnership with Microsoft.

Still, she then used the unusual term “funky comparisons” to dismiss the key issue.

But isn’t she the one who struck the funky deal with Microsoft that has resulted in these funky comparisons and these even funkier search advertising revenues?

Just askin’!

Bartz proceeded quickly to noting Yahoo’s advances due to technology improvements, which showed a doubling of impressions to big events such as the Super Bowl and the Oscars.

It’s a good point, since Yahoo–for all its troubles–is still a huge traffic driver, including serving up 1.3 billion page views for the Oscars.

Bartz talked about monetization and said a lot of other stuff, but got to the finances quickly.

“Search was a mixed bag,” she said flatly. You can say that again–but not in a good way.

Bartz tried to put a good-news spin on it, but had to admit that “on the downside [Microsoft's] adCenter is not seeing strong RPS,” she said.

That’s revenue per search and a key number that Yahoo had thought would be better by now.

Bartz noted that the paid search markets internationally will be delayed until MicroHoo gets its act together.

Good idea!

2:16 pm: CFO Tim Morse took over to go through the numbers.

“We had good display momentum around the globe,” he said.

But search was, um, bad. It underperformed, but Yahoo had that guarantee from Microsoft to pay out, which Morse called a “financial floor.”

Morse pretty much read the press release from here on out.

2:24 pm: Bartz was back talking up the huge audience Yahoo has abroad. And it is true–the Yahoo brand is a golden one globally.

Also video consumption is up too, as it is across the Web, in terms of views and time spent. Yahoo’s “Primetime in No Time” got 500 million streams in the quarter.

Bartz turned to mobile, which is weak no matter what she said about the laudable Livestand. It’s one of many in a very competitive market.

Same for social, which Yahoo has essentially abdicated to Facebook. That said, Yahoo has tried to weave social within its myriad of sites and it gets it, especially compared to the socially awkward Google.

Bartz summed up that she hoped everyone gets that profitability and revenue growth were on track to get better, promising more at the investor day in May.

2:30 pm: Q&A time!

The first question is about display growth. It’s a softball, since display was up.

The next is about other revenue growth areas to come.

Bartz–who seemed not so prepped for such an obvious question–ticked off shopping, travel and uuuuuh….

Morse jumped in and talked about making internal connections, which I also did not understand.

An analyst then wanted to “dig into” search problems. I’d say it’s time to call in Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel!

Relative to RPS, Bartz acknowledged it was low and everyone was studying the issue. There is a plan, apparently. Again, Bartz was maddeningly vague.

I missed the next question and then it was back to search.

Bartz was not getting too specific about search, but would say video advertising was going to do well.

She did note that Yahoo expected a dip in Q1 related to search revenue, “but the dip went a little lower than we expected and lasted a little longer than expected.”

Bartz said she had recently sat down with Microsoft execs to go over the problems. How much would I have liked to have been a fly on that wall!

The next question was about video and it turns out Bartz loves the babbling babies too! I knew we had something cool in common.

The next question is about Japan and the possible deal to sell off Yahoo’s ownership of Yahoo Japan!

Morse said diddly, except “we continue to make progress.”

A question about display and possible content verticals.

Verticals Yahoo is interested in, according to Bartz: Entertainment, lifestyle, women, gossip.

“The things people really want to do, they want to disappear,” said Bartz, which was an interesting way of putting it.

Yet another question in what was beginning to feel like an endless call.

It was about Right Media, Yahoo’s advertising exchange. Cleaning it up, etc.

The next question is about communications, as in email.

Bartz even sounded bored and messed up a few words. “I’ve had too many Diet Cokes,” she joked.

Personally, I am considering disappearing into some content, since there is yet another question.

It’s–no surprise–an RPS question!

Funky!

Search guarantee payments from Microsoft are in place for another four quarters. Thank goodness.

Bartz got more detailed about the problems. There is some kind of prediction issue, which she said Microsoft is working on.

Now a local advertising question and its relationship with Facebook.

Bartz grabbed this one by the horns, noting you don’t have to run to the social networking powerhouse to get you a social ad!

It’s about branding with a social component. Which would be, um, Facebook, which was part of Yahoo’s Chrysler campaign referenced by Bartz.

A question about daily deals.

It’s growing, but more at Groupon and LivingSocial, which Morse does not mention.

Finally, the last question.

Another gigantic softball on engagement and Yahoo’s new content platform and some mobile deets query about whether Yahoo can make it there.

Bartz said she was working on it. As to content, Bartz said stats show big lifts.

“The good news is that it’s all in the right direction,” she said.

Up would certainly be good.

On Sunday, BoomTown tossed my mohawked dog Phineas in the Mini and motored up to lovely Petaluma to appear live and in studio on Leo Laporte’s fine “This Week in Tech” online show.

It was a week full of news–from the about-to-launch Apple iPad to Google taking aim at content farms to the Oscars.

Which is why I wore my Ray-Bans, so stop asking.

The title of this week’s show was due to a story I told about an unfortunate parenting Web snafu I had just experienced when I let my almost nine-year-old son check out Katy Perry’s music video for “California Gurls.”

Let’s just say, I had no idea a whipped-cream bra could exist.

Here’s the video of me, Laporte, as well as Om Malik and Iyaz Akhtar:

The movie won prizes for best film editing, best original score and best adapted screenplay. But its honorees spent their speeches complimenting each other rather than playing homage to their inspiration in Palo Alto. And no Winklevii appeared in person, despite how good the litigious twins might have looked in tuxes.

“The Social Network” had also been nominated for best actor (Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg), best cinematography, best director (David Fincher) and best sound mixing.

“The King’s Speech” was the big winner of the night, taking four Academy Awards, including best picture.

Fans can tweet and Facebook post their way into the pre-show ABC red-carpet coverage by asking questions of @TheAcademy on Twitter or going to the TheAcademy Facebook page. A start-up called Mass Relevance is helping filter the questions for hosts Robin Roberts, Tim Gunn, Krista Smith and Maria Menounos.

(Facebook itself, which often hosts its own red carpet live chats for similar events, will not have a company presence at the Oscars.)

The official ABC Oscar Backstage Pass app for Apple devices costs $0.99 and gives viewers additional live camera angles from the red carpet, backstage and the after party. For $4.99 you can get additional content on the Web, like a “360 cam” to assess attendees’ ball gowns and tuxes from all angles.

E!’s Live From the Red Carpet for iPhone and Android carries the network’s coverage of special events like the Academy Awards.

If you want to remind yourself of all the contenders, YouTube has compiled the trailers here. The most-watched best picture nominee trailer was “Toy Story 3,” with 15 million views.

If you need some virtual validation on Sunday evening, check-in to receive stickers from GetGlue for tuning into E!, Oscars.com and Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Jimmy Kimmel is also releasing one of his celeb-studded made-to-go-viral videos on his post-Oscars episode. Here’s a preview of “Hottie Body Humpilates”:

This time, unlike the one that aired right before the Super Bowl kick-off, LivingSocial is focusing more on the deals themselves.

In the Super Bowl, it used the tagline “LivingSocial changed my life,” and had a strange storyline that featured a gruff-looking man who turns into a cross-dresser.

The two new spots are a little more on point.

For example, in “We’ll set the stage, you play the part,” a man and a women perform a number of quick costume changes as they transition through a number of scenes, ranging from a restaurant (55 percent off fine dining), to a hair salon (72 percent off) to a dance floor (where they save 62 percent on tango lessons). For the finale, the curtain closes and the announcer says, “Sign up for free to get daily deals at LivingSocial.com.”

The Super Bowl commercials for both LivingSocial and Groupon demonstrated how difficult it is to portray this somewhat new concept of offering a voucher for a heavily discounted service.

Even so, LivingSocial’s commercial might be a little misleading since it uses “free” in the tagline. As any regular participant of LivingSocial or Groupon would know, you have to pay for the voucher in advance if you want the deal. (But it may not be so obvious to a newbie).

While LivingSocial’s Super Bowl ad fell flat, Groupon fell on even tougher luck with its series of three advertisements, which viewers revolted against and called insensitive.

The one that got the most feedback was a 30-second clip featuring Timothy Hutton that said while Tibetan culture is in jeopardy, “they still whip up an amazing fish curry, and since 200 of us bought at Groupon.com, we’re each getting $30 worth of Tibetan food for just $15.”

Groupon initially offered to retract that one, but ended up having to apologize and yank all three. The company tried explaining that it was raising money for those causes, but the connection was lost on viewers.

LivingSocial’s new commercial can be found on the company’s Web site. It’s also embedded below. Mashable reports that the new campaign, which will kick off Sunday, was created by the Martin Agency.

Enough said.

Enjoy:

Because Stern has spent the afternoon delivering a scene-by-scene, Tweet-by-Tweet, DVD-style commentary while the movie has been playing on Time Warner’s HBO. It’s an incredibly simple idea, and a surprisingly compelling one: I gave in about 30 minutes ago and have had a hard time doing anything else since.

And while the movie will have ended by the time you read this, my hunch is you’ll be hearing about it for some time.

That’s because the idea of using Twitter to augment TV–particularly live TV–is something that Twitter’s executives have been actively promoting for some time now. Both because people are already doing it on their own, and because they think it will help them capture some of the huge TV ad marketplace, which still dwarves online.

“It’s taken the DVR out of the equation again,” Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said last month. “People feel like they have to watch the show, while it’s going on.”

And Twitter ad sales boss Adam Bain used today’s (spontaneous?) Stern seminar to expand on that message, and  hand out instructions to the TV business.

And I think he’s sort of right. I’m very happy to Twitter away, and read responses, during a certain kind of TV show. Such as a live event like the Oscars–one that I sort of care about, but not so much that I can’t look away for a few minutes.

But I’ve got no interest in twittering during “Justified,” because I really, really like that show. And there aren’t many celebrities whose tweets can get me to watch a show I don’t like.

Still, as I type this, I’m half-watching the last few minutes of a 14-year-old movie I haven’t thought about for a long time. So maybe the Twitter folks are on to something….

The movie was nominated for best picture, while Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for best actor for his portrayal of Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, David Fincher for best director and Aaron Sorkin for adapted screenplay.

We probably won’t be seeing the famously underdressed Zuckerberg in a tux anytime soon. Given the film was unauthorized and took liberties with all-too-recent history, it’s highly unlikely he would attend the awards show. But Zuckerberg has had more of a sense of humor about the movie than might be expected–he rented out a local theater so he and his staff could watch the film on opening day, and has said in interviews that the creators did get his hoodies and T-shirts right, if nothing else.

“The Social Network” was also picked as a finalist for the Academy Award in cinematography, film editing, original score and sound mixing.

But it wasn’t the most-lauded film of the morning. “The King’s Speech” had 12 Oscar nominations and “True Grit” had 10.

“The Social Network” has already won Golden Globes for best picture (drama), best director, best screenplay and best original score, as well as a pile of film critics’ awards.

“The Social Network” racked up awards in earlier film competitions, but the Oscars of course are the big show. The Academy Awards ceremony is Feb. 27.

For those who want to watch along at home, the nominations Web cast starts at 5:30 am PT on Tuesday, with the contenders in the 10 big categories announced at 5:38.

“The Bachelor” host Chris Harrison, Entertainment Weekly’s Dave Karger, AMPAS boss Tom Sherak and 2010 Best Supporting Actress winner Mo’Nique have been commissioned to wake up early and make reading a list of names slightly more entertaining.

Tuesday’s live show is being put on by Livestream, ABC and the Academy. If you want to catch the big show later this month, you’ll have to tune into actual broadcast TV, though the Oscar Web site will have some red carpet and behind-the-scenes stuff.

“The Social Network” won best picture (drama), best director, screenplay and original score at this year’s Golden Globes, adding to a pile of film critics awards.

If you’re in the mood tomorrow to live stream something more serious (not that honoring a fictionalized version of Mark Zuckerberg’s college indiscretions is light fare), President Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address is Tuesday evening. Starting at 6 pm PT, Obama’s speech will play live on the White House Web site alongside charts, graphs and other content coordinated with the subject matter.

Embedded below is a placeholder that should include the Oscar nomination livestream when it starts. See you then!

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Update: The nominations are out, and “The Social Network” received eight, including best picture.

The movie was chosen for the group’s best picture award, while David Fincher got best director, Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg was named best actor and Aaron Sorkin received the best screenplay award.

The win is a strong indication that the movie is going to be the one to beat at the Oscars, which take place February 27. Nominations for the top prize for movies will be announced January 25.

“The Social Network” has already won awards from critics in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Indiana and the National Board of Review.

It has also been nominated for multiple Golden Globe Awards, and was named to the American Film Institute’s top 10 of 2010.

(See the movie’s Web site for a thorough list of awards and nominations.)

Stay tuned!

Plans are underway for a Hulu-only mini-show slated to run on the video site daily, offering up zippy commentary about TV and pop culture.

Some limited details: The show, which is casting now, will run five minutes an episode Monday through Friday. It’s supposed to offer “a quick and humorous survey of the past 24 hours of Media and pop culture.”

In other words, think of all of the TV shows that do something like this already–pretty much everything that runs on E! and half of what runs on VH-1–and shrink it down to a bite-size Web creation. They’re not reinventing the wheel here.

You can glean a tiny bit more about the show, via a casting call ad, at the bottom of this post. An actress who auditioned last week tells us the sessions were “mobbed.”

(Of course! But note that anyone who does get the gig won’t be hitting the jackpot–$1,000 a week, leave your SAG card at home.)

I’m assuming that “HD Films,” the show’s producer, is the same studio that is already producing “The Jace Hall Show,” a Web show about videogames, which runs on Hulu and other sites. Jace Hall is listed as a producer on this one, too.

Hulu rep Elisa Schreiber declined to discuss the show, telling me via email that “we’re not sharing any details because it’s still in the early stages.”

So why do we care? Because Hulu’s primary purpose in life, for now, is to provide a place for people to watch bona fide TV shows on the Web–and primarily shows from its three broadcast TV owners: News Corp.’s Fox, GE’s NBC and Disney’s ABC. (News Corp. also owns this Web site.)

But it has also been dabbling in Web originals over the past year or so: See “The LXD,” and “If I Can Dream.”

Hulu now has an original show in the works starring Whitney Port (who was on “The Hills,” Google tells me), designed to promote Mattel’s Ken doll (really). And there’s something coming from Ford and the producing team behind “The Amazing Race.”

The through-line behind all of this stuff: Webby takes on reality shows, which are cheap to produce for conventional TV and  even more so on the Web (again, note the union-free note on the casting info below).

Nothing revolutionary, but it does point to an interesting question: At what point does the line between the best Web video and mediocre TV disappear?

No one thinks the Web is going to replace TV at its best–expensive original fare like “Lost” or “Glee,” or big-time events like the Super Bowl and the Oscars. But there’s not that much high-end, original stuff on TV.

And lots and lots of your programming grid is filled with repeats, which the Web can do just fine. And then lots of less exciting, and less expensive, fare like “The Biggest Loser” and the like, which the Web hasn’t done. Yet.

But there’s no reason that it couldn’t. And when and if that starts happening with some frequency, there will be even less reason to keep paying for expensive TV packages….

Here’s the text from the casting notice (click to enlarge):

Nielsen says 13.3 percent of Americans who watched the Oscars also used the Web during this month’s telecast and that 14.5 percent of those watching last month’s Super Bowl did the same thing (see table below; click to enlarge).

These numbers are both up from last year, and the only surprise here is that they’re so low. But remember: Not everyone spends as much time on the Web as you do–a third of the country still doesn’t have broadband.

Nielsen says that online/offline viewers spent the majority of their Web time at Facebook, Google (GOOG) and Yahoo (YHOO), which isn’t surprising. It’s a little bit interesting that Twitter.com doesn’t crack Nielsen’s list of Top 10 domains for simultaneous viewing. But perhaps most people who Twitter during TV time are doing so from their phones.

Speaking of which, many thanks to all of you who have refrained from Twittering during and immediately after “Lost” this season–my stream has been nice and quiet so far. Or perhaps no one’s watching “Lost” anymore. I wouldn’t blame them; this season has been frustrating even by the show’s frustrating standards.

Squint and you can see the Apple (AAPL) co-founder and CEO in the middle of shot, standing to the right of the woman in a white dress (click to enlarge).

Thanks to CNET’s intrepid Caroline McCarthy for spotting the shot. I asked Sutton to expand on the caption and he obliged, via email:

“I was a part of the Kodak red carpet guest blogger access. Steve looked surprised when I was yelling his name. I was the only one yelling from my section of the bleachers. Others were like, ‘Who’s he and why am I yelling,’ because he’s not in a movie.”

Jobs, of course, does have a good reason to be at the Oscars: Pixar, the company he sold to Disney (DIS) in 2006, is in the running for multiple Academy Awards. Note that he does not seem to be carrying a sack of iPads to hand out.

And here’s a more intimate shot of Jobs at the event, via Jon M. Chu (who is the director of something called “The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers,” which has an Oscar performance planned for the evening).

On the off chance that the Jobs sightings and photos are part of a baroque prank/publicity stunt, I’ve asked Apple PR to confirm his attendance at tonight’s awards.

Oh. And here’s first iPad commercial, which ran during the broadcast (via Engadget):

John got to cover the outset of an epic conflict this week. It has all the marks of a mega-hit. It’s about property, philosophy and most important, resources that both parties need in order to survive. It’s a shame the Oscar deadline has already passed, because the coming battle between Apple and HTC might have challenged a particular blue blockbuster in the category “best use of technology in a screenplay.” They do seem to share the same basic plot structure, anyway. Shortly after reporting on Apple’s (AAPL) opening salvo at HTC, John stepped back to offer some perspective on the conflict and guessed that maybe, just maybe, Apple was really firing at Google (GOOG), as the Android based devices are the subject of Apple’s legal scrum with HTC. Who doesn’t love a good proxy war? It was an Apple-a-day this week at Digital Daily, as John rounded things out with a post about the on-again-off-again release date for iPad. The iPad certainly cometh, but the confusion as to when led to some serious chatter in the blogosphere. Read John’s post. He’s got it all figured out.

BoomTown wasted no time getting back in the groove after returning from meeting all the Mexi-geeks in Monterrey. Upon arriving back in soggy San Francisco, she descended upon the AAAA. This year’s advertising agency confab was all about the social, Kara reported. Weekend Update wonders if Kara was forced to watch preroll video ads about Lipitor and Kiva before she was allowed to change interviewees. That’s the ultimate social advertising. Midweek, Kara posted about a viral video that gets the distinction of being the only Oprah product ever consumed willingly by Weekend Updaters. The short piece on Roger Ebert getting his own voice back seems like the best possible application of technology to better a life, and it’s just darn cool. Kara finished the week with a post about Google’s purchase of DocVerse. The move represents a shot right at the heart of Microsoft’s (MSFT) flagship software package, and is just another weapon in the arms race for what may be a coming war in the cloud.

MediaMemo was on the case of the missing comedy this week, when Peter reported that Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart had left the Hulu lineup. Their shows represent only a small fraction of the total Hulu content monster. A small, hilarious viewer-drawing, ad-selling fraction. Peter moved on to a quick update on the semi-empire that is the Huffington Post. Arianna is doing well, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 28 million unique visitors in January according to comScore (SCOR). The “get huge” model may work for start-ups out here in Silicon Valley, but everyone in the media world is waiting to see if she can monetize that monster. Toward the end of the week, Peter talked with Jeff Smith of Smule about why he won’t be developing mobile games for Android anytime soon. Maybe Google has more to fight with than just Apple.

The Mossberg contingent was in overdrive this week and treated us all not only to the normal triad of great posts but to a Mossblog as well. Personal Technology pushed into a new frontier, as Walt wrote about the emerging market for wireless computer-to-TV video transfer. He tested two separate systems, Wi-Di and PlayOn which both aim to put video from your computer on to an enabled TV. Both worked as advertised, though each has drawbacks, in either technology or content limitations. Walt tells it like it is, and Weekend Update has a feeling that he’ll be telling us more about these technologies as they mature in the consumer space. The Mossblog this week has some informative video of Walt discussing Internet video displayed on TV. He appeared on the WSJ’s Digits show to talk about wireless display technology, but said we hadn’t reached a tipping point yet, partly because we hadn’t reached the necessary market penetration. Mossberg’s Mailbox had even more questions in it about Quicken for Mac this week, and the news was much the same as in last week’s column: The new Quicken for Mac isn’t up to par with the version, so think hard before you buy. Katie offered analysis of yet another 3-D device that may be coming to a lap near you. She reviewed two laptops, one from Asus and one from Acer, both with 3-D display technology. She had good things to say about the devices as solid laptops in their own right, but she’s still not sold on the glasses.

Get your popcorn ready, throw on your 3-D glasses, and wait for the lights to dim. The new week is about to start.

But you may still end up watching the awards or find yourself in conversation with someone who cares about them. Or just making small talk, or whatever.

So here are a couple of data points you can bruit about, if you’d like. They come via Nielsen, which is trying to measure online “buzz” about the films and actors up for awards.

What is “buzz”? In this case, Nielsen is monitoring user-generated chatter about the Oscars over the last month. Whether it’s Twitter, blog comments, discussion boards, etc. Note that Nielsen is just reporting on volume here, not sentiment. So it’s possible that many of the people talking about “Avatar” hate it.

But they are talking about it, more than anything else (see chart below; click to enlarge).

Go ahead and draw your own conclusions. Mine: Not at all interesting that “Avatar” is generating chatter since it’s the most popular–or at least the highest-grossing–movie of all time. But barely anyone has seen “The Hurt Locker”–at least compared with, say, “The Blind Side.” So that’s interesting. Right?

And here’s Nielsen’s assessment of the Best Actor and Best Actress categories:

Again, many more people saw George Clooney saunter in and out of airports than saw Jeff Bridges getting drunk, so that means…I don’t know. Maybe they’re talking about Jeff Bridges because all the Oscar TV shows and articles are predicting a win for Jeff Bridges. That would make sense, right?

Meanwhile, an update on the three million New York-area TV watchers who may not be able to watch the Oscars on ABC if Disney (DIS) and Cablevision (CVC) can’t work out their spat: There is no update.

At the moment the two companies are still sending out press releases that are supposed to be incendiary. But they are, in fact, very dull.

The characters change, but the script is always the same. A programmer wants more money from a cable provider and threatens to pull its shows. See: Viacom (VIA) versus Time Warner Cable (TWC), News Corp. (NWS) versus Time Warner Cable, Cablevision versus Scripps Networks (SNI), Etc. Etc.

Spoiler Alert! The conclusion is always the same too: Both sides compromise, and cable subscribers get to watch their shows–in exchange for paying ever-increasing fees.

My interest here is whether either side wants to use the Web as a weapon in the fight given that the Internet is an increasingly plausible alternative for TV watchers who don’t want to pay for cable. Last year, for instance, Time Warner Cable showed its customers how to get Fox shows–and everything else–onto their TVs via the Internet (you can still see those instructions here).

The problem, of course, is that by highlighting the Web option, both sides run the risk of undermining their market power in the long run. If couch potatoes really do get used to the idea of consuming their shows using their PCs, it makes it easier for them to tell both programmers and the cable guys to pound sand.

For now, though, both sides are leaving the Web alone while they rattle their swords.

Disney (DIS) reminds Cablevision’s three million New York-area viewers that they’ll still be able to get ABC shows via an old-fashioned TV antenna. But the network doesn’t mention ABC.com or Hulu, its joint venture with Fox and GE’s (GE) NBC. And Cablevision (CVC), at least so far, hasn’t brought up the Web either.

Both sides are clearly betting this gets resolved before Sunday night when ABC is set to broadcast the Oscars–not coincidentally, one of the only programs you really have to watch live.

Here’s Disney’s opening salvo:

[Image credit: Alexindigo]

Here’s a very funny online video by the always quirky Fine Brothers in which they reprise a good bit–this time, spoiling 50 Hollywood movies from 2009 in under four minutes, in anticipation of the Oscars on Sunday night.

My favorite and much repeated line in the spoof: “Just like in real life, who would have guessed it?”

This week, BoomTown has found an interesting chart to peruse about the loyalty people have for their smart-phone apps.

The takeaway for developers: Try to stay in Quadrant I!

In other words, Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars territory–it’s where they love you, they really love you.

To grok this, you’ll need to view the two charts below from Flurry Analytics, a mobile analytics and monetization tools start-up in San Francisco, from a blog post titled “Mobile Apps: Models, Money and Loyalty.”

Flurry used a sample size of 2,000 live applications and 200 million user sessions on the IPhone and iPod touch from Apple (AAPL), Google (GOOG) Android, Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIMM), and other platforms.

In Quadrant I are reference, news, and weather apps, which are frequently accessed and retained longer.

Quadrant IV is also good, with high retention rates–education, social networking, medical–but less frequent weekly use.

Here are the charts (click on them to make them larger):