BoomTown began this week with a little D-gazing to get us all amped for the coming conference. She posted a video of Steve Jobs from way back in the days of D2 (we are about to enjoy D8 at the end of the month). Jobs has agreed to make an appearance at this year’s D as well, so we can look forward to yet another savory interview. Kara followed with a post about John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, who is leaving the software world for Greylock Partners. Lilly will continue to serve on Mozilla’s board and is leaving at a time when Firefox, Mozilla’s signature product, is enjoying an all-time high market share near 25 percent. Toward the end of the week, Kara revealed that semistealth start-up Kakai, which is now called Kno, will debut its student-focused e-reader at the upcoming D Conference. Weekend Update wonders if this one will have legs since you can basically draw a straight line between the new reader and the Web’s largest online textbook renter, Chegg.

Early in the week, Digital Daily brought readers another installment from Apple’s (AAPL) “oh brother” file. It seems that yet another prototype iPhone made it out of grand master Steve’s grasp, this time in Vietnam. The identity of this particular phone has not been confirmed, but it sure looks like the real thing, right down to the chips inside. Yep. This one got dismantled too. In other smartphone news, John reported later in the week that Google would be closing its online Nexus One store in favor of selling the phones through retailers like everyone else. We guess they should have put “beta” up on that page too. That gets rid of some of the sting. On Friday, John closed things out with another tidbit to throw on the privacy concern pile. It came out that Google’s (GOOG) famous Street View cars (yep, the ones that take all the pictures) have been collecting data on all the Wi-Fi networks they drive past. That in itself isn’t news. We knew they were doing that. What’s new is that they were inadvertently gathering “payload data,” or the actual data being passed over unsecured networks while they drove past. This puts Google in a tough spot of having data it doesn’t want just when everyone is getting up in arms over privacy violations. We’re curious to see what the “un-evil” response to this oversight will be.

MediaMemo started things off early with coverage of President Obama’s comments on electronic distraction. It seems the president is a little concerned that the prevalence of iThings in the world today is going to distract the attention of the world’s future problem solvers. He might have a point, but isn’t this the president who was so attached to his BlackBerry that he ordered a special, supersecret encrypted one so that he could keep using it after he’d been given the nuclear launch codes? Just saying. Later on in the week, we all got word that one of TV’s longest-running franchises, “Law and Order,” will be canceled after 20 years. While it may not mean much to the viewing audience, as we still have seemingly endless spinoffs to hold us (not to mention 20 years of reruns), it is big news for the countless actors who filled their downtime playing junkies, murderers and victims. Peter rounded things out by bringing a little sense to the convoluted story of the iPhone leak. The much-needed wrap-up helped us sort out the whole sordid tale and make sense of all the finger pointing.

Walt covered interesting new ground this week with some digital products to help you organize all the vital data in your life. Both Orggit and InformationSafe aim to help you keep track of important records with cloud and local-storage solutions. Walt admitted that it is early days for these types of services, but sees promise in what they offer as life in the cloud gets more complicated. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt demystified the “n” and “g” differences in Wi-Fi tech and gave some advice on the new line of superfast laptops on the way from Apple. Weekend Update will admit to being a confused more than once by all the wireless options, but no more, thanks to Walt. Katie rounded out our week of coverage with a review of the new Sony (SNE) “Dash,” a passive countertop Web device that aims to bring another Web-connected screen into the room. Katie is a little skeptical of the device, as it seems to have more than a few bugs and doesn’t really have a niche to fill.

We’re counting down to D8 and the numbers are getting pretty small now. Weekend Update can’t wait to see what Kara and Walt will drag out of the world’s tech leaders. We guess you’ll just have to stay tuned along with us.

Kara opened the week with a bier-trinken good time at Gourmet Haus Staudt, better known as the infamous iPhone bar. Everyone has been speculating about Jobs’ reaction to the whole debacle, and midweek Kara broke the news that we may just get to ask him. Kara revealed that Mr. Jobs will be one of the headline interviews at the upcoming D8 conference. Kara rounded out the week with some great analysis of Yahoo’s (YHOO) concerning brain drain. Kara will have to ask Carol Bartz about it when they see each other next–hopefully she’ll let us watch.

Digital Daily this week featured posts on a series of high-profile acquisitions from everyone’s favorite tech giant. John reported early in the week that Apple (AAPL) acquired Intrinsity, the firm behind those A4 chips driving iPads everywhere. Flexing their market-cap muscle again, Apple also bought up digital assistant software maker Siri, whose iPhone app can do things like call you a cab or find you a restaurant, all via voice. John finished out the week with some post-game analysis of what the fallout from the HP-Palm acquisition will be. We can be sure of one thing, HP (HP) won’t force Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein to handle an iPhone. They give him hives.

Media Memo, fresh off new-baby hiatus, opened up the week with news of the acquisition of the cell phone insider
Boy Genius Report by Jay Penske, who will add it to his already rich stable of blogs including that of celeb gossiper Nikki Finke and Bonnie Fuller. Midweek, Peter took a look at Hulu’s numbers after a Comscore (SCOR) report came out saying they were gaining ground, despite losing both Stewart and Colbert as traffic drivers. Peter rounded things out with a post we’ve been waiting for since we got word of the Flashless iPad. It looks like Wired is going back to the drawing board and rebuilding its magazine application on a platform that isn’t banned.

Walt focused on computers of the folding variety this week with a column that runs down all the things you need to know beforebuying a laptop today. The mailbox was full to the brim, and Walt dispatched the questions with his usual all-knowing ease. Weekend Update was particularly interested in hearing all about using the Kindle in Japan. Katie dedicated her post this week to all things video chat. Weekend Update is a little creeped out by the whole thing, but we may have to get used to it if that next iPhone has a camera on the front side.

Stay tuned for the coming weeks. We’re ramping up for the D8 conference, and this is the best time of year to be an AllThingsD reader.

AllThingsD was reenacting its own Stanley Cup playoff situation this week, as team captain Kara kept us going strong even while she had a man in the box. John Paczkowski was still out when East Coast defender Peter Kafka got the whistle from his wife that it was time to bring another little media man into the world. That left Kara alone on the ice here, but she shifted into a whole new gear and AllThingsD didn’t miss a beat.

BoomTown was chock full of awesomeness this week, starting with some of Kara’s signature “gets” at Chirp, the first annual Twitter conference. She talked to @ev, @biz, and a bunch of tweeps about the future of 140 characters. She moderated a panel with David Pakman, who coined a new term Kara thought was right-on enough to warrant a post. Weekend Update is on board with this whole new “right-time Web.” Kara bounded out of Chirp as fast has her wings could carry her and caught up with Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, the year-ish-old high-profile venture firm. For good measure, Kara rounded out the week with a quick post about Yahoo’s (YHOO) ongoing effort to buy up Foursquare, the social-geo-hipster game guys, and then another about Palm trying to put a cork in its threatened brain drain.

Digital Daily was off this week, but there was a little pinch-hitting going on early for Microsoft’s (MSFT) “social” event that turned out to be the release of the Kin 1 and Kin 2 smartphones. We liveblogged, shot pictures and even got a little video together. iPhone killers? No. Interesting move by a software giant? Definitely.

Before little Kafka made his debut, Peter got a full bundle of posts up in MediaMemo. He covered the ad angle on the new Twitter revenue model, posting that certain members of the twitterati had been reaching out to Madison Avenue in time for the ad platform release. Peter also reported that Harbinger Capital is in for a serious stake at Palm (PALM) after the portable device company announced that it is looking for buyers. Peter was firing off his last post about True/Slant CEO Lewis DVorkin taking some time to help with a Forbes redesign when he got the call and it was time to go cover another event-the birth of the newest Kafka.

Walt and Katie never miss a beat, and this week we got their typical trifecta of greatness. Personal Technology was all about watching Web video on TV. The Kylo browser and Loop remote were up for review, each getting high marks for working to bring Web content to the big screen, or at least make the process more seamless. There were some rough spots for both, but Walt seemed upbeat on the concept overall. Mossberg’s Mailbox had a few gems in it this week relating to readability in sunlight, the Kindle v. iPad debate, and use of iTunes to deal with synching nonmedia data. Katie ran anchor this week and reviewed a pair of interesting devices designed to keep you attached to your more expensive toys. The ZOMM and Phone Halo both aim to keep you connected to your phone by pairing it with Bluetooth and alerting you if they are ever out of range. Both devices had their pluses and minuses, but Katie brought it back to reality at the end, reminding readers that there’s always another way to find a lost cellphone: Borrow someone else’s phone and call it.

We’ll be playing with a full team next week, as Peter and John come out of the penalty box and back onto the ice. Imagine what we can do with a full squad! Stay tuned.

Kara started off the week by dispatching yours truly to join Robert Scoble in the overnight line outside the Palo Alto Apple (AAPL) store. There were a couple dozen padinistas who braved the cold to get theirs first, and we put together some videos of all the fanboy nerdery. Kara then jetted off for a couple of her signature high-profile interviews and reported back to all of us at AllThingsD. She confirmed suspicion that Yahoo (YHOO) CTO Ari Balogh will be leaving for family reasons and dropped names of possible successors. She rounded out her road trip with a Flip video of Kevin Johnson, CEO of Juniper Networks (JNPR). They talked about the iPad, as Johnson is a pretty good guy to comment on how it may affect things like, say, networks.

John took the week off, but Digital Daily was alive and kicking, at least during the Apple OS 4 event. We liveblogged all the action from Jobs, Forstall and Schiller, right from 1 Infinite Loop.

MediaMemo was abuzz with an exclusive from the West Coast early in the week. We ran into Chatroulette creator Andrey Ternovskiy in line while waiting for our iPad, and he gave MediaMemo a sneek peek of coming attractions for the Internet meem du jour. Peter then moved on to some good news about advertising, for a change. It seems that Internet ads are coming back, if not as fast as media types might hope. In the same vein, Peter posted a breakdown of Apple’s new iAd platform and what it may mean for the media industry, how it might make developers money and how it wont suck.

Walt devoted his column this week to an all-iPad followup. He answered some burning questions about the iPad and made clear some points that had even confused Weekend Update. Mossberg’s Mailbox was full of questions about steaming video, computers for school and running Windows on a Mac. Walt always gives the straight talk, and the questions answered this week were no exception. Katie also did the iPad shuffle this week, writing a review of some of the best apps currently offered for the new device. She broke them down well in writing and even threw in a little video for good measure. She never disappoints.

That’s all for now from Weekend Update. We’re going to go curl up with our iPad and Wi-Fi and not come out till June. Or at least until Kara makes us come back next week for another installment.

In case you are not yet worked up into enough of a lather, let Weekend Update help out. iPad apps are hitting the App Store, Jobs and Schmidt are brunching together and Apple (AAPL) has run out of iPads for Day One. Developers are leaking screenshots of their latest “HD” apps, and the whole of Silicon Valley is about to explode in a sonorous collective oh yeahhh, as if everyone in a 100-mile radius were dipping into a hot tub simultaneously.

But before we can report on pad-rapture oh-10, AllThingsD has one more week of hard-hitting tech news to bring right to your humorously ancient laptop screen.

Here we go.

BoomTown started off the week meeting with VC Kevin Efrusy. Efrusy, who is at Accel Parteners (best known as the Facebook VC), is a tech geek of the highest order. You don’t get a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford without having some chops. Kara coaxed the typically behind-the-curtains Efrusy into one of her signature Flip video interviews. She then covered Amit Singh’s move away from Oracle (ORCL) to head up Google’s (GOOG) international sales team. Kara rounded out the week with one of her reliably awesome viral video posts, this time about TED presenter, TV Chef and owner of the world’s largest tongue, Jamie Oliver. We dare you to watch the video and not stare at it.

This just in (Weekend Update is holding our finger to our ear for no reason): In a rare Saturday post, Digital Daily is reporting that launch day iPads are sold out. We’ve heard a rumor that AllThingsD interns will be dispatched, in lieu of staff writers, to wait in overnight lines for customers waiting waiting to buy iPads at Apple stores. More to come. In an awesome techno-geopolitical twist, John wrote about China’s Unicom dumping the Google search engine from it’s Android smartphones. This confirms Weekend Update’s suspicion about the coming robo-pocalypse. Even if you cut the head off an Android, the body lives on. And in final preparation for the big launch, John reported that Apple has finally taken possession of the iPad trademark, which had previously belonged to Fujitsu. No word on what that little chestnut cost, but we’ll bet it was more than Fujitsu had been making on the original iPad, an eight-year-old point-of-sale device that runs Windows.

MediaMemo dipped below the murky surface of Internet fame this week to try to tease out the identity of Merton, the Chatroulette improv piano guy. Turns out “Merton” is not Ben Folds as some suspected, but we’re glad there is someone left out there with a sense of humor. Peter went back to school later in the week to visit with the most recent graduates of Paul Graham’s Y-Combinator start-up school. He talked with NewsLabs creator Paul Biggar, who hopes to save journalism by supplying freelancers with the kind of support they might have gotten at, say, a newspaper. He wasn’t too clear on specifics, but he did say that revenue wasn’t going to be all about the ads.

Out in Mossberg Land, Walt and Katie had a full week of reviews of the stuff you care about. Katie gave readers a much needed roundup of a half-dozen sites that bring power (and discounts) to the people through group buying. She helps even the most un-savvy deal-hunter figure things out by breaking down sites like Groupon and Woot. Walt unboxed a new Tivo (TIVO) this week to have a peek at what the DVR company has been cooking. This iteration of the popular television-recording device was billed as mixing Web and TV content in new ways. Walt reported that the new device doesn’t actually have additional Web features compared previous models. The company did change the user interface, however, but Walt wasn’t entirely sold on the new version. Finally, Mossberg’s Mailbox had hints of mountains of mail to come, leading off this week with an iPad question. Walt answered as completely as he could, but for now, the iPad questions are based on Apple’s claims, not actual product testing. Walt went into detail over a question about a Lenovo Thinkpad he tested, and gave some more details to a reader who wanted to rid her browser of unwanted cookies.

Weekend Update wishes everyone a glorious first full week of spring, and asks that readers keep pleasant thoughts in their mind about the weather in Palo Alto this Friday night. We’ll probably be out there, rain or shine, but no one likes wet geeks.

Earlier this week, Google (GOOG) launched its App store, er, marketplace. Before the announcement, Kara shot a video with Manymoon, a start-up funded my Harrison Metal that is doing work in the social-productivity space. Its online tools are among the more popular on Google’s fledgling app aggregator, but it remains to be seen how the venture will fare. In a case of foreshadowing, or not, Kara covered the bump between Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and Bill Gates this week. Slim, a major creditor of the New York Times (NYT), bumped Bill Gates from the top spot of the Forbes billionaire list by a mere half-billion, or as Weekend Update likes to call it, about 200 times most American’s lifetime earning potential. Kara rounded out the busy week with a post about wireless music player maker Sonos landing $25 million from Index Ventures. Kara even managed to get a lunch date with Mike Volpi of Index, who now also sits on the Sonos board.

John was out this week, but left us all with a provocative entry about the coming siege of HTC by the Apple (AAPL) horde. An analysis by Deutsche Bank says HTC may not have much support for its arguments in the freshly pressed patent suit. John will be back on Monday. We can’t wait to see how this shakes out.

Peter was posting like a madman this week and was on his A game for sure. He caught some news from Twitter that might have easily been swept under the mat. According to the Twitter blog, the company has come up with a plan to battle some of the phishing that’s been plaguing the twitterverse. The compay has decided to reshorten suspected attack links so that it can track them to their origin and decide if they need to be deleted. Creepy? Maybe. Effective? We’ll see. It was a tough week for record company EMI, and MediaMemo was on the case. The giant music label lost viral video mavens OK Go. Peter reminded us that OK Go hasn’t been as viral when it comes to album sales, but the band’s departure is certainly a hit to beleaguered EMI. Peter finished up this week by spending some valuable time on Chatroulette, though not in the way you’re thinking. He covered a conversation that the New York Times had with the Web video chat service creator, Andrey Ternovskiy. Seems that while the 17-year-old isn’t looking to sell Chatroulette right now, he would like Google to pay him the ad money so far denied him on account of his age.

Personal Technology was a little countercyclical this week as Walt reviewed an e-reader device much nearer to the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle than to the iPad. While Walt had some complimentary things to say in regard to the IREX DR800SG e-reader’s design and readability, he’s not a fan overall. The device’s software feels clumsy and it lacks a robust way to download new materials. While the bigger size and sleeker design may be the shape of things to come, Walt put this device squarely behind the Kindle in the purchase line. The Mossblog had a new post for the second week in a row, this time with a video of Walt on WSJ.com’s “Digits” talking about what to consider when purchasing an e-reader. Readability, battery life and ease of purchasing books are what it’s all about, but thanks to the magic of the Mossblog, you can check it out for yourself. Mossberg’s Mailbox featured a few important clarifications this week. Walt fielded queries on AppleTV, securely wiping hard drives and one more magicJack question. Katie got her hot little hands on Motorola’s (MOT) Backflip this week and said the new smartphone, which strangely runs an outdated version of the Android OS, gets high marks for innovative thinking, even if the execution has some bugs. The device offers users a way to use the touchscreen without actually touching it, in this case by placing a touch-sensitive area on the back of the device. The Backflip also features a full keyboard, though all of those features working together in a physical way was cumbersome at times, Katie said. She gave it 6 of 10, but looks forward to more innovation in the space.

That’s all from Weekend Update. We’re staying on the job here in Silicon Valley to keep you up to date with all the tech news, even if you are busy eating ribs, watching bloggers give presentations and listening to indie rock music under the Texas sky. You keep Austin weird. AllThingsD will keep you up to date.

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.

Kara was full-tilt geek this week with an early post from TED’s viral video division. It seems Bill Gates told the assembled geekerati his one true wish. Wanna know what it is? We guess you’ll have to watch the video to find out. Kara then gave us some perspective on Yahoo (YHOO) playing social catch-up with its recent Twitter deal. Everyone may be muttering “too little, too late,” but it could be worse. The Internet giant could have tried to release its own social network. Kara then jetted off to sunny Mexico to give a keynote at SISCTI, Mexico’s major infotech conference. We’re hoping she brings us back a sombrero.

Everyone is chattering about Web-delivered video this week, but Peter brought some real perspective to all the racket. It looks like Walmart (WMT) is coughing up $100 million for Vudu in its theoretical bid to compete with the iTunes store. That’s a way bigger ticket than had been expected, but it looks like the world’s largest retailer is getting some serious skin in the game. Midweek, Peter brought us a story of triumph from the world of newspapers. It seems that the financial situation at the Washington Post (WPO) was “less bad” last quarter. The bleeding has slowed, but the patient is still in the ICU. Peter rounded things out with a dose of reality for Apple’s (AAPL) otherwise magical rhetoric. Billions of songs, billions of apps and download volume that leaps every quarter do not equal impressive profits, apparently. Don’t feel too bad for Steve though. We all know songs and apps are just fuel for the iFire.

Digital Daily started off the week all aflutter with news that Twitter is pumping out 600 tweets per second. That means if all those tweets are paced end to end, multiplied by 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day, Twitter still isn’t making any money. After a slew of posts early in the week, John tied up Palm coverage with some thoughts on “Project Jumpstart.” It seems Palm (PALM) should be thinking about a different sort of project, maybe one that involves getting bought. Finally, in everyone’s favorite category, John covered some more Apple speculation in the iPad afterglow. It looks like analysts are expecting a refreshed iPhone that will cost less and potentially have some new gesture-based features.

Walt’s column was of particular interest this week, especially if you’ve got finances to deal with or a certain gray-bearded uncle to pay in mid-April. Walt gave the rundown on the latest Mac version of Quicken. The Mac-Quicken relationship has always been tricky, and people (Weekend Updaters included) have used some tricky workarounds to keep using the Windows version of Intuit’s (INTU) popular finance program. Sadly, the latest version for Mac doesn’t really close the gap, and Walt wasn’t too up on making the switch. Mossberg’s Mailbox was full of magicJack mail this week–sort of like the leftovers from last week’s wild VOIParty. It turns out that it’s not the best idea to try to fax over the magicJack, even if it does sort of work for some people some of the time. That settles it. Weekend Update is gonna get one and hook it up to our Clapper-activated file-server.

Finally, Katie brought the cloud down to ground level this week with a review of Pogoplug, a device that lets you host and stream your files from a home hard drive over the Internet to your devices. You can be your own cloud, sort of, and Katie said she liked it just fine. Low-level clouds…maybe we can get the term fog computing to catch on.

Stay safe, be well, and have a look at the some of the stuff coming out of Chile this weekend. This time it was Santiago, but AllThingsD HQ sits on the ring of fire too.

We’ve all seen it, that spiro-graphed, color-splotched invitation to Apple’s Jan. 27 event at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. Weekend Update isn’t on the inside, but we hear rumors that Jobs will storm the stage dressed as Moses, carrying the new tablet, which will be made of stone, under his robes. Apparently, that’s where it’s been hiding all along. Either that, or Weekend Update is going a little nuts from “tablet fatigue.”

Before we got to rumors, plans and all important educated guesses, AllThingsD spent the week doing reporting about real companies with products you can actually buy.

Walt’s column wasn’t exactly its normal, gadgety self this week. Maybe he’s saving his strength. Instead of the newest thing that won’t be leaving your pocket, he covered a service that claims to help you remember everything. Evernote, with its adorable little elephant logo, aims to be a sort of digital filing cabinet in the cloud, allowing you to save information, images, notes and just about anything else that can be digitized. Walt had good things to say all around, even if the available apps didn’t give every device the same functionality. Weekend Update liked the auto text-recognition feature that makes pictures of text searchable. We’ll never carry a business card home again. Neither rain nor snow nor tablet rumors can keep Walt from his appointed rounds at Mossberg’s Mailbox, and this week he grabbed a couple questions about e-readers, Microsoft’s (MSFT) Internet Explorer 8 and the right laptop for the young and litigious. Walt cleared up the myth that e-books can’t highlight text (even if they don’t do it in color yet), and then moved on to a question about what IE8 refers to as “accelerators.” Before tying up the mailbag strings for anther week, he also gave counsel to a future counselor. He recommended a moderately priced Windows 7 laptop or a Macbook for the incoming law student, though he suggested it would be a good idea to check with the school and current students for specific needs. Weekend Update thinks that last bit is extra good advice. Katie was busy this week testing the latest Bluetooth earpiece from Aliph’s Jawbone line. The Jawbone Icon is the first earpiece to run with a software package that allows the addition of apps just for the earpiece. Overall Katie thought the Icon represented a step forward for Bluetooth earpieces but hopes for upgrades to the app suite will bring more robust features. Oh yeah, and she was glad that they finally got rid of those tricky hidden control buttons.

At MediaMemo, Peter gave us the continued saga of e-magazines and the world’s slowest moving electronic construction project. It looks like the Time Inc. e-mag prototypes won’t be part of Wednesday’s Apple (AAPL) event even though there was a lot of hullabaloo over the company’s Sports Illustrated prototype. Condé Nast, on the other hand, has declared its GQ mag-as-app tests a success. No word yet on who will be three-quarters naked on the first 10-inch screen edition. Completing the out-with-the-print, in-with-the-electronic trifecta was Peter’s post about the New York Times pay-wall announcement. The Times claims it will erect a metered wall in 2011, which seems like an awfully long time in the shifting sands of the Web. Outside partners may be playing a factor, and some speculate that the 2011 date is just a declaration that New York Times Company (NYT) will be waiting-and-seeing. Peter doesn’t see what that would accomplish and cites experts who assert that a year isn’t an unreasonable amount of time to build a complex pay wall with necessary features.

Digital Daily was on the ball this week with John’s signature hard-hitting hilarity. His early report proved correct when sources suggested that the EU’s approval of the pending Oracle (ORCL)-Sun (JAVA) acquisition was nigh. Not to leave the tablet news out in the cold, John asked some important questions about a future tablet’s data consumption habits, and thinks it might end up in a class of its own. A big, beautiful screen means big, beautiful images and video, which mean gloriously huge file sizes. Hooray for Wi-Fi. To round out the week, John covered a story about Google (GOOG) co-founders Larry and Sergey planning to sell about $5.5 billion in stock over five years. We’re not sure whether the proper term is “cashing out” or “cashing in,” but they are going to be doing a lot of one or the other. The stock sale will remove them as a two-man majority voting block, but their remaining 47 percent will assure that their velvety duet will continue to ring clearly at board meetings.

Boomtown led off with some viral video for the ages. Jimmy Fallon one-upped the “pants on the ground” video by performing the sarcastic ballad as Neil Young. We’re not sure the audience caught that it was Jimmy right way, in part, because Young was making the TV rounds about that time, and in part, because Fallon does a surprisingly good Neal impression. Kara asked her readers to vote on the new tablet’s name, making “iPad” her own prediction. Kara has an eerie way of getting this stuff right so Weekend Update is gonna go ahead and get that tattoo this weekend. Kara finished the week with a quick post about her trip to Sundance and all the geektastic happenings there. Kara’s Winnebago, which we call “Operation Rolling Thunder,” was crammed full of wife, kids, mom, dog, and maybe a few stowaway Bay Area indie filmmakers who tied themselves to the undercarriage. Read the post; there’s never a dull moment on a Swisher expedition.

AllTingsD is back on Monday with some great new stuff to feed that techie habit. And don’t forget to set your homepages here Tuesday (as if they weren’t already) to see live photos and blogging from Apple’s big unveiling. We’ll see you there, and will be sure to let you know if Jobs does, in fact, part the Bay in his walk from Marin to San Francisco that morning.

BoomTown just could not wait for Carol Bartz’s one-year anniversary at Yahoo (YHOO) to roll around so that the judging could commence. Kara and Carol have a famously sordid history, possibly involving both K-Fed and Brangelina. Even with all that history, Kara was pretty complimentary, giving Bartz an A- in the management category and a C+ for financials. It looks like we’ll be able to tune in for the next few days and catch this ongoing judgefest. Kara moved on from the report card to a quick post declaring her love of network TV drama, and not the “Law and Order” kind. The fight over at NBC for late-night supremacy has been more hilarious than Leno or Conan. Maybe the solution is just to put some network execs on screen in that slot. Kara finished out the week with a conversation with recently departed RealNetworks (RNKW) CEO Rob Glaser. No, he isn’t dead, but he has decided to step down to look into other opportunities. Near as we can tell, they may have something to do with woolly mammoths.

Digital Daily was abuzz this week with the headline story of Google Labs adding yet another feature to Gmail. The new foreign policy tab enables Google (GOOG) to make better publicized international relations decisions than the Federal Government (and do so 20 percent faster if you’re running Chrome). Of course, it wasn’t all Google rattling China’s cage this week. John covered the party over at Intel (INTC) after the chip maker announced a blowout Q4. Finally, readers got a taste of capitalism at its best. Now you can get either America’s best network or America’s best smartphone (not both, of course) at a significant price cut. Thanks to pressure from Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T) dropped rates on certain calling plans.

Peter hit us with lots of video news this week, starting early with the potential partnership between Vudu and Wal-Mart (WMT). The world’s largest retailer seems to be thinking about getting into the Web TV business, or as it calls it, opening a supercenter in your house. Some might be watching for a rerun of the megaretailer’s failed shot at competing with Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes for music sales, but the Web TV space is wide open, so far. Also on the home entertainment front, Peter reported that it looks like Netflix (NFLX) may get a one-up from Nintendo fairly shortly if it can finalize a deal to add the Japanese game giant’s systems to the list of places you can stream its digital video content. Peter rounded things out with a little foreshadowing that YouTube, the Web video 800-pound gorilla, may be edging its way out of the red. Since acquisition, YouTube has never turned a profit, and Google execs have been muttering that they expect that to change shortly. What’s different this week? An industry analyst finally agrees.

If a moment of Mossberg just isn’t enough for you, then you are in luck this week as team Walt and Katie went all the way with three new installments of gadget wisdom. In Personal Technology, Walt reviewed the Sony Reader Daily Edition. While the big improvement to Sony’s (SNE) previous e-reader offering is the addition of wireless connectivity for remote download of articles and books (think Amazon Kindle’s “Whispernet”), Sony also upped the ante in form factor and interface. Overall, Walt was positive and felt the device was a strong offering. Mossberg’s Mailbox was overflowing this week with all kinds of questions from the Nexus One crowd. Walt picked three gems and clarified some points on measly app storage capacity, cell company coverage maps and the nitty-gritty on synching data between the phones and computers. Katie donned her gaiters and bravely waded into the weeds of search technology to shed some light on a major emerging trend—visual search. Both Google and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Bing are offering ways to search for things you can’t recall the name of, doing so by comparing images until you get that aha! moment. This stuff is complicated, but head on over to Katie’s article to figure out how it is going to change the search landscape.

Thanks for reading this week. Weekend Update wishes everyone as much good luck as we had making it out of CES Las Vegas alive.

Oh yeah, and a quick note to Siegfried: We may have one of your tigers, and also Roy.

Only a few days ago, the AllThingsDigital team left home freshly pressed, pockets full of cash (or at least as full as journalists’ pockets get these days) and ready to take on the geek horde at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Walt, Kara, Katie, John and Peter had big plans, but in the end, even a copy of Eric Boyd’s “How to Count Cards Like an MIT Freshman” could not save them. They did do a heck of a lot of reporting on CES though. At least they could bring back some news, if not new Ferraris from the dealership at the Wynn.

BoomTown is no stranger to Vegas, so Kara got settled in quick and spent day one hopping up and down The Strip to see presentations and fiddle with gadgets of all sorts. She caught up with Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer after he rocked his keynote just a little too hard and the power went out. I guess maybe he shouldn’t have turned that tablet prototype all the way up to 11. Kara caught the scoop on Electus’s Ben Silverman and his new deal with Yahoo. It seems the Internet portal has brought him on to “produce content” for its new you-centric efforts. Yahoo (YHOO) is hanging its hopes on Silverman, who had success in his early career producing for TV. Kara even got the other side of the deal, catching up with Jimmy Pitaro, who heads Yahoo’s Vertical Audiences Experience, and SVP of North American Revenue Joanne Bradford. Kara hasn’t actually made it back to the City by the Bay yet, so we’ll keep you posted on when she resurfaces. Vegas can be a cruel mistress.

John was a CES coverage juggernaut this week, filing post after post or indispensable, up-to-the-minute CES nerdery. Early in the festivities, Intel (INTC) opened the door on its newest family of Core processors. With model names like i3 and i5 and with a feature called “Turbo,” you know they have to be good. The real story is that the release of these chips puts Intel a solid year ahead of expected releases from AMD (AMD). Though there were no reported sightings of an iSlate, John did deliver a little nugget from the CES rumor mill about their manufacture. Analysts are expecting the device to have an aluminum chassis when it may or may not be shown to the world at an unconfirmed Apple event Jan. 27. John was our correspondent in the audience at AllThingsDigital‘s Mini D event at CES. While there were posts aplenty, it was comments from Palm (PALM) CEO Jon Rubinstein that have been making the rounds on the Internet. Everyone was a little surprised when Rubinstein claimed never to have used an iPhone. Weekend Update has used a Pixi and we might just believe him.

Peter was in full effect at CES this week, trolling around CES with his sizable entourage. Okay, maybe the MediaMemo groupies aren’t that numerous, but Peter was a reporting rockstar nonetheless. In advance of his onstage interview with Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings, Peter wrote about the deal inked between the rental giant and Warner Bros that would delay availability of new DVD releases by Netflix in exchange for more streamable content from the studio. In a quick breather from CES news, Peter reported that Google’s (GOOG) Eric Schmidt and some other Technorati were en route to dinner with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the State Department. No word on which reality TV stars would be crashing that party. MediaMemo rounded out the week with a post about Hearst’s effort to save its sinking ship. It turns out that when the ship is in trouble, you turn to a Skiff for help. The newspaper giant has reportedly plowed $35 million into the nautically-named e-reader, and Peter brought us a sneak peek.

Our very own Mr. and Ms. CES (Walt and Katie) may come home with blisters and a bad case of “qwerty thumb” after handling so many new gadgets this week. The Personal Technology column was all about Google’s Nexus One, the latest super-smartphone from everyone’s favorite search giant. Walt’s review was a mixed bag for the Nexus One, which got high marks for advancing the Android platform, for forcing the other super smartphone giants to up the ante on their cameras and for some of it’s cool Google-connected features. He wasn’t as upbeat on the menu-driven interface of the phone and had qualms about the four hard-wired buttons. The battery life for some features also wasn’t as competitive as it might have been.

Katie spent some pre-CES time investigating the so-called mega-zoom digital camera offerings from Nikon, Panasonic (PC) and Casio. These in-between cameras aren’t quite so cumbersome as DSLRs but offer serious zooming capabilities with lots of other pro level features. Katie fell in love with the higher picture quality and flexibility, even if the cameras are a little bulkier than the smartphone she’d been using for her photo needs previously. All in all, though, she gave the class of cameras high marks and said they were a great next step for people looking to take their pictures a little farther.

Weekend Update has to get going. Its our job to prepare the ibuprofen, cold medicine, ice, bandages, crutches and bail money that may be needed by the staff as they make their way back from CES. Stay tuned through the weekend for a few more tech revelations, and please try not to play your stereo too loud if you’re driving near our Eureka Valley HQ in San Francisco this week. Hangovers after a gadget binge are the worst.

Walt was back in action after a week off and delivered a New Year’s review of a different sort of netbook. The Litl’s big twist on the now-ubiquitous netbook is its absence of a standard operating system in favor of complete reliance on the cloud. While Walt praised the device for innovative features and thinking, he thought it wasn’t quite there. Also a big sticking point: The Litl is about twice the price of a standard netbook and doesn’t deliver as much.

After a week on hiatus, John was back, and Digital Daily delivered some awesome year-end perspectives. Early in the week, John posted that Nokia’s (NOK) official new year’s message read something like, “Dear Apple: It’s on.” The Nordic electronic behemoth filed legal documents stating that Apple (AAPL) violated Nokia patents on virtually every mobile device it makes. Sounds like it’s going to be a good year for the legal industry. The costs of future litigation may be high, but Apple’s fourth-quarter profits may take some of the sting out. John reported that everyone’s favorite brushed aluminum retailer was expected to post huge Q4 sales figures for 2009, buoyed by record iPhone sales and brisk Mac shipments. John rounded out the week with a post-mortem of the year in venture backed IPOs. The short version is that they were DOA. With only one more venture-backed IPO than in 2008, John is sure it’s going to be a long climb out of the hole.

MediaMemo was a little more positive last week with some posts about the new tech world we’ve created. This new decade may see dollars spent on e-books outpace those spent on hard copies, but Peter reminded all the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle-heads out there that that doesn’t mean that book sales are going up. 2009 saw a major move from buying a book to licensing an electronic copy. It’s a line in the digital sand that etailers may never again want to cross. In a post that brought just the right amount of luster to the old year, Peter reported that retailers had an all-right quarter to round out a so-so year. The superlatives continued. He added that they did a little better than predicted, though only in comparison to last year’s colossally dismal numbers. And to round out the old year and ring in the new, Peter took the reliably self-obsessed temperature of twitter and delivered some tweets bearing the novel hashtag, #10yearsago. It wasn’t all about people’s cats or whatever else people tweet about, as all the world’s tweets seemed to be reflecting on what they were doing back when Y2K was king.

In a year when downs outnumbered ups, Weekend Update’s resolution is a netbook for every lap and a smartphone in every pocket. Happy New Year.

You’d never believe it, you never would know, that Christmas had come, at least not by the snow. All the geeks in the Valley were typing away, forced to take a short breather on this year’s Christmas day. So read on for info, this update, dear friends, as Christmas is over and a new year begins.

In time for Christmas, in technology news, Walt opened his column on product reviews. It seems, I am told, that holiday travel, with two screaming children can make brains unravel. So what could one bring, on a holiday trek, to keep little ones smiling and not cause a wreck? In a guest post by Nick–Wingfield’s his name–we saw Apple’s iTouch, the best in the game. He talked PSPs, and Nintendo DS’s, but versatile and thin, iPod touch got the yesses.

At Mossberg Solution, Katie was typing, a fresh new post to help holiday griping. For if through your window, this holiday season, a new Mac has drifted, you might have a reason. The keyboard is different, and programs won’t close, all those whoosits and whatzits, no one really knows. But Katie was there, she did not take a rest, to show you the way to make your new Mac the best. Remember to “Quit,” on that Mac she said, ’cause those little red x’s won’t put the program to bed. And one final thought, if it doesn’t seem rude, Katie recommended a new attitude. You see, on the Mac, once they’ve been detected, to remove those hard drives, they must first be “ejected.”

It was all about BoomTown, this week in the news, as Kara looked at upcoming interviews. She’s worked much too hard and now they’ve said yes, but the lineup is set for our CES. With Hastings and Rubin and Rubinstien all, we’ll get their big scoops at the big techie ball. If tech shows are cold, with their gadgets galore, Kara posted a post about what’s in store. She traveled to Twitter and talked with Biz Stone, who thinked up some thoughts on how tweeting has grown. He pensively pondered, and stroked his cute chin. Some thoughts on the future, he gave with a grin. Kara was waving goodbye, flying off to the sand, to spend time with her family, mai-tai in hand. But before she got buckled and the jet engines roared, she solved a small mystery while climbing aboard. It seems, oh you see, that she’d gotten some news, about MySpace, Flixster and movie reviews. The two have been talking, oh talking some talk, with Rotten Tomatoes along for the walk. So she boarded the jet, all shiny and tall, waving goodbye to BoomTown for some vacation, if small.

At MediaMemo HQ, it was Peter this week, opening the media door and taking a peek. Over at TMZ, they are all talking sports, it seems they are thinking, a new venture of sorts. The connection makes sense, though the idea is small. They might thank Tiger Woods for starting it all. And just when you thought you’d bought all your gifts, Peter covered that thing that’s on every geek’s lists. It seems to Peter, that maybe, perhaps, the new Apple (AAPL) tablet would need big tablet-sized apps. That’s just what he found, when looking this week; some big app developers had given a tweak. They’ve made everything bigger, for what we don’t know, but whatever it is, the screen sure did grow. Peter covered it all, including abuse. There were gremlins, not elves, about, on the loose. While most new tech start-ups were shopping for backers, the biggest of bigs were snorched on by hackers. Amazon (AMZN), Wal-Mart (WMT), and more in the cloud, got hit by bad geeks, doing things not allowed. They recovered it quickly, and locked up their gate, making sure all your packages still wouldn’t be late.

So as you relax, and come down from the Yule, whether frozen at home or splayed out by a pool, Weekend Update is here, as is AllThingsD, to keep you informed when you’ve got places to be. Please leave us your comments, thoughts, queries and questions. We’d even adore your most helpful suggestions. And enjoy those around you, this holiday season. It’s friends, family and loved ones that give our lives reason.

Kara covered three Web companies this week, two with very 2.0 names and one about as Web 1.0 as it gets. BoomTown caught up with Mark Pincus of Zynga, the social-gaming juggernaut, right after the company raked in about $180 million from private investors. She got into it with Pincus over those questionable “offer” adverts in the video. Kara was back on familiar territory with a post about AOL (AOL) this week. The rebranded company, which went public a little over a week ago after its spinoff from Time Warner, was still trading pretty much flat as of Friday. And Kara rounded it all out with an attempted peek at Google’s Christmas list. Google (GOOG) has reportedly been drooling over Trulia, the real-estate search site valued in the $150 million range. I guess we mere mortals will just have to wait and see if Trulia’s little green pin marks start showing up on Google’s maps.

Before signing off for the holidays, John managed to bring a week of business bah-humbug to Digital Daily. Apple (AAPL) finally poured the last of the concrete for Psystar’s “special shoes” by winning a permanent injunction against the Mac clone maker. The holidays are always stressful, and the seasonal tension has been heating up over graphics processing units between Intel (INTC) and Nvidia (NVDA). John posted a victory lap in the form of a memo from Nvidia CEO Jen Hsun Huang addressing the recent lawsuit brought by the FTC against Intel. John rounded out the week with some somber news from Palm (PALM), as the smartphone maker released a larger than expected loss for the last quarter of 2009. It might be a lean year under Palm’s tree.

Peter reported that Prime Minister Burlusconi wasn’t the only one to get a black eye this week as Google took a major hit in Italian court over copyright violations on YouTube. Mediaset, a broadcaster owned by Burlusconi, is reportedly seeking at least $730 million in damages. No word yet if Mediaset will be demanding cash or the standard Ferraris and underage models arrangement. Also in big media news, Sony (SNE) and News Corp (NWS) struck a content deal that will now be delivered exclusively to Sony’s Readers. Peter reported that the deal wasn’t big enough to change the balance of power in the content-ebook world but was a clear signal about the future direction of the two companies. Finally, peter reported on Google’s apparent hunger for Yelp and all its delicious restaurant ratings. If the acquisition does happen, analysts expect Google to shell out at least $500 million for the right to add another amorphous noun-verb to its arsenal. We need a new part of speech to describe all these noun-verb companies. I’m coining one. From now on, Google is a “Nerb.”

Maybe it was just the anticipation of all that holiday fudge, but Walt was all over a new generation of glucose meters from Bayer. As the name suggests, the Contour USB offers an important departure from its predecessors in that it connects to your home computer to help you track your blood sugar in a more meaningful way. Walt dutifully pricked his finger several times a day to test the unit and pronounced it a welcome direction for the tool that serves millions of users daily. While software issues and Web connectivity are lagging a little behind, Walt was positive on the device, which seems perfect for the diabetic tech-head. Over at Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answered letters about really erasing personal data from a computer before donating an older machine. Readers were also curious about Open Office as an alternative to Microsoft (MSFT) Office for use on a netbook. Walt finished off his bit of pre-Christmas advice by confirming to a reader that Windows 7 could indeed be installed on an Intel-based Mac, just like XP. Katie covered a home stereo gadget that should make the post-Christmas lives of audiophiles a little merrier. The Sonos ZonePlayer S5 can send audio all over your house via your home network. This is the first Sonos product to work right out of the box. The player system gets high marks all around for usability, and is even able to play music form a networked computer’s hard drive, as well as various Internet-based music services.

Weekend Update wished everyone a happy holiday and will be back on Dec. 26 to bring you a wrap-up of all the techie holiday fun you missed while in your nog-coma.

Just like other parts of the world, Silicon Valley has its own special magic during the holidays. We gather together around the old-timey glow of a CRT monitor and drag out our old CDs–especially the ones that say things like “Sign up for AOL now and receive 500 hours free.” With the familiar tone of a dial-up modem log-in on the stereo, we can almost smell the sweet aroma of irrational exuberance of holidays past. It’s this seasonal magic of limitless possibility that captured the tech word this week, featuring the miracle of rebirth, new jobs, and the greatest miracle of all, a possible Verizon (VZ) iPhone.

Kara soothed some furrowed brows with her NPR voice early in the week, before heading out to New York to attend the Diddy-studded relaunch party of Aol (AOL). She said that the real miracle of Aol seems to be its incredible resilience. Weekend Update thinks the 25-year-old online player was bitten by a radioactive roach sometime in the late 80s—it’s the only explanation. In any case, at the event, Kara caught former CBS (CBS) interactive head Quincy Smith on camera briefly and followed with a post about his part in a new niche banking venture. She rounded out BoomTown this week with a wrap-up of the party, featuring a little video chat with good ol’ Woz. Apple (APPL) co-founder Steve Wozniak was his usual jolly self, which got Weekend Update to thinking: He’s friendly, loves gadgets more than any human should and always seems to be sequestered in some workshop, toiling away before emerging for special occasions. We might be getting a little “Glenn Beck” paranoid here, but Woz and Claus do rhyme.

Digital Daily was in the holiday spirit too and brought us some prognostications a la the ghost of Christmas future. AT&T (T) is foretelling a grave future if it can’t get its coverage in order. No “incentive” programs are in place yet, but the company did release an app that allows users to geo-tag locations where service is bad, though we’re not sure yet what they’ll do with the data. More iPhones on the network plus lack of action may slow down connection speeds so much that even Jacob Marley could beat AT&T in a bandwidth race, and we’re pretty sure he’s wrapped in chains. While AT&T grapples with correcting its own network transgressions, John posted about a prognostication from an industry analyst who says that as time progresses we’re increasingly likely to see a Verizon iPhone. While the analysis is complex, the math is simple. Over time, Apple will see fewer and fewer iPhone converts at AT&T as the carrier slowly slurps up those remaining in the bottom of the cup. Moral of the story: We may start hearing that sucking sound between 2010 and 2012. John finished out the week with a snapshot of Aol. There were fewer sugarplums and candy canes and more about the long, wintery walk ahead of the oddly new Internet player. The reality is that shares in the post-spinoff Aol were down a few points, even as management was doing its best to put on a brave face. Sometimes a fruitcake is still a fruitcake, even if you gift-wrap it.

MediaMemo was in the holiday spirit too, even if the world of media is a little more somber this holiday season. Peter started things off with coverage of a new Nielsen report that puts TV viewing down somewhat, even as Internet video viewership rises. While one explanation might be that the screentime balance is finally beginning to shift, Weekend Update has another hypothesis: There are not nearly so many hilarious cat-dressed-as-Santa videos on TV as on the Internet, and that’s just want the holiday viewers want. Arguably, the biggest shakeup this week was over at Facebook, where the elves have been working feverishly on yet another privacy agreement. Peter reported that king elf Zuckerberg thinks sharing is the best default and sort of puts his profile where his mouth is (even if he keeps certain data, like his cellphone number, just for his friends). Finally, not to be left out of the Aol party, Peter also delivered some insight about the shape of things to come with a post about New York Times veteran Saul Hansell heading over to do some kind of work in Aol’s new content factory. No word yet on what sort of gift this particular wise man will be delivering.

Walt and Katie were in full swing this week, working hard to make sense of some of those last-minute gift items. Personal Technology was devoted to the Nook, a much anticipated e-reader from Barnes and Noble (BKS). Similar to the Amazon (AMZN) Kindle in its display capabilities, the Nook sets itself apart, in theory, by augmenting its text display with a small color screen to aid navigation. Walt said this one needed a little more time in the workshop and that future iterations may take better advantage of the interesting dual-screen idea. Mossberg’s Mailbox wasn’t full of tins of cookies yet, but Walt did answer some mail about the end of Microsoft (MSFT) Money for the Mac and recording all your favorite shows onto a computer. He also helped one wayward would-be smartphone owner examine options less costly than the Motorola (MOT) Droid. Katie came to every mom’s rescue with a great post breaking down the Wii, Xbox and Playstation 3 field. If that weren’t enough, she includes a cheat sheet of features and options that will take the confusion out of the impending trip through your favorite electronics superstore gauntlet.

While we’re not yet roasting chestnuts (Kara hates it when we start fires in the office), AllThingsD most certainly is getting its stockings hung with care. Is it weird that we are noshing on a potato latke while we do that? Either way, stay tuned to the AllThingsD crew, and please feel free to leave comments–no one likes an empty mailbox during the holidays. Weekend Update will catch you again next week.

Big news often comes in small packages and BoomTown was all over the little moves that meant big stories this week. Kara covered a massive redesign of Microsoft’s MSN homepage that follows the old car-racing-mantra-turned-Web-design ethos: Add power and lightness. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when BoomTown covered the end of the Skype ruckus. All is forgiven, and all it took was a sizable stake in the company and seats on the board. Kara rounded things out by running a quick post about a spankin’ new feature from AllThingsD: Every Friday, the just launched “Almost Famous” will cover interesting start-ups through the eyes of their chief geeks. Kara’s all about geek love.

Digital Daily isn’t usually big into bean-counting, but this week the numbers were where it was happening. The first sales figures came back from Apple’s iPhone launch in China, and the numbers weren’t good. As of pub time for the post, only 5,000 iPhones had been (legitimately) purchased. If the Chinese numbers were a picture of modesty, the App Store’s numbers were parading through Time Square in an orange jumpsuit singing Eddie Grant’s “Electric Avenue.” The two-year-old App store’s epic popularity has pushed its already outsized download numbers past the two-billion mark. Not to be outdone with unprecedented flash, Google (GOOG) violated its own nonrule late in the week and ran a semi-ad on the Google homepage. You say ad, they say synergy, but at the end of the day it was a direct promo for Motorola’s (MOT) new Droid, which runs on Google’s Android platform.

MediaMemo started the week off right with a fresh bite from Apple (AAPL). Peter covered the revamp of Apple TV, which will now be offered for $30 a month. News from News Corp. was no surprise this week, when MediaMemo brought us the story that the media empire (and AllThingsD’s uber-parent company) was doing fine as long as you only pay attention to cable and movies. Broadcast and print? Eh, not so much. Finally, Peter asked a few probing questions of Google CEO Eric Schmidt in regard to his company’s suspicious addition of a “blog” tag attached to some Google News postings. Schmidt speculated, but the ultimate answer wasn’t, as he suggested, because of your mother.

Deep in his Personal Technology bunker, at an undisclosed location somewhere in rural Maryland, Walt got to take a crack at the new Motorola Droid this week, and his response was, well, very positive. He praised the Droid’s exceptional battery life and call clarity, even if the touchscreen wasn’t quite up to the iPhone bar. All in all, he said it was a win for Verizon (VZ) and the Google’s mobile OS.

Mossberg’s Mailbox continues to fill with questions about the speculative Apple tablet. Walt offered some other sage advice about making the Windows 7 switch with 64 bits, and what to do with all that grief over the death of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Outlook Express.

Katie was sweatin’ to the newbies this week, with an energetic review of Fitbit, a wireless fob for tracking calories and exercise stats. The Bluetooth headset-sized clip attaches to your waistband and uploads your activities to the Fitbit Web interface, where you can track how many calories you did or didn’t burn. You can also add water consumed and calories eaten. The Fitbit has been shipping since September, but won’t appear on retail shelves until after the holidays. No word yet on if it will include a “Cheesecake Factory” tab to the interface so as to allow for calorie counts that require exponents.

Like any good gadget lovers, we are all about the small and mighty here at AllThingsD. Stay tuned in with your RSS reader, Twitter feed or the good ol’ homepage. We’ll keep bringing you the little things you need to know.

BoomTown’s week began onstage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, Kara wasn’t filling in for Oprah; she was doing something much cooler. She got snagged to moderate a panel entitled “Changing the World Through the Web” at Maria Shriver’s six-year-strong Women’s Conference. Kara’s panel included a group of VIPs from Facebook, Kiva, Blue State Digital–and the Twitterific Ashton Kutcher. With “Mission: Kutcher” accomplished, Kara followed up with the complicated world of MicroHoo and offered analysis on the still-pending search deal. Moral of the story: Commentators should give it time, and Carol Bartz should quit with the Jerry Yang jabs. BoomTown rounded out the week at TEDMED. The conference covered the scalpel’s edge of med tech. And yes, in case you were wondering, synthetic skin feels gross.

Digital Daily covered the real-time search war early in the week when Microsoft’s Bing search folks announced a nonexclusive deal with Twitter to feed on its data stream. The deal did put Bing out front for once, but no one knows if the new info source will turn into profits for either search group. In a post foreshadowing a grisly murder, John reported results from a ChangeWave research study that placed the iPhone within striking distance of overtaking the Blackberry from Research in Motion (RIMM) in the smart-phone market. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that grisly, but it’s Halloween. Digital Daily rounded out the week by adding the iPhone to the pantheon of cat, dragon, rat and rooster that occupies the rim of your Chinese restaurant placemat. Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone officially made it to China this week, though without its signature Wi-Fi, and at a much heftier price point.

Peter Kafka lives at the crossroads of media and tech, and that’s exactly where he was almost run down by the Windows 7 “Family Guy” episode. Microsoft (MSFT) apparently bailed out of the deal when it took a closer look at what was actually inside. From the “not so fast” files, Peter covered a report from Interpublic Group (IPG) noting that ad revenue isn’t quite as sunny as some have suggested. Grim economic times caught up to AllThingsD’s big brother late in the week when The Wall Street Journal closed its Boston bureau. The move resulted in nine job losses, despite significant resources being poured into the paper by parent News Corp. (NWS).

The leaves are changing color over at Personal Technology, and Walt sensed that chill in the air meant it was time for his annual fall computer-buying guide. Operating-system choice was a big discussion; but he also touched on the latest must-haves in the memory, graphics, processor and form-factor categories. With a cup of Earl Grey tea to fend off the autumn chill, Walt trudged out to Mossberg’s Mailbox this week and came back with a fistful of letters. He dutifully replied to a question about migrating Microsoft files to a Mac running windows, offered clarification on the Windows 7 upgrade process, and weighed in on the rumor of a pending Apple device below a laptop but above an iPhone.

Katie finished it all off with a deep dive on the two latest netbooks. The HP (HP) Mini 31 and the Nokia (NOK) Booklet 3G both offer high style compared with their competitors, and each boast much higher screen resolutions than previous models. Though she came down on the side of the Nokia, Katie remarked that neither option would disappoint.

Bundle up as you head out for tricking and treating, and learn from Weekend Update’s mistakes. Remember to check and make sure that scary face is actually a mask before you bring that new friend home.

Wednesday morning, Boomtown opened with the exclusive confirmation we’d all been waiting for: Microsoft’s Bing search engine had inked deals with Twitter and Facebook. The age of real-time is upon us. As if the world weren’t complicated enough, Microsoft (MSFT) opened its own Apple stor… er, Microsoft stores to challenge Apple’s (APPL) retail success. Kara went in like lion and out like Carl Icahn this week with a Friday profile of the mogul. Icahn, activist investor and owner of the world’s best name to precede “haz cheezburger,” quietly left Yahoo’s board this week waving a flag of defeat at CEO Carol Bartz.

Digital Daily took a hard look through the Windows this week. John covered the Microsoft’s release of the new leaner, meaner Windows 7. John’s conclusion: Microsoft’s lucky number could be seven, even if that’s just because it’s anything but Vista. Hopefully they programmed this one with 20 percent more customer goodwill. John reminded us this week that you never can tell what John McCain is going to do next, unless you follow the money. Maverick McCain introduced a bill to prohibit the Federal Communication Commission from implementing the Net neutrality rules it released in recent weeks. Digital Daily wasn’t too surprised to see Sen. McCain take the bold position, as it’s squarely in front of the same telecom industry that has been so generous to him in the past. To round things out, John covered a particularly interesting legal chess game/slap fight between Nokia and Apple. Nokia (NOK) may have sued Apple (AAPL) over cellphone patents, the analysts say, as a way to fend off possible suits in the other direction over Nokia’s multitouch assets.

MediaMemo makes sense of that crazy New York state of mind. That clarity was more valuable than ever this week when Demand Media got in our faces. Peter explained Demand’s model for flooding the net with cheap news stories designed to maximize clicks and add revenue. We’ll have to see how the “content by the numbers” game plays out. In the latest installment of the Condé Nast saga, Peter brought news of a new attempt to grab some of those new media dollars. GQ Magazine will offer its December issue in an iPhone version. This move comes during a round of downsizing all over the Condé empire. While Condé Nast’s strategy seems to be to get users to pay for something they couldn’t get before, it appears that Hulu plans to ask users to pay for something they can currently get for free. Hulu doesn’t know how it will happen yet, but the video service is looking for a way to begin monetizing its vast collection of movies and TV shows. If the company goes with “Hulu Plus” as a subscription option, maybe Peter will get a nod to the naming rights.

Walt spent his column inches this week on the evolution of the Mac. Midweek, Apple released refreshed versions of the iMac and MacBook, as well as the new Magic Mouse. All signs seemed positive with the new products, which feature updates like a larger screen option for the iMac and a rounder, more lovable case for the white plastic MacBook. When Walt went out to check the mail, Mossberg’s Mailbox was again full of Windows 7 questions. Walt discussed some of the new low-vision features in Windows 7, explained the admittedly complicated price points and told readers where to download the operating system.

Katie brought a sparkle to the week with a review of Goby, the self-proclaimed search engine of fun. While she was impressed by the concept, she spotted some gaping holes in search returns, like hundreds of missing events she knew to be on the calendar and others that had already come and gone. Goby might be a great idea, but Katie won’t be relying on it until things like accuracy and timeliness are better addressed.

Weekend Update can make two promises for what’s coming next. First: If it is happening in tech, you will find it at AllThingsDigital. Second: Weekend Update promises to keep the ghost puns to a minimum in the next edition.

Kara and the Boomtown blog were in New York this week and started the party early with Bob Pittman–well known media and Web exec. Kara wasn’t dancing on the tables, but did admit that Pittman’s new venture, a top-shelf tequila, was plenty tasty. BoomTown went straight from the sauce to the nose candy in a short interview with Ford’s (F) social media guru, Scott Monty. While Monty might have been using cocaine as a metaphor for a new kind of marketing that changes consumption of all other marketing, Weekend Update gets his subtext. As if BoomTown didn’t have enough hardcore “cred,” Kara headed off to fabulous Las Vegas for the annual meeting of the blogs at BlogWorld. Nothing that happens in Vegas this weekend will stay there–not with thousands of bloggers roaming the Strip in search of a new meme to latch on to.

Digital Daily trapped a Snow Leopard early in the week. John reported on Apple’s (APPL) admission that the Snow Leopard version of OS X occasionally overdelivers on its promise to free-up disk space. In certain circumstances, the furry filcher can sneak in and make off with all your user data. If it was data loss you were looking for though, no one beats the good folks at Danger who, up until recently, housed all kinds of personal data associated with the Sidekick line of smart phones. The Microsoft (MSFT) subsidiary permanently lost contact, calendar and other personal data associated with many accounts. Weekend Update thinks that Sidekick users were given fair warning, though; the company name is, after all, Danger. John rounded out the week with something unusual–good economic news from the tech sector: Intel (INTC), Google (GOOG), IBM (IBM) and AMD (AMD) were all feeling a little more flush than their prognosticators had predicted, each beating their admittedly dismal forecasts by at least a little.

MediaMemo followed up on some important stories, beginning the week with Twitter’s spam problem. Peter reported that the Web’s biggest microblogging pipeline updated its tools for trapping the flotsam and jetsam. Twitter is reportedly in talks with several leading search engines that want to feed on all that delicious real-time data. Peter also updated the readers on the tough times over at Condé Nast. This round of cuts was a little closer to the magazine publisher’s crown jewels than last week’s cuts and closings, with the layoff of at least six staffers from Vogue. Peter closed out the week with a cheeky little open letter to the Federal Trade Commission. He asked some important questions regarding the FTC’s recent obsession with bloggers and disclosure. He seems to think that most serious bloggers don’t like to sell their credibility for tiny discounts to obscure events.

Walt and Katie were all over Windows 7 this week, with help on all fronts for those making “the switch.” Before he got to that, though, Walt spent some personal tech time with some supersmart phones. He elevated Motorola’s (MOT) CLIQ and RIM’s (RIMM) BlackBerry Storm2 to the level of potential iPhone killer and praised their updated features and power as mobile computers rather than simply phones. Mossberg’s Mailbox heralded the beginning of the Windows 7 flood and was chock full of questions about upgrading and replacing some of the functionality that was built into Vista. The Great One also offered thoughts on installing Windows 7 on a virtual machine running in OS X, but couldn’t speak to the boot camp option until Apple releases more info…and the proper drivers.

Katie tested PC Mover from LapLink as an all-in-one option for moving precious data to Windows 7. While she praised the $15 program’s efficiency, she thought it was a little sleazy that it also tried to get her to purchase other programs while it had her data in its clutches. All went well, and the moral of the story is that this one-trick pony upgrade assistant was worth the minimal price tag.

Breaking News: Weekend Update is getting intermittent reports that Kara may have been kidnapped from BlogWorld by a roving band of mommybloggers in white robes, all slowly chanting “mon-eh-tize” as they piled into their Honda minivans. They may or may not have sealed her into a 30 foot-wide, saucer-shaped balloon, which could be floating westward toward the Bay Area.

If we get her back, you can look forward to another fully staffed, fully loaded week at AllThingsD.

If the medium was the message in yesterday’s zeitgeist, today’s “message transcends the medium” is a whole new mindset. It’s a brave new world out there, and AllthingsD didn’t fail to help make sense of it this week.

Boomtown was abuzz with the latest conversation from an Internet publishing sensation. Trip Adler, CEO of San Francisco-based Scribd, spoke to Kara about all things text and what its like to share a niche with giants. Speaking of giants, Boomtown was in Seattle this week, peering through everyone’s favorite Windows. While there, Kara caught wind of CEO Steve Ballmer’s embrace of the “new efficiency” by way of some executive belt-tightening. And in a followup to the near-viral “Louie Swisher loves Redbox” video, Kara wrote about a legal slap-fight between the DVD rental kiosk group and Fox.

While Fox was busy giving Redbox a black-eye, Digital Daily covered blows from a different kind of palm. It seems that Palm’s new mobile darling, the Pre, is a little over-abundant on store shelves. An 11 week-deep glut of the device may indicate tough times ahead for the smart-phone contender. If one plucky contender wasn’t enough, Digital Daily also covered IBM’s release of a LotusLive iNotes. This mail, calendar, and task management solution takes aim at a market currently in Google’s crosshairs. Finally, the week wouldn’t be complete with out a good Apple prognostication. John closed things out with some FCC documents that indicate a new wireless mouse and keyboard offering from the crew at 1 Infinite Loop. The logical jump is that the new input devices might be designed to complement a newly refreshed line of desktops.

John had new Macs and Peter had old tricks this week, specifically of the Kindle kind. In a settlement with the now-famous “1984 kid,” Amazon sealed up some of the holes in its policies about removing books from its Kindle devices. Now it’s most certainly against their policy to remove data…except when it isn’t. In a similar vein, more details surfaced about an upcoming e-publishing venture from Time that aims to put the content genie back in the bottle, Hulu style. The concept is to create a clearinghouse for magazines online and take back control of content and advertising dollars. Just in case we were beginning to think that there is always digital strength in numbers, Peter covered Comcast’s squashing of a rumor that it was looking to acquire a stake in NBC. Just the hint of such a move sent Comcast’s stock on a temporary tumble.

Walt was a personal technology machine this week with new additions to both the personal technology section and Mossberg’s Mailbox. And if that weren’t enough, Katie covered an important countertrend in personal tech that really turned some heads.

The personal tech feature of the week was the HTC Hero. This latest offering from the veteran Taiwan phone manufacturer features its most robust customization of the Android platform yet. Walt gave it high marks and placed it squarely among the Blackberry-Palm-Apple pantheon.

Walt checked the mailbox this week and answered some serious questions about the rise of the touchscreen laptop, the finer points of OS X and the iPhone OS, and tried to let a Vista Ultimate user down easy about the limited options for an easy upgrade to Windows 7.

Katie brought her A game to The Mossberg Solution with a succinct and poignant analysis of HP’s new growth model. The new Photosmart All-in-One with “Touch-Smart Web” bucks the current trend of photos and documents for digital display and tried to put consumers back in the printing game. The new printing experience uses a robust touchscreen and Web interface to allow printing of pics straight from the Web without a computer ever being involved. While she did have some good things to say about the printer’s apps and interface, HP’s overall strategy left her underwhelmed.

Whether you want to be the first to know when “that tablet” finally arrives or are just into the best coverage from the industry that is changing the world, there is no better homepage for all-things-tech than AllthingsD.

Geekfighting may never become its own UFC event, but following tech news this week seemed, in places, like a view to a big, well-funded cage match. Things got so rowdy that Kara Swisher could hear them all the way across “The Pond.”

Before heading off on her tour of Euro-BoomTown this week, Kara set off for Carlsbad, Calif. to visit with Warren Buffet and the ladies of Fortune. Après Buffet, readers were treated to an exclusive interview, Kara-style, with Loïc Le Meur, Seesmic founder and namesake of the Web’s cutest logo. Kara wasn’t just visiting Europe for some cute overload, though. She wired back a report on the Oxford Social Media Convention, where she spoke on social media’s effect on business. Kara rounded out her week with rowdiness and the legal tantrums of Skype founders Zennström and Friis.

Closer to home, Digital Daily covered the media battle between Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG), which recalls a shoving match between the prom king and the captain of the football team. Apple continued to insist that it was still “studying” the proposed Google Voice app for iPhone, while Google insisted that it had already been rejected. It’s tough being the popular kids.

Between the smartphone scuffles, Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein was urging everyone to play nice, even as Palm still may have to fight for survival.

The Silicon Valley malevolence even spread to Gotham early in the week. MediaMemo got the backstory on how the New York Times was hacked into spreading malware to its Web visitors. The explanation: It sold an ad to hackers, who posed as mild-mannered VOIP client Vonage (VG) to make the purchase. Meanwhile in a related–or not–story, Microsoft is seeking and suing some mystery malvertisers who perpetrated a similar scheme with ads sold by the software giant. Whether it is a growing trend or a few overachieving hackers, it was a tough week in ad land.

Amid all the kneecapping and eye-gouging, all things Mossberg was a helpful calm in the storm. Walt liked the new features in iTunes 9 and found it uncluttered, easier to use and more intelligent than its predecessor. Also among the hits were upgraded management and improved content-sharing.

Mossberg’s Mailbox was stuffed full of sage advice about online backup as the kids go of to college, compression and the vinyl vs. digital dilemma, and some on-target advice for the family genealogist making the switch from PC to Mac.

The Mossberg Solution delved deeper into email mastery with some unmissable tips and tricks for Microsoft Outlook users. Katie made an industry standard better, and even gave readers a peek into some coming attractions for Outlook 2010.

Tune in next week. We’ll keep bringing you the blow by blow ’til the final bell.

That’s the unsettling story that comes out of the Times’s explanation of the incident, in which an untold number of the sites’ visitors were served up with an ad promoting malware.

The attack, which the Times says was also directed at other, unnamed news organizations, is worrisome enough. But the fact that the culprits behind it essentially walked right into the front door of the New York Times (NYT) and conned the paper into distributing the fraudulent ads is really scary.

The short version: The Times says that someone who “masqueraded as a national advertiser” bought ad space on the site, which is visited by some 45 million people a month from the U.S. alone. The unnamed buyer “provided seemingly legitimate product advertising for a week.”

UPDATE: The Times says the fake ads were for Internet phone service Vonage.

Then, over the weekend, the culprits started churning out the malware. The Times has issued a statement explaining some of what happened, which I’m reprinting at the bottom of this post (the paper also has a consumer guide to help you protect yourself from malware, viruses and other Web unpleasantness).

But the statement is a bit confusing and seems to indicate that the paper was compromised by an ad network it used to sell remnant space on the site. That’s what I thought might have happened at first, and that’s what the paper’s tech staff thought as well–note the reference to “suspending all third-party advertisements on the site.”

But I double-checked with Times spokeswoman Diane McNulty, who confirmed that that paper’s own staff had sold the fake ad.

How could this happen? I don’t know–anyone with Web buying experience want to weigh in? But I do know that it’s not the first time bogus ad buyers have bought space directly from publishers.

Earlier this year, I wrote about an incident in which someone pretended to buy ads on behalf of Hyundai. And that story elicited a response from an ad exec at a very big, very well-known Web publisher, who told me that in 2008, his employer had received a large order on behalf of a different auto company, and ran some of the ads before figuring out they were fakes.

Here’s the Times’s explanation:

As you know, over the weekend, nytimes.com was the victim of a malware attack that targeted several news organizations. The culprit masqueraded as a national advertiser and provided seemingly legitimate product advertising for a week. Over the weekend, the ad being served up was switched so that an intrusive message, claiming to be a virus warning from the reader’s computer, appeared.

As soon as we were made aware of the situation, we took aggressive steps, suspending all third-party advertisements on the site. We posted information about the attack on our home page and directed readers on what to do if they encountered the malicious code. There is additional information posted today on our homepage and our Gadgetwise personal technology blog.

We now know how it occurred and have taken steps to prevent a similar situation from happening.

BoomTown was abuzz with Pixis, Plums and power this week as Kara focused on tech that wasn’t Apple, and reminded us that lady geeks hold the power in Silicon Valley.

While Apple was gathering clouds for its Rock and Roll storm, Palm (PALM) released the teeny Pixi, designed, Palm hopes, to steal some of that Apple (AAPL) thunder. The Pixi smart phone, while smaller and thinner, reported Kara, has fewer features and less power than the already available Pre.

Small can be good in the world of tech, and BoomTown reported that a certain Nordic tech behemoth thinks so too. Nokia (NOK) announced that it had acquired “microsocial networking” start-up Plum, whose signature offering allows users to build smaller, more intimate electronic social networks.

Kara did it “like a boss” this week and highlighted the tech sector mavens from Fortune magazine’s annual list of most powerful women. Ursula Burns of Xerox (XRX), IBM-er (IBM) Ginni Rometty and Oracle (ORCL) President Safra Catz were among those at the top. BoomTown will be at the upcoming conference associated with the Fortune list, so look for Kara’s Flip video interviews with these Titanias of tech.

It was nice of Apple to release new iPods just in time for John’s birthday this week, and Digital Daily returned the favor with high-bandwidth, hard-rockin’ coverage of Apple’s music-themed event, complete with live photos and blogging. John liked the video feature of the new iPod nano, but focused on the biggest news of the week–Apple’s upgraded CEO.

Digital Daily’s Apple coverage didn’t stop at The Steve. Ever since announcement of the exclusive Apple-AT&T (T) partnership, current and would-be iPhone freaks have speculated as to what kind of deal will be struck when that contract expires. John reported that iSuppli prognosticators think the agreement may be extended when it runs out in 2010.

John closed out the week with Twitter leaks about the newest incarnation of Microsoft’s (MSFT) Google-toppler (GOOG), Bing. Microsoft showcased Bing 2.0 at the annual company meeting, which some employees took as a green light to tweet away about the unreleased product. Microsoft HQ was more tight-lipped, telling John only that the rollout would happen over the next few months.

MediaMemo followed the money this week–specifically advertising dollars. A year after the Lehman collapse, Peter cited a MediaPost survey that showed some growth in ad spending. In a down market, Peter reminded, sometimes the only place to go, is up. Let’s hope so.

Not to be left out of Apple’s party, MediaMemo covered the release of an iPhone app from RealNetworks (RNWK) that brings all-you-can-eat music for a monthly fee. Wall Street barely blinked at the deal, but changes may come if the service catches on as competitor Spotify has in Europe.

And while the NFL won’t let players tweet from the end zone, it is upping its tech quotient by bringing blacked-out games to your Internet browser. MediaMemo reported that the lower-attendance games would be available to tech-savvy sports nuts–after midnight on game day. Get out the Fritos and espresso, guys, its game time.

True to form as the Lincoln of our very own Mt. Techmore, Walt’s address this week was aimed at helping the wayward get back on track with a bevy of new iPhone navigation apps. This new breed of high dollar apps harnesses the power of the iPhone 3GS to replace those ever present dash top GPS navigation units.

Walt extended his techno-presidential benevolence with another installment of Mossberg’s Mailbox. Networked storage, Quicken for Mac and the ominously impending switch to Windows 7 were all up for discussion.

At the Mossberg Solution, Katie tested Postbox, software designed to bring novel management solutions to your inbox. Developed by some of the guys from Mozilla, Postbox does offer lots of great features, Katie said, even if the switch to the new tools might not be easy for all.

Lots more shiny new tech talk next week. Stay tuned.