Except that it wasn’t much of an apology at all.

Instead, Baldwin played the role of an American Airlines captain who apologized to him.

During a Weekend Update skit with Seth Meyers, the mustached captain called Baldwin an “American treasure,” explaining that the actor was justified for refusing to stop playing Words With Friends on his phone.

“What harm was he causing to play his game?” the “captain” asked. “And not just any game, but a word game for smart people?”

Ultimately, it wasn’t the Scrabble-like game that got Baldwin booted. He also slammed a bathroom door. According to the very forgiving captain, “Words With Friends can be frustrating.”

The original saga, which played out very publicly via Baldwin’s Twitter account, provided a high-profile boost to Zynga, the game maker behind Words With Friends, which is getting ready to stage the largest Internet IPO since Google.

Here’s Baldwin’s — a.k.a. the captain’s — account of how it all went down:

But the $114 price point for the e-reader brings it that much closer to being disposable, unlike the iPad, which starts at $499, or even the regular Kindle version at $139.

Sure, price tolerance varies, but the Kindle is now far more economical than most full-priced smartphones, making it much more manageable–maybe even forgettable–to lose.

And, you’ll have Visa or Olay to thank for that.

The reminder came after watching last week’s Weekend Update on “Saturday Night Live,” which showed just how easy it is to lose a Kindle.

A stewardess recounted her harrowing experience on the fateful Southwest Airlines flight, where a five-foot gap opened up in the ceiling of a Boeing 747 when they were at 37,000 feet.

“I was passing out peanuts, when I noticed I could see my breath. Then, I noticed everyone’s Kindles were lifting off their lap and headed upward. And then, I looked up an–when I saw one go out of the hole in the roof. And I screamed ‘I hope you are done reading “The Girl who Played with Fire,” because you aren’t getting that back.’”

Next time, maybe she’ll scream, “I hope you saved $25 by getting the ad-subsidized version.”

Because a Kindle for free seems completely out of the question.

Watch the video for yourself:

As promised, Kara began BoomTown this week with another Steve Jobs blast from the past, this time at D5. It has all been a big countdown to Steve’s upcoming interview live on stage at D8 this coming Tuesday. It’s not just Jobs though. Head on over to the D8 site to see the full roster of tech execs in line for Kara and Walt’s hot seat. Midweek, Kara got a little video time with Keith Lee, CEO of Booyah games, maker of MyTown, the check-in-based social game that, with two million users, dwarfs Foursquare. The start-up just completed a healthy round of funding and apparently used the money to buy a giant Princess Leia doll…watch the video. Kara ended the week on one of her favorite subjects: Who’s departing this week from Yahoo (YHOO)? Looks like Tapan Bhat, head of the Internet giant’s front page, has left the building. Kara got the exclusive skinny.

John was at the Digital Daily ticker the moment the big story hit. Let us mark this down in our calenders as the week Apple exceeded Microsoft (MSFT) in market capitalization. How do you top a story like that? Well, John does it by following the saga of the social network editor that everyone love to hate at the moment. John gave a blow-by-blow of the privacy changes that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg laid out for his staff. Verdict? Less bad, maybe. To end the week, John covered some of the expectations around the international release of the iPad. Everyone is watching to see if the tablet outsells the Mac and will then proceed to stump about what that means for Apple (AAPL).

Twitter came in for a landing all over MediaMemo on Monday. Peter opened with a post trying to make sense of its new “ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” profit model. The media shuffle is always in Peter’s crosshairs, and this week’s installment was about Forbes buying up True/Slant. Wait…was that a media company acquiring something? Not selling it off? Peter ended his week with a cautionary tale for all this season’s commencement speakers: Don’t plagiarize your speech. Or, if you do, don’t steal it from YouTube. Nothing is more humiliating than being exposed virally.

Walt stepped out of the writer’s chair for Personal Technology this week and gave Geoffrey Fowler a shot at the keyboard. He turned in an insightful piece on the complicated world of e-bookstores and some useful advice on how to navigate their ins and outs.

The whole AllThingsD crew is feverishly preparing this weekend for D8, and even the lowly Weekend Update crew will be getting on a plane bound for LA. We’re packing plenty of sunscreen and NoDoz. Those shouldn’t interact badly…right?

Kara began the week just as she said she would, with another Jobs blast from the past. The video features Jobs from way back at D3 (we’re approaching D8 now), offering all kinds of Jobsian wisdom. Kara moved on to the world of Yahoo (YHOO) and its arms race with AOL (AOL) and Demand Media. Yahoo bought up Associated Content for a reported $90 million. Cheap content isn’t cheap, apparently. Kara finished things with some breaking news Friday about the FTC approved Google-AdMob deal. Now that Apple (AAPL) has iAd, maybe there is just enough competition.

Digital Daily began with a piece of significant Apple ephemera. Apple watchers have spotted the “tethering” option in the most recent iPhone OS 4 beta. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll finally get to do what anyone with a Blackberry has been doing for years. John wrote several pieces about the announcements from the Google I/O event. Among the notables was Google TV, where a set-top box connects the TV to the Web in an attempt to jump the content gap. John closed out the week with news that Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) will likely release a tablet based on Palm’s webOS by year’s end. We sure hope they keep the click wheel.

MediaMemo began the week with a report on the progress of iPad-iPhone magazine apps unfolding in the App Store. GQ is doing okay with its offerings, though Peter isn’t convinced the iPad is giving the app a significant boost. In pseudomedia news, TweetDeck, the Twitter client to the stars (or, at least, Ashton uses it), raised another $3 million. If TweetDeck is any indication, maybe Twitter’s public remarks haven’t killed off the client economy yet. Peter closed things out with an exclusive from the content factory world. He reported that Rafat Ali, founder of paidContent, will leave the business in early July.

Personal Technology got ahold of the latest 4G phone, the EVO, from HTC and gave it a speed test in Baltimore, home of the 4G connection. Walt said the promised speed was delivered, but the battery lagged under that enormous data load. The phone’s other features, like the front-facing camera, didn’t disappoint, but Walt’s criticism is well taken. It doesn’t matter how many bells and whistles the thing has if there isn’t any juice left to run it. In Mossberg’s Mailbox this week, Walt answered a pair of questions about an American iPad in Paris and laptop warranties. Katie published a review of Togetherville.com, a social network designed for the six-to-10 crowd. The kidcentric network is designed to be a safe place for children to learn the lessons of social networking without the risks associated with more adult choices. It seems “walled gardens” can be okay if they are of the “kinder” variety. Katie hopes the site fleshes out its content offerings and becomes a real place of refuge for kids on the Web.

It turns out that Google gave two phones instead of one, that the twitter ecosystem hasn’t been killed yet, and that mo’ data means mo’ battery drain in the world of 4G. If you think this was a full week, stay tuned. We are in final countdown to D8, and with the speakers list reading like a who’s who of media and tech digerati, it will be one for the books, or at least the blogs.

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.

Kara stayed above the fray this week by opening up with a signature exclusive. She lunched with Ben Horowitz and got his take on why Andreessen dropped out of the race to fund Foursquare. Kara then got to look forward to some Bartz-baiting, as she prepared for Yahoo’s (YHOO) earnings call. It should be noted that Bartz-baiting is the official past time of residents of BoomTown. It turns out that Yahoo! did well this past quarter, even if revenues were still a little soft. Kara rounded out a solid week of reporting with a second exclusive that made use if her stealth-mode penetrating radar (we hear she had it installed back during the Reagan administration). She peeked under the blanket of Kakai, one of the Valley’s stealthiest startups and saw a Kindle for students. She couldn’t get much more, but we know that the company has a red phone to Chegg, the online textbook rental service, so the pieces are coming together.

John made it back from Europe this week, and now that the Volcano has settled down, it was time for Digital Daily to be truly daily again. Early in the week, John reported on the loss of some very important intellectual property by a tech giant. No, German beer was not involved. It turns out that the sensitive stuff hackers got a hold of during a recent attack on Google (GOOG) was the source code to their single sign-on system that interacts with all the Google-y services that seem to make the world go ’round. Tuesday, he reported the action as Apple (AAPL) trotted out its new, lengthier bank rolls on its earnings call. It was a good last quarter for Apple. Hopefully the unfortunate start to this one doesn’t get them down. John finished up the roller coaster week with a post about how it’s not just girls dressed up in animal ears that are huge in Japan. Apparently, so is the iPhone, which has now dominated near 75 percent of the Japanese smartphone market. Weekend Update expects it to continue to loom over Tokyo, at least until Mothra shows up.

Peter was still on baby hiatus this week, so Media Memo was a little sparse, but he managed to post a couple stories to tide us over until he returns in earnest. It turns out that Rolling Stone may be waking from its Rip Van Winkle-esque sleep and entering the digital age. And get this, they are going to charge for content. Tuesday brought news that blog platform Tumblr raised another $5 million from VCs. It seems that they aren’t done yet either. Tumblr will also be coming for the money of its users, with a monetization strategy that includes some of the usual suspects; pay premium service, virtual goods and the like. Peter finished the week with a point to ponder about the upcoming pay plans from Hulu. $10 a month seems to be the number filtering out of the reporter pool, but Peter wonders if $120 per year will be a little steep for consumers and a still not quite enough to pay for Hulu’s own bills. At least Tumblr can find comfort in knowing that even big businesses have trouble making money on the Web.

Walt reviewed the HTC HD2 this week in an attempt to answer the age old question, “How big is too big?” The device, currently on sale from T-Mobile, boasts a giant 4.3 inch (diagonal) screen. Walt didn’t think size was an issue, as the screen was nice and still portable. The issue came in the software and ease of use. It didn’t measure up to the big players in the market, and in the end, it doesn’t matter how big the screen is if you can’t use it for much. Mossberg’s Mailbox was headlined by a question about social games on the iPad, and Walt relayed the sad news that there would be no Mafia Wars on the iPad, at least not yet. He also demystified Apple TV, which even confuses Weekend Update from time to time. Katie finished up the week with a review of a new sort of service in the cloud. ICyte saves Web pages for later reading, even if the site changes or goes offline. It allows users to share these snapshots of sites, as well as spreading them around the social Web. Katie used the free version of the service, which is ad supported, and had good things to say overall, and thought it might be especially useful for people who do a lot of research online.

It’s been a long, stressful week for all of us here in the tech media space, and Weekend Update is going to sign off now and head over to our local watering hole for beer and some downtime with friends. As an added precaution, we’ve duct taped our iPads to our arms. Wouldn’t want to leave them by accident.

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.

The release this week of a flood of documents pertaining to the Viacom (VIA)-YouTube lawsuit shed light on a lot of interesting data–and a lot of, uh, not-so-interesting stuff. Peter Kafka was on duty this week to discern the difference, so you don’t have to. Among the highlights: YouTube’s pre-Google finances revealed, how YouTube split up Google’s (GOOG) billions, proof that Viacom wanted to buy YouTube four years ago, and a whole lot of emails, but no smoking gun. It’s all on MediaMemo.

Over at Digital Daily, John Paczkowski wondered if the licensing of its webOS could be a salvation for Palm (PALM), and later in the week, whether Palm’s dismal third-quarter earnings mean the beginning of the end. John also reported that given details revealed Monday morning, Windows Phone 7 could make Microsoft (MSFT) a contender in the mobile operating system wars. Microsoft isn’t the only company having a good month, however–Mac sales during February were up 43 percent for the month, after a 36 percent spike in sales during January. Accordingly, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has declared 2010 the “Year of the Mac.”

In Personal Technology this week, Walt took a look at two new ThinkPads from Lenovo. A departure from Lenovo’s standard template, they sport lower prices and new designs, and both got good grades. Watch the video of Walt’s comprehensive review and then check out his appearance on WSJ’s “Digits” for more on the new ThinkPads and a discussion of Google’s upcoming foray into television. At Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt answered readers’ questions about sharing e-books and wiping hard drives. And in the Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret tested Xobni Mobile, an app that generates contact info for everyone users have ever communicated with in Microsoft Outlook. So far Xobni is available for BlackBerry only, but word is, the company’s considering apps for Android and the iPhone.

More next week.

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.

Whoa! Sorry, we may have gotten just a little over excited about Walt’s Personal Technology column this week. He responded to popular demand and submitted a full review of the magicJack. Yes, that magicJack. No one can ever accuse Walt Mossberg of not being a man of the people. So what did he find? Well, the little plastic USB dongle that ranks up there with rotisseries, Chia pets and The Clapper in the pantheon of hard-sell TV adds actually delivered on its promise. MagicJack connects via USB to a computer, and has a standard land-line telephone jack on the other end. Walt started it up, made some calls, and even tried out the customer service center, which turned out to be efficient and helpful. Among the few drawbacks were the need to use the phone number that comes with the device and the fact that it only works when your computer is on and connected to the Internet. Mossberg’s Mailbox was full to the brim this week with some pretty targeted questions about security, the grim future of the dedicated PDA and e-readers for libraries. As it turns out, running a virtual Windows machine on a Mac can lead to a very real virus if you aren’t careful. Katie’s piece at Mossberg Solution made sense of this week’s biggest question mark. What the heck is Google (GOOG) Buzz? She broke the new social network from Google down to its bare bones and explained some of the controversy surrounding how it decides who’s added to you Buzz list. The new social feature is now built into Gmail, but it seems the exact relationship between your Gmail contacts and Buzz is still being worked out. Katie nails it all with an expertly simple explanation of the service and controversies.

BoomTown started the week off with a little insider info about Micheal Dearing, the hottest angel investor you’ve never heard of. Dearing, a former eBay (EBAY) exec and current professor at Stanford’s design school, has been inside early on high-profile start-ups like Aardvark, Xoopit and Mixer Labs. Kara shared a meal with the start-up whisperer and got more out of him than most, even if he still kept pretty tight-lipped. Kara also shared some viral video love featuring some hardcore Avatar fans. We can’t tell if these live action Na’vi role players are kidding. Maybe we’ll ask their king, James Cameron, when he joins Kara on stage at the next D conference. Toward the end of the week, Kara posted about what may be the strangest love triangle of the modern era. The Facebook-Snickers-Betty White trifecta is so strange we can barely even comprehend the letters in it. It seems that Facebook users loved the Betty White Super Bowl ad for Snickers so much that they held a social media gun to Lorne Micheals’s head until he got the Golden Girl to host “Saturday Night Live.” The only thing that could unseat the Betty White triangle from weirdest social media moment of ’10 is the much rumored Barry White-KFC-America’s Next Top Model episode we’ve been hearing about. There: Rumor started.

MediaMemo led off the week with Weekend Update’s favorite sort of post. It was yet another beautiful e-mag concept, this time from Condé Nast’s Wired. The mag looked snappy, beautiful and functional–even if no one, besides maybe Stephen Colbert, has a device that can display it yet. Peter also covered the second instance of an emerging trend in the video rental business. It looks like Redbox, the ever-present rental kiosk company, has agreed to go the way of Netflix (NFLX) and keep recently released DVDs out of the rental pool in exchange for a cash break from Warner. Peter rounded things out with a post about Web TV service Hulu and the likelihood of a Hulu player for the iPad. Peter’s post explores the probability that an iPad Hulu would not be a free Hulu. This situation is pretty bounded and specific, but the deeper question is one facing a great many media companies right now. Will users be willing to pay for convenience of displaying a service on the iPad that they can get for free on there home computer, and by extension, will they pay by the app or pay for the content? Weekend Update can’t wait to see how that one shakes out.

Over at Digital Daily, John started early in the week with a quick peek at Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Phone, the new smartphone operating system from the maker of Windows Mobile and Windows Vista. As it turns out, Windows Phone looks pretty slick. The interface isn’t a shrunken version of the desktop OS, which is a very good thing. Midweek, John scaled a mountain of tweets to report from the very top. It seems that Twitter’s traffic has grown over 1,000 percent since last year, according to comScore’s (SCOR) January report. It may now be impossible to shut the flock up. To button up the week, John covered a decision by the Federal Trade Commission that allows Google to buy and sell power wholesale, just like an energy utility. Google execs insist that the move doesn’t signal their intention to enter the power arena as a utility. They just want to buy power like anyone else. After all, electricity is the raw material of Googling.

We’re so confident that you’ve enjoyed this Weekend Update that if you aren’t 100 percent satisfied, you can send it back for a full refund of your purchase price, no questions asked. You can look for all your favorite AllThingsD accessories next week. John, Peter Kara and Walt will be back to ship top-quality content directly to your door at no extra charge. Top quality, easy to use and in a variety of colors, there’s something for everyone at AllThingsD.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program.

All right, it was a cafeteria packed with Yahoo (YHOO) employees, but still. Check out Kara’s write-up and video of the experience, but be warned: no embed of the official Yahoo video so far, so those of us who weren’t there have no idea (yet) about what sort of profanity ensued. We’ll keep you posted. Kara also took a look this week at the serialized drama that is MySpace. The latest episode, of course, is the firing of brand new CEO Owen Van Natta, who may or may not have wanted to leave anyway. An insider described the company to BoomTown as a hot mess, since it’s both “impossible to save and hard to give up on.” BoomTown started off the week with a couple of the more amusing takes on Google’s Super Bowl ad, “Paris Love”–now its own meme–which includes the search history of Tiger Woods and a different kind of Parisian story.

Walt recently fired up Windows 7 on a late-model Apple (AAPL) MacBook Pro, using both Parallels Desktop 5 and VMware Fusion 3. Not at the same time, although both have been updated to get the most out of Snow Leopard and Windows 7 and will run the two operating systems simultaneously on an Intel-powered Mac. The quick version is that Walt thinks Parallels is the better product. The version with all the logic and details is in this week’s Personal Technology. He also took time to answer some readers’ questions in Mossberg’s Mailbox about iPad batteries, zooming on text in Firefox, locating the calendar in the latest version of Windows Live Mail and feeling stuck between a Kindle and a Nook. In this week’s Mossberg Solution, Katie Boehret tested some stylishly small scanners and desktop printers: the Fujitsu’s ScanSnap S1300 and PlanOn System Solution’s PrintStik PS905ME. Not surprisingly, she found that style comes at a price with both gadgets.

In Digital Daily this week, John Paczkowski quoted Bill Gates’s underwhelming response to Apple’s iPad hoopla: “It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.” Then he quoted Gates on his initial reaction to the iPod in 2004: “There’s nothing that the iPod does that I say, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t think we can do that.’” Apparently, Gates was much more forthcoming–with his own Microsoft (MSFT) execs, anyway–about iTunes in 2003 when he wrote in a memo that “Jobs has us a bit flat footed again….” Maybe admitting you have a problem really is the first step toward overcoming it. But then again, Zune as a second step is pretty much three steps back. John also dissected the buzz around Google Buzz this week, which, admittedly, wasn’t overwhelming, but it could still dovetail nicely with the search giant’s mobile strategies.

Jeff Bronikowski, formerly of Universal Music Group–the world’s biggest label–explained in a Billboard interview this week that the business of Big Music is doomed. But Peter Kafka is reserving judgment, at least until a few more music industry vets leave their jobs and weigh in publicly on the matter. Which is not at all the same thing as being optimistic; it’s just being realistic. It’s important to point out, though, that Google (GOOG) made Peter feel better this week about having Time Warner Cable (TWC) as his ISP, which could signal optimism, realism or something else entirely. Back on the music front, MediaMemo spoke with Veoh CEO Dmitry Shapiro and found that although it’s tempting to blame music behemoth Universal Music Group for the company’s demise, the Web start-up dug its own hole.

Here’s hoping for good sound bites for next weekend’s update and no need for mention of the weather. Stay tuned.

Boomtown was in the front row when game exec Dan Rosensweig left the stage at Guitar Hero to take over as CEO of Chegg, the Web’s top textbook renter. Rosensweig had only been strumming along at Guitar Hero since March, so the move was unexpected. Kara did the full-disclosure dance with AOL’s earnings report. Hit her post for all sorts of great source documents from the new republic of Aol. (AOL). She closed out the week with a thinky piece on Facebook and what it could do in the news aggregation biz. With nigh 400 million users, the number of traded links just to Rick Astley music must be staggering. This one is worth the read.

From deep in his snow-covered technology bunker, Walt let fly a Personal Technology column on two tiny new laptops with a lot to offer. Dell’s (DELL) M11x, the latest release from its Alienware line, is a move to pack lots of power into a tiny package. Sony’s (SNE) Vaio X on the other hand, is all about the lightness. The Dell got high marks for performance, even if the battery life wasn’t as killer as the graphics. The Sony, however, received a rare Mossberg superlative. Being the lightest laptop Walt has ever tested does come with some drawbacks, of course. Chief among them was measly battery life. Mossberg’s Mailbox was short but potent this week. Walt gave some quick clarification to an iPad question and reassured readers that YouTube will be available on the device, even if Flash won’t. He then gave some no-nonsense advice about dumping the older IE6 in favor of a newer, safer, and more supported browser. Katie got to do a little online shopping this week in her review of Flit.com, a Web service that allows you to search multiple stores at once and aims to streamline the shopping experience. She liked the novel way Flit deals you out to store’s Web sites but lets you see their offerings before you click over. No word on if whether or not she bought those black heels she was looking for.

John brought some great news to Google Nexus One users with a post early this week about a meaty software upgrade. Just like that, Google (GOOG) flipped the switch on multitouch functionality in the device. We can now add pinch-zoom to the list of Googleable words. It seems that 12 percent of Americans had something in common with Monster.com (MWW) this week; they were both looking for job listings. Monster purchased Yahoo’s HotJobs for $225 million cash. We drove by earlier today, and Carol Bartz still has Yahoo (YHOO) Games and Yahoo Shopping out on the lawn next to the “for sale” sign. John rounded out the week with a little crystal ball-gazing about the future of Apple and TV. The speculation is centered around Apple’s (AAPL) recent moves in the TV space and how the iPad might play a role. We can add TV to the list of things the iPad might be.

MediaMemo always gets to cover those wonderfully chewy stories where the tech sector and the mediascape bump and grind. This week Peter opened up with a post about YouTube’s most recent foray into legitimate movies. The Google-owned video giant offered up paid views of Sundance films and considered the effort an overall success. One of the big what-ifs of 2009 was actually more of a “when,” as in, “when will Hulu start costing money?” Peter reported that a Disney (DIS) exec said the decision hasn’t yet been made. Weekend Update will be stocking up on old episodes of “The A-Team” and “Another World” in case Hulu finally puts up the wall. Peter rounded out the week with the answer to a question that’s been on our minds for some time now; will we live in a world with a publicly traded porn Web site. When investors didn’t seem to be hot for FriendFinder Networks, the company canceled its pending IPO. Weekend Update supposes that porn will just have to remain the Web’s biggest nonindustry.

Put on your rain slickers or snow shoes, depending on where you live, and enjoy the winter weekend. Or, you could stay indoors and play some Guitar Hero, futz with a new laptop, hunt for a job, shop for some shoes online and watch TV at Hulu. That’s what we’ve been doing.

What’s not to love? By weight the iPad should be exactly five times as awesome as the iPhone.

What Weekend Update is certain about, though, is that the most amazing feature of the new iPad has not even been covered by the media. Based on careful study, Weekend Update’s scientists have concluded that the iPad has nearly infinite “media mass.” When tech journalists and bloggers reached the Apple (AAPL) “event horizon,” which was mysteriously located at the doors of Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, their blogs and media outlets were unable to escape the iPad’s gravity, and the Internet seemed doomed to receive post after post from inside the Apple singularity forever. I mean, this post is no exception. So today’s Weekend Update will be filed from inside the Apple black hole. It’s soft, dark and welcoming here—like living inside a fresh new turtleneck. At least we’ve got Wi-Fi.

Kara was the woman to watch at the iPadapalooza this week, as she was testing the waters at her first Apple unveiling. Oh, and one more thing…she brought the Flip cam. Kara conveniently cut together all the highlights of the exchange between Steve Jobs and our very own magical Mr. Mossberg. prior to releasing the full, “just hot enough for BoomTown” version of her video, she filed a post warning Dell (DELL), HP (HP) and Lenovo that at $499, the iPad is coming for them. Kara also used her awesome editor power to issue a cautionary memo to Apple execs by dispatching yours truly, the trusty AllThingsD intern, to take the pulse of the academic heart of Silicon Valley–Stanford U. You get to watch me bounce from disappointment to existential dilemma to ultimate triumph when we finally locate some future iPad owners. There’s a moral in there for Mr. Jobs, though. See if you can tease it out.

Walt was in his element, and took his position as high priest of the geek-hood at the iPad launch. Always fastidious, Walt uncrated a Mossblog post so all could download his first impressions. While Walt was generally upbeat on the sleek new device, he drove home an important point: Jobs is out on a limb here. For the first time, he is trying to find success in popularizing a totally new type of device, not just raising the bar on an existing one. Walt’s question will definitely be one that the media discussion forward.

Every team needs a clutch player, the go-to guy when news is happening fast and it all has to get out there. John was our man, and he brought his A-game to the Apple event, dutifully liveblogging while our mediamaster, Adam, beamed back live pictures. From there, John wrote special posts about how Apple stuck with AT&T (T) as its carrier of choice, and how the company upped the ante on gestures for the multitouch interface. John rounded out his furious week of posts with a showcase slideshow of AllThingsD’s very own event photos. You’ll see Jobs, the iPad and even some exclusive shots from inside the experience area, where the media minds got to fondle the iPad first-hand.

Peter made the trip out west too, and his perspective couldn’t have been more important. If there was a takeaway from the event, it was that this device is all about the content that will run on it…even if all of that hasn’t been ironed out yet. Peter was the voice of reason, or rather, channeled the voice of Wall Street, which seemed to reserve judgment on the device until we all know more, like what it can actually do. Peter rounded out his iPad coverage with an interesting little nugget about AT&T’s win-win-win situation. The oft-scorned wireless carrier already provides the data connections for Sony (SNE) and Amazon’s (AMZN) e-readers, so win or lose for Apple, good ’ol AT&T is sitting pretty.

This whole iPad thing is a new phenomenon to physics, so there’s really no telling if we will ever get out of the iPad media black hole. Weekend Update is hoping that if all the techie journalists band together, we will find our way back into the light. Who knows? Maybe if we wait long enough, there will be an app for that 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.

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.

Kara was sorely disappointed when she realized she wouldn’t need her yoga mat for her piece on Asana, which, as it turns out, isn’t a pose that helps you channel your chi, but rather, a high-profile start-up from two former Facebookers aimed at addressing the workplace collaboration and communications space. Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz together invested $9 million in an attempt to tip the karmic balance in Asana’s favor. Kara showed no fear in a post this week addressing head-on the what-ifs raised by our spicy chairman, Rupert Murdoch. Rupe has threatened to remove content from search giant Google (GOOG) and Kara decided to fill everyone in, from the inside out. AllThingsD went a little bit Hollywood late in the week and Kara reminded us all to set our TiVos to catch our very own Katie Boehret on “The Martha Stewart Show” where she was scheduled to showcase a few cool gadgets for the holidays.

Digital Daily wasn’t quite as Zen this week, covering a few of the scintillating conflicts that always seem to plague the holiday season. It was a case of bickering brothers and Psystar style early in the week as Apple readied the deathblow against the Mac clone retailer. Apple (AAPL) claims that Psystar computers that ship with Mac OS cut too close to home and must be eliminated. Apple may be sandblasting a soda cracker just a little here as Psystar has already filed for bankruptcy. John followed up with some thoughts on foreign policy. It seems that Senators John Kerry and Orrin Hatch put on their best Hawaiian shirts, black socks and leather-man sandals this week to play the obnoxious Americans intent on bossing around the European Commission. While there was no word on whether they made a fuss about not getting ketchup with their French fries, they did encourage the EC to hurry up and approve the pending Oracle (ORCL)-Sun (JAVA) deal. Sticking with the European vacation theme, John finished out the week with news that Apple and wireless carrier O2 would begin selling iPhones at Tesco supermarkets in the U.K. We assume that, like all things sold in British grocery stores, Tesco iPhones will also come with tikka masala and malt-vinegar options.

MediaMemo was back up to full speed this week, and while we don’t blame Peter for doing his civic duty last week, we’re glad he’s back on the job. He has been closely following the decline of advertising dollars that have been blamed for everything from the death of newspapers to Lou Dobbs “going rogue.” Peter reported that Yahoo upped the ante this week with a meta-advertising campaign targeted at, yep, ad executives. That’s one way to drum up business, or so believes the team at the new Yahoo (YHOO). In another startling revelation about media consumption, the Olswang media law firm reported that iPhone consumers tend to be willing to pay for some content. Peter echoed the same, reporting some purchases of his own. In yet another story about a potential grab for media dollars, Peter reported that Hulu, the online television giant, grew in both content and viewership. Peter reminded us that viewers everywhere are holding their breath for when the juggernaut throws up that pay wall.

Katie held down the Mossberg fort this week and did so even while simultaneously appearing on TV. Quite a feat, but lady geeks have special two-places-at-once powers. Back underground at Mossberg HQ, she reviewed Clicker, a Web site aiming to be the place to find any TV program you might want to watch. The service will point you to wherever a particular episode may live in electronically viewable format and does so without cluttering results with the Web’s video jetsam. She praised the service on the whole, but warned that it’s not a magic bullet. If you are directed to a site that features a pesky proprietary media player, you will still have to make the download. She said that the user account on the site will even let you use it like an online TiVo (TIVO), alerting you when shows have posted and building you a playlist.

Please take care while nursing your Post Retail Stress Disorder this weekend, and take solace that while you may never fully use that knee again, you did get your four-dollar toaster. Tune in next week: Weekend Update will bring you the all-meat, no filler account of the week’s events at AllThingsD.