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

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

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

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

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

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

The new iMacs boast LED-backlit 21.5- and 27-inch widescreen displays in an edge-to-edge glass design and all aluminum enclosure. They’re available with Intel (INTC) Core 2 Duo processors starting at 3.06 GHz, and Core i5 and i7 quad-core processors for even better performance. The low-end model is priced at $1,199, the same as the past generation, but its high-end sibling is now $200 cheaper, at $1,999.

The new MacBook features an 13.3-inch LED backlit display, a multitouch trackpad, and a $999 price tag. Though still housed in white polycarbonate plastic, it features an updated unibody design borrowed from the MacBook Pro.

The successor to the Mighty Mouse, Magic Mouse, eliminates mechanical buttons, instead, employing the same multitouch surface found on the iPhone, iPod touch, and Mac notebook trackpads, allowing users to navigate their desktops with simple gesture commands.

Accompanying the Magic Mouse is a a new Apple Remote. It’s got a new design and is, predictably, housed in aluminum.

Finally, Apple (AAPL) also updated the Mac mini. While its design is largely identical to that of its predecessor, it offers far more storage. Starting at $599, the entry-level Mac mini features a faster 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, a 160GB hard drive, five USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800, Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics and a SuperDrive.

There’s also a new $999 Mac mini that’s specially configured with a Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server. It’s outfitted with two 500GB hard drives for a total of 1TB of server storage.

Quite a refresh and one analysts are already crowing about. In a bulletin released after the announcement, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster said Apple’s new machines will undoubtedly improve the company’s prospects for the December quarter.

“We expect the new iMacs, and to a lesser degree the new Mac minis, to help the desktop category rebound in the Dec. quarter,” Munster wrote. “In other words, the headwind that existed in the Sept. quarter due to aging Mac desktops has now turned into a tailwind for Mac units in the Dec. quarter….Bottom Line: Street Mac numbers may also be conservative if positive trends continue coupled with new Macs in the quarter.”

Neither filing provides much detail about either device beyond model number, though the keyboard described in one does appear to be smaller than the current model. That said, AppleInsider speculates that the mouse Apple (AAPL) is evidently working on will be significantly mightier than the current Mighty Mouse, scrapping the device’s rollerball in favor of a touch-sensitive housing and perhaps even an aluminum finish.

[IImage Credits: Engadget and MacBlogz]

Well, no longer. Because Apple (AAPL) is planning to refresh its iMac desktop computer in the next few weeks, and when it does, it may well offer a Blue-ray drive option.

Sources tell AppleInsider that the new all-in-one, dual-core desktops, which are also said to feature a new, slimmer enclosure, were finalized earlier this month and are already rolling off the assembly lines of Apple’s manufacturing partners.

“The late 2009 iMac line should also debut several features previously unavailable to Mac buyers,” the publication notes. “People familiar with Apple’s thinking have suggested in recent months one of these moves could see the company finally embrace Blu-ray.”

One last point worth noting here: According to the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide, the iMac is due for a refresh. Apple has updated it every 220 days on average since it debuted the machine in 2003. As of today, it has been 204 days since the last update. MacRumors’s recommendation: “Buy only if you need it–Approaching the end of a cycle.”

On the revenue-seeking side, BoomTown’s Twitter Business Plan Count-Up hasn’t yielded any real keepers yet. There is a real contender, though–since Jennifer Aniston so publicly broke up with her boyfriend, John Mayer, on account of his Twitter “addiction,” BoomTown suggests offering “Twitter rehab” for those not willing to lose their relationships just yet. Not sure how zoning would work on that one, but the profit margin could be nice. The Guardian’s Changing Media Summit in London didn’t provide a lot of hard answers to the revenue question either, but it did gather the curious together to discuss the matter further, ponder the Next Big Thing, and talk about what the media company of tomorrow looks like. And, perhaps proving that during hard times Americans love an unlikely hero (a Seabiscuit for our own economic disaster?), Steve Wozniak escaped elimination from “Dancing With The Stars” for yet another week–undoubtedly due to the will of the people and their appreciation of his determined and goodhearted willingness to look silly on national television. The Pillsbury Doughboy bit probably didn’t hurt, either.

On the cost-saving side, MediaMemo wrote about job and salary cuts at the New York Times (NYT). The job cuts were on the business side, but the company slashed all of its nonunion salaries by 2.5-5 percent. It will ask for similar cuts from its unionized newsroom employees, in a spirit of “shared sacrifice.” Google (GOOG) sacrificed 200 more jobs, this time from sales. One of the most drastic signs of recession, however, may be the fact that Condé Nast’s higher echelons are cutting back on chauffeured cars to get them around Manhattan.

According to Digital Daily, It was Black Thursday at IBM (IBM) on the 26th, with 1,674 job losses (and counting). 5,000 jobs are expected to be cut overall, with many of the lost U.S. positions being transferred offshore. Better news over at Viacom’s (VIA) MTV games–according to new statistics, the company’s Rock Band franchise recently surpassed $1 billion in North American retail sales, making it the number one title of 2008 across all genres, based on revenue. And that’s before Beatles: Rock Band even comes close to shipping. That’s the kind of magic shown so far by Palm’s (PALM) forthcoming Pre handset, which–without a price or a release date–has boosted the company’s share price more than $7 based on little more than a CES debut and some enthusiastic analysts. Digital Daily noted that not everyone feels magical, but the launch will tell.

Over in Personal Technology, Walt Mossberg offered quick reviews of the iPhone apps he uses most often and that make the shiny Apple (AAPL) gadget worth the price. In Mossberg’s Mailbox, Walt pointed out the usefulness of IE8’s compatibility button, which makes the browser act like IE7 in certain instances, on Web sites that were coded around the peccadilloes of the earlier versions of the Microsoft (MSFT) software. Other readers had questions about ordering broadband service without a land line and burning movies to Blu-ray discs using an iMac. Katie Boehret spent the week testing out a new TV from Samsung–the first to integrate with the Yahoo (YHOO) Widget Engine, which enables viewers to watch shows and access the Web on the same large screen. Her thoughts are in The Mossberg Solution.

More next week.

With consumers postponing their Mac purchases in expectation of a desktop refresh, Apple saw double-digit declines in Mac sales for the month, according to the latest NPD data. They were down 16 percent compared to February of 2008. A decline, but one that’s not quite as grave as it first seems, as Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster notes. “[We] note that year-over-year Mac performance faced a tough comp in the month of February 2009 due to the February 2008 MacBook Air launch,” Munster explained. “That said, we expect Mac NPD data to rebound in the month of March due to the shipment of new iMacs, Mac minis, and Mac Pros in early March.”

For the March quarter, Munster believes Apple (AAPL) will sell between 2 and 2.2 million Macs–a decline of between 13 and 14 percent. Not so bad considering that Gartner predicts PC sales will chart their sharpest unit decline in history this year. Really, the fact that Apple is selling desktops at all in this economy is worth cheering.

This morning Apple (AAPL) refreshed its desktop line, announcing a new Nehalem-based Mac Pro, a more robust Mac mini and four new iMacs, among them, three with 24-inch screens. All three lines boast fundamental enhancements, but also more affordable prices–a feature Apple touted in its marketing materials the way it would a new technology. Consider this pull quote from Apple COO Tim Cook: “Our flagship 24-inch iMac with twice the memory and twice the storage is now available for just $1,499. The Mac mini is not only our most affordable Mac, it’s also the world’s most energy efficient desktop computer.” And this one from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing: “The new Mac Pro is a significant upgrade and starts at $300 less than before.”

An interesting change from Apple’s standard marketing language, which typically holds its new machines up as “the most incredible desktop computer we’ve ever made” or “our fastest, biggest and brightest” or “the workstation Mac users have been dreaming about.”

These days, Apple’s new Macs are not simply faster and shinier, they’re a bargain as well. “Insanely great!” has become “insanely affordable!” Anyway, on to the specs.

The new Mac Pro is priced at $2,499 for the quad-core version and at $3,299 for the eight-core version, with Nehalem Xeon processors running at 2.93GHz. All feature an updated system architecture that Apple says delivers twice the performance of the previous model.

The new iMac line starts with the 20-inch iMac for $1,199 with a 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 320GB Serial ATA hard drive and Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics. Its 24-inch brethren features a 1920-by-1200-pixel widescreen display that offers 30 percent more screen real estate than the 20-inch model. It offers up to a 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and starts at $1,499–the same price as the previous generation 20-inch model.

The new Mac Mini has been outfitted with the same Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics as Apple’s new MacBooks, something the company says will improve its graphics performance as much as fivefold. Available in two models that start at $599, the mini features a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 1066MHz memory, up to 320GB Serial ATA hard drive, five (!) USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 800 and a SuperDrive.

Also receiving a refresh today: Apple’s Time Capsule and AirPort Extreme, which now offer a “guest networking” feature that allows users to create a separate Wi-Fi network just for their friends and supports for simultaneous dual-band Wi-Fi. “For maximum range and compatibility, Time Capsule works simultaneously on both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, allowing all the devices on the network to use the most efficient band automatically,” Apple explains. “And Time Capsule uses the latest 802.11n wireless technology so you can enjoy up to five times the performance and up to twice the range of 802.11g wireless networks.”

UPDATE: Hardmac is now claiming these new machines could be released as soon as tomorrow.

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• A Post-Macworld Apple Event? History Would Seem to Suggest So

In this environment where nobody is buying anything and you come out with a kick-ass product, you might get a lot of wows and woos, but that does not convert into sales. So that’s a wasted effort.”

– Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry says Apple may not innovate its way through this particular downturn.

Mac unit sales were down six percent compared with last January, according to Munster. Based on that, the analyst expects Apple (AAPL) will sell between 2 million and 2.2 million Macs during its second quarter, compared to 2.3 million Macs sold in Q2 of 2008. Also reportedly on the decline: iPod sales. Munster says January numbers for the iconic device were down 14 percent year-over-year.

It seems, then, that Apple CEO Steve Jobs may have to withhold his oft-recycled “best quarter ever” pronouncement come March. That said, Munster expects Apple to meet consensus expectations for the quarter–so it’s not all bad news. “We believe this data will be perceived as a neutral or a slight positive given the uncertainty surrounding the Mar-08 quarter,” Munster wrote. “Given concerns regarding iPod  weakness, we believe the segment’s in-line performance relative to  Street expectations is a positive.”

Interesting data points for Apple watchers, although by no means definitive ones. Munster’s report is, after all, based on a single month of data and doesn’t account for wild cards like the announcement of revisions to the iMac and/or Mac Mini lines–both of which have been expected for some time.

The first, a Monday note from Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu claiming that the new iMacs that had been expected to debut at Macworld are almost ready for market. “We wanted to give an update on the Mac business from what we are picking up from our latest supply chain checks,” Wu wrote in a note to clients. “While new the iMac appears to be almost ready for primetime, what is holding it up appears to be business reasons and a potential small technical hurdle…. Apple is in the midst of figuring out whether to power the new iMac with Intel quad-core processors or more high-powered dual-core processors with larger caches.”

The second: A report out of China’s Economic Daily News claiming Apple’s manufacturing partner Quanta Computer is “gearing up to supply monthly shipments of around 800,000 [iMaC] units during the first quarter of 2009.”

And the third: Reports that Apple (AAPL) has been telling resellers that iMac supplies are tightening, often interpreted as a sign that the company is dropping inventory levels ahead of a product life refresh. Said Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, “In our experience, when Apple sends an advisory to its channel partners of limited availability and inventory of existing models are drawn down, it is highly likely that a product refresh is within a few weeks.” Wu, it’s worth noting, believes that Apple is planning to use both quad-core and dual-core chips in its new iMacs, the former for high-end models, the latter for their lower-end counterparts.