Walt, after all, is the basis for this. And this. Microsoft should be very proud, or we should all be very scared. [WSJ]

More ominously, while revealing the paid app switcheroo at a Goldman Sachs conference, Rupert Murdoch also predicted a pay-per-view or subscription model for Hulu. (His News Corp. owns the WSJ, and partners with NBC Universal on Hulu.) Yikes. [paidContent via Editorialiste]

The first time, apparently, he killed it for crummy battery life, and then the second time because it had "insufficient memory." Both of which seem like minor roadbumps, not fatal sins—isn't that the iPhone 3G nowadays to a T? But it actually kind of makes us happy, that Jobs—and Apple—are being that disciplined about it. Death to the weak models. That's promising.

The report also reveals that since Jobs came back from medical leave, he has been incredibly involved not just with the development of the "touch screen gadget," but with the strategy for marketing and advertising as well. Which isn't surprising, since it's the tablet and Steve Jobs, but apparently this involvement has been "jarring for some Apple employees who had grown accustomed to a level of freedom over strategy and products" while he was gone, said the WSJ, basing comments on a source who specifically said, "People have had to readjust" to Jobs' management.

Though the article is ridden with anonymous "people familiar with the situation," Jobs himself was contacted and responded with a curt, "Much of your information is incorrect." Hey, if he didn't specifically deny the existence of an Apple tablet, that's close enough for our dreams. [The Wall Street Journal]

The reason this is even a subject again is because of an oddly (and perhaps tellingly) vague piece posted on the the WSJ's Digits blog by Ben Charny, who flat out claims that that Apple plans to use CES to replace Macworld, which it walked away from last year:

Apple plans to attend the show's 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there.

That sounds clear enough, but it's buried in a piece that otherwise seems to be about how the chief executive of the CEA, Gary Shapiro, can't get in touch with Steve Jobs. But hey, he's probably just being vague, and drew his conclusion from quotes that he didn't include! That's what journalists do, sometimes! Except the meeting from which Charny drew his conclusion was a dinner with multiple attendees, one of whom happens to be ex Engadget editor and current CEA advisor Ryan Block. He took issue with Charny's reading of events:

[I]t's also specious and flatly wrong. I was seated directly across from Gary, and present for the entire conversation, wherein a dozen or so other journos chatted with him and one another. When asked about the CEA's ongoing contact with Jobs, Gary joked that every once in a while Steve might even return his email — to which we all laughed knowingly. Yep, that's our Steve. Shapiro went on to mention that Apple was a great and long-standing supporter of the efforts of the CEA, but that their only direct involvement was sending a check each year to pay their membership dues.

As far as the WSJ post goes, this is pretty damning. But it really just rules out Charny's version of this dinner, not the possibility that Apple will actually go to CES. As far as that question goes, we're left with the same evidence we had last time rumors like this went around, all the way back in January. The verdict then, and still, is that they probably won't: January's a pretty terrible time to launch new products, but more to the point, Apple doesn't even care about industry trade shows—which CES epitomizes in all the worst ways—anymore. Their statement from all those months ago hasn't been followed up:

Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers. The increasing popularity of Apple's Retail Stores, which more than 3.5 million people visit every week, and the Apple.com website enable Apple to directly reach more than a hundred million customers around the world in innovative new ways.

Apple would gain nothing from going large at CES, so until a credible story comes along that says otherwise, that's the word. [WSJ via Engadget]

As usual, this matrix is just the tip of the molehill—if you want to really get in deep with these colorful characters, here's where to look:

• NYT - David Pogue

• WSJ - Walt Mossberg

• USA Today - Ed Baig

• Wired - Steven Levy

• Cnet - Kent German

• Engadget - Josh Topolsky

• Ars Technica

• Laptop

• Crunchgear

• Gear Live

• Gizmodo - Jason Chen

And if we've missed your review, send it in: we'll add it to the list.

I took the app for a quick spin and noticed, as pretty much everyone else will, its content layout is nearly identical to the NYT app (the main difference being that WSJ's headline fonts are larger). However, the WSJ app also offers audio and video clips, plus it felt far snappier than NYT's still finicky software over my Wi-Fi connection.

Available at the iTunes Store now, let us know what you think about it in the comments. Let's cry about the bugs early so that maybe we won't be stuck with another 2.02 version of a newspaper that barely runs. [iTunes via Macworld]

The offer could potentially mean Samsung wants to absorb and/or eliminating SanDisk's brand and distinct products altogether. Even though this was a seriously nice offer given SanDisk's crappy stock performance of late, the company told Samsung to eff off, calling it an "opportunistic attempt" to pick up SanDisk while it's down. Samsung says that SanDisk "continues to cling to unrealistic expectations." Tell me, why does this intended corporate marriage sound so much like my parents' divorce? [WSJ]

Click the headline once and you see a paragraph summary—click again to read the whole article, which only takes 10 secs to load on EDGE. And you can save stories for subway or air reading. No word on an iPhone version specifically, but the Journal told us that the reader is "currently in development" for "other smartphone platforms." It makes sense to hit BlackBerry first since that's what the suit-and-tie, richer-than-you crowd—the WSJ's audience—are toting by and large. If you've got a BlackBerry, there's no reason to not grab this. If you don't read the Journal, try it, it'll make you smarter (maybe not the editorial pages, but the rest of it will). [WSJ via Silicon Alley Insider]

If you need more gritty and less nitty, check out Chen's rundown of the reviews. Or, if you have some spare time, read the Three Amigos' own unexpurgated scribblings. [USA Today, WSJ/AllThingsD, NYT]

Walt Mossberg of the WSJ has been testing it "for a couple of weeks" and sees that surfing on the faster 3G is between three and five times the speed of the original iPhone. However, Moss found that browsing on the 3G network drained his battery much faster than browsing on the original. Externally, he says the speaker was "much louder" (YES!) for both music and speakerphone, but otherwise pretty much the same as the original. One bug/feature he ran into was that you can only sync your calendar and contacts with either Exchange or your personal accounts, not both.

In Mossberg's own battery tests, he got 4 hours and 27 minutes (short of 5 hours) of talk time, which is three hours less than his test on the original iPhone. Using 3G, he got 5 hours and 49 minutes, which is slightly better than Apple's own claim. He couldn't test any apps on his iPhone 3G, but did on his old iPhone—they worked pretty much as advertised. He concludes with pretty much what we've all known: it's slightly more expensive on AT&T due to the higher price plan, but satisfies people who really need that 3G speed. What's weird is that Mossberg didn't test the GPS functionality at all, so we're left wondering how that is. [All Things D]

Ed Baig of USA Today also tested the iPhone 3G and claims both that it was worth the wait, but still not perfect. His complaints of the first one—no video capture, no Bluetooth stereo and no voice dialing—are still there. Also, AT&T's 3G coverage was nonexistent in his New Jersey home, which kinda negates the whole "iPhone 3G" thing. He notes that the new plastic backing helps reception, and the new flush headphone jack is "a welcome development." Unlike Mossberg, Baig does have something to note on the GPS. He says he was quite impressed by its accuracy when searching for pizza places while driving, and hopes that there will be a third-party add-on for turn-by-turn live directions.

Baig also says that the speaker is improved, but notes strangely that you can't directly charge the new iPhone 3G in some old accessories, such as a Bose SoundDock or a Belkin car kit. There's actually an adapter coming that will enable charging on those. Weird. He finishes up with his wishes for the next generation: Flash, Java and WMV support, removable battery and an expandable memory slot. All in all, a pretty positive review. [USA Today]

David Pogue of the NYT says that the audio quality is much improved, and notes that both incoming and outgoing sound is better than before. "In fact, few cellphones sound this good." The curved back makes the phone feel better in your hand, which is a definite plus. However, he says, the missing "standard cellphone features" from the first generation are also missing from this one. He hopes that the third-party Apps from the iPhone App Store will help fill in the gaps, but some of the ones we've seen—finding parking spots, free phone calls at Wi-Fi hotspots, random restaurant recommender, expense tracker, Etch-a-Sketch and tip calculator—don't exactly make up for the missing MMS, video recording and cut and paste features. Pogue also noticed the GPS does not support turn-by-turn navigation.

Pogue doesn't have much else in the way of benchmarks or impressions, but comes off seeming like he really likes the phone because of the iPhone 2.0 software; something old iPhone owners will be able to get for free. [NYT]

Notes: We have to say that Mossberg's review was the best in terms of completeness (save for the GPS omission). Normally, Newsweek would have a review up for the iPhone along with these three guys, but both they and Wired don't have an early review. This, we think, is because Steven Levy (the old Newsweek guy) at Wired, and Fake Steve Jobs (who hasn't quite started at Newsweek) didn't get the nod from Apple. We had our own hands on with the phone back at WWDC, which covers a lot of the exterior hardware elements as well as some of the software details.

Things became so bitter that, on one occasion, Mr. Gates stormed out of a meeting in a huff after a shouting match in which Mr. Ballmer jumped to the defense of several colleagues, according to an individual present at the time. After the exchange, Mr. Ballmer seemed "remorseful," the person said.

Gradually, Mr. Ballmer made his imprint. He restructured the company to give more decision-making power to executives, and elevated people with general management experience into positions previously held by technology-focused executives. He also worked to settle Microsoft's many lawsuits, taking a more conciliatory line than Mr. Gates typically had, Microsoft executives say.

Once Mr. Gates leaves, "I'm not going to need him for anything. That's the principle," Mr. Ballmer says. "Use him, yes, need him, no."

[WSJ]

It took already captured images of my friends' faces and turned their frowns or ambivalent looks into smiles, but didn't adjust the subjects' eyes. Though this was good for laughs, the eerie-looking grins pasted on faces reminded me of painted-on clowns' mouths. And some attempts to retouch a face couldn't detect the face to alter it. But a handful of the Happy Face Retouches looked somewhat natural.