TECHNICK

Boomtown’s week began on stage in front of thousands of chanting women. No, she wasn’t filling in for Oprah; Kara was doing something much cooler. She got snagged to moderate a panel entitled, “Changing the World Through the Web” at Maria Shriver’s 6-year-strong women’s conference. Her panel included a group of VIPs from Facebook, Kiva, Blue Slate Digital and the twitterific Ashton Kutcher. With Mission: Kutcher accomplished, Kara followed up with the complicated world of MicroHoo (MSFT, YHOO) and offered analysis on the STILL pending search deal. Moral of the story: Commentators should give it time, and Carol Bartz should quit with the Jerry Yang jabs. Boomtown rounded out the week at TEDMED. The conference covered the scalpel’s edge of med tech. And yes, in case you were wondering, synthetic skin feels gross.

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

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

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

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

Bundle up as you head out for tricking and treating, and learn from weekend update’s mistakes. Remember to check and make sure that is actually a mask before you take that new friend home.