Walt, after all, it 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 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 some time ago:

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 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 journalist 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, who took issue with his 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 rumours like this went around, 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 epitomises 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]

Walt Mosspuppet answers reader mail, exactly like you’d expect the only technology journalist in the world to. [YouTube via Fake Steve Jobs]

As usual, this matrix is just the tip of the molehill—if you want to really get in deep with these colourful 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

• Gizmodo – Jason Chen

The Wall Street Journal has traditionally been an expensive paper, costing over $US100 a year for both online and print subscriptions. Now it’s free on the iPhone (just like it’s been on BlackBerries).

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]

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]