Chuck Joiner described it as "freewheeling," which is a nice way of saying that Macworld's Jim Dalrymple and I went off the rails in this podcast, recorded at Macworld Expo. In short, I was cranky and wasn't about to give Apple the benefit of the doubt on much of anything.

Google has released a public beta version of Picasa for Mac at Macworld Expo this week. Previously, Mac users were limited to the Picasa Web Albums uploader and an iPhoto plugin, but now they have access to the full version of the photo editing and organizing software.

The popular fake news organization, The Onion, recently posted a hilarious video on its Web site featuring a look at a fake new Apple laptop, the MacBook Wheel. According to The Onion, the MacBook Wheel replaces the keyboard with a giant touch-sensitive click wheel, making everything on your computer, "just a few hundred clicks away."

The Roku Player continues to change: after upgrading customers to HD output, Roku has forged a partnership with Amazon to offer the retailer's on-demand video. The addition will appear in early 2009. Amazon allows all devices associated with an account to access the same video library.

In a public letter quite out of character for the usually private Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO says a hormone imbalance has caused protein deprivation that's led to his gaunt look, and he's taken steps to fix it. Jobs subscribes to an alternative medicine worldview and reportedly waited nine months before seeking an allopathic solution (relatively radical internal organ surgery) to his pancreatic cancer a few years ago. He wants us all to enjoy Macworld, he wrote, and so he revealed what he views as minor issue he wishes he could have kept to himself.

Going to Macworld Expo with your iPhone or iPod touch? Just in time for this week's show in San Francisco, IDG and Zami.com have released iMacworld, an app that provides a directory of exhibitors (including floor plans for the North and South Halls), products, and sessions. (Link goes directly to iTunes.)

Adam's tour of the Macintosh podcasts and radio shows continues with a session Inside Mac Radio with Scott Sheppard to discuss the fate of Macworld Expo in the light of Apple pulling out of future shows.

Subscribers to XM or SIRIUS radio services in the United States can now listen to their favorite stations on the Mac. The public preview release of Rogue Amoeba's Pulsar frees you from using dedicated hardware or listening via a Web browser.

Dead Zune, dead Zune, watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do when they come for you? Macworld picks up the story of 30 GB Microsoft Zune players spontaneously failing early this morning, December 31. Microsoft determined it was a leap-year bug, and affected Zunes should function normally on January 1.

Roku has updated its $100 Netflix Player to handle high-definition video content from the movie rental and delivery service. Netflix Player streams video from Netflix via the Internet to a TV or monitor. Roku also confirmed that companies other than Netflix will be providing HD content in the next three months.

Duane Straub, bassist in the Macworld All Star Band, has posted the lengthy (we're talking years!) story about how he came to write the "Macintosh Boogie," along with a link to a video of the song itself. It's the first Mac-specific piece of boogie-woogie music we've heard!

If you haven't had enough of the whole Apple pulling out of Macworld Expo topic yet, tune into the Tech Night Owl Live radio show for Adam's take on what's behind Apple's decision, and why he thinks (or at least hopes!) Macworld Expo will stick around.

Neil McAllister at InfoWorld examines what could be Google's most audacious plan yet - to download and run native x86 code within a Web browser on a Mac or PC. The goal is increased performance and security, but note that code will need to be written specially or recompiled for Native Client, so it's not as though your favorite apps will suddenly be accessible within Firefox.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is shifting from suing alleged illegal downloaders of music - as well as dead people, elderly without computers, and others - to getting ISPs to disconnect subscribers who the RIAA says are illegal uploaders. The RIAA won't gain any personal information about putative offenders, but ISPs that participate will put the RIAA's interests ahead of their customers's interests, and are relying on the RIAA's accuracy in identifying violations.

Apple has posted a support article explaining how to recover (by deleting partially downloaded files) if Software Update stops responding during its "Configuring installation" phase. The bug is fixed in Mac OS X 10.5.6, but can still affect the 10.5.6 update process.