Steve Jobs and Bill Gates - no introductions needed - take the stage together at D 2007: All Things Digital - The Wall Street Journal Executive Conference at the Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad. Coverage and video over at Engadget and Macworld. History in the making.

Fire up Software Update: a new version of iTunes has just been released. iTunes 7.2 allows you to

preview and purchase iTunes Plus music—new higher-quality, DRM-free music downloads from participating music labels.

Additionally (according to iTunes help):

The iTunes Store also offers songs without DRM protection, from participating record labels. These DRM-free songs, called “iTunes Plus,” have no usage restrictions and feature higher-quality encoding.

The first time you buy an iTunes Plus song, you specify whether to make all future purchases iTunes Plus versions (when available). You can change this setting by accessing your account information on the iTunes Store.

If you already have iTunes Store purchases that are now available as iTunes Plus downloads, you may upgrade your existing purchases. To do so, visit the iTunes Store and follow the onscreen instructions.

At least this saves us all the DRM-purging step of burn-to-a-CD then re-rip. The download is 29.2MB for most systems.

On a side note, also available is Security Update 1.0 for Quicktime 7.1.6. It’s a 1.9MB download. More on this here.

With this post we begin a new series and blog category called Macs in Media, which details appearances and cameos of our favorite computer on television, in movies and other popular media. True, most Apple cameos are sometimes chokingly-omnipresent and obvious product placements from Apple’s marketing overdrive department, but now and then they manage a subtle little slip that titillate the Mac faithful, or occasionally even come up with a more meaty appearance where the computer is actually a significant part of the story. Or not. Whatever. (Let’s just say us fanboys get tickled pink when we see a Mac in a movie.)

PAPURIKA (2006), directed by Satoshi Kon, from Madhouse/Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan):

This first entry shows a cameo of what appears to be a Macbook Pro in Satoshi Kon’s new anime film Papurika, (Paprika), released late last year, and the DVD just last Friday. The anime is from the creators of Perfect Blue and Tokyo Godfathers, and is a great, mind-bending trip about a gadget that allows someone to slip into another person’s dreams. One review puts it best: it’s like Hello Kitty meets Philip K. Dick.

The Mac shown above looks like a regular 15″ Aluminum PPC Powerbook, but the dual hinges on the top edge give it away as a MacBook Pro - the odd thing is that the iSight lens seems to be missing. (And it’s also telling that the MacBook Pro wasn’t yet around during the production of the film either. I could be wrong though; I’ll look into it.) What’s even odder is that the laptop featured isn’t a Vaio, since the film was co-produced by Sony.

For more info on the movie, check out IMDB, or google some reviews like the one from The New York Times. Catch the trailer here.

I’m a podcast slut.

I listen to almost anything, and I’ve tried a heck of a lot of shows. Sadly, 70% of what’s out there is not worth listening to for many colorful reasons, some technical, but mostly related to content and talent deficiencies. I can listen to a horribly recorded show if their hosts were good and the material was outstanding, but there are a lot that are as bad-sounding as their material is useless and horribly delivered (including a few locally produced ones that will remain unnamed); they’re really just vanity projects and long-running ego trips for those concerned.

20% of it is ok but just plain boring. The remaining 10% however are borderline fantastic. Some are useful, some are hilarious, some informative and all entertaining. It’s just a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff; given the variety out there, this is a tall order. The only way to find them to dive right in and start trying them out, and being quick not to waste time with the crapola. If it doesn’t hook you in the first five minutes, or you’ve patiently listened to a couple of episodes if one and still feel iffy about it, delete the thing and try something else. There’s plenty more where those came from.

I’m curious to know what people are listening to, so if you have some suggestions as to what to download and what to avoid, most of us would appreciate a heads-up. Drop a comment so we can try out what you like and skip what you don’t, and if you have time, explain why that is.

To start things off, here’s a quick rundown of what’s currently on my iPod (audio only), in alphabetical order with pasted descriptions of what they are from the feeds themselves. All of them are available on iTunes. Some are staples on my player, like TWIT, MacBreak Weekly, Cranky Geeks, BOL and Filmspotting, and some of the others are just trial subscriptions, but this list gives you a real-time snapshot of what’s taking up space on my shuffle these days:

Answer Bitch
E! Online’s ASK THE ANSWER B!TCH fields questions from readers around the globe, begging to know what really happens in Hollywood. She gets to the bottom of what the glossies, well, gloss over: Do stars get their $30 million paychecks all at once? Do they scoop up after their own dogs? Who’s in your typical rap-star posse? How can you get into a movie premiere? She knows–and she’s not shy about sharing.

Buzz Out Loud
Molly Wood, Tom Merritt, and Veronica Belmont give you their take on what’s happening in tech news this week. Email us at buzz@cnet.com or call 1-800-616-CNET to leave a message.

Cranky Geeks
Cranky Geeks, hosted by PC Magazine contributing editor John C. Dvorak. Each week a group of expert panelists discuss the most controversial topics in tech. Cranky Geeks airs on Thursdays at 2pm eastern, and can be downloaded at www.CrankyGeeks.com

Diggnation
Diggnation is a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top digg.com social bookmarking news stories.

DS:Life Podcast
The DS:Life podcast is your source for everything Nintendo DS. We will bring you all the latest news, views and even game reviews. So subscribe and check us out. I think you’ll see that we are different then the normal Nintendo themed podcast.

Engadget
Gadget discussion with Peter Roxas and Ryan Block from THE definitive gadget blog.

Filmspotting
A weekly podcast from Chicago featuring new movie reviews, top 5 lists, interviews and insightful film talk with Adam Kempenaar and Sam Van Hallgren. Can be heard monthly on Chicago Public Radio.

GQ Audio Podcast
A weekly infusion of men’s style and culture, the GQ Audio Podcast gives you the story behind the story. Listen in on conversations between GQ editors and writers about the best in movies, fashion, music, and other areas of pop culture. Each episode averages about 20 minutes and is posted every Tuesday

Grammar Girl’s Quick & Dirty Tips
Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Whether English is your first language or your second language, these grammar, punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer. Grammar Girl is a QDnow.com podcast.

Hollywood Party Girl Podcast
E! Online’s Hollywood Party Girl jumps the velvet rope to rub spray-tanned shoulders with stars like Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. She’s got the skinny on the hottest A-list hangs, bashes and happenings. You know, the important stuff, like: Who’s making out in the bathroom? Which stars are dancing on tables? What’s the coolest drink to down? She’s got the inside dish, ’cause she’s (almost) always on the list.

iLifeZone
You have crossed over into the iLifeZone. It is a special place where you can learn how to get the most out of your investment in your Mac hardware and software.

Infected by Martin Sargent
Martin Sargent knows more about technology than any living American, and each episode of Infected is a deeply probing meditation on how all those 1s and 0s are shaping our world. There’s also a fair amount of poo talk. If you want the funniest, most original take on the world of technology and the Internet, get Infected by Martin Sargent today.

MacBreak Weekly
Get the latest Mac news and views from the top journalists covering Apple today. This roundtable discussion is audio only, and complements the video only MacBreak. Another great show from the Pixel Corps and the TWiT.tv network.

MP3 Insider from CNET
Changes are swift in the new age of digital audio. Stay in the loop each week as Veronica and Jasmine discuss the latest digital music (and video) news, hardware, software, and media services, and address reader calls and e-mail.

PC Gamer Podcast
PCGP is the official podcast of PC Gamer Magazine. Every week, our editors bring you expert commentary from behind the scenes of the week’s biggest gaming stories — including exclusive conversations with the most important developers in the business.

PopSci Podcasts
PopSci.com brings you interviews with the movers and shakers of sci-tech, live event coverage, and answers to your most pressing geeky questions.

SModcast
SModcast is the meandering palaver of a pair of dudes whose voices are so dull, they don’t deserve to be on the radio (and, hence, aren’t). Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier are SModcast.The best thing about SModcast? It don’t cost nothing.

This Week in Tech
Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, John C. Dvorak, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in high tech. Winner of People’s Choice Podcast and Best Technology Podcast in the 2005 People’s Choice Podcast Awards. Released every Sunday at midnight Pacific.

We’d love to know what you guys like, so drop us a line sometime.

Fire up Software Update!

Apple released yesterday Security Update 2007-005 (which incorporates 004 if you still don’t have it) and improves security for the following:

bind
CarbonCore
CoreGraphics
crontabs
fetchmail
file
iChat
mDNSResponder
PPP
ruby
screen
texinfo
VPN

It’s a 16.7mb download for PPC, 29.2mb for Universal, 42.5mb for OS X 10.3.9 Client and 56mb for the Server version. Security Update 2007-005 requires a restart. It is also available through Apple Downloads.

No word yet if it screws anything up as is sometimes the case, so downloader beware. We’ll update you if there’s anything in the wind, but so far so good. Details and fine print on the update here.