What a week! On my first trip to Vegas and the Consumer Electronics Show, I survived harassment by bulldog aficionado Jason Calacanis, discovered that HP adman Jay-Z uses a Mac, and laughed at Richard Blakeley’s TV-B-Gone prank. Now we hear that he’s been banned from the show. It could be worse. He could be behind bars…

… like this pair of adorably cute bulldogs!(WORLD EXCLUSIVE bulldog photo courtesy of Jason Calacanis)

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Today’s most discussed stories are

Tips from a CES veteran (7 comments), McDonald’s outs Starbucks as fast food chain (6) and How Google controls Apple (5).

Source:Valleywag

Jay-Z and girlfriend Beyonce seem to be Apple fans. No surprise there: Plenty of musicians use Macs. What is surprising? Jay-Z was in one of those Hewlett-Packard “hand” ads last year touting HP laptops. At least Tiger Woods actually wears Nike. Catch the ad after the jump.

(Photo by ashbyyokosuka)

Successful rap producer Jermaine Dupri probably didn’t win any friends for his Huffington Post entry defending Jay-Z’s decision to sell his new album American Gangster online only as a full album. Dupri may not be a polished spokesperson, and no one wants to hear, “Why do people not care how we — the people who make music — eat?” Not when it comes from someone tied as the tenth wealthiest hip-hop mogul. Or when that person also gets to sleep with Janet Jackson. But — I can’t believe I’m saying this — Dupri is right. Of course, artists should have the right to determine how their creations are packaged. In admitting that it’s about money, too, he’s just being honest. Music is a business. It’s about coming to mutually agreeable terms with the customer, not catering to his every whim. Even Steve Jobs lets musicians sell songs on Apple’s iTunes in album-only packages. Ultimately, if consumers really have a problem with the way they do business, the artists will fail. That’s their right, too.