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The week in tech: 5 must-know things on USAToday.com:

The Week in Tech: 5 Must-Know Things
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Wii U has 30 launch titles, including Hulu Plus.(Photo: Jae C. Hong AP)

3:39PM EST November 23. 2012 - It's the most wonderful time of the year! For tech companies, at least. Black Friday kicks off the holiday selling season with deals in stores for all sorts of tech gadgets, including the Wii U and Samsung's Galaxy Camera. Here are five things you need to know about this week in Tech:

1) Review: Nintendo's Wii U a potential dual threat

The Wii video game console is expanding into mobile with the Wii U, available now in stores.

USA TODAY's Brett Molina played around with the new console and said its GamePad 6.2-inch tablet controller "presents several intriguing possibilities" for gameplay. It looks bulky at first, but "feels comfortable to handle for even the most complex video games."

The new Wii system is still pretty bare, with a limited selection of apps and games. The Wii U offers 30 launch titles, and users must wait until next month to download Nintendo TVii. Video app Hulu Plus just became available this week.

But the Wii U's current offerings are still pretty good — the system has a revamped online hub, Nintendo Network, an eShop for purchasing games, a Web browser and a social "Miiverse."

2) Black Friday TV deals abound

If you're looking to upgrade to a new TV, now is the time. USA TODAY's Mike Snider took a look at the best TV deals for the holiday season.

Here's what you need to know before you head out to Best Buy, Target or other electronics retailers:

Small TVs are getting cheaper. Small HDTVs are priced at a new low of $97 or less at Kmart, Sears and other retailers, but quantities will be limited at stores.

The bigger the better. 50-inch flat-panel TVs are a hot-ticket item this year, with an average retail price of $631. Some 60-inch displays regularly priced at $999 could come in below $900 in the coming weeks. And if you're willing to shell out the big bucks for a really big TV, Sharp is selling a 90-inch set for $10,999.99.

Get smart. Most TV sets on the market right now can stream video from Hulu, YouTube and other programs. If you want to save money and buy a TV set without video-streaming capabilities, you can always buy add-on devices such as a Blu-ray Disc player or an Apple TV box to connect your TV to the Internet.

3) Baig: Galaxy Camera puts Samsung in new focus

Is it a smartphone? Is it a camera? Samsung's new Galaxy Camera from AT&T looks and operates much like one of the company's Galaxy smartphones. To be clear, though, this is not a phone.

The camera has a 4.8-inch high-definition screen and a touch-screen display on the rear. Users can connect to the Internet on Wi-Fi or a 4G network to share pictures on a social network or e-mail them to friends. AT&T also offers 5 GB of cloud storage, roughly 5,000 photos.

But be warned — connectivity doesn't come cheap. The Galaxy camera itself cost $499.99, plus $10 a month for the 4G network. Additional data for the camera costs $15 a month for 250 megabytes and up to $50 a month for 5 GB of storage space.

4) Waywire founder Cory Booker has YouTube in his sights

Twitter's most popular mayor is taking on a new medium: video.

Newark, N.J., Mayor Cory Booker is a one-third partner in #waywire, kind of a "socially conscious YouTube" that lets users watch a small collection of videos and recommend videos to their friends. The startup has media partners such as Reuters and MTV, and the site counts Lady Gaga and women's health advocate Sarah Brown among contributors. It also has a daily news recap show, TweetTap.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham talked to the folks at #waywire and its supporters to find out what makes the site worth the hype. They said the site's small video library, a stark contrast to YouTube's supersized video collection, gives users a more personalized experience.

Sarah Pena, the founder of YouTube star management company Big Frame, sums it up best when she says finding videos on YouTube is "THE problem." Pena says about the site: "Discoverability is a huge challenge. I go to YouTube.com, then what? Hopefully, places like #waywire can help cut through all the noise with curation."

5) Dwarf planet puzzles astronomers

Scientists got a rare look at a dwarf planet near Pluto last year, but they are still trying to make sense of the planet's odd features.

Makemake, a planet that orbits at 4.85 billion miles from the sun, has an oblong shape and no atmosphere. Scientists believe any atmosphere on the planet likely froze out some time ago.

Makemake is one of three planets in the Kuiper belt. Scientists hope that this trio can help them better understand dwarf planets and the farthest edges of the solar system.

Amazing Voice, a 11-year old boy singing Do Re Mi

Christopher Lin, 11
Omaha, Nebraska
11 November, 2012