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Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) 
kicked the week off by announcing the new BlackBerry Storm, the company's first touchscreen smartphone, which in turn jump-started the "iPhone Killer" headlines.
While the mobile bloggers were busy with that one, traditional Mac 
lovers have been stoked into a frenzy of anticipation over the new MacBook lineup -- will they come Oct. 14? Are these spy photos real? Fortunately, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) settled the date speculation with an official invite, so something's definitely coming Oct. 14.
Then there was the Woz, who seems to think the iPod is on the way out ...
The Big Storm?
"First and foremost, the Storm is a BlackBerry. You know what that means -- seamless integration with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) and your business's communications servers. Mobile e-mail , Outlook integration and the power to view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files is included out of the box," Over the Air blogger Eric Zeman posted.
After the business basics, the Storm features a 480 by 360 pixel, 3.26-inch touchscreen that also doubles as one big button for some tactile feedback when selecting items. It includes a landscape QWERTY software keyboard -- like the iPhone -- but also has RIM's SureType keyboard for one-handed typing in portrait mode. The camera is 3.2 megapixels, it has a flash and zoom, and it records video in not one, but two different resolutions. The built-in media player plays, well, media. It has 1 GB of memory on board and supports microSD cards up to 8 MB. It runs on Verizon's 3G network.
So, the big question: Is it really an iPhone killer? Will consumers and businesses gravitate toward the Storm?
"For the guy who administers 60 BlackBerries already, it's an iPhone slayer because I can put it right into my systems and administer it's features and security centrally. It lets users have the consumer bells and whistles and the admin have the simple setup that you need in an enterprise," comments null on the Over the Air post on the subject.
Or Poof of Wind?
"'Slayer of iPhone' eh? Can you quantify? I see a better camera and a bit more European network support, but no Wi-Fi. Like using the cell network is a replacement for jumping on someone else's wireless, right ... Nice try RIM," added Choice of words? to the Over the Air post.
In a follow-up post on Over the Air, "Five Reasons Why The BlackBerry Storm Rocks" commenter Miss weighed in as the voice of reason: "I have an Iphone as well as a BlackBerry curve. Like them both very much. Can't really complain about either of them. They both have pros and cons. It all depends on what works for you. I'm curious if the Storm will be able to be used with a stylus? Are there different font sizes? Voice dialing? What if anything will Verizon remove to add their craplications? Price is not an issue. Phone options are."
While employees who were also consumers dragged the iPhone into the enterprise, this time it'll be employees who'll drag the Storm out of the enterprise, Chris Hazelton, research director of mobile and wireless for The 451 Group, told MacNewsWorld. Even so, "The real place for this device is pushing against iPhone in the enterprise," he said.
"Where I see the Storm is, you have a corporate executive that comes to IT and says, 'I want iPhone in the enterprise,'" Hazelton explained.
"IT can say, 'Check out the Storm ... it's [just like] an iPhone but it has 400-plus corporate policies that can control every aspect of this device beyond e-mail and calendaring,'" he said.
The Real Storms Are MacBooks - New, Glorious MacBooks
For months, Apple aficionados have been predicting, hoping and guessing about when -- and how -- Apple would release a new line of MacBooks. The least outlandish soothsayers claim the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros will sport more rounded and sleek aluminum enclosures like the MacBook Air. The keyboards will be black -- again, like the MacBook Air -- and the touchpad with be bigger and sport multi-touch capabilities. Some rumors describe MacBooks with glass touchpads, some hope for Blu-ray drives, while many say Apple won't bother with spendy Blu-ray drives at all when the iTunes Store delivers HD downloads already.
Rumors earlier this week were all about the "brick" ... the idea that a MacBook case could be carved out of a single block of aluminum, which would create a sturdier case and let Apple wow the world with its design prowess. But the brick rumor also had some plausible critics, like the one on Engadget.
"Yes, I'm wondering about that too. A laptop case machined from a giant solid block of aluminum is excessive, and I don't think that anyone would be dumb enough to design a case that needs to be milled on an expensive machine for several hours, and expect to sell a lot of them at a decent price. Yes, the shavings are/should-be melted down, but that also takes some energy, and could waste valuable time. So I bet it's stamped or drawn, with some kind of jet or beam used to cut it. But even then, it's a hell of a lot more expensive than the current cases. But I bet it'd feel really solid and look really cool..." commenter Darryl wrote.
The brick rumors started dying down as spy photos of what appears to be a MacBook casing hit the Web. The photos come courtesy of apple.pro, a Taiwan-based Web site, and they sparked a whole new fire of anticipation.
AppleInsider.com posted that at least one of the spy photos "is the real deal," though not everyone was duly impressed.
"I thought Apple would do something 'revolutionary' in terms of design for the MacBook Pro, while keeping an 'evolutionary' approach to the MacBook. It is good that they now build the MacBook in alluminium, much as the Air, but on the other hand Apple should have taken steps to truly differentiate the 'Pro' line from the others," commented iMat on the AppleInsider.com post on the subject.
Aside from speculation, the spy photos bring up some new questions: In an Internet-connected world full of camera phones, can any secrets still be kept? And if Apple can't keep secrets, can anyone?
"Apple and everybody else out there in the tech industry would do well to remember the old adage, 'Military secrets are the most fleeting of all.' And now, in the 21st century, it's 'Technology secrets are the most fleeting of all.' Now there are no more secrets -- everything gets found out -- it's a connected universe," Laura DiDio, principal analyst for Information Technology Intelligence Corp (ITIC) told MacNewsWorld.
Indeed, the Cat's Out of the Bag
On Thursday, Apple sent out an invitation to journalists featuring a photo of a silvery top of what looks to be a MacBook with the Apple logo and ray of light streaming across it. The caption read, "The spotlight turns to notebooks."
The party is a town-hall, invitation-only event in Cupertino next Tuesday, Oct. 14, at 10 a.m. PST. If the event is anything like the recent iPod and iTunes announcements, Apple will later offer a QuickTime video of the show.
"I hope these aren't so beautiful that I feel compelled to sell my 2.2Ghz MacBook. Nah, I still love it. I'll probably just wait until revision 2. Can't wait to see what's coming!" commented ltldrummerboy on the MacRumors.com post on the subject.
Will iPods Rage Against the Dying of the Light?
In an interview with the Telegraph, Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak stirred things up when he basically said the iPod was on the way out.
"The iPod has sort of lived a long life at number one," he noted. "Things like that, if you look back to transistor radios and Walkmans, they kind of die out after a while. It's kind of like everyone has got one or two or three. You get to a point when they are on display everywhere, they get real cheap and they are not selling as much."
Reader Qasim commented, "It's funny how defensive and aggresive Apple fanboys begin to get after a pinch from reality," then added, "To the IPod, I agree, it's past it's sell-by date. A point in case: Nano -- it was long and thin, then short and fat, and now long and thin again. The IPod Shuffle -- pathetic all round. The IPod classic -- I'm not gonna even bother."
Not everyone shares the sentiment, however, and in fact see the iPod as the catalyst for future evolution.
"We don't think iPod is at risk of dying out anytime soon. Keep in mind that in the time since the first audio-only, hard drive-based iPod was introduced in 2001, the device and line have regularly evolved to incorporate next-gen technology features -- including flash memory, video and connectivity. We expect this trend will continue, with Apple developing the technology platform and the powerful brand," Susan Kevorkian, program director of consumer markets for IDC, told MacNewsWorld.
"At the same time, iPod has served as the basis of other product categories, including iPhone. The iPod touch, which offers WiFi connectivity and a more open platform, gives the company an entry into the mobile Internet device space as that market develops. So while portable, iPod-branded devices are likely to persist, we expect that they'll ultimately grow beyond the portable media player category as we know it today," she added.
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