Today RIM launched its much-anticipated BlackBerry app store, giving owners of those handsets the option to download third-party applications and developers the opportunity to sell their applications.

Given the runaway success of the iPhone's App Store, should BlackBerry lovers expect the same? And if so, should Apple be worried about that success coming out of the iPhone's pockets?

Well, perhaps. RIM has been pushing the latest BlackBerry models on their web and multimedia features, and with no major sftware update planned before the summer, interest in the iPhone could cool.

What could be more likely,however, is that the two sides steer clear of a showdown altogether. After all, the two sides occupy two pretty different ends of the spectrum, and the smartphone market is still growing. Think for a minute about how many iPhone owners you know of who have their phones through a corporate account, then think for a minute about how many BlackBerry owners you know of who pay for the bill out of their own pockets. As long as the two sides steer clear of each other, a true showdown could be a ways off.

It seems both sides should be more concerned with other foes at the moment; RIM with Windows Mobile in the enterprise space and Apple with Android and the Palm Pre in the consumer space.

In a new advert from Microsoft, Laptop Hunters #1, subject Lauren goes in search of a laptop with "speed, a comfortable keyboard, and a 17in screen" for under $1,000. A voiceover from Microsoft informs the viewer: "We told her, you find it, you keep it", so off she goes. To an Apple Store.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Lauren, who has a voice that could grate cheese, is disappointed. She lurches out of the store announcing that the only free laptop she could have had from there had a 13in screen. What does she expect for $1000? Never mind for FREE? A gold-encrusted laptop that churns out angels and pixies while others spit out CFCs? A Hello Kitty model? Who knows, we'd already tired of Lauren by the time she announced, "I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person".

So off she marches to another store. There she compares a normal sized laptop to a phone, says that another one has all of her qualifications - such as an A/S level in kookiness? - and makes a number of screeching noises before choosing an HP Pavilion.

"Congrats Laura, it's a PC", says the voiceover, before Laura pipes up again with "I'm a PC and I got just what I wanted".

Well, you got a free laptop. Who would complain?

Now hobbled by a bad hamstring to complement his broken foot, a battered Woz takes to the stage for another installment of Dancing With The Stars. And what's more, he's now acknowledging what some of us have been saying for weeks: they're out to get him.

Woz noted that the show does not disclose the numbers for public voting, and as such Woz's geek army and its mighty tide of votes could simply be discarded just to put everyone's favorite quickstepping teletubby back on the chopping block.

Of course, Woz later retracted his comments and apologised to the producers of the show, something true conspiracy theorists know as a classic sign of a cover-up. Wake up, sheeple! Not only are they out to get Woz, but now they're forcing him to do their bidding as well.

Tonight, Woz dances the samba. It's suggested that you put down that grassy knoll diarama, strap on your tin foil hat and watch closely for illuminati saboteurs tonight as Woz and Karina Smirnoff do their thing.

Well, if you're an Apple fan it has been a pretty busy week. Let's recap:

First, there was Apple's big preview for the iPhone 3.0 release. I go a bit more in depth here, but the big news will be the addition of cut and paste as well as a bevy of APIs which give developers all sorts of cool new abilities.

Then there was the news from the CanSecWest conference that a researcher has managed to hack Safari in under two minutes. No real danger of attack from this flaw for the time being, and likely not in the future either, but it's just another reminder that a lack of malware doesn't necessarily mean a more secure system, and Mac users should practice good security as well.

Finally, there was the news today that Apple is getting into the HD movie business. This will be particularly good news for Apple TV users, who will see the greatest benefits due to the larger size of your average TV set compared to a laptop or average desktop screen. Just keep in mind that the HD movies are going to be quite a bit larger than a standard format video, so make sure your hard drive can handle it.

If anyone is still doubting the market reach of the iPhone, this should prove beyond a doubt how popular it still is with the tech crowd.

Word from the South By Southwest convention, also known as the biggest techno-hipster gathering on the planet, is that AT&T;'s 3G network in the Austin area hosting the festival crashed yesterday under the weight of iPhone traffic.

I'd venture to say that Twitter should at least get the assist on this one. The micro-blogging service allows users to post updates directly from their iPhones, and many, many do. No doubt that the sheer volume of people using Twitter to talk to friends, organise parties and plot out their schedules puts a pretty major strain on the network.

Given that a festival with an estimated attendance of 10,000 was able to bring down the local 3G network raises some interesting questions. How many iPhones and how much traffic must it have taken to bring down the network in one of Texas' largest cities, while a crowd more than ten times that size at CES could hardly cause more than a short delay?

Last night Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak made his much anticipated/dreaded debut on Dancing with the Stars. The results were, well... about what you'd expect from a portly fifty-something computer genius who prefers a Segway to actual walking.

As one of the judge's described it, Woz's performance of the cha-cha with partner Karina Smirnoff was like "a teletubby going mad at a gay pride parade".

Woz took it all in his stride with a big smile on his face. Perhaps it's because of his notoriously good sense of humor, or perhaps he realizes that his legions of geek followers are already plotting to flood the show's voting system and keep him on for as long as possible.

If that is the case, Woz would not be the first contestant to be kept bumbling along far later than the judges and show's creators would like. British journalist Jon Sargeant was so bad in the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing that he garnered a cult-like following who continuously voted him onward to the point where Sargeant had to quit the show out of fear he may actually win the entire competition.

As an aside, the event really does show why Woz has become so beloved. Whereas so many of his contemporaries sought to change the world by becoming ruthless business moguls seemingly focused on little more than corporate glory, Woz does the sort of things us regular folks like to think we'd do with a fortune; retire on your own terms, teach science to kids, grow fat and happy, and ultimately figure out a way to spend several hours each day pressed up against Karina Smirnoff.

Keep living the dream, Woz. Though maybe without the pink boa.

Much ado has been made lately in regards to the crop of new iPhone app services that are supposedly looming on the horizon.

Some have suggested that these stores could pose a financial threat to Apple, swooping in and collecting profits from products which can't be found in the App Store. That these stores will pose a new competitive threat to the company.

I have my doubts that these stores would pose any threat to Apple for a number of reasons.

First, this isn't anything new. Third-party applications were around long before the AppStore and they have been available for jailbroken iPhones for years. The people who wanted to run that software went through the steps of finding it, jailbreaking the phone, and installing the software.

While these stores may make it a bit easier to collect money from those apps, will they really do much else. Most people will still not want to jailbreak their phones, and of those that do, how many will want to shell out money for the software? Sure there is a small market there which could make a few bucks, but not enough to get Apple to notice.

And what if Apple does notice? What if one of these services lands an App that not only catches on, but spreads like wildfire and pulls users away from Apple's own software? The company simply drops that developer a line, brings the software into the App Store, and collects a nice share of the sales. They are still the supreme gatekeeper in all of this.

Even if that fails and this renegade App continues to elude its grasp and siphon profits from Cupertino, there's the Machiavellian genius of Steve Jobs at work. Apple does, after all, control the development and distribution of all patches for the iPhone and iPod touch. While they claim not to ever sabotage third-party software, firmware updates have an uncanny track record of causing "accidents" when installed on jailbroken phones.

With all this in mind, it's hard to imagine any of these services ever reaching a point where Apple has much to worry about.

Yesterday we saw a price drop for desktops, now there are rumors of layoffs down on Infinite Loop.
According to a report in Valleywag, the company has dropped the axe on about 50 members of its corporate sales staff. An Apple spokesperson later denied this, but Apple spokespeople have a certain knack for denying reports left and right just before they confirm them, so you may not want to wipe if off the board just yet.
If layoffs have indeed begun, or if they will soon, it would mean that the economic crisis which has thus far been devastating other companies has finally reached Apple.
The company had thus far been able to escape much of the hardship others have felt. Never one for being overbloated, the company has never been one to go on massive hiring sprees, and the success of its computer business in recent years combined with financial restrain has led the company to amass a huge reserve of cash on hand.
Thus far, Apple has been able to weather the storm. Hopefully, they continue to. It would be welcome news to hear about at least one tech firm that didn't have to cut people loose.

Often while reading product reviews you come across an entry so absurd and overenthusiastic, you just have to ask yourself if it wasn't a phony review left by someone on purpose.

It seems Apple has asked the same thing in regards to the App Store, and they've answered "yes" enough to warrant a major scrubbing on the part of the admins. The company has reportedly cleaned house and removed any review left by someone who had not actually downloaded the App.

Good idea by Apple, but it almost surely won't stop overenthusiastic developers or aspiring marketing execs to download the product and immediately leave a glowing (or skewering) review on behalf of their favorite products. Just another reminder not to trust everything you read on the internet, or the App Store.

On this day 54 years ago, one Steven P. Jobs was born.

As Jobs is now not only taking a break from the company, but also apparently unplugging himself from the internet entirely in an effort to regain his health from what has been only referred to as a "hormone imbalance," there's no word on what St. Steve and his family have planned for the occasion. One can imagine, however, that it would be rather low key and consisting of a fair bit of reflection on Jobs' own part.

It's hard to argue that over those 54 years anybody has done more to shape the consumer computing market than Jobs. While he and his company didn't invent the GUI, it was Jobs that saw its potential and spearheaded both the IP acquisition from Xerox and the development of the Macintosh.

His commitment to producing a small, elegant device for the masses to use was evident through the development of the Mac, iPod and now iPhone. While his personality has been much-maligned at times, there's no denying his vision.

Happy birthday to Steve Jobs and here's to hoping that if his 55th birthday doesn't find him back in the CEO chair at Apple, it at least finds him in better health than 54 did.