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It may be some time before any Apple news rivals the iPhone software development kit or the MacBook Air, but it's nonetheless been a busy week for Apple-focused bloggers. Apple updated its Airport Express WiFi mini router to the faster 802.11n standard, delivered a new version of Safari, fixed dozens of security weaknesses, and saw Mac sales shoot through the roof in February. Plus, while Adobe might want to work out an iPhone Flash solution all by its lonesome, it probably can't.

The iPhone software development kit has been dominating the world of Apple-focused bloggers this week, in no small part due to an Apple announcement that its SDK was downloaded 100,000 times in a mere four days. In other blogging activity, Microsoft delivered its first update to the Office 2008 for Mac suite, Apple got sued over its iTunes/iPod model, enthusiasts cracked open a Time Capsule to insert a bigger hard drive, and the question remains: Is SlingPlayer coming to the iPhone?

The biggest Apple news this week is the company's unveiling of its iPhone software roadmap and software development kit, which will let third-party developers create standalone applications for iPhone. In other news this week, bloggers mulled over insights from Apple's annual meeting for shareholders, tore apart the Time Capsule, figured out that Hollywood has been slow to deliver movies to Apple, and are talking about 3G iPhone delivery predictions. iPhone 2.0 Software Apps and the Enterprise.

The long-awaited -- and perhaps overdue -- refresh to the MacBook Pro lineup finally came Tuesday morning, and along with it, a laptop surprise: Apple beefed up its consumer-grade MacBooks too. The announcements set the Apple-focused blog world on fire, with some commenters noting they were just happy to see the MacBook Pro holdouts finally get something they could spring for. As if new laptops weren't enough, Apple became the No. 2 music retailer in the United States. Then on Wednesday, the company sent out invitations to reporters for an iPhone event.

The Mac universe got off to a slow start this week, with Presidents Day giving a sizable portion of the U.S. working population the day off. However, that didn't stop Apple from making a few, albeit minor, announcements. First, iTunes announced it would sell songs performed on "American Idol," in addition to the shows themselves. Then on Tuesday, Apple announced a price drop for the iPod shuffle, a new 2 GB version in the pipeline, and a new Xsan 2 for managing storage area networks. Apple bloggers, of course, quickly jumped on all announcements.

It's been a busy week for Apple-focused bloggers -- three major items fell from the Apple tree. Apple released Mac OS X 10.5.2 Monday, and then on Tuesday it delivered both its Apple TV Take Two software update and its professional-grade Aperture photo editing and management solution. Plus, iPhone buzz is alive and well -- AT&T set up camp in Starbucks, and analyst estimates of bootleg "unlocked" iPhones crept up on 1.5 million. Mac OS X 10.5.2 is the second update Apple has delivered for its new Leopard operating system.

There's been lots of Apple-focused activity this week, including a handful of application-specific software updates as well as speculation that 10.5.2 is close to delivery but is hanging tight until it works perfectly with Time Machine and the on-the-way Time Capsule -- which is basically a combination of a server-grade hard drive and Apple's Airport Extreme wireless base station. The biggest news, however, comes back to the company's hottest products -- laptops and the iPhone and iPod.

Apple's super-thin MacBook Air notebooks shipped this week, and the first units have been arriving on customer doorsteps. For Mac enthusiasts, just a glimpse of one in an Apple store was enough to start the gushing. "First impressions are VERY positive," noted mashoutposse in a MacRumors.com forum created just for the MacBook Air. "First off, this is one beautiful computer. The curves and taper are just right. Thin is definitely the name of the game here -- it is as thin as we've all been told it is. Thin, but not at all flimsy."

Jens Alfke has set up his own shop and is now doing a gig for an indie software developer, he reports in his Thought Palace blog. Plans call for him to contribute to a few open source projects and perhaps work on some Web apps. He'll also write at least two "kick-ass Mac apps." Alfke just left Apple, where he spent 16 years. He knows Mac programming, which is undoubtedly a good skill to have, but he really knows Apple inside and out -- and that, as the commercial goes, is priceless.

Because the Consumer Electronics Show and Macworld run back to back, it's easy to make comparisons between the two men who headline the big tech trade shows. As a journalist, I had barely unpacked my bags, mentally speaking, before I had to move on from listening to Bill Gates to hearing Steve Jobs. This year is the last when I can draw a timely comparison between, as the Apple ads depict, the straitlaced PC Guy and the cool Mac Guy. Gates said this year's speech was his final CES keynote before he becomes a full-time philanthropist.