Much excitement today about Microsoft's announcement that it is planning on developing an iPod competitor to take on Apple directly.

What's funny is that Microsoft goes one way, Apple goes another (so what else is new?).

Seems Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer has strongly hinted that Apple plans to offer a mobile phone. (Slimmer than Moto?)

"We don't think that the phones that are available today make the best music players -- we think the iPod is," he said. "But over time that is likely to change, and we're not sitting around doing nothing."

This from The Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Bloomberg.