What could be better than free software for the iPhone? Well, that is surely free software on a free iPhone, but let's concentrate on software now, shall we? After previous rumors that most fully-featured applications on App Store will not be free, now a WWDC survey of iPhone software developers suggests that up to 70% of planned iPhone apps may be free, while the average cost of a third-party for Apple's smartphone will fall well below $3.00, which also seems pretty impressive to me...

First of all, I should say that, according to research group Piper Jaffray, the App Store could become a huge software market, with a transaction volume that can go as high as $1 billion by the end of 2009, so think about it! Although Apple will only get 30 percent of those money, that's a lot of cash, so excluding free apps from the App Store is not a good idea, after all.

Gene Munster, analyst with the same Piper Jaffray group, after chatting with about two dozens of Apple developers, found out that half of them were at the WWDC because they plan to focus exclusively on iPhone and iPod Touch applications, while the remaining half are also writing Mac OS X software, in addition to iPhone and iPod Touch software.

A surprising fact is that also half of the developers Munster talked with are into "Enterprise apps," with 15% to tap into the location-based services of the Apple smartphone, 10% into entertainment, 10% specifically video games, and another 15% to aim at the Enterprise market.

Gene Munster said "We see this as a positive indicator of the potential for Enterprise adoption of the iPhone. We found the average cost of iPhone apps on the App Store to be $2.29, with 71% being free," and I must agree with him, since it all makes sense. In the end, it's going to be a huge volume of software sold on App Store, and that's good for everyone - developers, Apple, but especially for us, the end users.

Until now, the snow leopard was sometimes known as the ounce, and when thinking of facts about the snow leopard, nobody had Apple in mind. Those days are gone, because Snow Leopard is also the codename of Apple's upcoming Mac OS X, and this doesn't come as a big surprise, since Apple got us used to the fact that Mac OS X releases are named after big cats(maybe they'll think about Garfield one day!). So...what should we expect from Apple's Snow Leopard?

Since Mac OS X Leopard already pushed Mac OS where no OS has gone before, Snow Leopard, although scheduled to arrive as a major version, won't add that many new features. Why? Well, here's what Apple says about it...

"With Snow Leopard, the next major version of the world’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS X changes more than its spots, it changes focus. Taking a break from adding new features, Snow Leopard — scheduled to ship in about a year — builds on Leopard’s enormous innovations by delivering a new generation of core software technologies that will streamline Mac OS X, enhance its performance, and set new standards for quality. Snow Leopard dramatically reduces the footprint of Mac OS X, making it even more efficient for users, and giving them back valuable hard drive space for their music and photos."

Oh, wait! They missed to add this to the introduction, but I think it is a fact worth being mentioned - Snow Leopard will introduce QuickTime X, the next-generation platform able to push modern media and Internet standards one step forward.

Now, let's see what other facts about the Snow Leopard should be interesting enough for you now... Other than the above, Snow Leopard will bring enhanced multicore support, OpenCL (Open Compute Library), a technology that "makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit" (GPU-accelerated graphics software, anyone?), as well as "out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007 built into Mail, Address Book, and iCal."

Since the official Snow Leopard page says "All features on this page are subject to change," I guess we won't see it arriving this year, but it's good to know that Mac OS X Leopard can get even better!

One of the subjects that I wasn't really into these months was the expected update to Mac OS X, and there's one good reason for this - after no less than 8 months since Leopard became available for the masses, Apple finally unleashed version 10.5.3, a 400MB update which seems to improve a lot of things, when compared to the previous version, as well as fixing most issues found in Mac OS X and still to be solved, until now. OK, so let's see what's new in Mac OS X 10.5.3, shall we?

As usual, Apple gives some details about its updates, but doesn't uncover everything you would like to know. Well, some users have better things to do than reading change logs, after all, but I think Apple should come up with two versions, in the future - a brief one, and a detailed version with all the changes and fixes a certain update is bringing.

This time, I will help those of you who don't want to read the entire Knowledge Base document regarding Mac OS X 10.5.3 by quoting only the highlights of the update, so here we go...

- Addresses an issue with stuttering video and audio playback in certain USB devices.
- Includes additional RAW image support for several cameras.
- Addresses an issue in which Finder may not be available if the computer name is blank in Sharing preferences.
- Improves Safari reliability when connecting to the Internet through a Microsoft ISA proxy.
- Improves AirPort reliability when using Time Capsule.
- Fixes reliability issues with iCal syncing.
- Resolves an issue in which Mail may prevent idle sleep when set to automatically check for new messages every minute.
- Resolves an issue in which Parental Controls may prevent forced sleep.
- Includes fixes for Time Machine compatibility with Time Capsule.
- Includes Braille Update 1.0 which enables GW Micro, HandyTech, HIMS, Nippon, and Papenmeier Refreshable Braille displays.

These being said, I will leave you to download and enjoy Mac OS X 10.5.3. Obviously, we won't mind at all if you get back and drop a comment to share with the others your impressions regarding this last update to Mac OS X Leopard!

If you didn't get a download manager until now, I am sure you probably never had the chance of downloading a large file, and see your connection failing at 99%. Believe me, that can really ruin your day! Anyway, since there are a lot of solutions for avoiding such unfortunate events, today I decided to tell you a few words about such a program for Mac OS X, released recently by a company based in Innsbruck, Austria, called Many Tricks.

Their download management "trick" is simply called Leech, and the current version is 1.1. This program gives you complete control over your downloads, offering queue, pause and resume, download from password-protected servers and the ability to store your passwords using the keychain.

The minimum requirements of this program are pretty light, in my opinion - Mac OS X Version 10.5 Leopard or later, 2.2 MB Hard Drive space and a Internet connection should be enough. Leech 1.1 is available as a Universal Binary for PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, and its price is €6.95, but a trial version is also available.

Safari is a good browser, without any doubt. I didn't say "perfect," I didn't say "great." For now, "good" is enough, but things are getting better with each version. I just hope they won't drop this browser's tremendous speed along the way, and exchange it for more features. Anyway, it's interesting to see what's the current status of the Windows version of Safari on the market, so let's check it out, shall we?


In the image above, the green graph belongs to Safari 3.0, and the blue one, to the 3.1 version. Of course, we're talking about the Windows versions. Despite the fact we're talking about a very small market share, way below 1 percent, I think it is important to notice that Apple's decision to add Safari install as an option to the Apple Software Update application had such an impact.

Apple's move to add Safari already checked into the "updates" section of the Software Update tool, although this was a new program to install, made a lot of people to speak against them. In the end, they slightly changed the Software Update program, but Safari is still available there for those that don't have it yet.

Was this a smart move? After all, Safari 3.1 jumped from 0.07 percent to 0.21 percent in 6 weeks, which is still way below Firefox, IE, and even Opera. Yes, it was, and I don't think Firefox or IE were saints with their ways chosen to promote their browsers. Obviously, Mozilla was very smart in promoting their product, while Microsoft has chosen the brute force path.

At last, I want to ask you one question... Looking at Opera, which is a great browser, but didn't use any smart method to promote itself, I see a barrier. As long as Safari for Windows doesn't get more "aggressive," do you think Apple will succeed in pushing its browser above the 3 percent mark?