Working in the tech industry, it’s reasonable to say that my colleagues and I have overlooked the fact that outside of the bubble — OK, FAR outside of the bubble — Jim Jones iPhone owner might not realize that each of the over-350,000 iPhone apps was not actually developed by an Apple employee. After hearing a CNN reporter declare on a live broadcast today that Apple recently “developed” a Catholic ‘Confession’ iPhone app, I’ve decided to launch a one-part series, titled “Where do Apps Come From?“

Sure, iPhones were flying off shelves in 2007 when the only apps available were the standard “widgets” still pre-installed by Apple, including Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod, Stocks and Weather, among others, but the creation of the App Store — and subsequent third-party app development — has added significant value to Apple’s flagship mobile product.

By definition, third-party apps are developed by a third-party (i.e. not the phone’s manufacturer), which means that the now hundreds of thousands of apps that now populate the app store were created by tens of thousands of individual developers — from a 13-year-old kid in his parents’ basement to multi-billion-dollar giants like Google and Microsoft — even The White House developed an app. So there you have it; all but a tiny fraction of the apps available today were not developed by Apple.

According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering offering its (currently $99/yr) MobileMe service for free. A complete revamp of the MobileMe service is expected to launch this summer, along with possible online music and social networking components. The new free service could act as a cloud-based server for each user’s email, calendar, documents, photos, movies and music, allowing seamless access from any web-connected Apple device. This seems like a logical move for Apple, and it’s possible that the launch is even behind schedule, as the company may have originally intended to launch the free service with its streaming-only Apple TV, which hit the market in September.

If Google CEO Eric Schmidt hadn’t already resigned from Apple’s board, I imagine his days would be numbered — a free MobileMe offering would position the company to compete even more directly with Google, which currently offers free cloud-based email, calendar, and document services.

By now, everyone has seen their airport kiosks, Western Union store counters, or infomercials, but with the release of Rosetta Stone TOTALe, the full-immersion language tool has finally hit the Web. I’ve been using TOTALe to learn Mandarin over the last month, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve learned. I’m months away from being able to have a conversation with a native speaker lasting longer than 20 (er shi) seconds, but my vocabulary has expanded far beyond 1 (yi), 2 (er), 3 (san), and water (shui). Beyond basic greetings and a few key objects, I’m now able to complain about odor and personal hygiene, which just may come in handy during my next visit to Beijing in October. I can even recognize several dozen characters, and pronounce 5+ variations of “xie” (it’s used for far more than just thank you, in which case it’s pronounced “shey”).

Rosetta Stone TOTALe takes full advantage of the Web, supplementing the traditional three-part Rosetta Course with Rosetta Studio, where you can speak directly with a native-speaking “coach,” and Rosetta World, which enables language learners to interact with others learning the same language by playing games and communicating in chat rooms. I also like being able to learn Mandarin using any computer, but the current version of TOTALe does not allow you to store the program locally on your computer, so you’ll need an Internet connection whenever you want to learn (the next version — coming soon — will include CD components so the software can be installed on your computer, and accessed without an Internet connection).

The price — a one-year TOTALe subscription is currently on sale for $999 — may cause some sticker shock for potential language learners, but compared to a university or language institute course, TOTALe is a bargain. There’s no free trial, unfortunately, but Rosetta Stone offers a 30-day money back guarantee on TOTALe, so if you don’t mind paying $999 up front, I definitely recommend taking advantage of the 30-day trial (Rosetta Stone provided me with a 3-month media demo account). I will continue using TOTALe for the remainder of my trial period, and will post next month about my progress, along with more details about the service and interface.

Well, since everyone else in the tech community seems to be posting their Snow Leopard reviews, I guess I’m allowed to reveal that I too have been playing around with Apple’s latest operating system this week. With a background in photography, I was curious to see what new backgrounds Apple decided to include in Snow Leopard. I did a double-take when I saw one of Apple’s OS-themed “Nature” backgrounds. The image, captured by National Geographic photographer Steve Winter, was of a Central Asian snow leopard, and appeared in a slideshow for an interview I did with Winter for American Photo last year (it made a second appearance as my desktop background around that time as well). Congratulations Steve! Apple obviously has great taste.

• •Fast shutdown/boot times—all applications close and the computer shuts down in about five seconds.
• •QuickTime X—the new minimalist QuickTime interface is very slick. Videos seem to float on your desktop.
• •Microsoft Exchange 2007 support—you’ll now be able to access your corporate email and calendar directly from the Apple Mail app.
• •Better file optimization—system files were about 7 GB slimmer after upgrading.

Read more about Snow Leopard on Apple’s Website.

If you’re an even bigger geek than I am, feel free to head over to the Apple support pages for a detailed list of 10.5.8 security fixes and general system fixes.