It was all about third party developers and newly unveiled applications during the ongoing Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) event sponsored by Apple. The Cupertino-based company was proud to announce the successful adoption of its recently released iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK), as well as the introduction of its new Internet service entitled "MobileMe". Check out our full article for the in-depth details regarding these Apple tidbits.

Apple just announced that over 100,000 have downloaded the beta iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK). Next stop? More applications and games for the iPhone and iPod Touch, of course! Drop by the full article to learn more.

Will the lawsuits never end? Apple manages to entangle itself once again in another lawsuit, this time filed by Klausner Technologies over the iPhone's Visual Voicemail feature. Details in the full article.

Despite receiving awards here and there, Apple has had many problems with its newest baby iPhone that includes hacking and lawsuits from various business entities around the world.

We got word today that Apple and partner AT&T was recently sued by Klausner Technologies with the latter claiming that the two infringe on its patent over Visual Voicemail service being offered to iPhone users. The full story after the jump!

Talk about a double-whammy for the iPhone scene... in a good way. Word is out on the street that the iPhone is now benefit ting from the release of a native Instant Messaging client, and a native IRC client.

The IM client, ApolloIM, was developed by Arminius. And while this first release has been reported to be a a buggy beta, it will allow users access to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) on their iPhone.

Arminius states that soon to come is a vibration function to alert users of incoming IMs. Further along, the developer is also compiling the libPurple instant messaging client. This is hoped to endow the iPhone with more features in the near future.

The second app, iRCm, is an IRC client by Chris Lott (aka pogi). According to the author, "you can join channels with /join and you can do raw irc commands with /raw for those that know what they're doing." We've provided a download for both clients here, although we strongly advise users to drop by each developer's home site for further information, or if you want to provide Arminius or pogi with some much-needed feedback.

Download: Arminius' ApolloIM (Beta) for the iPhone
Download: pogi's iRCm for the iPhone

Back in 1994, Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape, and chairman and co-founder of Opsware, was a Mac user. And although it was quite a surprise that he jumped fence towards Microsoft, he's setting things right once again by going back to Mac.

It's a phenomenon observed many times before, but this time, it's all about the head of a company that was once against the Redmond giant.

Andreessen is best known for being part of the Internet revolution back in the early 90s, pushing out his masterpiece: the Mosaic browser. Netscape Communications soon became his greatest achievement when he co-founded it and lead it up the industry ladder. When AOL got their hands on Netscape, he remained as Chief Technical Officer.

Today he stands at the top of data center automation provider, Opsware, and was pretty disappointed when his Lenovo ThinkPad T60 just couldn't keep up. He swapped the machine for an Intel 15-inch MacBook Pro and was pretty chirpy about it. As he said, "I used to be a Mac user till 1994 and now I am a Mac user again.Â?

Because his Mosaic browser was turned against Netscape's Navigator in the form of Internet Explorer, it's a surprise that he even considered grabbing a Windows laptop in the first place.

Since its announcement, Apple fanatics - and video enthusiasts in general - have been entranced by what Apple is currently calling its iTV video extender. Speculations,  rumors, and various what-have-yous have surrounded this little doodad, mostly regarding its technical and hardware aspects. We've also done our part in bringing these speculations and rumors into the light (who hasn't, really?) and now, just for some balance, we'll be taking a look at an opinion/analysis piece that deals with Apple's business strategy for the home entertainment market.

On his PBS blog, Robert X. Cringely has written a piece that seeks to cast some light into Apple's strategy for the iTV. He touches on topics such as the lack of a Blu-Ray player bundled with Apple computers and that little USB port on the back of each iTV box ("It's not for a USB hard drive, that's for sure"). Wanna know what he reckons it's for? An Apple iSight camera. This is why Cringely dubs Apple's strategy, "iChat on steroids."

Says Cringely:

"This is the heart of Apple's emerging communication strategy. I was tempted to write "voice-over-IP strategy," except that wouldn't have been correct. For Jobs, this particular road less traveled is about video conferencing, not voice. VoIP is not grand enough, not experiential. If eBay can dominate it, Apple doesn't want to be a part of it, and won't be. Jobs will be much happier enabling a smaller audience to do multi-person chats on their HDTVs."

Cringely doesn't only talk about the iTV. He also throws in a little Leopard into the mix: "All of this comes together with Leopard, the next version of OS X, which will ship in January. iChat, which started back in 2003 as a simple real-time chat client to keep Macs from being frozen completely out of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), has grown a lot since then. iChat now has H.264 video support, and with Leopard it will integrate all the iLife (iPhoto, iCal, iMovie, etc.) functions into a system that can support remote users. So you'll not only be able to see and talk with Grandma, you'll be able to show her pictures and home movies. If Grandma's a corporate executive, you can show her a marketing presentation, too."

Check out the piece. The man has put quite a lot of thought into the topic and puts forth some very good ideas. If you're interested, click on the 'read' link below for the full article.

We all know that most of us keep at least two different email accounts - one for work and one for personal use, then there's others who also keep emails for groups, community newsletters, website, for stalking, and so on and so forth. We also all know how tedious it can be to have to log in to each of these accounts separately. That was then. Now, say hello to the ability to access all your mail, all at once.

This is made possible by, first and foremost, having the WebMail extension installed in your system. This extension integrates website-based email accounts into Mozilla Thunderbird, and allows Thunderbird to download and to send emails using the website. The extension is known to be slick, as itÂ?s just a case of downloading the core package plus the package for the particular service youÂ?re using, installing them, restarting Thunderbird, and then setting up the account.

To get started, you will need to install WebMail first and at least one of its optional components. Once WebMail is up and running, the next thing to check for is if the the status of the enabled servers are "running". This can be viewed in the Options menu. This is also the menu that should display the list of supported domains.

From there, you can move to creating a POP account by going to the main menu and opting to create a new account. You may then set your name and email address in the Identity Page. Then, just enter the appropriate server information and the domain name, follow the instructions until you reach "Finish", and you're all set!

Support is currently available for Yahoo!, Hotmail, Gmail, Libero, Lycos, AOL and Mail.com accounts.

The ABC Family is busy promoting their new series, Kyle XY. Recently, ABC inked a deal with iTunes Music Store wherein starting June 20, six days before the show makes its linear network debut on ABC Family at 8 p.m., users will be able to download the pilot to their video iPods via the iTunes Music Store.

Kyle XY follows the story of a family who takes in a formerly institutionalized teen savant (Kyle) who is missing standard human behaviors such as anger, joy and love. After June 27, installments of Kyle XY will be available for purchase at $1.99 per episodes, according to officials at both ABC Family and iTunes.

To support the free sneak preview on iTunes, ABC Family has secured a multimedia schedule, including on-air promos, a flash ad on its own Web site, radio spots, banners of aol.com and msn.com, and a print ad in Rolling Stone magazine. Paul Lee, ABC Family President said that "a free preview on iTunes is a fantastic way to build buzz and increase awareness of 'Kyle XY...It gives our aggressive tease and reveal marketing campaign a major broadband element, that will help drive viewers to the premiere on the 26th."

Yahoo! Financial has an interesting article about Apple and the fast rate at which Digital Music has grown. Music industry executives are targeting Apple at this week?s Midem music trade show in Cannes. People in the music industry are concerned that the iTunes Music Store?s flat rate pricing has done lasting damage to profitability and are adamant that Apple will be forced to move to a variable pricing structure.

"I'Â?m hearing that the artists aren'Â?t happy, the publishers aren'Â?t happy. Someone other than Apple needs to be happy for this industry to grow,"Â? said Amit Shafrir, president of AOL'Â?s premium services arm.

Record companies say Apple'Â?s 99-cent per song pricing has set the benchmark too low, but have failed to persuade the company to switch to variable pricing, which would allow popular songs to be sold for more.

"Â?For the time being we all must work with Apple and make the most of iTunes,"Â? said Eric Nicoli, chairman of EMI Group PLC, the world'Â?s No. 3 record company. "Â?Single pricing is almost unique to the music industry,"Â? Nicoli added. "Â?If you look at any other consumer category- including things like iPods - they sell at different prices."