When Apple enabled in-app purchases for iPhone applications, it seemed as though the days of “free” and “paid” versions of any given app were coming to an end. Soon, I thought, everything in the store would start out free as a teaser and then charge for an upgrade. That hasn’t exactly panned out universally, but Vlingo’s new voice application does charge in the way I thought all apps would charge by now. You can download it for free, but getting to the premium features costs $10. Vlingo is a speech-to-text app that can use that text in any of six general ways.

The first rule of Apple’s App Club is: You do not talk about App Club. Any developer who writes an app for the App Store is forbidden from making any public statements about the iPhone Developer Program Licensing Agreement. Second rule of App Club is: Said developers also can’t sell their apps to other app stores, even if that app is eventually rejected by Apple. Third rule of App Club: You can’t reverse engineer anything having to do with the App Store software development kit or the iPhone OS.

“OMG, somebody call the Waaaambulance!” went a comment on last week’s column about South by Southwest. I had prepared myself for reader snark following my “it’s all about me” piece regarding SXSW’s denial of my complimentary press credential request. I was pleasantly surprised: only three comments — and the “waaaambulance” one actually cracked me up. The other two were offended by the facetious reference in my last line to “carpetbagging Yankees.” Derek Jeter has yet to weigh in. What truly surprised me, however, was the strength of a single tweet about the column.

Canonical founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth, developer of the Ubuntu open source operating system, announced in December that he was stepping aside to develop cloud product design and curry new partners. He named Chief Operating Officer Jane Silber to take his place as CEO. Several weeks ago, Silber announced the hiring of open source industry veteran Matt Asay to fill her old job as COO. Canonical set high performance standards with its commitment for new distro releases for its popular desktop and server editions every six months.

The lawsuit Apple filed this week may target smartphone maker HTC, but Cupertino is likely shooting for much bigger prey. Specifically, Google is the real focus of Apple’s wrath, said Chris Hazelton, research director for mobile and wireless with the 451 Group. Based on the details of the lawsuit, “an argument could be made that it’s targeting HTC,” he noted. However, the numerous issues listed on Apple’s simultaneously filed complaint with the ITC are “all based on what the operating system does and how it interacts.”

An analyst’s research note has thrown the expected launch date of the iPad into doubt — or at least raised questions about how easy it will be for consumers to get their hands on the device. Unspecified production problems may cause Apple to delay or limit the size of its launch, according to Canaccord Adams’ Peter Misek. The likely reason is that Hon Hai Precision, Apple’s supplier in Taiwan, is dealing either with a production bottleneck or shortage of components, he speculated. Later production could also be affected.

Web-based applications and cloud computing have presented new challenges for software developers. Most software makers are by no means tone-deaf to user concerns about security and usability issues, but even those software writers who are receptive to these worries must contend with hard-to-plug holes that can open up in cross-platform programs such as Web browsers. For Web app developers, the problems occur on two fronts. Not only do they have to harden the application itself, but they also have to keep up with the occasional new browser release.

Microsoft was under no obligation to build a ribbon component, similar to the one premiered in Office for Windows, for the Mac. That’s especially true given the fact that the menu bar is such a prominent element of the Mac user experience. Ever since System 7, the menu bar — which remains fixed to the top of the screen — indicates which application is active. In Windows, applications have their own menu bars, if they have them at all; and starting with Office 2007, the ribbon replaced the menu bar.

Tired of “dead spots” in your WiFi coverage? How about a wireless Internet connection with crawling performance? hField Technologies has a solution it calls “Wi-Fire,” and the Mac version of its software has recently been overhauled. Wi-Fire is a gadget that plugs into the USB port of a computer and, according to hField, increases the range and speed of WiFi connections. Although the gizmo works with other platforms, like Window and Linux, it has proven to be very popular in the Mac market, maintained hField Marketing Manager Blake Kleintop.

It may not seem obvious at first, but the tragic earthquake in Haiti, the historic election that put a Massachusetts Republican in the U.S. Senate and the 2010 Super Bowl all have something in common: the smartphone. During each event, billions of consumers around the globe were glued to their phones, either donating to charities and updating their Twitter accounts about the crisis in Haiti, posting on blogs about how change seems to be in the air in U.S. politics, or conveying their happiness (or unhappiness) about the big game.

What will developers and users do with Google’s planned ultra high-speed broadband network? Google’s answer can be summed up in four words: We don’t know yet. “If the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that the most important innovations are often those we least expect,” Google spokesperson Dan Martin told TechNewsWorld. “In the same way that the transition from dial-up to broadband made possible the emergence of online video and countless other applications, ultra high-speed bandwidth will lead to new innovations …”

Originally planned for launch on Tuesday, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was delayed once again on Wednesday due to high winds. The new planned launch for the device from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida is Thursday, Feb. 11; the launch window is between 10:23 a.m. and 11:23 a.m. EST. The SDO will undertake a five-year mission to investigate in unprecedented detail the energy processes driving the sun’s stormy activity. The 6,555-pound spacecraft will return 1.5 terabytes of data every day — equal to half a million downloaded songs.

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