As St. Patrick's Day draws near, Apple fans are counting themselves among the lucky. After all, Steam is finally coming to the Mac, the iPad finally has a ship date, and the iPad developer program now has a much lower barrier to entry. Read on for the top Apple news from the last week:

: Apple supposedly contacted executives at "tier-1" handset makers in January saying it was ready to go to the mat over its iPhone-related IP. Those warnings, coupled with Apple's complaints against HTC, may have a chilling effect on smartphone makers for the indefinite future.

: Valve is bringing its online service to the Mac in April and plans to make its Source engine cross-platform. Along with the new cross-platform strategy, Portal 2 will be the first simultaneous release for Mac and Windows.

Apple has made inroads into the professional market with the iPhone—the company has noted that some Fortune 500 companies have deployed them alongside or even replacing BlackBerrys. Despite this, analysis of app usage suggests that it .

Mobile analytic firm Localytics examined logs of use of third-party apps and found that app use during the week typically begins to ramp up around 5am and slowly increases to a peak around 9pm. Weekdays also tend to have a little bump in use right around lunch time.

On weekends, however, use starts picking up around 6am, reaching a steady peak around noon until 11pm. App usage sharply ramps down after 11, but slightly slower than it does on a typical week day.

This usage pattern is typical for a device that is used for personal rather than business reasons. However, it's also possible that business users are either sticking to Apple's supplied apps or are using custom-developed in-house apps for specific business needs. For instance, a business user is more likely to fire up Mail or Calendar than, say, Tweetie or Plants vs Zombies during the work day. Localytics notes that it expects to find similar usage patterns for the iPad, and that developers may want to consider these patterns when designing apps for either platform.

One complaint commonly leveled against the iPhone is that it can't run multiple apps at the same time. However, sources for AppleInsider say that Apple is finally planning to that will integrate with the established iPhone user interface in the next major revision of iPhone OS, expected to be available this summer.

Like Mac OS X on which it is based, iPhone OS is fully capable of running multiple processes at once. In fact, it does run multiple processes—iPod, Mail, voicemail and phone processes continually run in the background. What it doesn't do is run multiple third-party apps at the same time. Want to listen to Pandora while answering e-mails? Run a GPS tracking app while checking your tweets? Sorry, no can do.

Apple has given a number of reasons for enforcing this limitation. The company claims that multiple apps running simultaneously will run down the battery faster, or could lead to more out-of-memory errors as apps contend for resources of the iPhone. Also, since non-Apple apps can't run in the background, there's virtually zero chance that malware could run without a user noticing. Finally, limiting the iPhone to one app at a time keeps things simple enough for even the most tech-adverse users to understand how it works.

However, the latest rumor says that Apple has a "full-on solution" to the problem coming in iPhone OS 4.0. No specifics were revealed, so there are no details about how Apple has implemented managing multiple running apps. Remember, it took three major versions of iPhone OS before there was , and the interface ended up working extremely well. We expect Apple has likewise put extensive work into making running multiple apps as straightforward as possible while still offering reasonable levels of stability, battery life, security, and ease of use.

Apple subsidiary has released of its flagship FileMaker Pro database. The updated software purports to make building and maintaining databases even easier, while acknowledging that many users are accustomed to using spreadsheets for database purposes by including pivot table-like reporting and Excel-like charting features. FileMaker Pro Server has also been updated, dropping the simultaneous client access limit for the Advanced version.

FileMaker Pro already laid claim to being one of the easiest cross-platform database tools available, but the company added additional features designed to enhance that ease of use. The Quick Start screen has been improved, offering clear ways to begin a new database. You can start from scratch; import existing data in tab or comma-separated files, Excel spreadsheets, or Bento databases; or choose from a number of Starter Solution templates. A new invoicing template has been added in version 11 to make that common business task practically a plug-and-chug operation; customer data can later be linked for other purposes.

Two weeks ago,  that Internet search giant Google had acquired third-party iPhone mail application reMail. At the time, Google rehired reMail CEO and programmer Gabor Cselle to work as a product manager on the Gmail team. reMail was then pulled from the App Store and Google decided to discontinue the app, only offering support through the end of March. However, Google recently contacted Ars to say that it had decided to make the code available as open source on Google Code under the Apache 2.0 License.

The states that the code is free to use, alter, and redistribute as the user sees fit. Further, users can charge for any aspect of the software they choose, including the application itself or support. That means people can use portions of code to add functionality in their own applications or create totally new ones without having to release them under an open source license. Google over alternatives and uses it for Android.

This may still mean the end of reMail, but it's good news for anyone looking to incorporate more advanced e-mail functionality into their own applications. As Cselle pointed out in his , he has already dealt with many of the obstacles associated with developing an e-mail client, including communication with IMAP and parsing MIME messages. In other words, there's no need to reinvent the wheel if you don't have to.

If you're interested in poking around, the code can be found on , where there has already been a fair amount of action since the announcement on Friday.

"The best camera is the one you have with you" is an old photography adage, and Apple may be looking to extend that principle to its iPhone. And it's not about the iPhone as a camera, either—if you always have it with you, an iPhone could serve as a remote control device for any number of uses, including as a wireless electronic key.

Using the iPhone as an electronic key is part of a recently published patent application titled "Motion Based Input Selection." It's important to remember that the patent application itself merely describes a unique way of using motion detection to generate an input, such as turning a virtual combination lock-style dial. Still, it's the suggested uses of a unique numerical sequence or other combination of input that is generating excitement.

The Telegraph says that the patent is already being , based on the suggestion that a "device" such as an iPhone could use the motion-based input method to generate a combination which is then "transmitted to an external device to unlock the external device." Such an external device could be anything, including an "electronic lock that may be used to access a door, car, house, or other physical area."

The patent in particular describes methods in which the input could be selecting combinations of numbers, letters, colors, or images, or even a combination. In fact, if the external device is suitably capable, it can send an application the necessary configuration of input needed to unlock it. The possible inputs can also be randomized, and the transmission between the mobile device and the external device could encrypted for greater security.

Since the iPhone is the kind of device you tend to always have with you, it could be a great all-in-one control device. For instance, Apple also recently filed a patent application for using the iPhone as a sort of —one that can dim the lights, adjust the surround sound, switch the TV to "cinema mode," all in preparation for watching a movie at night. The company already offers an app that can control iTunes or an Apple TV remotely, and other apps exist to control home automation systems or a DSLR tethered to a WiFi-equipped computer. Car security firm Viper also offers an app to lock, unlock, and remotely start a vehicle that has the company's .

Though many remote applications already exist for the iPhone—including one that locks and unlocks a car—perhaps Apple could leverage the patent's motion sensing to build an app with a consistent interface that is designed to communicate with a wide variety of lock devices, making the iPhone an out-of-the-box electronic key.

Apple's lawsuit against HTC may have been the talk of the Internet for most of the week, but Valve's teasers for Steam coming to the Mac took the prize for most exciting news. MacHeist also released a new software bundle and the rumor mill gossipped about HDMI on the next Mac mini. Need to catch up?

: Valve has begun sending images to gaming sites showing its properties tarted up in Mac colors and images. Is Steam coming to OS X? We should know very soon.

: Apple's could be the start of a , or the start of a proxy fight against Google's Android. Either way, it may become the poster child for the ills of the US patent system.

Apple has announced that it is scrapping its old developer programs, which included multiple tiers that cost thousands at the top end, for one modeled on its wildly successful iPhone Developer Program. Simply called the , it will cost just $99 per year.

Included in the new and improved Mac Developer Program is access to prerelease builds of Mac OS X, member-only developer forums, a series of instructional videos from Apple engineers, and two direct technical support incidents per year. The TSIs give developers direct access to an Apple engineer for assistance with code problems or other troubleshooting, and developers have the option of buying additional TSIs as needed.

The new program replaces the ADC Premier, Select, and Student developer programs. The biggest difference between the new and old programs, aside from the much lower price, is the loss of the ADC Hardware Purchase Program benefit that offered steep discounts on Macs for the Select and Premier account holders. Some developers have already said that they'll happily take the lower cost of entry over the hardware discount.

Premier accounts, which cost over $3,000, also used to include one free ticket to Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which normally cost $1,200. Ostensibly, any Mac Developer Program member will have a chance to buy a ticket next year (at least until it sells out, like it has the past two years).

The lower barrier to entry is expected to spur an influx of Mac developers, much as the iPhone Developer Program did. Developers familiar with developing for the iPhone should have a relatively easy time of transitioning to developing for the Mac, since both use the same Xcode IDE, Objective-C language, and many similar APIs (though obviously UI considerations are quite different).

Current ADC memberships remain in effect until they expire. Developers that bought an ADC membership after Feburary 1 can to get a refund if they wish to join the Mac Developer Program instead. The Mac Developer Program will be the only program Apple offers going forward. Basic access to Xcode developer tools and released versions of Mac OS X SDKs remains free.

When (PRX) developed the free  for the iPhone, the nonprofit hoped for 500,000 downloads. It now has 2.5 million. "I'm very happy with that number," says PRX executive director Jake Shapiro.

He should be. The PRX dev team has already cranked out two great iPhone apps, one for public radio in general and one for the popular show  in particular. Both apps have positioned public radio as a major force when it comes to on-demand mobile applications.

An in iTunes may be a sign that Apple will soon allow developers to offer upgrade pricing for iPhone apps. Developer Fraser Speirs was warned that the "discounted price is only available to customers who own a previous version" of an item when he tried updating all his apps via iTunes.

Developers of desktop software typically offer a discount to users who have paid for a previous version of software when they upgrade to the next major release. On the iPhone, minor updates to apps are free to all users, but there is no mechanism in the App Store to offer current users upgrade pricing on new major version releases.

Some developers have gotten around this limitation by developing a new version and naming it with the major version number—think Rolando 2 or Tweetie 2. However, if users want that version, they have to pay full price. There's no way to offer someone who bought the original versions of Rolando or Tweetie a discount. Many users balked when Tweetie 2 was a full-price paid upgrade, though the improvements were generally compelling enough to .

The dialog box that Speirs encountered could have been an error since he was updating apps he already purchased. Still, it appears to be a sign Apple is testing the capability to offer discounts to buyers of previous versions of apps. Both developers and users have been asking for such a capability since the App Store launched in 2008.

UPDATE: It appears that this dialog box isn't new—9to5Mac's Seth Weintraub pointed us at from 2008 that mentions the same dialog box. We then found that also mentions encountering the dialog box, which appears related somehow to being logged in to the wrong account when attempting to update apps.

However, the wording of the dialog is clearly meant to refer to upgrade pricing of some sort. If iTunes is capable of determining whether you've paid for a previous version and can offer "discounted pricing," that still means someone at Apple at least thought about how to implement an upgrade mechanism for the App Store. We're still hoping iPhone OS 4, along with the necessary changes in iTunes and the App Store, introduces the capability.