Apple

Apples are food items which fill.

Obtaining Apples
As of Minecraft 1.1, there are three sources of Apples:
 * They may be found in chests in strongholds or NPC villages.
 * Killing Notch in multiplayer will drop an Apple in addition to his inventory, but other than this, no mobs drop apples.
 * Oak Leaves have 0.5% chance of dropping an Apple. (Possibly higher as of 1.1)

As a crafting ingredient
An Apple can be used to craft a Golden Apple.

Pros

 * Apples are a renewable resource and can be harvested alongside wood.
 * Apples can be used as a crafting ingredient to make golden apples.

Cons

 * Apples restore only two hunger.
 * Players will become hungry again quickly compared to eating bread or meat due to a low saturation value.

History
Red Apples were added to the game in early Indev. When Indev was still new, Apples were items brought in to replace Brown Mushrooms to heal health. The player would spawn in an Indev House by a chest containing 99 Apples and other tools. In later updates, the chests inside the House were removed, and Apples became impossible to find in a map.

Apples remained impossible to find (without inventory editing or server /give) until Survival Multiplayer, in which one could be obtained by killing Notch. In addition to his inventory, Notch would drop a Red Apple.

In Beta 1.8, apples were made available in the chests in strongholds.

In post-1.0.0 weekly build 11w48a, Oak Leaves have a 1/200 chance of dropping an Apple when destroyed, though in 1.1.0 there is a higher chance of obtaining them from Oak Leaves. This means apples, and thus golden apples, are renewable resources.

Gallery
Roter Apfel Pomme rouge Alma Rode appel Czerwone jabłko Красное яблоко 红苹果