It's Sunday, which means it's time for the TUAW Talkcast. One of the fun topics for the evening will be to see how many participants have picked up a US$99 or $149 HP TouchPad to use as a drink tray or for recording their own version of "Will It Blend?" There will be much more to yap about as well.

I'm not sure if anyone else from the TUAW Team will be there this evening, but be sure to join in for the fun and games.

It's really all about you, the community, so please join me won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients, basic instructions are here. (If you like Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store.) Talk to you tonight!

TUAW Talkcast: The HP TouchPad fire sale episode originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 21:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Dev Juice,

Can you help me generate a unique identifier for my iOS apps? I don't want to rely on using UDIDs anymore. I'd say why but then you'd have to shoot me.

Watm-ever

Dear Watm-ever

That sounds dire. Let's avoid the violence and focus on the Core Foundation. Here you go. If you're not using ARC, then you'll need to autorelease uuidString rather than bridging.

You'll probably want to store your new ids into the keychain to allow them to persist.

Happy developing.

Dev Juice: Help me generate unique identifiers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 21 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

id's Rage app went free earlier on this week, and that seems to have inspired a little avalanche of free and discounted apps on the App Store. Good news for us, of course: There are quite a few solid apps to pick up if you haven't yet.

• Trucks and Skulls Nitro is now free and so is the HD version for a limited time.
• Retro platformer Pix 'n' Love Rush is down to just 99 cents.
• Firemint's Real Racing is down to just cents as well, and the sequel, usually $6.99, is down to $2.99. The HD version is $4.99, a couple bucks less than usual.
• Halfbrick's great dualstick shooter Age of Zombies is 99 cents right now.
• Capcom's Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunting just got a big update, and to celebrate, the price has dropped to $1.99.
• And Namco released a game called Rally-x Rumble that I haven't yet played, but it is on sale for 99 cents. Looks like a solid title!
• Gameloft's Spider-man: Total Mayhem is 99 cents.
• Recent Daily App spotlight Siege Hero is free for a limited time.
• EA's Scrabble is $1.99.
• Shift 2 Unleashed for iPhone is $1.99, and the HD version for iPad is discounted as well.
• Apple Design Award winner Star Walk is only 99 cents on the iPhone.
• As is Articles, also an ADA winner.

So there's a few to pick up. Have fun this weekend!

Trucks and Skulls Nitro free, other iOS price drops this weekend originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

True to its word, Aspyr Media put Duke Nukem Forever on the Mac in the month of August, a short while after the game's release on PC. You can pick up the title at GameAgent through Aspyr's website, or on Steam (where you get it, thanks to SteamPlay, for both Windows and Mac), but if you want to go cheap, MacUpdate is running a promotion where the game is $5 off the standard price, and you'll get Jets'n'Guns Gold for absolutely free as well. That's about the best deal I've seen, if you're planning on buying the game and don't mind where it comes from.

Be warned, of course, that the critics didn't really enjoy the long-awaited title all that much, claiming that the design showed its age and depended a little too much on the game's reputation rather than actual innovation. But that hasn't stopped the game from being a financial success anyway, and odds are that if you're a Duke fan and just want to play the game, you're not that worried about how it stands up to the test of time. Hopefully you're low on your supply of gum, because Duke is ready to get back into action.

Duke Nukem Forever out now on Mac originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mobile game developer Digital Chocolate, one of the biggest developers on the App Store, has acquired Sandlot Games, makers of Cake Mania and a few other popular App Store titles. Sandlot has offices in Seattle and Eastern Europe, and Digital Chocolate says it plans to use the developer to expand operations in both places.

Unfortunately, there's no word on how much the deal is worth. Both companies have seen plenty of app downloads, and have big titles on multiple platforms, including Apple's devices and the PC, so this is likely a substantial acquisition for both sides. As Digital Chocolate's Trip Hawkins says, "We expect to be the leading game company in at least 5 of the 7 cities where we now have development studios."

That said, I don't think this is the last we'll hear of either company. This space is extremely volatile at the moment, and it's just as likely that we'll see Digital Chocolate pick up more developers as it is that we'll see a larger company buy out the whole company if so inclined.

[via Touch Arcade]

Digital Chocolate buys Sandlot Games originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I know what you're probably thinking: "Steve's blogging about a writing tool and it's not even NaNoWriMo time yet!" As true as that may be, there's a version of the powerful Storyist writing app now available for iPad, and I just had to write about it whether or not November is near. Storyist for iPad (US$9.99) isn't as robust as the $59 Mac version, but I found that the app is perfect for my creative writing. If you're a novelist, a script writer, or just someone who wants to hammer out your own creative thoughts, Storyist for iPad is going to make your day.

Launching Storyist on your iPad brings up a My Projects page. To aid new users in the process of figuring out the app, Storyist includes a Getting Started document consisting of a 21-page guide, novel and screenplay example files, and a handful of images included in the examples.

Like its desktop sibling, Storyist for iPad provides a powerful outliner and an "index card" feature for organizing your thoughts. There's an amazing amount of control over line indentation and paragraph and line spacing, and a full palette of fonts to choose from. Images can either be inserted into your document from the project folder or from your photo library.

The editor supports rich text, comments, footers, headers and style sheets. For manuscripts and screenplays, the text is automatically formatted into the generally accepted formats for submission. When working on a manuscript project, special pages for plot, character and setting descriptions are created for authors to reference when they've forgotten the details.

The app syncs with Dropbox with a tap, and the files are compatible with Storyist for Mac. Other import and export formats include RTF, Plain Text, and Final Draft v8. Since many writers would gag at the thought of having to crank out a novel or screenplay on a virtual keyboard, the app works seamlessly with Bluetooth wireless keyboards.

For doing updates to manuscripts and screenplays on the run, I can't think of a better writing tool, and for ten bucks Storyist for iPad is a bargain.

Daily iPad App: Storyist for iPad originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Have you ever been out and about with your cell phone, needed some information, and looked it up right there on the spot? You're not alone: The Pew Internet Research Project has released a report that says more than half of US cell phone owners have used their devices to get information they needed in real-time, right where they happen to be. That's a huge change in the way we used to deal with information -- remember when you had to print out maps or call ahead before you went somewhere, or just forget what the name of that '80s movie actually was? Nowadays, connected phones are so ubiquitous that all of that information is literally and conveniently a touch away.

In fact, I'm surprised that number isn't higher. And looking up information isn't the only thing smartphone owners do with their phones: 92 percent text and take pictures, 80 percent send photos to others, and 76 percent send emails. Social networking in general is popular as well, with 59 percent of owners using those sites, and 15 percent going to Twitter specifically.

We've heard before that people are actively doing these kinds of things with their smartphones, but the trend is definitely continuing.

Pew: Half of US customers use phones to get info in realtime originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Another Sunday, another live TUAW Talkcast! This week we have news of shiny new educational iMacs; remember those? We also have a bit of Newton love to talk about, and perhaps we will look back fondly upon other old Apple hardware, like Spartacus or perhaps the PowerBook World Saver slash hibachi.

Prepare to join me and... well, I'm not sure who else, but you know it'll be a good time. Kelly hosting the show means there will be aftershow, which we never record. Perhaps you should drop by to find out why...

It's really all about you, the community, so please join me won't you? To participate, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for +5 Interactivity, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (Viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Blink or X-Lite SIP clients, basic instructions are here. (If you like Blink, the pro version is available in the Mac App Store.) Talk to you tonight!

Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET/7pm PT/4pm HT: Old school hardware edition! originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The next version of Mozilla's web browser, Firefox 6, will be officially released on Tuesday, August 16. There are no major UI changes; most of the other changes are under the hood. That's a welcome upgrade as Firefox 6 is reportedly 20% faster than Firefox 5. Also, while Firefox 6 does offer full screen support, it's not Lion-native fullscreen support, which is somewhat of a disappointment.

For those of you who don't want to wait till Tuesday, you can actually download the final release of Firefox 6.0 here from Mozilla's FTP servers.

Firefox 6 due next week originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I talked with yap.TV's Shawn Cunningham in March about the continued improvements to the app that combines a TV-viewing guide with social media. The software made its initial rise to fame in the fall of 2010 when Steve Wozniak appeared on The Big Bang Theory, then used the app to chat with viewers during the broadcast.

Cunningham discussed some of the planned features with me at that time, and I'm glad that they've made an appearance in version 3.0 of the free app. The updated yap.TV has a visual guide that is based entirely on pictures from the show. It's also added complete programming from local listings nationwide.

Other new features include:

• Customizable lineups
• Category filters
• Live chatting for every show
• Picture-based movie guides
• The ability to view listings in a traditional format (think old-style TV Guide)
• Improved Twitter interface and more

yap.TV update adds local programming originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.