Two weeks ago, the talkcast featured me, Robert & Dave tackling caller questions in a freewheeling "Ask TUAW" hour of fun. We didn't answer them all but we certainly tried our best. Subscribe in iTunes, or use a different feed reader. (Note: We were informed that the 'itpc://'-style link to the show was causing a spontaneous iTunes launch for users on Vista with Firefox 3, so we're using a Phobos-style link now. If you've seen unexpected iTunesage when browsing pages with itpc links on them, let us know.)

After a week's break due to Talkshoe tech difficulties, we're back. Join us later tonight, Sunday October 5 at 10 pm ET for this week's show. Got dish, rumors or wishlists? Swing by and chime in.

You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm tonight. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077. For those calling in without Talkshoe IDs, you can "request to talk" by dialing *8.

By now, most of you have already made it to the Civilization Stage in Spore (or maybe you are enjoying the beginning stages on Spore for iPhone). Either way, you might like to know more about the universe simulation game that you're spending so much time with.

The SporeTV podcast (now available in iTunes) hopes to satisfy your tastes as the creator, Will Wright, explains the basis of the game and a little history behind it. You can subscribe to the podcast by visiting the iTunes podcast page. We hope there's more videos to come!

Last week's talkcast featured Robert, Christina and yours truly discussing the ins and outs of App Store 'thanks, but no thanks' software rejections, along with opinions on the new iPod lineup and more thoughts on the short-lived Seinfeld/Microsoft ad campaign. Subscribe in iTunes, use a different feed reader or simply download the MP3.

Join us later tonight, Sunday September 21 at 10 pm ET for this week's show. We are going Open Phones for tonight, taking your Mac support questions as we play a game we like to call "stump the bloggers!" C'mon down and join in the fun.

You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm tonight. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077. For those calling in without Talkshoe IDs, you can "request to talk" by dialing *8.

You've heard about the controversy surrounding Podcaster -- it's the iPhone app that was turned down by Apple for "duplicating the functionality of iTunes." The developer, Alex Sokirynsky, is now distributing his native podcast stream receiver app via ad hoc distribution.

The iPhone development world & the Mac blogosphere (not to mention the mainstream press) is still loudly debating Apple's decision, but not much is being said about the application itself. Alex was kind enough to provide a review copy of Podcaster to TUAW, so we gave the app a workout. Read on for our review of this controversial and useful application.

An iPhone developer who created an app that manages and plays podcasts says the app was disqualified from the App Store because "it duplicates the functionality of the Podcast section of iTunes." That's right, iTunes for the desktop.

This opens up unsettling possibilities for other developers. There are many applications that duplicate the functionality of Apple software for both the desktop and mobile devices. For instance, there are many calculators that duplicate the functionality of Calculator. Twitterrific has a small browser built in, duplicating the functionality of Safari. NetNewsWire duplicates some RSS reading functionality in Mail for Mac OS X.

There's a well-defined slippery slope here. While Apple is within its rights to accept or reject any app into the App Store for whatever reasons it sees fit, its communication with the developer community leaves a lot to be desired. (We talked a little about this on last Sunday's Talkcast.) Even though the developer says he followed all the rules, there's still a chance that an app will simply fall ill of Apple's fickle fancy.

Will this latest move by Apple chill relations with developers? Or are the upsides still too great to ignore? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment.

Update: And commenters think I'm overreacting: Frasier Speirs, developer of Exposure, isn't writing any more iPhone apps because of this whole mummalum. [Via Metafilter.]

Thanks, Mike!

I'm a big fan of the Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing daily podcasts -- she does a terrific job, day in and day out, of breaking down major grammar gaffes in a very interesting and clear way. After the big "Let's Rock" event on Tuesday, Grammar Girl had to jump to the rescue on Apple's commercial use of the word "funnest" to describe the iPod touch -- as many language elitists noted, "funnest" isn't quite a real word.

Believe it or not, Grammar Girl is suprisingly forgiving -- she says that fun, while originally a noun ("we had fun"), has made a transition in the last century or so to an "attributive noun" which can be used as an adjective ("we had a fun party"). And while old-timers may flinch at the words "funner" and "funnest", the correct way to modify one-syllable adjectives is in fact by adding "-er" and "-est" to the ends. So technically, "funnest" is grammatically correct, even if it isn't exactly accepted; Grammar Girl calls it "grating and horrifying."

She finishes today's podcast, however, with a scary note for language traditionalists -- it could very well be that Apple's usage of the word is just what "funnest" needs to go over the edge into regular acceptance. Sure, we get that language evolves, but couldn't they just have said it was "the most fun iPod ever?" Or, even more traditionally, "the most fun you'll have with an iPod?"

In the iTunes 8 new features listing, a couple of tweaks may have been overlooked. Podcast subscribers have long yearned for more granular control over downloading and retention in iTunes -- "keep three episodes" might be great for Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me or Mac OS Ken, but what about Coverville or You Look Nice Today? You'd surely want to keep those & other awesome 'casts in perpetuity, and there are some podcasts that are so large you want to cull them after one download.

Now, iTunes 8 lets you apply retention policies on a podcast-by-podcast basis. Select the podcast in the list and click the "Settings" button at the bottom of the window, then UNcheck the "Use Default Settings" box to enable custom prefs for that particular show. Dee-lightful! Unfortunately, podcast-to-iPod sync settings are still one for all and all for one, but this is a step in the right direction.

Update: Comments below (and a visit to the Wayback Machine) have confirmed that the territorial clause in the iTunes store TOS is not a new addition with v8, but has in fact been in place for quite some time. It's interesting that it only came up as a topic of discussion now -- perhaps because everyone was forced to reaccept the TOS with the new version, and read it a bit more carefully? It's also looking like the clause was displayed front and center on the new TOS acceptance screen; this degree of prominence seems to be new, and probably attracted attention to the pre-existing restriction. In any case, our apologies for the error.

Speaking of minor changes that might have major implications, a number of readers have expressed concern about something that Robert originally pointed out in his rundown of iTunes 8: that the iTunes store terms of service (long a source of controversy in Europe) now include have long included a clause restricting use to the geographic area where the user's account is established. In the US the rule reads:

10. Territory. The Service is available only in the United States. You agree not to use or attempt to use the Service from outside of the available territory, and that Apple may use technologies to verify your compliance.

There are several classes of users who might run afoul of this restriction: travelers who shop in their home stores while venturing abroad, for example, would technically be in violation... but our suspicion is that these casual, intermittent border-busters are not what Rule 10 is about. Instead, any enforcement of this restriction is likely to be aimed at users who live in one country and establish an iTunes store account in another -- allowing them to buy TV shows or movies that may not be available yet (or ever) in their localities.

Certainly the content providers who sell their wares through iTunes may choose not to sell their programs to a particular region at a particular time; that's their prerogative. It seems somewhat myopic, however, to think that enforcing restrictions by geography in the iTunes store will have any effect other than to drive revenue and customers from the quasi-legal market firmly into the rip-and-download underground.

Thanks to Eric & Mark

Last week's talkcast featured host Mike Schramm, Robert and Steve shooting the breeze on the latest Mac news including a back-to-school review and notes from the Carlsbad, CA store opening; listen in with the widget below or download in iTunes or via RSS.

Join us later tonight, August 24 at 10 pm ET for this week's show, hosted by Mike R. and featuring everyone's best efforts at a Jerry Seinfeld impression. If you call in and can beat the panel's Seinfeld voices (or, for that matter, do a passable George or Kramer) you'll win the people's ovation and fame forever.

You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077. Hear ya soon!

Last week's talkcast featured the hosting debut of Robert Palmer along with contributions from me, Dave Caolo and Mike Rose (and some Skype drop-off moments) over the course of the hour. Download the show directly or from Talkshoe, or pick it up on iTunes.

Join us again tonight for host Mike Schramm and panelists Robert P. and yours truly as we cover the week's top stories -- and we might even find time for some trivia and giveaways! We'll also be talking back-to-school with our picks for hardware and software for students.

You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077.

Be so kind, one and all, as to join us tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern time (7 p.m. Pacific), when I have the privelege of joining Christina Warren, Michael Rose, Steven Sande, and hundreds more of our closest friends for our happy-yet-disorderly discussion about the week's most interesting events in the Mac universe.

If all goes to plan, we'll be talking about the new iPhone 2.0.1 firmware, the rise and fall of I Am Rich, the App Store's apparent schizophrenia when it comes to adding new apps, Microsoft Silverlight, and the surprisingly pretty awesome start to the Olympics. And to top it all off, Woz got married! How 'bout that?

If you haven't listened to last week's (excellent, if I do say so myself) first-anniversary talkcast, feel absolutely free to download it straight from Talkshoe, or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.

For instructions on how to listen, follow me across the jump.

If you haven't tuned in yet for last week's talkcast, go check it out -- it features Scott's farewell announcement and our cranky assessment of MobileMe's first weeks. Download direct, or subscribe to the TalkShoe feed in iTunes.

Join us again tonight (Sunday 8/3) for our next live show, 10 pm ET as usual. Since this is the first anniversary of our little podcasting experiment (the kickoff show was back on 8/2/2007), we'll be looking back at the past year of Apple news and casting our Predict-O-Matics forward into the fall. We'll also be digging into the Ghost of Trivia Past bag for some trivia giveaways, all quite vintage (Mac OS 9 games! A broken iPod Mini! A copy of iMovie 3 Solutions by Erica Sadun, which we can probably get autographed for you! A pile of Zip disks -- with a drive!) but delivered with love.

Last week's talkcast had to be cancelled on short notice when our host of the week had to deal with a dental emergency, but we're back this week and eager to take your calls and questions. In particular, we want to hear about your App Store and MobileMe experiences (good, bad or indifferent).

Join us later tonight, Sunday July 27 at 10 pm ET for this week's show, hosted by Mike R. (back from vacation and looking forward to hopping back into the hot seat) and featuring the usual cast of drunken reprobates. We might even find time for some trivia and giveaways!

You can join the conversation on TalkShoe by using the shiny browser-only client; you can also use the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client that we all know and love. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. You can also listen in on the Talkshoe page or call in on regular phone or VOIP lines: dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077.

Written by Michael Rose

This week has no doubt been a busy one. So to kick the new week off right, we've got a special guest for you: Gedeon Maheux from the Icon Factory will join us to talk about Twitterrific mobile and we will also get his thoughts on the iPhone 3G. We will also be talking about MobileMe and iPhone applications. In addition, we will be taking your questions, so be sure to join us tonight at 10 p.m. ET on Talkshoe.

You can also catch up on the past few weeks' worth of shows (including our show last week) from Talkshoe, play them from the Flash player in the continuation of this post, if you like, or pick them up on iTunes.

Read on for details on how to join in for tonight's call.