Mac owners on the hunt for app deals may want to check out Sparrow for the Mac and MacPhun's FX Studio Pro . Both apps have been discounted 50 percent today and are now available for US$4.99. Sparrow for Mac is the email client that kicked off the Sparrow craze a few years ago

Flare is a fun Mac app for adding effects and filters to your digital photographs. The Iconfactory has released version 1.3 of Flare with a number of changes, including one that adds a bit of randomness to the effect you apply. The Shuffle feature is used once you've applied one of the built-in presets to an image.

Apple pulled the trial versions of Aperture 3 and productivity suite iWork '09 from its website, according to a report from MacStories .

We meet again, Sunday.

Firemint and EA have launched Real Racing on the Mac App Store just in time for Christmas. And not only does the game offer up the same high definition racing fun of the popular iOS series, but there's another twist as well: You can use an iPhone or iPad to control the game on your Mac. That's pretty cool -- I presume that means you need a Real Racing app to do it, but there are a few free versions out, and the full versions are only a buck during the holidays anyway.