For anyone who listens to tech podcasts, The Talk Show is highly-downloaded favorite. Dan Benjamin was the perfect foil for John Gruber, so it’ll be interesting to see where things go now. Some of the speculation, like what Jonathan Poritsky has prepared is a little fun and interesting, since there is quite a bit of mystery surrounding this. It has a bit of a feel of a geek version of the Conan and Leno controversy.
In the meantime, this feels like the almost perfect time to shill SchwarzTech Radio, another show with two guys talking about Apple-related stuff.
Since this is a bit of a slow news day, I was going through my Safari Reading List and came across this little how-to from Two Lives Left (they make games) to freshen up a stained and beat-up leather Smart Cover. Even if you don’t plan on ever doing something like this, it’s worth checking out.
Not surprising, much like Facebook, but enough reason for us to take the Tweet buttons off of our site. Obviously, this doesn’t apply if you don’t use Twitter or use a separate Twitter app.
Gotta love an odd news story to start your Thursday. It’s probably a glitch, and perhaps this has nothing to do with music, and is Apple’s way of subtly encouraging users to keep their devices as stock as possible?
Great, but sad article by Mat Honan for Gizmodo about Yahoo completely missing the point of Flickr, ruining it and everything else. It’s a shame, since I always thought Flickr was pretty cool. The fact there has never been a Yahoo-made iPad app (the is an iPhone one) for it speaks volumes.
I’m a fan of ESPN Radio, and its app, previously $2.99, was an iPhone-only app that wasn’t the prettiest, but featured access to the live stream, podcasts, and entire shows. The new app (4.0), which comes down the line as an update for existing users, is now universal (hooray) and has been redesigned. Streaming now requires a $4.99 in-app purchase, as well as making an ESPN account. Unfortunately, after August 1, the older version of the app (3.3) will cease to work, forcing people to update. To add insult to injury, the app isn’t even designed for the new iPad’s Retina Display.
I’m all for developers getting paid for what they do, but to actively shut down existing features that people have already paid for, and then ask for more money for a “better” experience is absurd. I understand with things like MLB’s At Bat app, where you pay for a year of the service, but I think a lot of people are going to be turned off by this update, which just comes across as slimy. I might get ESPN podcasts via Instacast, and streaming via TuneIn Radio.
People whine about the cost of a $5 app on a $500 device all the time, but in this case, it’s on principle.
