Linked List: June 22, 2012

Dark Sky 

Innovative, gorgeous, and highly practical weather app for iPhone and iPad. I was skeptical at first, but after using it for a few weeks, I’m hooked. A few minutes ago I was a couple blocks from home running errands, and Dark Sky told me it was going to rain in “two minutes”. Two minutes later it started raining. $3.99 on the App Store.

Dan Frakes Reviews the New MacBook Airs 

Comprehensive, to say the least.

Here’s the Thing: David Letterman 

Speaking of podcasts, David Letterman made a rare appearance as a guest on someone else’s show: Alec Baldwin’s “Here’s the Thing”. So great. Must-listen for any Letterman fan.

‘Laggy by Any Standard’ 

This week on America’s favorite two-star podcast, I’m joined by special guest star Guy English. Topics include various details from last week’s WWDC (pull-to-refresh in iOS 6, Passbook, and anti-aliasing nerdery), Microsoft Surface, and a few hints about Guy’s new company and their upcoming Mac app, Napkin. We even make the case that Microsoft really is the most exciting company in tech right now.

Brought to you by two fine sponsors: Vjay, the new video-mixing app for iPad; and Fantastical, the Mac calendar app you’ll actually enjoy using.

Google Maps Backtracks on October Price Increases 

MG Siegler:

I’ve talked to a lot of developers over the past several months — not one of them can understand why Google made these changes in the first place. It lead big startups like Foursquare to abandon Google Maps on the web. Even with the high rates, it can’t be a huge amount of money for Google relative to their overall revenues.

Hacking Paid Upgrades in the App Store 

Speaking of The Talk Show, David Smith has an interesting bit of follow-up related to last week’s show:

During last week’s Talk Show John and Cabel discussed the state of paid upgrades in the App Store. Around an hour into the show they hit on something that I hadn’t considered before.

Can you still support the old, replaced version of an app if you remove it from sale?

Short answer: yes.

Acer Executive on Microsoft Surface: ‘I Don’t Think It Will Be Successful’ 

Via Michael Swaine, with whom I agree:

The first sign that Microsoft’s vaporware tablet might be successful: Acer saying it won’t.