Manton closes in on the last week of his Kickstarter, and Daniel catches up on his progress. They discuss new beta updates from Apple for both Mac and iOS. They react to Apple’s forthcoming review prompting system for iOS, and the ability for developers to respond to reviews on both Mac and iOS. Finally, they debate the merits of Siri vs. Alexa on grounds of reliability and viability as an international, long-term success.

This week’s show is unsponsored. Please consider posting a job, or looking for your next hire on Core Intuition Jobs: Connecting Cocoa developers with their next dream job.

Links:

• iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4 – Ars Technica runs down the list of changes in the forthcoming OS releases.
• Indie Microblogging – Manton’s Kickstarter.
• requestReview() API – Documentation added to iOS 10.3 SDK.
• Apple Explains… – Jim Dalrymple summarizes his impressions of the new review behavior, after a briefing from Apple.
• Additional Details… – John Gruber follows up with some additional tidbits gleaned from his own briefing.
• appFigures – A service for easily searching and monitoring app reviews (among other things).
• f.lux – Third-party screen color adjustment utility, similar to Apple’s Night Shift feature.

Daniel asks Manton about his Kickstarter progress, two weeks in. Manton talks about marketing for the Kickstarter, how many people watch the video, and how to transition from marketing the passionate philosophical backers, to making a case for the sheer utility of the product. They talk about modern advertising technology that allows hyper-focused delivery, and follow up on Chris Lattner’s departure from Apple, and the exciting opportunities he will likely have at Tesla.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Digimarc: The best mobile scanning solution today. The only solution for tomorrow.
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• try! Swift NYC – Developer conference whose 2016 event featured a magician.
• Safe Replies – Manton’s new feature and stretch goal for Indie.blog
• App.net is Shutting Down – Announcement from Dalton Caldwell and Bryan Berg.
• Twitter Ads – Advertiser-oriented information about the Twitter ad offering.
• Withheld Tweets – Twitter documentation on a feature that can be used to for example block neo-nazi propaganda in Germany.
• Swish on App Store – Daniel’s only iOS app.
• App Store Search Ads – David and Marco take on the topic on Under the Radar.
• Nothing to do With Openness – Chris Lattner responds to allegations he left Apple because of their culture of secrecy.
• Tesla Irresistible – Chris Lattner shares thoughts on Tesla with MacRumors.
• You’re Only Stable When You’re Dead – ATP discusses Lattner’s departure from Apple.
• SpaceX Nails Rocket Landing – CNN report on the successful SpaceX launch last week.
• People Don’t Use the Weird Parts – Published after we recorded, ATP interviews Chris Lattner.

Manton and Daniel react to Chris Lattner’s departure from Apple to Tesla. They ponder the consequences to Apple of having open-sourced Swift, and how important it was for Lattner to see it done before he left. They indulge in imagining what Apple might have offered to try to keep him, and how Elon Musk may have pitched him to leave. Finally, the two react to Medium’s layoff announcement, and hints of a new business model for the company.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Swift Project Lead – Chris Lattner announces that he will be leaving Apple at the end of January.
• Welcome Chris Lattner – Tesla announces Lattner’s joining the company head of their Autopilot engineering team.
• Last to Know – Tanya Lattner quips about her husband’s career change.
• Renewing Medium’s Focus – Ev Williams announces Medium’s layoffs and forthcoming change of business model.
• It’s So Obvious – 2011 announcement of Obvious Corporation re-founding by Biz Stone and Evan Williams.
• Medium May Not Last – Manton reacts to the Medium news.
• A WordPress-like Approach – Daniel quips that Medium could look to Automattic’s business model for inspiration.
• Other People’s Highlights – John Gruber gripes about Medium’s annotation feature.
• Centralized Websites – Manton’s reaction to an Ev Williams interview in which he predicts the end of “individual websites.”
• Cool Idea – WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg tweets a kind link to Manton’s Kickstarter.

Daniel and Manton celebrate Manton’s successful Kickstarter debut, speculate as to whether he should have offered higher pledge levels, and consider the benefits and challenges of receiving feedback from potential customers who don’t understand your product yet. They close the show by discussing the value of taking time to promote your work and get to know people face to face in user groups and other social settings.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• PDF Power with the PDFpen Family.
• Stay up-to-date with the newest software development practices and attend 60+ mobile development learning sessions.

Links:

• Timetable – Manton’s short-format indie “microcast.”
• Indie Microblogging – Manton’s successful Kickstarter campaign.
• Micro.blog – The microblogging service Manton is launching soon.
• I’ve Left Twitter – Lindy West’s article about leaving Twitter because of its low community standards.
• The Crazy Ones – Jason Kottke pitches readers to support him at varying monetary ranges.
• Typed.com Campaign – IndieGoGo pitch from Dan Counsell which yielded $120K.
• 512 Pixels – Stephen Hackett blog on which Manton purchased a Micro.blog sponsorship.
• Austin WordPress Meetup – Manton’s local opportunity to meet with other blogging nerds.
• How I Built This – NPR podcast featuring an interview with children’s toy makers “Melissa & Doug.”
• IndieWebCamp – People-powered campaign to promote individual-owned web content.