Episode 268: Hey, Look At All This Money

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.
January 27, 2017 at 11:01 am.

Episode 267: On A Boat In The Middle Of The Ocean

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:

January 20, 2017 at 12:21 pm.

Episode 266: Sayonara Sucker

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:

January 12, 2017 at 10:14 am.

Episode 265: Here’s A Step Forward

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.
January 4, 2017 at 9:37 am.