Manton and Daniel discuss the opening of the WWDC ticket lottery, the correlated announcements about details of the WWDC Bash location, and Apple’s promotion of 3rd party events happening in the orbit of the conference. Manton reflects on his new decision to say yes to public speaking, and Daniel takes stock of recent reading around a “Going Pro” mentality. Finally, they react to the new ability for developers to reply to App Store reviews, and whether and how developers should choose to do so.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Zendesk: Bring native, in-app support to your app.

Links:

• San Jose Drainage Ditch – Image from Wikipedia of the Guadalupe River, near WWDC’s San Jose venue.
• Discovery Meadow – Location of the WWDC Bash.
• San Antonio River Walk – Texan example of a riverside parkway.
• Beyond WWDC – Apple’s guide to conferences and events happening outside of WWDC.
• Relay FM Meetup – WWDC-peripheral meet-up hosted by the Relay.fm podcasting network.
• CocoaConf Next Door – Conference near WWDC 2017 at which Manton will be speaking.
• The Power of Habit – A book about the effects of habits and how to establish or modify them.
• The War of Art – Steven Pressfield’s motivational book about pursuing your dreams with vigor.
• Turning Pro – Follow-up to The War of Art.
• Responding to Reviews – Apple’s advice to developers about how to respond to customers on the App Store.
• Customer Support – 2007 post from Manton about his rules for customer support.
• Sunlit.io – Photo-based storytelling app by Manton Reece and Jon Hays.
• Appfigures – Web-based service for tracking app sales and reviews.

Daniel and Manton talk about Manton’s decision to hire Jean MacDonald as Micro.blog’s Community Manager, and the psychological effects of transitioning from a single to multi-person company. They also react to this week’s Apple announcements, focusing mainly on Apple’s new Clips app and how it relates to Apple’s historic focus on facilitating user creativity.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Digimarc: The best mobile scanning solution today. The only solution for tomorrow.

Links:

• Guiding the Micro.blog Community – Manton announces the hiring of Jean MacDonald as Community Manager.
• @macgenie – Twitter account of Jean MacDonald.
• Smile – Mac software company where Jean MacDonald was formerly a partner.
• App Camp for Girls – Summer day camp for girls, founded by Jean MacDonald.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac-based blog editing app.
• Inessential – Blog of Brent Simmons, original developer of MarsEdit.
• History of Technorati – Summary from the company which appears nothing like it used to be.
• Clips – Apple’s forthcoming socially-oriented, visual mash-up app.
• Internet Explorer for Mac – Wikipedia page about the history of the once-dominant Mac web browser.
• Aqua Introduction Keynote – Steve Jobs announces Aqua at Macworld SF in 2000.
• Paper Airplane Icons – Daniel’s post about the use of paper airplanes as a metaphor for mail.

Manton and Daniel discuss Apple’s short-lived restrictions on editing App Store descriptions, weighing the merits of adding more semantic fields to App Store pages, and supporting a separate review process for metadata-only updates. They talk about Apple’s rejection of apps using Rollout.io technologies, and larger risks of depending on any 3rd party binaries or open source. Finally they consider the power of assuming certain labels such as “entrepreneur,” and how it frames your business thinking moving forward.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Editing App Store Descriptions – 9to5mac reports on the change of policy by Apple, and subsequent reversion to status quo.
• Firewatch – macOS game from Campo Santo and Panic.
• Rollout.io Statement – Rollout responds to Apple’s rejection of apps using their hot-patch technology.
• CocoaPods – A popular package manager for iOS and Mac.
• SXSW – Austin-based film, music, and technology conference.
• Open Coffee Club – Worldwide directory of meetups aimed at uniting investors and entrepreneurs.
• Open Coffee Austin – Manton’s local club.
• 15 Years of Blogging – Manton celebrates his long blogging career, and looks back at some favorite entries.

Daniel and Manton rethink WWDC’s Apple Bash location, and celebrate the recently announced scholarship program for the conference. They catch up with Daniel’s productivity challenges, and lament the discipline required to finish any major release. Daniel checks in with his blogging habits and how they may relate to passion for MarsEdit. Finally, the two look to Marco Arment as an example of repeatedly trying new ideas and iterating on the aspects that work.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Zendesk: Bring native, in-app support to your app.
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• WWDC Scholarships – Apple’s official invitation and guidelines.
• Bill Graham Civic Auditorium – Location of the 2016 WWDC Apple Bash.
• San Jose City National Civic – Possible location for the 2017 WWDC Apple Bash.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac-based blog editing app.
• Inessential – Weblog of Brent Simmons, original author of MarsEdit.
• Black Ink – Daniel’s Mac-based crossword editing app.
• Overcast – Marco Arment’s podcast listening app for iOS.
• Under the Radar – Indie development podcast from Marco Arment and David Smith.
• Castro 2 – Supertop’s iOS podcasting app.
• Supertop Podcast – From the makers of Castro.
• @manton2 – The sequel.
• Overcast Ads – Current inventory and pricing.
• Do What You Can’t – Inspirational video from Casey Neistat.
• Hardware Mind Virus – Episode 211 of ATP in which Marco elaborates on ad successes and priorities.