Manton and Daniel talk about Apple’s response to South Korea’s legal requirement that they support 3rd party payment processing in the App Store, and whether Apple’s insistence that it continue to be paid a cut is realistic. They also talk about what has changed since the early days of the App Store with respect to Apple’s sense of entitlement to a share of all revenue earned on its platforms.
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January 23, 2022 at 12:03 am.
Daniel and Manton talk about the persistent allure of finding a better bank, weighed against the daunting tedium of successfully shutting down an existing account. Then they talk about Apple’s AirTags, the growing controversy about how “bad guys” are using them, and whether Apple should discontinue the product or mitigate the risks of continuing to sell them.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Wise – The international money-changer formally known as TransferWise.
- Mercury Bank – Banking services for businesses with an emphasis on free wire and ACH transfers.
- Stripe – Payment processing company with a beloved API.
- Setapp – Mac and iOS app subscription service which includes MarsEdit.
- Backblaze – A good remote backup service that nonetheless earned Manton’s wrath.
- Wordle – The web-based word puzzle game taking the world by storm.
- Letterle – Parody of Wordle in which you guess one letter.
- Sweardle – Parody of Wordle based on profane 4-letter words.
- AirTag – Apple’s general-purpose tracking device.
- Responsible – Nick Heer writes about Apple’s AirTags and the ways people abuse them.
- Tile – Predecessor to and ostensible competitor of AirTags.
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January 14, 2022 at 10:34 pm.
Manton and Daniel open the new year with more talk about increasing productivity and focusing on the tasks that are most important to us. They talk about the merits of “settling for good enough” as a valuable thing both in life and, more pertinently, in shipping software or completing any creative works.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
- TextExpander: Communicate Smarter. Listeners get 20% off their first year.
Links:
- 4000 Weeks – The book by Oliver Burkeman that Daniel is reading.
- Personal Kanban – The methodology evidently at the root of the “three slots” attention management system.
- Basecamp – Software that prompts Manton weekly to ask what he’s going to work on.
- Epilogue – Manton’s book tracking app for Micro.blog
- The Starry Night – Wikipedia page on the famous Van Gogh painting.
Links:
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January 8, 2022 at 8:28 pm.
Daniel and Manton take a light look forward to 2022, veer off into a discussion about their respective math skills, and end up talking philosophically about the limits of time and how we need to choose to spend our time on the things that matter most to us.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
Links:
- The Dip – Seth Godin’s book on time management.
- 4000 weeks – Book that Daniel is reading about time management.
- Micro.blog – Manton’s microblogging service.
- Claude Monet – “It should have been a little more green”
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December 31, 2021 at 10:36 pm.
Manton follows up with Daniel about his alleged accidental Catalyst port, and how it inspired Manton to look into the possibility of a Catalyst port of his Epilogue app. They take a look at the landscape of Mac and iOS apps for Micro.blog, including some iOS apps that run natively on Apple Silicon Macs. Daniel talks more about KeyboardKit, the inevitable edge cases he’s run into, and how he ended up contributing to the project. Finally, they talk about their never-ending ambition to get better at marketing.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
Links:
- Did You Just Accidentally Run That? – Simon Ljungberg alerts Daniel to the possibility he was not running a Catalyst app after all.
- Jon Hays – Manton’s collaborator in many things, and another person who thought Daniel’s Catalyst story sounded funny.
- Black Ink for iOS – Blog post announcing the iOS TestFlight release of Daniel’s crossword app for iOS.
- Epilogue – Manton’s book-sharing app for Micro.blog.
- Humboldt – Maurice Parker’s app to add Shortcuts support to Micro.blog
- Icro – Martin Hartl’s Micro.blog app for the Mac.
- KeyboardKit – Open source iOS framework that Daniel recently contributed to.
- UIInputViewController – Developer documentation about the class that can be used to make custom iOS keyboards OR custom input views.
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December 25, 2021 at 9:33 pm.
Daniel tells Manton about his return to work on Black Ink for iOS, and his experience with accidentally building a version for Catalyst. They talk about the joy of coming upon new framework features when you assume things are as hard as they were “in the old days”. Finally, they talk about deciding when to use a 3rd-party library vs. when it is more likely to be problematic.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- MacStadium: Leading provider of cloud solutions built on Apple Mac hardware.
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
Links:
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December 19, 2021 at 5:48 pm.
Manton tells Daniel about Micro.blog’s new email newsletter feature. Daniel examines his self-consciousness about needing to ship two bug-fix updates to FastScripts in quick succession. They talk about the benefits of surreptitiously fixing things in web software without too much attention, and the downside that without release notes it can be hard to focus users on improvements. Finally, they talk about their efforts to wind down work obligations as they head into the holidays, and look forward to a new year with new opportunities.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
- RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!
Links:
Enjoy our show? Become a sustaining member!
December 10, 2021 at 5:08 pm.
Daniel and Manton catch up after Thanksgiving, and appreciate that it might be the most universally embraced American holiday. They compare notes about the amount they choose to work on holidays and how it reflects their work being something they love to do. Manton questions how much to share about a new feature he’s developing, and they talk about scenarios where sharing too much takes away from the broader impact of the feature. Finally, they talk about the resignation of Twitter’s CEO, what it could mean for the future of the company and for Manton’s feeling about it.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- TextExpander: Communicate Smarter. Listeners get 20% off their first year.
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
Links:
Enjoy our show? Become a sustaining member!
December 2, 2021 at 3:47 pm.
Manton checks in with Daniel after returning home from LA. Daniel asks again about the status of the Indie Microblogging book, and if Manton has a plan for how he’ll get the job done. They celebrate Epilogue for Micro.blog finally getting approved, and also celebrate the thrill of being able to deploy web apps and direct-download apps immediately without anybody’s approval. Finally, they talk about the great variety of web technologies and how Manton decides how to choose among the many options available to him.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
Links:
- Train to Los Angeles – Manton’s blog post about his trip to LA.
- On a Train – Short post from Manton featuring a glimpse of the view from his train while editing Core Intuition.
- Epilogue for iOS – Manton’s blog for the book-readers’ app for Micro.blog.
- FastScripts 3 – Daniel’s recently updated Mac scripting utility.
- Jetpack Compose – Android developer framework with some similarities to SwiftUI.
- Kotlin – A popular language for Android development, with similarities to Swift.
- Hugo – The web templating framework that Manton uses for Micro.blog.
- Bootstrap – A web framework supporting the development of responsive web apps.
- Caddy – Web server software with built-in HTTPS support.
- Vincent Ritter – Manton’s inspiration for choosing the Caddy web server solution.
- Web Hosting for App Developers – Marco Arment’s post about the virtue of choosing “boring”, reliable technology for hosting web software.
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November 25, 2021 at 3:39 pm.
Daniel catches up with Manton midway through Manton’s train trip adventure to Los Angeles. Manton gives a progress update on the micro-blogging book, and his new optimism after making progress on it. Manton shares impressions of LA’s famous traffic and culture in general, as he takes in a whirlwind tour of the area before heading to catch the train home.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
- MacStadium: Leading provider of cloud solutions built on Apple Mac hardware.
Links:
- Amtrak – What passes for America’s glorious railroad service.
- Union Station – Los Angeles’s historic railroad station.
- Clippers vs. Spurs – NBA recap of the game Manton saw in LA.
- Jonathan Hays – Manton’s friend, colleague, and basketball adventure companion.
- The Loneliest Road in America – Tourism site about the long, desolate highway through part of the Western US.
- Podcast Shuffle – Internet Archive-hosted version of Manton’s old Podcast Shuffle page.
- Typecast – Daniel’s old, yet probably still functional, podcast import utility for iTunes.
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November 18, 2021 at 10:07 pm.