Manton and Daniel catch up on the effectiveness of “Must-do Monday.” They talk about the value of gaining any momentum at all when moving towards achieving goals. Manton suggests “Finish Friday” as a counterpart to aid in actually ever shipping. Manton talks about Micro.blog’s server downtime, and confesses his disdain for at least one of his precious servers.
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- Linode: Instantly deploy and manage an SSD server in the Linode Cloud. New accounts get a $100 credit.
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July 22, 2021 at 3:03 pm.
Daniel learns about Manton’s decision to hire a contract developer to help with server/backend stuff. They talk about the tendency to minimize the real cost of performing the many small steps in any project, and the productivity boot an extra team member can bring. Daniel tells Manton about his new “Must-Do Monday” strategy, with which he must spend Mondays committing to some long-overlooked items on his todo list.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- Vincent Ritter – The newest member of the Micro.blog team.
- Gluon – Vincent’s Micro.blog app for iOS and Android.
- Micro.blog Open Source – The GitHub organization for all of Micro.blog’s open-sourced projects.
- React Native – The cross-platform development SDK that Vincent uses for Gluon.
- Jon Hays – Manton’s colleague and sometime employer.
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July 16, 2021 at 9:08 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about the new “Workation” offering from Try! Swift, and wonder about how likely it is that any “work” would get done in a tropical paradise. They compare notes about recent podcasting sponsorships they have made, and discuss the relative comfort of spending money supporting blogs, podcasts, etc., that we like, versus sponsorships that support companies we are more ambivalent about.
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July 10, 2021 at 12:59 pm.
Daniel talks to Manton about his decision to open source all of Micro.blog’s native platform apps. They acknowledge the difficulty of overcoming personal hesitations whenever you decide to put your own work out in the world. Manton appreciates the aspect of open source that contributes to a lasting legacy of our time on earth, and finally we appreciate product simplicity as a competitive advantage over “more successful” products that seemingly must become more and more complex.
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Manton and Daniel talk about Daniel’s decision to release a public beta of Black Ink for iOS, and the merit of pushing forward with ambitons, one step at a time. They discuss the anticipated freemium subscription model Daniel plans to offer, and talk about the importance of getting paid for one’s work. Finally, they talk about gaining and maintaining confidence in your work and that what you have to offer is valuable even if not everybody agrees it is good.
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June 18, 2021 at 8:01 pm.
Daniel and Manton react to the unfolding news from WWDC, talking specifically about Shortcuts for Mac, the new Async/await coroutines functionality for Swift, Xcode Cloud, and the new Weather app. They talk about whether Apple should horde functionality like the weather service they acquired from Dark Sky, or make it available in a public framework. Finally, they take stock of Catalyst and the writing on the wall that this year’s announcements have made clear.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- WWDC 2021 – Main page for Apple’s developer conference and a place to watch the keynote.
- Apple Developer – Apple’s official app supporting WWDC and other developer-facing services.
- Shortcuts for macOS – WWDC session about the new automation technology for Mac.
- Async/await – Swift Evolution document proposing the new coroutine functionality.
- “Freaking” Block Syntax – A site that famoulsy references the difficult to remember syntax for C Blocks.
- Crazy YOLO App Rewrite – Blog post from a former Uber developer about their experience rewriting the app in Swift.
- Xcode Cloud – Apple’s forthcoming continuous integration service.
- A Couple of Heads in the Xcode Cloud(s) – Scotty and John on the iDeveloper Podcast, talking about Xcode Cloud.
- Buddybuild – The remnants of Buddybuild, the service that Apple acquired a while back.
- GitHub Pricing – The high level price tiers for GitHub’s source hosting and CI services.
- Dark Sky Has a New Home – Last year’s blog post about Apple’s acquisition of the weather app/service.
- Slopes – Curtis Herbert’s skiing and snowboarding app.
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June 12, 2021 at 4:27 am.
Manton and Daniel respond to criticism about our opinions on the Apple vs. Epic case and Apple’s public testimony. They speculate more about WWDC, wondering about possible iPadOS improvements. Finally, they appreciate that Apple’s design award finalists includes Nova from Panic, a Mac app that is not available in the App Store.
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Daniel and Manton talk again about Apple’s testimony in the Epic lawsuit, and how it seems to be a PR disaster with respect to developers just before WWDC. They wonder how Apple can be so apparently dense about the optics of their actions, and question whether the company is more afraid of changes in the status quo than they are of losing developer enthusiasm.
No sponsor this week! Please consider sponsoring us, or asking your employer to do so.
Links:
- Alternative App Store Payments – iMore covers Tim Cook’s testimony asserting they would still be entitled to 30% of sales made directly by developers to customers.
- Is Tim Cook not aware… – Apple’s quip about the Mac platform being one example where they do not take 30% commission on all 3rd party sales.
- I’ll leave you with this – Manton’s final tweet before leaving the service in 2012.
- Microsoft Build – Microsoft’s developer conference, streaming live this week.
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Manton and Daniel take in Google’s announcements at Google I/O, and consider that some impressive tech may turn out to be relatively unimpressive in daily use. They compare Google to Apple and Microsoft with respect to making products that capitalize on the human desires instead of sheer technical prowess. They discuss the ongoing Epic vs. Apple trial and their relative lack of interest in it. Also, what is the true cost of WWDC for Apple? Is it a gift to developers or an important marketing function for the company?
No sponsor this week! Please consider sponsoring us, or asking your employer to do so.
Links:
- WWDC21 – Apple’s 2021 conference page.
- Google I/O 2021 – Google’s annual developer conference.
- Uncanny Valley – Wikipedia page on the widely-cited aesthetic metaphor.
- Announcing Material You – New developments in Google’s design standard.
- Microsoft Build – Microsoft’s developer conference, taking place next week.
- Christina Warren – Long-time friend of the show and current Microsoft Cloud advocate.
- $50 Million on WWDC – The Verge talks about revelations about WWDC spending coming from Phil Schiller’s testimony.
- Epic iPhone Testimony – The Verge article on Phil Schiller’s testimony including the “ruthlessly efficient” quip Manton mentioned.
- ATP 430 – Episode of the Accidental Tech Podcast in which Marco rants about Apple and Siracusa complains about executive email quality.
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As WWDC draws closer, Daniel and Manton wonder whether Apple will announce changes to further unify their multi-platform development proposition. Daniel talks about his impression of “catalystic” user interface, and they comisserate over the Apple’s apparent lack of focus. Manton talks about Micro.blog’s new “bookshelves” feature, and they discuss whether it’s an example of feature creep or an endearingly distinguishing feature.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- WWDC 2021 – Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference.
- Catalystic – Daniel’s post on Micro.blog about Catalyst UI.
- Bookshelves – New Micro.blog feature Manton is testing out.
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