Manton and Daniel talk about the upcoming GDPR regulations from the EU and what the implications may be for indie software companies. They react to the Pocket Casts acquisition by NPR and partners, assess the financial incentives that may be involved, and appreciate how it contrasts with Marco Arment’s open prioritization of privacy and openness with Overcast. Finally, they talk about Ghost’s 5 year review, evaluate their success, and maybe gripe a teensy bit about their lack of an API.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
- Hover: Find a Domain Name for Your Passion
Links:
Daniel and Manton talk about Google’s recently announced Duplex AI for telephone conversations, and Microsoft’s announcement that it will share a larger percentage of revenues with its app store developers. They consider the merits of each announcement and whether they might spark a competitive response in Apple. Daniel talks about how a small bug request turned into a major overhaul of image handling in MarsEdit, and how the investment may pay off if he ever ports to iOS.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
May 10, 2018 at 10:38 am.
Manton and Daniel catch up after Manton’s speaking experience at Peers Conference. They talk about preparation techniques for public speaking, and how to adapt your talk to the audience at hand. Next they discuss the latest rumors about Apple’s forthcoming declarative UI framework, and ponder how Apple would put such a framework through its paces internally without revealing it in shipping apps. They talk about whether Apple’s leadership can be trusted to drive the company to the next major frameworks transition, and finally they react to Apple’s latest eye-popping earnings report.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
Daniel and Manton talk about Manton’s surprise speaking gig at Peers Conf in Austin. They discuss the challenge and allure of finding niche markets for indie software, and wrap up with reflections on SmugMug’s acquisition of Flickr and what it might mean for the future of Tumblr.
Many thanks to our sponsor this week:
Links:
- PeersConf Austin – The conference at which Manton will surprisingly be speaking!
- @DazeEnd – Twitter account of Charles Perry, another speaker at Peers Conf.
- RelaNet – Web hosting and online service provider for accountants, founded by Charles Perry.
- Release Notes – Indie business podcast by Charles Perry and Joe Cieplinski.
- C4[0] Presenters – Link to the lineup of speakers at C4[0]
- @AaronHillegass – Founder of Big Nerd Ranch and speaker at C4[0]
- Big Nerd Ranch – Atlanta-based iOS, Mac, etc., consulting firm founded by Aaron Hillegass.
- Marco Arment – He’s just this guy we talk about a lot.
- Overcast – Marco’s iOS podcast client.
- Micro Monday – Micro.blog based podcast featuring members of the social network.
- SmugMug – The company that has acquired Flickr.
- The Future – Daniel’s blog post about Tumblr, Flickr, and the future.
- Pinboard Acquires Delicious – Deliciously acerbic announcement from Maciej Cegłowski of Pinboard.
- Upcoming – Another service once acquired by Yahoo!
- Waxy.org – Home page of Andy Baio, founder of Upcoming.org.
April 26, 2018 at 9:33 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about the public reaction to the Wavelength launch, and about Micro.blog’s new user onboarding experience, and the challenge in general of making product pages more inviting. They react to reports that HomePod sales have been disappointing, and about the ways in which it fails to exceed user expectations. Finally, they revisit their aesthetic preferences with semantic versioning, and talk about using the limited number of bug-fix version numbers as motivation to develop more features.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
- Hover: Find a Domain Name for Your Passion
Links:
- Wavelength for Micro.blog – Manton’s announcement of the new micro-podcasting iOS app for Micro.blog.
- Stumbling HomePod – Mark Gurman on the allegedly disappointing sales of Apple’s HomePod.
- Airpods – An Apple product that exceeds most users’ expectations.
- FastScripts 4.0.12 – Daniel’s unfortunately versioned bug fix update to his Mac script management utility.
- MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac blog editor, which is due for a 4.1 feature update.
- Dialog – An Android Micro.blog app currently under development.
April 18, 2018 at 10:52 am.
Daniel and Manton talk about Daniel’s somewhat-impulsive Black Ink beta release, and the merits of maintaining a diverse lineup of apps to provide varying technical challenges. They talk about the increasing challenge of attracting attention to indie software and other pursuits. Manton introduces Wavelength, a new Micro.blog app for creating micro-podcasts on iOS. Finally, Daniel talks about his recent rant about not being featured in the blogging section of the Mac App Store, and where that went.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
- Black Ink 2 Public Beta – Daniel announces a new beta release of his Mac-based crossword app.
- Clarion – Daniel’s music-interval quiz app, which has been around for 20+ years!
- Swift Integration Traps – Daniel’s blog post about issues with adopting Swift and supporting macOS system plugins.
- Rogue Amoeba – Canonical example of a company that iterates on one area of expertise over multiple apps.
- Micro.blog – Manton’s microblogging service.
- Stay Social – Cult of Mac post about leaving Facebook and Twitter, including a mention of Micro.blog.
- Sunlit – Micro.blog’s photo-blogging app.
- Micro Monday – Podcast about the Micro Monday effort to promote new microbloggers.
- Wavelength – New app from Micro.blog for creating short-form podcasts on iOS.
- #JustPlay – 30-day music playing challenge from Samuel Goodwin.
- Overcast – Popular iOS podcasting app.
- Castro – Popular iOS podcasting app.
- Apple Should Be Helping – Daniel rants about wanting more support from Apple in the Mac App Store.
- Brad Ellis – Designer of the MarsEdit 4 icon.
April 13, 2018 at 10:19 am.
Manton and Daniel react to Apple’s news release about expectations for the Mac Pro coming in 2019. They speculate about what could explain such a long delay, and Daniel devises a theory, or pipe dream, that the Mac Pro may be ARM-based. They also discuss Apple’s disclosure of a Pro Workflow Team comprised of creative professionals, and compare it to Apple’s apparent study of the needs of education professionals. Finally, an update from Daniel about MacBook Pro keyboard repairs, with a surprise twist!
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
- Shaped by Workflows – Matthew Panzarino of TechCrunch reports on his meeting with Apple about the Mac Pro.
- Logic Pro – Apple’s pro-audio production app for Mac.
- Final Cut Pro – Apple’s pro-video production app for Mac.
- Motion 5 – Apple’s animation tool for video professionals.
- Daring Fireball – John Gruber’s blog.
- Spending Tim Cook’s Money – Serenity Caldwell joins John Gruber to talk about the Apple Education event.
- Three Reasons – Stephen Hackett offers three reasons to buy the 2015 MacBook Pro … in 2018.
April 5, 2018 at 3:53 pm.
Daniel and Manton talk about Apple’s Chicago education event, and Apple’s challenge in breaking into the education market so dominated by Google. They scrutinize whether the special event was “event-worthy” or not. Daniel talks about his motivation problems with shipping MarsEdit updates, and complains again about App Store Review uncertainty. Finally, they talk about the challenge of knowing whether a product with lackluster success is on the brink of something great, or should be moved on from.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
- Hover: Find a Domain Name for Your Passion
- Udacity: Become an iOS Developer
Links:
March 30, 2018 at 1:47 pm.
Manton and Daniel talk about Daniel’s plans to speak at Swift by Northwest in October, and weighing the appropriateness of speaking at one type of conference or other. They explore the idea of buying ads or sponsorships for their own apps, and consider the relatively lower risk of sponsoring smaller podcasts/blogs/conferences. They stumble on some clarity of inspiration in appreciating two aspects of marketing a product: making the product great, and getting the attention of pertinent customers. Finally, they talk about the merits of investing in support infrastructure so that customers who do find your product feel welcomed and comfortable when using it.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
- Swift by Northwest – Portland-based iOS and Mac developer conference.
- NSConference – Erstwhile UK-based Mac and iOS conference.
- Refresh Austin – One of Manton’s 2017 speaking engagements.
- NextDoor – WWDC-adjacent developer conference from the folks who do Swift by Northwest.
- Exercising APIs – Daniel’s 2010 talk at WordCamp Boston.
- Appfigures – Sales and review tracking service for mobile developers.
- App Annie – Another sales and reviews service.
- Dash – Developer documentation assistant from Kapeli.
- 512pixels – Stephen Hackett’s blog.
March 23, 2018 at 3:23 pm.
Daniel and Manton talk about Apple’s announcement that WWDC is officially happening in San Jose again. Daniel struggles to make a financial case for attending, while Manton continues to believe it’s essential to at least be in town for a few days. They talk about the possibility that other conferences would be a better use of time and money. Finally, they indulge a little speculation about WWDC and whether the promo art ever hints at any of the actual news to be announced.
Many thanks to our sponsors this week:
Links:
- WWDC 2018 – Apple’s official conference site.
- Relay FM Live – The Relay podcast network’s special event at WWDC.
- AltConf 2018 – Free conference being held in parallel with WWDC in San Jose.
- Layers 2018 – Another parallel conference, dedicated to the intersection of design and technology.
- TekiCon – Atlanta-based iOS developer conference.
- PeersConf – Austin-based web development and business conference.
- SwiftFest – Boston-based Swift development conference.
- IndieWeb Summit – Portland-based IndieWebCamp event.
- WordCamp – WordPress-centered, low-cost un-conferences.
- San Antonio Spurs – Manton’s basketball team.
- Marzipan – Bloomberg article from December about rumored plans to unify Mac and iOS GUI development.
- UXKit – Article by Guilherme Rambo about using Apple’s private UXKit for Mac.
- UINavigationController – The key iOS class that Manton thinks should be adapted to Mac.
- NSBrowser – Old AppKit class that is vaguely comparable to UINavigationController.
- NSGridView – Newer AppKit class that presents a 2D arrangements of subviews.
March 15, 2018 at 11:55 am.
