Daniel and Manton talk about Daniel’s struggle to finish and release MarsEdit 4. They compare notes about using the WordPress API to import content, and Manton reveals he is working on a Mac app for Micro.blog. They check in about the impact that increasing competition, or perception of it, on their long-time friendship and collaboration.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

PDFpen Family: New PDFpen 3 for iOS!

Links:

• MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac-based blog editing app.
• Vapor – A popular Swift-based web framework.
• Timetable – Manton’s microcast.
• WordCamp – Worldwide collection of WordPress-oriented conferences.
• Micro.blog – Manton’s, ahem, microblogging site and service.
• WPEngine – Popular WordPress hosting service.
• Release Notes – Indie development conference coming to Chicago on October 16.

Manton and Daniel react to Twitter’s testing of longer, 280-character tweets. They discuss the merits of longer micro-posts, Twitter’s product evolution priorities, and the appropriateness of offering the functionality to only a subset of customers, and much, much more.

This week’s show is unsponsored. Please consider sponsoring Core Intuition.

Links:

• Can’t Fit Your Tweet? – Twitter announcement of the new longer-tweets test.
• More Characters – Longer Medium post about the changes at Twitter.
• Instagram – The world’s most popular square photos.
• Plain Text Attachments – John Gruber suggests that instead of longer posts, Twitter should support text media attachments.

Daniel and Manton talk more about Apple’s new product lineup, and the difficulty of choosing which products to buy, if any. They speculate more about the merits of cellular usefulness on Apple Watch, and compare the iPhone X with the also-great iPhone 8. They also talk about new macOS and staying up to date with latest developer tools. Finally, they touch on the difficulty of making product decisions that even a small percentage of customers will be upset by.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
• Digimarc: The best mobile scanning solution today. The only solution for tomorrow.

Links:

• Don’t Make Me Think – Steve Krug’s classic book about preventing users from having to make choices.
• Missed Connections – Video review of the Apple Watch Series 3 from The Verge.
• Independence – John Gruber’s review of the Apple Watch Series 3.
• Prepare for APFS – Apple’s support document about the new filesystem.
• Tweet Library – The favorite Twitter app of some 100 active monthly users.

Manton and Daniel react to the announcement at Apple’s annual iPhone event, comparing notes on the allure of the iPhone X, Apple Watch 3, and new Apple TV. They talk about the impressiveness of all the significant product updates being made in parallel, and lament the slightly confusing state it leaves the high end iPhone market in.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Carbon Copy Cloner: Don’t let disk failure be a showstopper – make your bootable backup today!
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Say Hello to the Future – Apple’s marketing page for the iPhone X.
• iPhone 8 – The best iPhone money can buy … for the next few weeks.
• X Man – John Gruber’s arguments ahead of the event that iPhone X should be pronounced “Ex”.
• Here’s What I Think… – Dan Counsell also predicted an “Ex” pronunciation.
• iOS 11 – Coming September 19th.
• Fall 2017 Videos – Substantial release of new instructional videos from Apple.
• Apple Watch Series 3 – Now featuring an option for LTE connection direct to the watch.
• Schlitterbahn – Texas-based water park and a good place to hunt for Manton’s wallet.
• MSN TV – Wikipedia page about MSN TV, which was WebTV before Microsoft acquired it.

Daniel and Manton follow up briefly on Manton’s backup strategy, and catch up with Daniel’s progress with MarsEdit. They talk about the merits of using cryptographic signing for software licenses, and balance the risks and rewards of combatting piracy. Daniel talks about the recurring lure of taking a salaried job, and how the privileges of staying indie continue to win out. Finally, they look forward to next week’s iPhone event and the expected hardware announcements from Apple.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Tuparev Technologies: Make your apps accessible!
• PDFpen Family: Edit PDFs like a Pro.

Links:

• Dropbox – A major component of Manton’s backup strategy.
• Drobo – Local hard drive backup option.
• Arq – Mac and Windows desktop backup solution.
• Amazon CloudDrive – Article about the end of Amazon’s unlimited cloud storage service.
• Whole Foods – The American supermarket chain that Amazon recently acquired.
• GitHub – Git hosting service that doubles as a redundant backup for Manton’s source code.
• Motivation – Daniel’s tweet lamenting the impact of learning how much peers are paid.
• Miss Being Indie – Bill Dudney replies to Daniel’s Twitter quip.
• Teachers or Journalists – Jon Seff reminds Daniel that many others live differently from high paid tech workers.
• Your Voice & Work – Anil Dash on the importance of indie software developers to society.
• Making the Wrong Choices – Axel Schlueter offers a dissenting point of view.
• Secret Workout Facility – Apple shares details about its extensive on-site research into employee workouts.

Manton and Daniel react to Chris Lattner’s move to Google Brain, and whether it affects his continued involvement with the Swift project. They also talk about news divulging Apple’s focus on self-driving technology research for project Titan. Finally, they follow up on the subscription software conversation, and discuss Crashplan’s announced shutdown of their consumer backup service.

This episode is unsponsored. Consider sponsoring a future episode!

Links:

• Lattner Goes to Google – TechCrunch article about Chris Lattner’s new role on the Google Brain team.
• Google Brain – Home page for the team, including links to papers reflecting their research.
• Concurrency in Swift – Chris Lattner’s latest high-level technology proposal for the Swift language.
• Apple Scales Back – NYT article about Apple’s new focus on self-driving technology.
• Amazon Kindle – A great product 10 years in the making.
• Nissan Leaf – Slightly more affordable than a Tesla.
• Important Changes to Crashplan – Announcement of the end of Crashplan’s consumer-level backup service.
• I Would Have Paid – Charles Perry on the Crashplan service cancellation.
• Release Notes Podcast – Indie podcast hosted by Charles Perry and Joe Cieplinski
• So Now What? – Joe Kissell of TidBITS reacts to CrashPlan news.
• You’re Out of Luck – Michael Tsai’s commentary and roundup of links on CrashPlan news.

Daniel and Manton react to the Ulyssess text editor’s switch to subscription pricing, and debate whether users expect subscription software to require obvious ongoing developer investment. They also compare notes as they look toward finishing up on summer goals, and tacking all the “little things” that get in the way of completing a project.

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:

• Ulysses Switches to Subscription – Blog post from the developers announcing the change.
• TextExpander – Mac based keyboard expansion tool that went subscription last year.
• Sketch – Mac design app with an annual payment approach.
• Scrivener – Mac and iOS writing app that is committed to remaining subscription-free.
• Setapp – Mac subscription service providing access to many apps for a set price.
• An Upwards Trend – Numbers from Dan Counsell reflecting his experience as a developer participating in Setapp.
• Screens – Mac based screensharing app that is also part of Setapp.
• help.micro.blog – Manton’s Jekyll-based FAQ for Micro.blog.
• Micro.blog App – Now available in the iOS App Store.

Daniel and Manton are finally both at home again. Well, sort of. They compare notes about time spent working on JavaScript-based text editors, and the challenge of supporting two high level modes in an app. They talk about the new “Freelance” channel on the Core Intuition Slack, and reflect on the allure of and challenges of balancing freelance work with full-time indie ambitions.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Markdown – Text-based HTML generator for the web.
• TinyMCE – Open-source, rich text HTML editor.
• Ulyssess – Popular Mac and iOS writing app.
• Editorial – iOS editing app that Manton uses.
• Scotty – Friend of the Mac and iOS community, and suggester of #freelance Slack channel.
• Core Intuition Slack – Join the conversation.
• WeWork – Manton’s coworking space.

Daniel catches up with Manton in Santa Fe, NM, on his way home from buying a used Volvo in Seattle. They chat about Micro.blog’s slowly expanding user base, the difficulty of working on the road, and options for crossposting from various services to and from Micro.blog.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• TextExpander: The Productivity Multiplier.

Links:

• James Kim Family – Story of a family that was misrouted by navigation to a deadly fate.
• Micro.blog – Manton’s short-form blogging platform.
• Wilco – A rock band with a diverse fan base.
• Instagram API – Media endpoints for the API with notably lacking ability to upload new photos.
• Micro.blog photos from MarsEdit – Manton’s post about the enhancment of Micro.blog to support the MetaWeblog API.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s blog-editing app for the Mac.
• Micropub – An open API for publishing blog content.
• OwnYourGram – Cross-posting service for content published to Instagram.
• Connecting with Instagram – Micro.blog help article about autoposting Instagram content.

Manton catches up with Daniel, who is traveling in Santa Cruz. They talk about Daniel’s determination to push through on MarsEdit release plans in the face of enviable releases from other developers. They discuss Apple’s new Machine Learning blog, and fantasize about other technical “journals” emerging from other groups. Finally, they acknowledge the imminent shutdown of the Core Intuition job board, and relate it to the more general difficulty of killing off apps and other projects.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
• Digimarc: The best mobile scanning solution today. The only solution for tomorrow.

Links:

• Transmit 5 – Panic’s file transfer app for Mac.
• Machine Learning Journal – Apple’s new semi-academic blog about machine learning technology.
• Jekyll – Open source static site publishing tool.
• Swift Blog – Another public-facing technical blog from Apple.
• Develop Magazine – Article archives for Apple’s traditional MacOS developer magazine.
• Guides and Sample Code – The closest we could get to a direct link to Sample Code.
• Core Intuition Jobs Shutting Down – Manton writes about the rationale for shutting down the jobs board.
• Clarion – Daniel’s beloved music interval training app for Mac.
• Clipstart – Manton’s movie management app for Mac.
• Tweet Library – Manton’s Twitter client for iOS that shouldn’t be updated for 64-bit support.