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.

Manton catches Daniel up on Micro.blog process, while Daniel bemoans a loss of motivation and focus in recent months. They discuss strategies for increasing productivity through personal rules and changes of habit. Finally, they reflect upon the news that WWDC will return to San Jose, compare notes on plans to attend, and wonder about US border policy’s potential impact on international attendance to the conference.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• TextExpander for Teams: The Productivity Multiplier.

Links:

• New Schedule for Usernames – Manton’s latest Micro.blog campaign update.
• OmniFocus – Personal productivity app from The Omni Group.
• SelfControl – Open source time management utility for blocking access to distracting websites.
• WWDC17 – Announcement from Apple about this year’s developer conference.
• Moof Braü – Flickr photos of the Moof-branded beer that Apple may have offered to an underage Manton.
• OS 9 Is Dead – Macworld coverage of WWDC 2002’s mock funeral for the classic Mac OS.
• Jamba Juice – Popular California-based juice chain whose smoothies were once featured at WWDC.
• C4 – Wolf Rentzsch’s developer conference, which famously revived the Jamba Juice tradition.
• Erik’s DeliCafé – California sandwich chain that once operated a location at the 1 Infinite Loop campus.

Daniel and Manton react to the promo trailer for Planet of the Apps, and discuss whether it lives up to Apple’s name. They compare the show with other reality television such as the Great British Baking Show and Project Runway. Then they revisit the Siri/Alexa comparisons in response to Eddy Cue’s recent comments on the subject, and debate the wisdom or foolishness of Apple’s conservative approach with SiriKit intents.

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:

• Planet of the Apps – Apple-backed reality show about “app development.”
• Motorola ROKR – Video of Steve Jobs presenting the iTunes/Motorola phone.
• Great British Baking Show – The PBS rebroadcast of the Great British Bake Off.
• Project Runway – Popular American fashion design competition show.
• Gary Vaynerchuk – Motivational entrepreneur and judge on Planet of the Apps.
• Dan Bricklin – Co-creator of VisiCalc.
• Mitch Kapor – Founder of Lotus.
• Jean-Louis Gasee – Medium blog of the former Apple CEO.
• Dave Winer – Inventor of RSS.
• Marissa Mayer – CEO of Yahoo!
• Bozoma St. John – Apple Music’s head diva of global consumer marketing.
• Eddy Cue and Ben Silverman – Interview at Code Media 2017.
• Starbucks Reorder – Alexa skill for automating Starbucks orders.
• SiriKit – Apple documentation for Siri’s comparatively more constrained developer API.
• TwIM Review – John Voorhees of Macstories reviews a SiriKit based Twitter messaging app.

Manton and Daniel talk about MarsEdit’s selection by The Sweet Setup as the “Best Mac WordPress Client,” and reflect on the psychological boost of having one’s work appreciated. They talk about the potential upside to Mac development and the privilege of having a head-start as long-time Mac programmers. Finally they discuss rumors of Apple’s “Spaceship” office building and what the office layout is rumored to be.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Best WordPress Client – Stephen Hackett writes about MarsEdit on The Sweet Setup.
• @ismh – Stephen Hackett on Twitter.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s blog editing app for the Mac.
• Inessential – Blog of Brent Simmons, original developer of MarsEdit.
• Future of Computing – Marco’s piece from last week about Mac’s possibly bright future.
• Channeling Steve Jobs – Julia Love writes about Apple’s forthcoming “Spaceship” campus.
• Which Is It? – John Gruber contrasts claims from Julia Love’s article with earlier claims by Mark Gurman.
• We Work Austin – Manton’s part-time co-working space.
• University of Texas at Austin – Manton’s alma mater.
• The Joel Test – Classic blog post from Joel Spolsky about optimizing work environments.
• Presentable #17 – Episode of Jeff Veen’s product development and design podcast on Relay.
• Typekit – Internet font service now owned by Adobe.

Daniel and Manton reflect on Manton’s successful Kickstarter, and talk about how he’s planning to move forward. They also react to Apple’s earnings, and consider the implications for Mac, iPad, Services, etc. in the future.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• TextExpander for Teams: The Productivity Multiplier

Links:

• Indie Microblogging – Manton’s successfully funded Kickstarter project.
• Pitching In… – DreamHost blog entry about their choice to support Manton’s Micro.blog.
• Record First Quarter Earnings – Official earnings PR from Apple.
• iPad Still Struggles – Jason Snell of Six Colors responds to earnings in Macworld.
• The Future of Computing – Marco Arment reacts to earnings with a proposal that Mac is possibly “the future.”
• Cooling iPad Sales – John Gruber observes that Macs getting smaller, while iPhones get bigger, may squeeze iPad utility.

Manton closes in on the last week of his Kickstarter, and Daniel catches up on his progress. They discuss new beta updates from Apple for both Mac and iOS. They react to Apple’s forthcoming review prompting system for iOS, and the ability for developers to respond to reviews on both Mac and iOS. Finally, they debate the merits of Siri vs. Alexa on grounds of reliability and viability as an international, long-term success.

This week’s show is unsponsored. Please consider posting a job, or looking for your next hire on Core Intuition Jobs: Connecting Cocoa developers with their next dream job.

Links:

• iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.12.4 – Ars Technica runs down the list of changes in the forthcoming OS releases.
• Indie Microblogging – Manton’s Kickstarter.
• requestReview() API – Documentation added to iOS 10.3 SDK.
• Apple Explains… – Jim Dalrymple summarizes his impressions of the new review behavior, after a briefing from Apple.
• Additional Details… – John Gruber follows up with some additional tidbits gleaned from his own briefing.
• appFigures – A service for easily searching and monitoring app reviews (among other things).
• f.lux – Third-party screen color adjustment utility, similar to Apple’s Night Shift feature.

Daniel asks Manton about his Kickstarter progress, two weeks in. Manton talks about marketing for the Kickstarter, how many people watch the video, and how to transition from marketing the passionate philosophical backers, to making a case for the sheer utility of the product. They talk about modern advertising technology that allows hyper-focused delivery, and follow up on Chris Lattner’s departure from Apple, and the exciting opportunities he will likely have at Tesla.

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:

• try! Swift NYC – Developer conference whose 2016 event featured a magician.
• Safe Replies – Manton’s new feature and stretch goal for Indie.blog
• App.net is Shutting Down – Announcement from Dalton Caldwell and Bryan Berg.
• Twitter Ads – Advertiser-oriented information about the Twitter ad offering.
• Withheld Tweets – Twitter documentation on a feature that can be used to for example block neo-nazi propaganda in Germany.
• Swish on App Store – Daniel’s only iOS app.
• App Store Search Ads – David and Marco take on the topic on Under the Radar.
• Nothing to do With Openness – Chris Lattner responds to allegations he left Apple because of their culture of secrecy.
• Tesla Irresistible – Chris Lattner shares thoughts on Tesla with MacRumors.
• You’re Only Stable When You’re Dead – ATP discusses Lattner’s departure from Apple.
• SpaceX Nails Rocket Landing – CNN report on the successful SpaceX launch last week.
• People Don’t Use the Weird Parts – Published after we recorded, ATP interviews Chris Lattner.

Manton and Daniel react to Chris Lattner’s departure from Apple to Tesla. They ponder the consequences to Apple of having open-sourced Swift, and how important it was for Lattner to see it done before he left. They indulge in imagining what Apple might have offered to try to keep him, and how Elon Musk may have pitched him to leave. Finally, the two react to Medium’s layoff announcement, and hints of a new business model for the company.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Swift Project Lead – Chris Lattner announces that he will be leaving Apple at the end of January.
• Welcome Chris Lattner – Tesla announces Lattner’s joining the company head of their Autopilot engineering team.
• Last to Know – Tanya Lattner quips about her husband’s career change.
• Renewing Medium’s Focus – Ev Williams announces Medium’s layoffs and forthcoming change of business model.
• It’s So Obvious – 2011 announcement of Obvious Corporation re-founding by Biz Stone and Evan Williams.
• Medium May Not Last – Manton reacts to the Medium news.
• A WordPress-like Approach – Daniel quips that Medium could look to Automattic’s business model for inspiration.
• Other People’s Highlights – John Gruber gripes about Medium’s annotation feature.
• Centralized Websites – Manton’s reaction to an Ev Williams interview in which he predicts the end of “individual websites.”
• Cool Idea – WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg tweets a kind link to Manton’s Kickstarter.

Daniel and Manton celebrate Manton’s successful Kickstarter debut, speculate as to whether he should have offered higher pledge levels, and consider the benefits and challenges of receiving feedback from potential customers who don’t understand your product yet. They close the show by discussing the value of taking time to promote your work and get to know people face to face in user groups and other social settings.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• PDF Power with the PDFpen Family.
• Stay up-to-date with the newest software development practices and attend 60+ mobile development learning sessions.

Links:

• Timetable – Manton’s short-format indie “microcast.”
• Indie Microblogging – Manton’s successful Kickstarter campaign.
• Micro.blog – The microblogging service Manton is launching soon.
• I’ve Left Twitter – Lindy West’s article about leaving Twitter because of its low community standards.
• The Crazy Ones – Jason Kottke pitches readers to support him at varying monetary ranges.
• Typed.com Campaign – IndieGoGo pitch from Dan Counsell which yielded $120K.
• 512 Pixels – Stephen Hackett blog on which Manton purchased a Micro.blog sponsorship.
• Austin WordPress Meetup – Manton’s local opportunity to meet with other blogging nerds.
• How I Built This – NPR podcast featuring an interview with children’s toy makers “Melissa & Doug.”
• IndieWebCamp – People-powered campaign to promote individual-owned web content.

Manton and Daniel talk more about the forthcoming Setapp Mac software subscription service, and compare notes on ambitions for major software software releases they plan to make in early 2017.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Setapp – Forthcoming subscription software service for the Mac.
• CodeRunner – Mac text editor with support for executing code directly.
• Screens – Edovia’s screen sharing app for Mac.
• RapidWeaver – Realmac’s Mac web design app.
• Oleksandr Kosovan – Release Notes podcast interview with the CEO of MacPaw, the company behind Setapp.
• Not Just A Normal Day – Our previous episode in which we discussed Setapp.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s blog editing app for the Mac, which may see a major update in early 2017.
• Micro.blog – Manton’s forthcoming microblogging service.