Daniel releases Touché for Mac, and he and Manton discuss the value of making your own stuff to combat feelings of hopelessness with the world. They revisit Dash in light of its recent open-sourcing, and consider the timing and apparent quality of Apple’s self-appreciating, coffee-table art book.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
• Zendesk: Bring native, in-app support to your app.

Links:

• Touché – Daniel’s standalone Touch Bar utility for Mac.
• Dash-iOS – GitHub repository for iOS version of popular API reference browser.
• Kapeli – Developers of Dash.
• GPL FAQ – Answers to questions about GPL, the license Kapeli used for Dash-iOS.
• Designed by Apple… – Apple’s book, chronicling 20 years of design.
• Something Was Missing – Manton reacts to Apple’s design book announcement on his Timetable podcast.
• Forward Together – Tim Cook’s letter to Apple employees in wake of Election 2016.

Daniel and Manton react to US election news, coping with questions of the significance of our work, and how to motivate ourselves to move forward. They discuss a new subscription service, Setapp, which offers a subscription priced suite of 40+ apps. Finally, Daniel catches up with his progress on Touché, an app for simulating and taking screenshots of the Touch Bar.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Fabric, Twitter’s mobile SDK: Leverage the power of Crashlytics, Twitter and MoPub to help you build the best mobile apps.
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Netflix of Mac Apps – Article from TheNextWeb about Setapp subscription service.
• Setapp – Invitation request page for the new subscription service.
• MacPaw – Developers behind the Setapp service.
• Blogo – Competing app to Daniel’s MarsEdit, and part of the Setapp suite.
• Bodega – Twitter app of a defunct Mac software store.
• TouchBarDemoApp – Open source project providing a Touch Bar experience on Mac and iOS.
• Big Red Button – Daniel’s blog post about specifying custom sandbox entitlements.

Manton and Daniel check in with outrage over the MacBook Pro, dongle mania, and the viability of the Touch Bar as a Pro or ubiquitous UI interface. They catch up on their struggles to balance time commitments and to make progress on indie projects. Finally, they weigh the pros and cons of using consulting income to sustain indie pursuits, and talk about the diverse definitions of success for indie developers.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• PDFpenPro 8: Pro Tools for PDF.
• Zendesk: Bring native, in-app support to your app.

Links:

• The Escape Zone – Accidental Tech Podcast response to Apple’s special event.
• Design for the Present – Marco Arment argues that the new MacBooks should have an old USB port.
• Touch Bar Everywhere – Daniel interprets a great enthusiasm for the Touch Bar from Apple’s actions.

Daniel and Manton talk about the new MacBook Pros and Touch Bar, compare Apple’s approach to Microsoft’s, and appreciate the potential for Microsoft’s competition to inspire Apple. They talk about Touch Bar integration with Mac apps, and react to Apple TV enhancements.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• buddybuild: mobile continuous integration & delivery made easy!
• Fabric, Twitter’s mobile SDK: Leverage the power of Crashlytics, Twitter and MoPub to help you build the best mobile apps.

Links:

• Apple Special Event – Full video of the October 2016 Apple event.
• MacBook Pro – Product page for the new lineup of MacBook Pros.
• So Customizable – Neven Mrgan anticipates highly customizable Touch Bar support for Photoshop.
• Better on iPad Pro – Kirk Burgess reacts to DJ demo on MacBook Pro.
• Windows 10 Event – Video from the Microsoft Surface Studio event.
• Touch Bar Developer – Resource page for developers adding Touch Bar support to Mac apps.
• TV TV TV – Marco Arment’s quip about Apple TV’s TV app.
• Future of TV – Daniel’s quip about the TV app.
• Conspicuously Absent – John Gruber notices Netflix is not part of the TV app.

Manton and Daniel answer listener Q&A about the advantages of being an indie or small team. They react to news that Apple has scaled back its car plans, and speculate about CarPlay getting renewed focus for the company’s automotive ambitions. Finally, they look forward to new MacBooks being announced later this month, and imagine whether they will justify buying one or not.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Zendesk: Bring native, in-app support to your app.
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• Democracy is Messy – Story about President Obama’s excoriation of tech CEOs.
• MarsEdit – Daniel’s blog editing app for the Mac.
• Kicking Dirt – Ben Thompson joins John Gruber on The Talk Show.
• Revenue Per Employee – Business Insider story ranking some of the highest revenue tech companies.
• Buffer – Web app for automatically posting updates to social networks.
• Titanic Scale Back – Bloomberg story reporting on Apple’s diminished automotive ambitions.
• Tesla – Fancy electric car company.
• Automatic – Fancy dingus-for-your-car company.
• New Macs – Recode reports on allegedly imminent MacBook announcements.
• Pong – Classic video game that Daniel anticipates seeing on the MacBook keyboard display.

Daniel and Manton dive into Apple’s controversial suspension of Dash developer Kapeli’s App Store account, and respond to listener Q&A about whether non-sandboxed apps are at risk of removal from the Mac App Store.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
• Fabric, Twitter’s mobile SDK: Leverage the power of Crashlytics, Twitter and MoPub to help you build the best mobile apps.

Links:

• Dash – Documentation viewing app from Kapeli.
• Removed From the App Store – Kapeli’s post about Dash’s removal from the App Store.
• Kapeli’s Reputation – Manton’s post decrying Apple’s tarnishing of Kapeli’s reputation.
• Apple Responds – Jim Dalrymple with a prepared statement from Apple about the Dash situation.
• Daring Fireball – John Gruber follows up on Jim Dalrymple’s post.
• You Don’t Know Everything – Matt Drance implores people to take stock of their ignorance before condemning Kapeli.
• Solving for Dash – iMore’s Rene Ritchie implores Apple to take the high road and reinstate Kapeli’s account.
• A Test for Apple – Manton writes about how Apple and the community should move forward with respect to Dash.
• Bogdan’s Side of the Story – Kapeli’s Bogdan Popescu gives a few details and shares audio from Apple’s phone call to him.
• Bogdan’s Draft – The blog post that Bogdan proposed to Apple he would publish, at their request.
• Dear Dash Users – Kapeli seems to accept that Dash will not be reinstated to the App Stores.
• Clipstart – Manton’s video-management app for Mac.

Manton and Daniel discuss Manton’s experience at the Release Notes conference, talk about the rationale for supporting what might be considered edge-case behaviors in apps, and dig deeper into questions of freemium pricing, reflecting on the Omni Group’s pertinent announcements. Finally they talk briefly about Google’s latest announcements and what their competition means to Apple.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• TextExpander: Simply Indispensable.
• Indeed Prime: Let top tech companies apply to you.

Links:

• Release Notes – A conference about indie business.
• Michael Tsai – Mac programmer and blogger extraordinaire.
• Target the Forward Fringe – Daniel’s old blog post about satisfying bleeding-edge customers.
• MarsEdit – The venerable blog editor for Mac.
• The Best Possible App Store Experience – The Omni Group announces its new freemium approach to selling apps.
• #madebygoogle – Video from Google’s October 4 special event.
• Pixel Phone – Google’s newly announced iPhone phone.
• Five Things Apple Can Learn – Serenity Caldwell breaks down some cogent observations from the Google event.

Daniel and Manton talk about the Release Notes conference, which Manton is attending. They commiserate on the challenge of digging oneself out of software release rut, and take stock of the ups and downs each has had over the years. They talk about Twitter’s acquisition rumors, and ponder which acquirer would cause the best outcome for the company and its users. Finally, they talk about Daniel’s consideration of a hybrid subscription and flat-payment freemium approach to selling software, and the benefits and challenges therein.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Indeed Prime: Let top tech companies apply to you.
• Fabric, Twitter’s mobile SDK: Leverage the power of Crashlytics, Twitter and MoPub to help you build the best mobile apps.

Links:

• Release Notes Conference – Indianapolis based business dedicated to indie software business.
• Çingleton – Erstwhile Montréal based conference.
• Christina Warren – Release Notes speaker and long-time technology journalist.
• Simple Beep – A podcast about the history of the Apple community.
• Stephen Hackett – Co-founder of Relay FM.
• Brent Simmons – Long-time Mac developer and blogger.
• Sounded Like Nirvana – Supertop podcast interviews Brent Simmons.
• Lonely Sandwich – Home page of Adam Lisagor, the internet’s favorite pitch man.
• Salesforce – Potential Twitter acquirer.
• Quip – Example of a previous Salesforce acquisition.
• YouTube Red – A paid, ad-free YouTube experience.
• Subscription Pricing – Manton’s NSConference talk from 2014.

Manton and Daniel react to macOS Sierra, and enjoy a brief discussion about the user-facing presentation of file systems on macOS and iOS. They talk about Scott Stevenson’s “Thanks, Daniel” project, acknowledging the community contributions of Daniel Steinberg. Finally, they indulge in a little speculation about Apple’s car project, and the recent rumors of a related acquisition.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Fabric, Twitter’s mobile SDK: Leverage the power of Crashlytics, Twitter and MoPub to help you build the best mobile apps.
• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.

Links:

• macOS Sierra – Apple’s official macOS 12.0 page.
• macOS Sierra: The MacStories Review – By Alex Guyot.
• As Big as the Mountains – iMore review by Rene Ritchie.
• Motion – Apple’s video special effects app for Mac.
• ScanSnap Compatibility – Statement from Fujitsu about compatibility issues with ScanSnap on macOS Sierra.
• macOS 10.12 Sierra Notes – Round-up of impressions by Michael Tsai, including note about PDF issues that may be Apple’s fault.
• September – Reflections by Daniel Steinberg on the passing of his wife, Kimmy.
• Thanks, Daniel – Video project by Scott Stevenson expressing gratitude to Daniel Steinberg.
• McClaren Rumors – Apple reported in talks to acquire or partner with the British carmaker.
• McClaren Cars – Product page for the luxury British cars.
• Reliant Robin – A far less luxurious British car.
• Serious About Software – Reminiscence by Andy Hertzfeld of Alan Kay’s famous speech.
• Moving to Ireland – News story about Apple moving its Luxembourg-based holding company to Ireland.

Daniel and Manton talk about Daniel’s decision to buy an iPhone 7 after all, critique Apple’s decision to ship Jet Black phones in spite of their proneness to scratching, and question whether it’s worth shipping a product whose defects will garner ridicule. They talk about the new Messages features in iOS 10 and how well or poorly those features downgrade on other platforms. Finally, they talk about the presence of features (such as drawers in OS X) that stick around even though “everybody” knows not to use them.

Many thanks to our sponsors this week:

• Linode: Cloud Hosting for You.
• Bugsee: Free crash and bug reporting for iOS, with synchronized video, network and logs.

Links:

• iPhone 6 Trade-ups – Round up of US carriers offering generous trade-in valuations on iPhone 6 and 6S phones.
• 60% Charge Limit – News report about Samsung’s short-term fix for its exploding batteries.
• Iconfactory Stickers – The venerable icon design company debuted several new sticker packages for iOS 10.
• iOS 10 Review – Federico Viticci of Macstories tackles the release.
• Button-y Buttons – Direct link to the section of the review discussing buttons design changes in the OS.