Episode 562: AppKit Is Dying

Manton and Daniel talk about Apple’s new visionOS SDK, and debate the virtue of steering clear from “new shiny” technologies, vs. getting acquainted with them as soon as possible. How do we prioritize native platform development while maximizing the ability to deploy to all of Apple’s platforms? They talk about investing time into new platforms and frameworks when the investment will pay off, vs. when the work will be wasted on short-term workaround. When does it makes sense for a company to invest even a small amount of money in their competitors, like Automattic just did? Finally, they touch lightly on the possibility that Facebook will enter the ActivityPub realm, and the ridiculousness in general of NDAs.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:
  • Zig When Others Zag – Manton’s quip about focusing more on customers with $5 than with $3500.
  • Inside Macintosh – Wikipedia article about the old documentation books for MacOS development.
  • Automattic – The company behind WordPress.com and other products.
  • Matt Mullenweg – Founder of WordPress and Automattic.
  • Tumblr – Short-form blogging site that Automattic acquired.
  • Drupal – An open source web publishing framework.
  • Automattic Donates €20,000 – WP Tavern article about Automattic’s donation to the Drupal Gutenberg initiative.
  • Gutenberg – Home page for the WordPress Gutenberg editor.
  • Fedi Admins Meeting – Mastodon post by Michał “rysiek” Woźniak about Facebook’s effort to meet with ActivityPub admins.
  • Google’s Evil NDA – 2007 blog post by a developer who also had to sign an NDA in order to interview at Google.
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June 24, 2023 at 7:07 pm.

Episode 561: Autocorrect Is Great

Daniel and Manton follow up on other news from WWDC. They consider Apple’s autocomplete advances, and question whether this kind of “AI” can fill the gap between Apple’s state-of-the-art and technologies like ChatGPT. They lament the lack of announcements about improvements to Siri, and wonder whether they should “tear it down and start over.” They talk about the new Swift Macros technology, and whether the utility of such a feature outweighs the added complexity. Finally, they gauge the overall success of this year’s WWDC.

Links:

  • The Talk Show Live – John Gruber interviews Craig Federighi, Mike Rockwell, John Ternus, and Greg Joswiak.
  • GitHub Copilot – AI-based coding assistant that does not integrate with Xcode.
  • ChatGPT – Do we really need a link to this? 😂
  • UTM – Free, open source virtual machine hosting app for Mac.
  • Sourcery – Long-time open source project providing macro-like code generation for Swift.
  • DayOne – Popular Mac and iOS journaling app.

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June 16, 2023 at 7:13 pm.

Episode 560: Something Wrong About This Product

WWDC 2023 recap, with an emphasize on the Apple Vision Pro. Manton’s road trip to Colorado instead of Cupertino. Daniel and Manton discuss whether Apple missed the AI bandwagon, and they try to predict the technical future of the headset.

Download (MP3, 34 minutes)

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

  • RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!

Links:

June 7, 2023 at 9:26 pm.

Episode 559: I’m A Little Jealous

Manton and Daniel recap Micro Camp 2023 and look forward to WWDC, including events from John Gruber and try! Swift. Then they wrap up with how Daniel’s 50%-off sale for MarsEdit went.

Download Audio (MP3, 24 minutes)

Links:

  • Micro Camp — Online conferences for the Micro.blog community.
  • Fediforum — Unconference event for fediverse developers where Manton demoed Micro.blog.
  • WordCamp US 2023 — Yearly national conference for the WordPress community.
  • The Talk Show Live — Tickets for WWDC-adjacent live event with John Gruber.
  • try! Swift — Online conference with lightning talks the week of WWDC.
  • MarsEdit — Daniel’s blog editor for macOS.
  • Summer of blogging — Micro.blog is only $1/month this summer.

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May 24, 2023 at 8:41 pm.

Episode 558: We Will Be Paying Attention

Manton and Daniel talk more about Micro Camp, which will feature a conversation with Om Malik. They talk more about WWDC, Apple headset rumors, and our assumption that they won’t be interesting to us. Finally, they appreciate that it’s been 10 years since Google Glass debuted, and lament how little things have evolved.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

  • RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!
Links:
  • Micro Camp – Manton’s Micro-blog oriented virtual gathering.
  • Om Malik – Writer, photographer, and investor who will be part of Micro Camp.
  • Accidental Tech Podcast – A podcast featuring three of our friends.
  • Dithering – A podcast featuring two of our other friends.
  • Humane – Startup company working on an innovative computing device.
  • Apple Presents iPod – Press release from 2001.
  • Google Glass – Home page for Google’s defunct, ten-year old wearable computer.
  • Trapped in the Metaverse – Joanna Stern’s Wall Street Journal feature about spending 24 hours in VR.
  • Everything We Know – The Verge’s rundown on all the rumors around Apple’s alleged VR headset.
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May 18, 2023 at 8:53 pm.

Episode 557: So Easy to Predict

Daniel and Manton talk about the Micro.camp conference happening next week. They summarize some of the planned talks, and weight the pros and cons of deciding to have it be an all-online event. They react to the iPad Pro versions of Logic and Final Cut, and imagine what the news might mean for WWDC announcements.

Links:

  • Micro.camp Presenters – An early peek at what to expect from the conference.
  • IndieWebCamp – Similar event to Micro.camp but for the larger world of open web interests.
  • MarsEdit – Daniel’s Mac-based blog editing app.
  • Miraz Jordan – Long-time MarsEdit user who will be presenting on the subject at Micro.camp.
  • Ulysses – Mac and iOS editing app with Micro.blog integration.
  • iA Writer – Another Mac and iOS app with Micro.blog integration.
  • WWDC23 – Apple’s official page for the upcoming event.
  • Drupe on Wikipedia – More than you ever wanted to know about stone fruits.
  • ChatGPT – The preeminent interactive AI product.
  • Logic and FinalCut for iPad – Press release from Apple.
  • Chockablock – Gruber’s reaction to Final Cut and Logic for iPad: expect a lot from WWDC.
  • Micro.camp Registration – Sign up for the all-virtual conference – it’s free!

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May 12, 2023 at 9:04 pm.

Episode 556: Never Exceed Expectations

Daniel and Manton react to Apple Store employees asking for tips. They wonder if Square-style kiosks are making tipping more widely expected, even where it doesn’t really belong. Daniel’s enthusiasm for ChatGPT wanes, contrasting with Manton’s increased usage of it. They talk about the value of products originating from authentic human creativity, the huge pressure on Apple to offer something for AI integration in Xcode, and the potential for AI to shake up the status quo of winners and losers in tech.

Download (MP3, 47 minutes)

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

  • RevenueCat: In-app subscriptions made easy. Also check out the Sub Club Podcast!

Links:

May 7, 2023 at 4:47 pm.

Episode 555: If I Were To Bet

Daniel and Manton talk about Bluesky. In the context of Nostr, what is the merit of social norms, and how has the meaning of phrases like “anti-censorship” and “fake news” changed because of social networks.

Download (MP3, 30 minutes)

Links:

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April 30, 2023 at 1:49 am.

Episode 554: Get Yourself Into a Pickle

Manton asks Daniel about MarsEdit 5.1’s progress, particular about the forthcoming ability to post to Mastodon. They talk about some shortcomings of Mastodon’s API, and Daniel’s effort to submit a pull request that remedies one such shortcoming. Finally, they talk about Manton’s resistance to considering Mastodon a “real blogging platform”, itemize the features that prevent it from being one, and wonder about how it might evolve in the future.

Many thanks to our sponsor this week:

Links:

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April 21, 2023 at 3:59 pm.

Episode 553: I Didn’t Like You Anyway

Daniel and Manton check in about the status of their WWDC 2023 applications, and talk about the virtue of attending WWDC, even if it’s different than it used to be. Manton shares a new Twitter import feature for Micro.blog, which Daniel particularly enjoys.

Links:

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April 14, 2023 at 6:46 pm.