Core Intuition

Manton and Daniel react to new rumors of Apple's "Siri Smart Speakers" standalone voice assistant. They follow up on the debate about Chromebooks vs. iPads in schools, Apple's ongoing development of Workflow, and changes in App Store commissions. Finally, they catch up on respective indie work progress and how easy it is to get thrown off course.

Daniel talks to Manton about his challenges with Micro.blog server problems, and his successful fulfillment of accounts to Kickstarter backers. Manton talks about his strategy for shutting down social media in the wake of stress, and taking time to recuperate. The two also talk about Microsoft's new Windows 10 S announcement and the apparent bleakness of Apple's chances in the school laptop market. Finally, they check in on WWDC plans and consider the absurdity of $40 box lunches.

Manton and Daniel talk about Manton's launch of Micro.blog to Kickstarter backers, then check in on Swift and the state of Developer Tools. Finally they talk about Apple's affiliate program cuts, and the merits of avoiding reliance on a single platform or marketplace for a living.

Daniel and Manton talk about Manton's impending rollout of Micro.blog to backers starting next week, and the merit of picking a specific launch date and sticking with it. They respond to a listener question about accounting practices, and discuss Apple's apparent decision to stop updating the Workflow app, and what it means for the future of such functionality on iOS.

Manton and Daniel react to Apple allegedly using private API from Clips, and what it means for their App Store Apps to enjoy special privileges. They talk about Daniel’s consideration of a freemium approach for the next major release of MarsEdit. Finally they examine Apple's new TestFlight features, speculate about the cause for a looming iTunes Connect shutdown, and follow up about the efficacy of responding to App Store reviews.

Daniel and Manton react to Apple’s surprisingly transparent "roundtable" meeting with several members of the press, and celebrate the many positive signals coming out of the event. They engage in a friendly debate about the likelihood that Mac users will defect to Windows. Finally, they talk about the merits of professional software, and the negative impacts that a poor market for such software may be having on iOS as a platform.

Manton and Daniel discuss the opening of the WWDC ticket lottery, and the correlated announcements about details of the WWDC Bash location, and Apple's promotion of 3rd party events happening in the orbit of the conference. Manton reflects on his new decision to say yes to public speaking, and Daniel takes stock of recent reading around a “Going Pro” mentality...

Daniel and Manton talk about Manton's decision to hire Jean MacDonald as Micro.blog's Community Manager, and the psychological effects of transitioning from a single to multi-person company. They also react to this week's Apple announcements, focusing mainly on Apple's new Clips app and how it relates to Apple's historic focus on facilitating user creativity.

Manton and Daniel discuss Apple's short-lived restrictions on editing App Store descriptions, weighing the merits of adding more semantic fields to App Store pages, and supporting a separate review process for metadata-only updates. They talk about Apple's rejection of apps using Rollout.io technologies, and larger risks of depending on any 3rd party binaries or open source...

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, they two look to Marco Arment as an example of repeatedly trying new ideas and iterating on the aspects that work.