Release Notes

It’s a new year, and with that comes new goals. Today we talk to Joe about his plans for 2021, and what he hopes to achieve with his contracting business, his app business, and his personal financial life. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Codakuma, creator of Personal Best. Personal Best is the ultimate fitness companion for iPhone. It works in unison with Apple Health to bring your workouts to life, with leaderboards, interesting statistics and more. Best of all, Persoanal Best takes your privacy seriously. Your data stays safely on your phone and in your HealthKit database, not on some random third party’s servers. Learn more about Personal Best at codakuma.com. Thanks to Balsamiq for donating this sponsorship to our listener community. To get a promo to try Balsamiq for free, visit balsamiq.com/go/release-notes.

Today we continue our look back at 2020 and the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. In this episode we talk to Charles about his goals for 2020 and see how he fared with onboarding, revenue, and more. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Release Notes #347: It’s Not Going to be a Coffee Shop – Joe sets his goals for 2020 Release Notes #348: Kinda Like Diffusing a Bomb – Charles sets his goals for 2020 Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by ShapeGo, the word cloud app designed for marketers, teachers and creative writers. ShapeGo uses NLP technologies to isolate relevant words in a body of text and creates a word cloud that can be bounded to custom shapes. And of course you can export your word cloud to image formats like PDF, PNG, and Photoshop. Try ShapeGo for free by downloading it from the App Store, or learn more on its website at https://www.libeapps.com/shapego/. Thanks to Balsamiq for donating this sponsorship to our listener community. To get a promo to try Balsamiq for free, visit balsamiq.com/go/release-notes.

Today we begin our look back at 2020 and the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of the year. In this episode we talk to Joe about his goals for 2020 and see how much the ongoing global pandemic affected his plans. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Release Notes #347: It’s Not Going to be a Coffee Shop – Joe sets his goals for 2020 Release Notes #348: Kinda Like Diffusing a Bomb – Charles sets his goals for 2020 Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by NotePlan, a native, calendar-driven Mac & iOS note-taking app with backlinking support and tasks. NotePlan runs on top of Markdown files, making your data future-proof and highly portable. And NotePlan’s beautiful interface is highly integrated with iCal and Reminders, so you have everything you need in one window. To learn more about NotePlan, visit noteplan.co. Thanks to Balsamiq for donating this sponsorship to our listener community. To get a promo to try Balsamiq for free, visit balsamiq.com/go/release-notes.

Today we conclude our conversation with Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGrovy (SMUG), makers of Capo, an app that helps you learn to play music. Today we discuss how Chris reaches Capo’s target market to let them know about the app, why he intentionally chose an annual subscription for Capo (rather than monthly or weekly), and the mechanics of how freemium is implemented in Capo. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links SuperMegaUltraGroovy – Chris Liscio’s company that builds Capo @liscio – Chris’ home on Twitter Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Lickability, a software studio in New York City that’s made apps for companies like The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Citizen, Houseparty, Jet, and many more. Lickability also has its own apps, like Buildwatch that lets iOS developers track their Xcode build time. You can purchase a copy at buildwatch.app. Learn more about Lickability, their services, and all their other apps at lickability.net. Thanks to Balsamiq for donating this sponsorship to our listener community. To get a promo to try Balsamiq for free, visit balsamiq.com/go/release-notes.

Today we continue our conversation with Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGrovy (SMUG), makers of Capo, an app that helps you learn to play music. In this episode Chris tells us about the details of transitioning Capo to a subscription model over a period of three years. Chris shares why he didn’t advertise this change to subscriptions, his philosophy on how to handle legacy paid-up-front customers, and why this transition took three years. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links SuperMegaUltraGroovy – Chris Liscio’s company that builds Capo @liscio – Chris’ home on Twitter Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Balsamiq, makers of Balsamiq Wireframes, everyone’s favorite low-fidelity wireframing tool. Balsamiq is as easy as using Powerpoint. Simply drag and drop elements on the page and you’ll have the screens for your app designed in no time. Visit Balsamiq at balsamiq.com/go/release-notes/ and use the promo code RELEASENOTES to get 90 days of Balsamiq Cloud absolutely free.

Today we talk with Chris Liscio of SuperMegaUltraGrovy (SMUG), makers of Capo, an app that helps you learn to play music. Today we start a discussion that has been three years in the making about SMUG’s different approach to transitioning to subscriptions. In this episode, we open our discussion with a little bit of background: What Capo is, how machine learning is used to detect chords within Capo, and Chris’ development process. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links SuperMegaUltraGroovy – Chris Liscio’s company that builds Capo @liscio – Chris’ home on Twitter Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today Charles gives an update on the development of some new features that he’s hired a contractor to complete. In particular, we talk about a schedule that has slipped, a looming deadline, and the dangers of selling features that don’t yet exist. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we discuss a change that many thought would never come. Apple is reducing its commission for small businesses on the App Store. We talk about what’s been announced, what is still unclear, and what this means for the thousands of small developers that will be affected by this policy change. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Guildflow. Guildflow is the new privacy-focused platform for managing your meetup and its membership. Think Meetup.com, but you own your data. If you want to learn how you can take back control of your meetup and its information, check out Guildflow at Guildflow.com.

Today we talk about hodgepodge of topics. Charles closes a sale after months of follow-up, Joe orders a new ARM powered MacBook Pro, and we both consider our workplace setups as we contemplate re-entering pandemic lockdown. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we talk to Joe about a situation he ran into on his current contracting job. It’s the story of a crash-on-launch bug that got caught in QA, and how they fixed it while balancing competing priorities with limited resources. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we talk about being flexible with clients. How willing should you be to accommodate client requests that are unreasonable, or maybe just beyond the scope of work? When should you take the short-term loss for the long-term gain? Where do you draw the line? Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Guildflow. Guildflow is the new privacy-focused platform for managing your meetup and its membership. Think Meetup.com, but you own your data. If you want to learn how you can take back control of your meetup and its information, check out Guildflow at Guildflow.com.

Today Charles and Joe share their recent woes, both revolving around slowness. Joe’s new RECaf beta had some problems being killed on launch by the watchdog, and Charles’ web server was brought to its knees by a bunch of 31773 haxors. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we discuss the recent Apple event. We talk about the new HomePod mini, as well as all the new iPhones, including the iPhone 12 mini. The mini is the form factor that Charles and Joe have been waiting on for years. We talk about why Joe is getting an iPhone 12 mini, and why Charles might not. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we talk about a hodge-podge of topics. We talk about the wisdom of tweeting about customers (even in a non-identifying way), Charles’ first attempt at advertising in a newsletter, and Joe’s experience syncing data between iPhone and Apple Watch with iCloud and Core Data. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we catch up with Charles about what’s going on with RelaNet, and his quest to incorporate knowledge-based authentication into RelaNet’s e-signature solution. We talk about third-party API providers, the requirement that Charles acquire a commercially zoned street address for his business, and a few strategies for monetizing this new feature once it’s ready. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we catch up with Joe about his app RECaf. We talk about what he’s been up to on RECaf, its recent update, and some experiments in advertising that he’s been running. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we discuss our reaction to a few Tweets that we saw about Apple features, marketing, and alternate channels for indies with little or no marketing budget. We talk about different the different perspectives that developers bring to their craft; how “app businesses” and “app hobbies” might approach marketing differently; and why developers with different goals might approach marketing in completely different, but completely valid ways. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links The Twitter thread that sparked this conversation

Today we continue our conversation with David Barnard about the de facto deprecation in iOS 14 of the Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA. Today we focus on the effects of this change. We talk about how this will affect app developers, advertisers, and the broader online advertising ecosystem. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links David Barnard (@drbarnard) on Twitter RevenueCat Contrast – Find more information about David’s apps Launch Center Pro and Weather Up

Today we talk to David Barnard about the de facto deprecation in iOS 14 of the Identifier for Advertisers, or IDFA. We discuss the history of the IDFA, what’s changing in iOS 14, why Apple is making these changes, and how the loss of the IDFA stands change online advertising. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links David Barnard (@drbarnard) on Twitter RevenueCat Contrast – Find more information about David’s apps Launch Center Pro and Weather Up

Today we talk about “product-user fit” as a concept distinct from “product-market fit.” We discuss what exactly product-user fit is, how venture capitalists look at it, and why product-user fit (rather than the product-market fit that VCs usually seek) might be enough for self-funded bootstrappers. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Product-User Fit Comes Before Product-Market Fit by Peter Lauten and David Ulevitch

Today we tackle a hodgepodge of topics: Joe got a new fancy monitor, Charles complains about customers that want ugly websites, Charles considers future advertising opportunities, and we talk about how the pandemic has affected business. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we continue our conversation with John Wilker, organizer of 360iDev. Today we focus on the business of running a conference in the midst of a global pandemic, discussing the negotiations involved in canceling a venue, and the economics of running an online conference. Then we talk about John’s other business as an author of a series of science fiction novels. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links 360iDev – The annual iOS-focused conference organized by John Wilker. Use discount code RELEASENOTES to get 25% off your ticket. Rogue Publishing – John’s website where you can learn about and purchase all his books Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we start discussing Joe’s preparations for his talk at 360iDev, only to be joined midway through by the organizer of 360iDev, John Wilker. We talk about the differences between an online and in-person event and the importance of supporting online events during this year of the pandemic. Then John Wilker joins us to explain how this year will be different, what he’s doing to help attendees avoid “Zoom fatigue”, and some of the tools he’s using to run an online conference. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links 360iDev – The annual iOS-focused conference organized by John Wilker. Use discount code RELEASENOTES to get 25% off your ticket. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today Joe catches us up on his RECaf update and the woes of using multiple measurement units, and Charles gives an update on his experience working with a reluctant contractor. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we talk about a problem that Charles is having with a potential contractor. Charles shares the backstory of the problem and what he thinks might be wrong, and then Joe offers some advice from his experience on the other side of the table as a contractor. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today we catch up with Charles and talk about the results of his recent advertising campaign. We talk about how it was organized, the results, and how the results of this advertising campaign compare to his campaign from this Spring. We also discuss the fine line you have to walk when advertising in the midst of a global pandemic. Release Notes Happy Hour – FemtoConf Edition We have teamed up with our good friends at FemtoConf to host the next in our series of Release Notes Happy Hour this Thursday, July 23, 2020 at 18:00 CEST. (That’s 17:00 in London, Noon in New York, and 9:00 AM in Los Angeles.) As in the past, this will be a Zoom call and everyone will be divided into smaller groups in order to facilitate conversation. There’s no cost, but you do need to register so that we can send you the information you need to connect to the call. Get all the details and sign up on our website at releasenotes.tv/happyhour. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures’ new Competitor Intelligence report suggests your app’s biggest competitors, then it compares your competitor’s stats with yours, providing side-by-side comparisons of rankings, ratings, features, audience demographics, and more. It really is the easiest way to get a handle on the competition, and how you stack up. Use this link to get your own analysis, or to see analyses for some of the App Store’s top-rated apps: https://appfigures.com/reports/competitors?utm_source=releasenotes

Today Joe shares his experience with all of Apple’s pre-release hardware and software – at least as much as he can. We talk about what he’s doing with the ARM-powered developer transition kit (DTK) that he received, his thoughts on the Big Sur beta, and how his plans for RECaf are being complicated by some of the HealthKit features in iOS 14 beta. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by iMazing. iMazing is the most popular all-purpose iPhone and iPad manager for Mac and PC. Use it to diagnose your battery’s health, transfer any file from your Mac or PC to your iPhone via drag and drop, and even schedule Time-Machine style wireless backups to your own storage location – all for free. Purchase a license and you can do even more: Recover music from an old iPhone or iPod, export your voicemail, safari bookmarks, contacts, calendars and notes, print your iMessage threads and WhatsApp chats… iMazing covers just about everything. So try iMazing for free, and if you like it, use coupon code RELEASENOTES30OFF to get 30% off all iMazing licenses until iOS 14’s official release. Or just use this link and our 30% OFF discount will be applied automatically on iMazing Store: https://imazing.com/store?coupon=RELEASENOTES30OFF

Today we continue our conversation about WWDC 2020, focusing on how the announcements have affected Joe’s plans. We talk about sleep tracking in RECaf, plans for a Mac app, and X2Y lives for another year! Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures has always been great at getting all your stats from the App Store, but recently they’ve been diving deep into App Store optimization. Because they have access to so much more of the App Store’s daily statistics than anyone else, they are able to present a much more detailed picture of how your competitors are doing, and how they are winning the app store optimization wars. Armed with that data, you can fight back with some relatively simple maneuvers that can improve your rankings in specific search terms and thus increase your downloads. So if it’s been a while since you’ve thought about Appfigures, go to their blog and check out their excellent series of posts about app store optimization. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today we talk about some of the announcements made at WWDC 2020 from a business perspective. We discuss some of the technical changes made to iOS, changes announced for testing IAP, updates to the iOS App Store review guidelines, and of course the ramifications of transitioning the Mac to ARM. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Writing for the Screen by Rob Rhyne StoreKit Testing Improvements in iOS 14 by Jacob Eiting of RevenueCat Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by iMazing. iMazing is the most popular all-purpose iPhone and iPad manager for Mac and PC. Use it to diagnose your battery’s health, transfer any file from your Mac or PC to your iPhone via drag and drop, and even schedule Time-Machine style wireless backups to your own storage location – all for free. Purchase a license and you can do even more: Recover music from an old iPhone or iPod, export your voicemail, safari bookmarks, contacts, calendars and notes, print your iMessage threads and WhatsApp chats… iMazing covers just about everything. So try iMazing for free, and if you like it, use coupon code RELEASENOTES30OFF to get 30% off all iMazing licenses until iOS 14’s official release. Or just use this link and our 30% OFF discount will be applied automatically on iMazing Store: https://imazing.com/store?coupon=RELEASENOTES30OFF

Today we weigh in on Basecamp and their app’s recent rejection from the App Store. We talk about what should have been foreseen by Basecamp, Apple’s relationship with its developer community, and daydream about how Apple might “fix” this problem for the future. Release Notes Happy Hour – June 24 To help people together during this time of social distancing, we will be hosting another Release Notes Happy Hour on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). This will be a Zoom call and everyone will be divided into smaller groups in order to facilitate conversation. There’s no cost, but you do need to register so that we can send you the information you need to connect to the call. Get all the details and sign up on our website at releasenotes.tv/happyhour. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Apple threatens HEY with shakedown tactics – Basecamp’s side of the story Interview: Apple’s Schiller says position on Hey app is unchanged and no rules changes are imminent by TechCrunch – Apple’s response Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures has always been great at getting all your stats from the App Store, but recently they’ve been diving deep into App Store optimization. Because they have access to so much more of the App Store’s daily statistics than anyone else, they are able to present a much more detailed picture of how your competitors are doing, and how they are winning the app store optimization wars. Armed with that data, you can fight back with some relatively simple maneuvers that can improve your rankings in specific search terms and thus increase your downloads. So if it’s been a while since you’ve thought about Appfigures, go to their blog and check out their excellent series of posts about app store optimization. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today we talk about how Charles resolved the pricing dilemma we discussed a couple weeks ago. We talk about the features he added to existing plans, the new Team plan he created, and how he is presenting all of this new information on his website. Release Notes Happy Hour – June 24 To help people together during this time of social distancing, we will be hosting another Release Notes Happy Hour on Wednesday, June 24, 2020 at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). This will be a Zoom call and everyone will be divided into smaller groups in order to facilitate conversation. There’s no cost, but you do need to register so that we can send you the information you need to connect to the call. Get all the details and sign up on our website at releasenotes.tv/happyhour. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links RelaNet’s new pricing page Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures has always been great at getting all your stats from the App Store, but recently they’ve been diving deep into App Store optimization. Because they have access to so much more of the App Store’s daily statistics than anyone else, they are able to present a much more detailed picture of how your competitors are doing, and how they are winning the app store optimization wars. Armed with that data, you can fight back with some relatively simple maneuvers that can improve your rankings in specific search terms and thus increase your downloads. So if it’s been a while since you’ve thought about Appfigures, go to their blog and check out their excellent series of posts about app store optimization. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today we talk about our new laptops! Joe got a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Charles got a new Dell XPS 13 running Linux. We talk about the new hardware, how the two laptops compare, and Charles’ experience with Linux so far. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. Appfigures has always been great at getting all your stats from the App Store, but recently they’ve been diving deep into App Store optimization. Because they have access to so much more of the App Store’s daily statistics than anyone else, they are able to present a much more detailed picture of how your competitors are doing, and how they are winning the app store optimization wars. Armed with that data, you can fight back with some relatively simple maneuvers that can improve your rankings in specific search terms and thus increase your downloads. So if it’s been a while since you’ve thought about Appfigures, go to their blog and check out their excellent series of posts about app store optimization. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today we continue our conversation with Curtis Herbert about his iOS app Slopes and his work to bring it to Android. Curtis talks to us today about his experience hiring a developer for the first time, his attitude towards managing risk in his business, and why he doesn’t think learning Android development and writing the app himself is not the right answer for him. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Curtis Herbert on Twitter: @parrots Slopes app Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Tuparev Technologies. For 20 years Tuparev Technologies has helped their clients, large and small, to design, develop, deploy, and maintain their apps and client-server solutions for all Apple platforms and the web. Their App Care program can keep your App in good health and your customers satisfied by keeping your app functioning and provide small but rapid enhancements in line with new functionality provided by OS releases. Tuparev Technologies also has an Accessible Apps initiative that can make your app accessible and localized. Learn more about how Tuparev Technologies can help maintain and improve your app’s health at tuparev.com.

Today we talk to Curtis Herbert about his iOS app Slopes and his work to bring it to Android. Curtis shares the story of hiring and firing an Android developer and the effect that this year’s weather and pandemic had on revenue. Then we dig into the risks of continuing development on the Android version, and his current thinking on whether to postpone the project. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Curtis Herbert on Twitter: @parrots Slopes app Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by ScrapingBee. Tired of getting blocked while scraping the web? ScrapingBee is a simple web scraping API that handles headless browsers and rotates proxies for you so you can get the HTML from any page with a simple API call. ScrapingBee handles the hard parts of web scraping so you can focus on extracting the data you need. Want to give it a try? Use our affiliate link to learn more and help support Release Notes: https://www.scrapingbee.com?fpr=charles73

Today we talk to Charles about the new features that RelaNet will soon be offering, and how he plans to incorporate them into his pricing. We talk about his plans to offer a more expensive team plan, what that plan might look like, and his deliberations on how to charge and how much to charge for each plan. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. You may know Appfigures as the best way to track your ranking and revenue in all the mobile app stores, but you may not have heard that Appfigures is also the easiest way to improve your app’s rank with their app store optimization (ASO) service. And now AppFigures has a series of “ASO Teardown” articles that look at the App Store pages of some of the biggest brands and reveal what they are doing to optimize their placement in search results. If you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Release Notes Happy Hour on May 14! See show notes for details. So, it turns out that Joe is Android-curious. Today we talk to him about his interest in learning Android development, the current market for Android developers, and whether diving into Android might make sense for his contracting business. Release Notes Happy Hour This pandemic has cancelled all the conferences that we wanted to attend this year, so to help bring people together we are hosting a Release Notes Happy Hour on Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 6:00 PM Eastern. That’s 3:00 PM in Los Angeles, and 11:00 PM in London, England. This will be a Zoom call that makes use of Zoom’s “breakout rooms” feature to divide everyone into smaller groups. Our hope is to create an environment that is conducive to making meaningful connections and having interesting conversations. If you’ve ever attended a dine-around at one of our conferences, you’ll have an idea of what we’re hoping for. There’s no cost, but you do need to register so that we can send you the information you need to connect to the call. Get all the details and sign up on our website at releasenotes.tv/happyhour. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Release Notes Happy Hour on May 14: releasenotes.tv/happyhour. Yes, Charles realizes he identified the wrong property of equality in this episode. It should have been “The Symmetric Property of Programming.” Charles, the former math teacher, will forever be mortified by the error. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. You may know Appfigures as the best way to track your ranking and revenue in all the mobile app stores, but you may not have heard that Appfigures is now the easiest way to improve your app’s rank with their app store optimization (ASO) service. Appfigures wanted to share some of their expertise with the community, so they distilled it into a series of blog posts that are available for free on their website. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today Charles talks more about the e-signature solution that he settled on, and how he is using the product’s vendor as a pseudo-low-cost contractor to get the custom changes he needs in the short-term and the training he needs to maintain the product himself over the long-term. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Appfigures. You may know Appfigures as the best way to track your ranking and revenue in all the mobile app stores, but you may not have heard that Appfigures is now the easiest way to improve your app’s rank with their app store optimization (ASO) service. Appfigures wanted to share some of their expertise with the community, so they distilled it into a series of blog posts that are available for free on their website. And if you like what you read on their website, Appfigures has another special offer just for Release Notes listeners. Sign up for Appfigures services and get 30% off the regular price for the next three months using the code releasenotes33, or just sign up using this link to have the discount automatically applied.

Today Charles shares the story of how he crashed a server and survived a self-inflicted DDOS, all in one week. We talk about the backstory, the recovery, and lessons learned. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today Charles reveals that he’s considering getting a new laptop… and it might not be Mac. We talk about why he considering running Linux on a Dell, and why he is desperately hoping Joe can talk him out of it. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Follow up: The Dell XPS that Charles is considering does have an aluminum case, with a carbon fiber palm rest. Follow up 2: The new 2020 MacBook Air configured with top end options is not comparable in speed to the Dell XPS 9300 that Charles is considering: Geekbench scores

Today we look at how the pandemic and the resulting economic downturn has affected the contracting business, specifically Joe’s. We talk about growing layoffs among contractors, the necessity of contractors being more flexible than usual with their rate, maintaining work relationships remotely, and how we both are adjusting to our new home co-working environments that we share with our wives. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we discuss the 10th anniversary of the launch of the iPad. We talk about the evolution of the iPad into a device that supports a keyboard and trackpad, whether we could use an iPad as our main computer, and what the evolution of iPadOS might imply for the future of the MacBook. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today Charles talks about his failed attempt at advertising, his theories on why his advertisement didn’t perform, thoughts on why the response from his email list was better, and the progress he’s made on evaluating a new e-signature solution for his clients. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Roundwall Software, maker of Publicist. Publicist is a Mac app that allows you to publish to your WordPress or Ghost blog using its built-in API. With Publicist, you don’t need to use a clunky admin page anymore. Just compose in your text editor of choice, and then publish with Publicist! Plus Publicist has lots of features to make your life easier. It can handle images, it includes a migration tool that you can use to move your posts to a new blog, and it even includes a Share extension so you can quickly publish Markdown files to your blog. Learn more about Publicist on its website at https://roundwallsoftware.com/publicist/.

Today Charles talks about how the recent postponement of the U.S. income tax filing date is affecting his business. We talk about seizing an unexpected advertising opportunity, a sudden new deadline that hits tomorrow 😱, and walking the fine line between being helpful in the face of a natural disaster and the appearance of profiteering. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Sponsor Today’s episode is sponsored by Roundwall Software, maker of Formatter. Formatter is the Mac app you need if you work with JSON. It allows you to drag-and-drop to quickly reformat JSON files, includes an Xcode extension to do it from inside Xcode, and has a Quick Look plugin so you can see formatted previews of files on your computer. Basically, it’s a Swiss Army knife for JSON. Formatter is available on the Mac App Store, or you can learn more about Formatter on its website at http://roundwallsoftware.com/formatter/.

Welcome to Release Note: Pandemic Edition. The COVID-19 pandemic is in the news and in everyone’s conversations, so on today’s show we talk about how we expect this pandemic to affect our businesses and how it might affect yours. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes and Links Wikipedia entry for “Force Majeure” Link to the Twitter thread by Derek Brown that Joe mentioned FemtoConf 2020 is Canceled – after this episode was recorded, it was announced that FemtoConf 2020 will be canceled

Today Charles tells the tale of how he accidentally put his new client portal into production. We also talk about the potential risks involved with launching a product in this way, the advantages of being small and nimble, and how Charles might be able to turn the flexibility he displayed into a marketing opportunity. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we continue our conversation about Charles’ new client portal and talk more about the e-signature solution that he’s searching for. We talk about the benefits of “buying” versus “renting” software, why changing his client portal solution will affect his marketing and messaging, and why Charles might end up paying someone to build an e-signature tool for him. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we talk about about Charles’ recent realization that he probably shouldn’t be writing code anymore. We talk about how he came to that realization, how it makes him feel, and what it means for his business. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today Charles talks to Joe some more about his upcoming move to Colorado. In particular, we discuss how he plans to connect with the local development community, how he might attract some local clients while still retaining his existing clients, and how he plans to maintain his hourly rate despite his new lower cost of living. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist.

Today we talk about servers and how we use them in our products. Charles shares his progress setting up new servers based on CentOS 8, and then Joe shares how he uses servers with his apps, and how he has mostly avoided the hassles of server administration. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes & Links Configuring a CentOS 8 LAMP Stack at Linode – Charles’ blog post documenting his CentOS 8 setup on Linode

One of our favorite events every year is FemtoConf, a small conference in Darmstadt, Germany aimed at bootstrapped entrepreneurs. Recently, FemtoConf 2020 was announced for May 8-10, 2020, so today we talk about FemtoConf and our plans to host another “warm-up event” in Bacharach, Germany on May 7. Mailing List Every month there are more great articles and content about the business of Mac and iOS development than we have time to discuss on the show. If you’d like to receive our monthly newsletter with the best of these links, be sure to sign up for our mailing list at http://releasenotes.tv/mailinglist. Show Notes & Links The Pre-FemtoConf 2020 UnEvent – All the details for our warm-up event FemtoConf 2020 – Watch this page for when FemtoConf tickets go on sale Benedikt Deicke – Benedikt is one of the FemtoConf organizers Christoph Engelhardt – Christoph is one of the FemtoConf organizers