Under the Radar

In our final episode, we reflect on how indie app development has changed over the past decade. Thanks for listening, everyone!

How Overcast has managed feedback channels and its presence on social networks, and the results (so far) of creating an official Reddit community.

Successes and struggles with taking breaks from work.

As David celebrates five years of Widgetsmith, we discuss choices we make to keep our businesses scalable without giving up the working styles we prefer.

With our iOS 26 updates submitted, we reflect on the summer, customer reactions to the redesigns, and what we're looking forward to doing next.

Laying groundwork for future analytics, insights, and utility needs.

A pragmatic and productive path through the final weeks of the iOS 26 beta season.

Fighting through the motivational challenges and choosing a direction when the system design isn't an easy, universal win.

Should we adopt Liquid Glass or stick with our existing designs? And if we do adopt it, how much should we redesign and rethink along the way? (tl;dr: yes; much.)

Tradeoffs for requiring iOS 26 this fall, and a clever strategy to manage compatibility with iOS 18.

Initial impressions of WWDC 2025 and what we're going to be doing this summer.

Expectations and preparations for WWDC 2025.

Motivating ourselves to get back into coding after time away.

Thoughts and feelings about the Apple anti-steering injunction, the way Apple views developers, and how the relationship could constructively move forward if Apple so chose.

Testing our apps for power consumption and adjusting behavior to maximize battery life.

Whether "anyone" can make apps now with AI tools, and how that affects our apps, relevant skills, and careers.

Designing our apps to run without our constant involvement.

Identifying and distinguishing the difference between optimism, pessimism, and fear, and the paths we're choosing to take.

The principles and goals we consider important in our apps.

How our values have diverged and our perceived relationship has changed with Apple, forcing our motivations for iOS development to evolve.

Qualities and perspectives that help us stick with indie development over time.

In the fourth of a multi-part series sharing the apps that we use to develop software, we discuss task management, collaboration, and a final assortment of miscellaneous apps.

In the third of a multi-part series sharing the apps that we use to develop software, we discuss documentation, code from the web, and LLM-powered code generation.

In the second of a multi-part series sharing the apps that we use to develop software, we discuss the tools we use to enhance the iOS Simulator, make the most of on-device testing, and manage our code in source control.

In the first of a multi-part series sharing the apps that we use to develop software, we discuss the tools we use to write code and design visuals.

Adding listening stats and a history feature to Overcast Premium.

Different types of acquisitions, reasons why someone might want to buy our businesses, and reasons why we might want to sell — or not.

Improving the first-run experiences in our apps.

Looking around the App Store, it's clear that we're not charging enough.

Holding the line for our own standards, while being open to the possibility that we've chosen the wrong lines.

Submitting our iOS 18 updates, and considering what this OS means for our apps and our customers.

Fixing issues with the Overcast rewrite, dealing with negative feedback, and resolving mistakes.

As the summer races by at an alarming pace, we plan the rest of our time and consider the value of keeping some of our plans secret.

The first few days after the launch of the Overcast rewrite, and how to process the mountain of feedback.

Preparing for the launch of the big Overcast rewrite.

How we think about what to tackle each year between WWDC and the fall OS releases.

In this special episode from Apple's podcast studio at WWDC 2024, we interview Serenity Caldwell, Design Evangelist at Apple, and Kristin Oro, Product Marketing for Developer Technology on visionOS.

How we hope to spend next week at WWDC 2024.

The challenge of managing ourselves.

It's sometimes fine to ship incomplete features, or technically non-ideal implementations, because you can improve them later if the need arises.

Designing our apps to be comfortably usable by as many people as possible.

We conclude a three-part series with the third pillar of a successful app: customer-retention methods and techniques.

How the Apple Vision Pro is fitting into our lives so far, the usage of our apps on visionOS, and considering how to allocate our attention and resources to the platform.

Thoughts on the new app-distribution options from the EU DMA and the implications for app developers.

In the second of a three-part series, we look at the second pillar of a successful app: choosing a monetization model that fits the app's target market.

Thoughts and motivations behind David's hiring of an employee and what it means to be an indie developer.

Final considerations for the imminent Apple Vision Pro launch, and our expectations for visionOS apps.

In the first of a three-part series, we look at the first pillar of a successful app: customer acquisition, including paid advertising, word-of-mouth marketing, and editorial promotion.

The many roles we need to juggle as independent developers, and considering which roles we can take off our plates.

When to ignore or revert our custom-design instincts and follow the system defaults instead.