Posts in Linked

Ten Years of Podcasting→

There are some parts I don’t agree with, but, overall, this article by Matt Haughey is an excellent look at the current state of podcasting:

Podcasting started as a nerdy way to trade files between technologists, and it’s come very far, but at its roots, it’s still a pretty clunky method to collect audio and most podcast clients are glorified file managers. Listening to podcasts is an intensely personal pursuit, but it could also be opened up to easier and better sharing, and help create entire communities around hosts, shows, and episodes in improved ways that are easier than what we have now.

Matt touches upon different points – podcast apps, what podcast producers could do, and the social aspect of podcasts as a new entertainment medium.

The comments on podcast clients especially struck me as accurate and fair: most iOS podcast apps behave like RSS readers for audio, with little innovation in terms of discovery, smart playlists, and sharing tools. One could argue that, on iOS, Apple’s built-in Podcasts app is enough for most people who want to listen to podcasts, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be done better or differently. Look, for instance, at the audio effects and recommendations of Overcast or Instacast’s impressive full-text search for show notes.

The same argument could be made for Apple’s Music app – built-in and “enough” for most people. But that didn’t stop Apple from buying Beats Music, which offers a completely different take on music listening that matters. And this is why I’m excited to see what Apple is going to do with Swell and how their acquisition may fit with plans for CarPlay, the Watch, and perhaps iOS 9.

I don’t know if making podcasts go beyond their geeky roots may require change from big players like Apple or simply time and more mainstream shows like Serial, but I’m excited to see how the market will mature in 2015.

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Virtual: No Time for Pig Punching→

This week Federico tells Myke about his first impressions of playing Minecraft and they list their favourite games of 2014.

And on this week’s Virtual, we share our favorite games of the year – my picks include the excellent Monument Valley and Space Age on iOS. As for Minecraft, I built my first hut last night and I feel like I’m starting to understand the game. You can get the episode here.

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App Websites→

Joe Cieplinski writes about the importance of having a good website for your app:

Look, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do your due diligence with ASO, and that you shouldn’t care at all about getting people to rate your app. If you take a few hours doing some basic research, you can certainly make some improvements to your keywords that could boost your ranking considerably. But how many developers are throwing together what amounts to barely more than a skeleton web page, and then spending little to no time at all trying to drive people to it? I think there’s a lot to be gained by spending some time on this.

More than six years after the launch of the App Store, I find it curious every time I come across an app on the Store and either there’s no link to a website or the “website” consists of screenshots from iTunes and an icon. This sounds obvious – having a good app website is important (sometimes absolutely necessary) and I completely agree with Joe’s motivations.

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Tweet Analytics Now Available in Twitter for iPhone→

I noticed some users tweeting about mobile tweet analytics over the past couple of weeks, and today Twitter has officialized the rollout:

On mobile (currently available on Twitter for iPhone), click on one of your Tweets to get to the Tweet detail page, then tap “View Tweet activity.” Make sure you have installed the latest version of Twitter for iPhone.

It’s nice that I can look at analytics directly from the Twitter app for iPhone, although most of those stats don’t take into account third-party clients, which I suspect the majority of my followers use.

As someone who uses Twitter for work, this is another reason to keep using the official client over third-party apps, and yet more proof that Twitter for iPad never gets cool new features first.

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Succeeding in a Mature App Store→

Charles Perry has a great response to David Smith’s concerns about the App Store being “full” (which I also pondered here):

We need to compete in niches, where there isn’t enough opportunity to justify the attention of large corporate developers. Don’t try to create a new bookkeeping app – Intuit will eat you alive. Instead build a bookkeeping app that’s tailored specifically for veterinarians or, even more narrowly, for large animal veterinarians. Don’t build a general purpose word processor – Microsoft has that space all locked up. Instead, build a word processor that’s specialized for a particular field like academics or screenwriting. Each of these niches offer plenty of revenue opportunities for a single developer. The big players won’t be interested, though. After all, a niche with potential annual revenue of $250,000 might be an amazing opportunity for an indie, but for the big players, $250,000 won’t even cover their engineering costs.

As I often argue, small niches can actually be pretty big on the Internet. Or, at least, big enough to turn a profit.

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Virtual: Podcaster Guild→

This week Federico and Myke start off talking about coffee habits, before discussing the newly announced Final Fantasy mobile game, customisable 3DS Home screens, Nintendo’s YouTube press tour and how games like Minecraft and No Man’s Sky could be shaping the future of gaming.

This happened after we recorded Virtual today (look for some thoughts soon). You can get the episode here.

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Apple’s Holiday (RED) Campaign Raises $20 Million→

Dawn Chmielewski, writing at Re/Code, reports that Apple’s Apps for RED campaign raised over $20 million to fight AIDS:

The technology giant partnered with software developers who sold apps or exclusive items and donated the proceeds to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The company also donated a portion of sales at its retail and online stores during two of the biggest shopping days of the year — Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Apple’s campaign was a first for app downloads going to charity, and I’m glad that the company and developers involved managed to raise this amount for a good cause.

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