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In this episode, we begin making a wish list for iOS 8. First up: Problems that we experience as users. We share tales of woe connected to the keyboard, autocorrect, music player, and Siri. Then we take a broad look at some rough edges that were never rounded over in iOS 7 on the iPad, and a few changes that were new to iOS 7: Control Center, Notification Center, and borderless buttons. Next, we change gears and consider what we’d like to see changed in iOS 8 from the perspective of a business owner. We talk about the changes that we’d like to see in the App Store, the possibility of opening up Touch ID to third party developers, and inter-app communication.
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Today we’re talking about beta testing. We start with the beta strategy that Bombing Brain Interactive is using for their upcoming release of Teleprompt+ 3.0, and discuss the merits of giving a testing checklist to members of your beta pool. We consider what kind of feedback we solicit from our beta testers, and what kind of opinions we want (and don’t want) during beta. We examine the inherent tension between shipping software and fixing problems that are uncovered during beta testing, and we share our views on shipping with compiler warnings. We consider the pros and cons of giving incentives to beta testers, before closing with a short discussion of beta distribution and our favorite ways of managing it.
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We continue our conversation on discretionary spending by taking a closer look at conferences and other sorts of social events. We calculate the real cost of attending WWDC, and look at a few conferences that we recommend if you can’t bankroll a trip to San Francisco in June. We make a business case for spending money on social events like CocoaHeads and conferences, and consider the benefits of building yourself a safety net through networking.
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Today we begin a conversation about expenses, particularly discretionary expenses, and how we justify them. We start by discussing the value of travel and socializing, and the sometimes intangible benefits that we derive from them. We take a look at hardware purchases and consider how important it is to have the latest and greatest gizmos that Apple offers. Finally, we close by discussing the importance of balancing income and expenses, along with some of the tax benefits of owning a business.
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Today we look at the controversy surrounding the game Threes! and the many inferior clones of that game that have appeared in the App Store. We start with a brief recap of the Threes! saga to bring those listeners who may not be familiar with the controversy up to date, then we discuss what the developers of Threes! could have been done to prevent this situation. We consider if a quality product is necessary for App Store success (Spoiler: No.), what we can do to give our own apps the best chance for success, and the culpability of the developer of 2048, the most notable of the Threes! clones. Finally, we talk about what Apple could have done to prevent this sort of rip-off, whether Apple is damaging its ecosystem by allowing cheap clones in its App Store, and what lessons other developers should take from this saga.
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