Techtonic

This week on Techtonic, Joshua describes his first days with Amazon’s Echo, ‘The Woman in the Box’. She is far more responsive than Apple’s Siri, which disappoints us for reasons. On a good note, the Echo is showing promise and is useful for many scenarios at home. After Echo talk, Joe reviews his new iPhone SE. Why did he want to down-grade from his 6S, and what does the SE offer people that are ready to embrace a small phone?

Amazon Echo:
Amazon Echo, by Amazon
The Echo is Dan Moren’s favorite device of 2015
The rest of the Echo family that we didn’t get to
Joe’s substitute: AmazonBasics’ Portable Bluetooth Speaker
AmazonBasics’ Large Portable Bluetooth Speaker
AmazonBasics’ Small Portable Bluetooth Speaker

iPhone SE:
Joe’s former phone: iPhone 6S (64 GB, Unlocked, Retail Packaging, Space Gray)
Joe’s new model: iPhone SE (Unlocked, 64 GB, Retail Packaging, Silver)
Apple’s iPhone SE webpage
Joe’s preferred case: Apple’s MF046LL/A iPhone 5S Red Leather Case (Joe only uses cases when traveling)
Joe’s preferred iPhone dock: Twelve South HiRise

Find us online:
Techtonic.fm

Give us a review on iTunes:
Techtonic podcast on iTunes

Correspond with us by email:
[email protected]

Connect with us hosts and the show on Twitter:
@techtonicfm
@jcsdarnell
@joshuapeiffer

(You will note that we have experimented with longer show notes lately. This week’s is nice a short, but in-depth highlights and takeaways will be back soon for future episodes.)

Our special guest this week, Daniel Jalkut, discusses MarsEdit, developing apps for Mac and iOS, and the difficult choices that independent app developers all face over the course of their careers.

Many Apple users know that fortune and failure is made on the app stores. What’s even more uncertain is going it alone: being a developer with an app that’s responsible for your livelihood.

But fortune and sustainability is made every day from the sell of productivity apps. Clever apps, like MarsEdit, were far ahead of their time, which help them find a loyal user base.

This isn’t the story of Brent Simmons, the creator of MarsEdit. This is the story of and lessons learned by Daniel Jalkut, the founder of Red Sweater Software. Daniel started working for Apple at the age of 18, later went to college to study music, then later became the independent developer that took ownership of MarsEdit. This one app has been responsible for his paycheck for the last nine years.

Not a Story You Hear Every Day

Joe first discovered Daniel Jalkut on the CMD+Space show in 2013. For a long time, Joe was aware that MarsEdit was in development and that Daniel’s command center was Red Sweater, but what he didn’t know was that Jalkut is a host of listener’s favorite Core Intuition, “a podcast about indie software development for the Mac, iOS and other Apple technologies.” This past April 1, they released episode #226: A Little Bit in Crisis. (Joe will now stop referring to himself in the third person. Hey, everyone, I’m writing the show notes.)

There’s more to Mr. Jalkut than his podcast and the MarsEdit text editor. At an early age, Daniel participated in the tech community, long before the Internet change everything. Out of high school, Daniel was hired for contract work at Apple. Daniel worked for Apple for many years before mustering up the courage to leave his job security and pursue another passion: music. He went to collage and studied the arts before becoming an independent app developer.

If his journey wasn’t already different from most (first, go to college, then, find a job, eventually create your own projects on the side, if you’re up for it...), he chose to purchase and continue development of the MarsEdit text editor that specializes in desktop blog editing on the Mac.

And while many developers have followed the rush to build cross platform tools, like productivity tools with versions for Mac and iOS, with sporty cloud syncing for file management, Daniel has maintained a steady course. The majority of his focus has remained on MarsEdit for Mac.

Lulling a Baby to Sleep with Noise

In the early day of the iOS App Store, Daniel’s first son was a newborn. Daniel and his wife read ‘The Happiest Baby on the Block’ to learn about the art of rearing a child. From study, he learned that infants do well listening to static noise. The theory goes that static noise is similar to the sound inside a mother’s womb, which infants hear before birth. Many young ones find it soothing.

Daniel developed the simple app he named Swish. With just a few simple features, it presents a static white noise and visual representation, like that of a broadcast television with poor antenna reception.

To this day, Swish is a classic example of an app with a skeuomorphic interface, which we discuss later in the show.

The Urgency of iOS Apps

Like most independent Mac developers, Daniel has been allured to the iOS platform. For many, building iOS products is the obvious thing to do. As a developer, building apps for two platforms sounds more impressive and possibly affords more opportunities than sticking to one.

There is a pervasive awareness of the fame and glory that comes with apps that have millions of downloads on the iOS App Store. In 2008, there was a gold rush to build businesses and products for iOS, and it certainly paid off for early app to market.

As time moved on, Daniel discerned that t...

Joe, Joshua and special guest, Micah Pogue, discuss the apps on their home screens, how they use their apps for productivity and entertainment, and their app layout organization philosophies.

Show Notes:

Our guest, Micah Pogue (@micah_pogue)

Joe’s home screen

Micah’s home screen

Joshua’s home screen

1Password
Google Maps
Gmail App
Mint - Money Manager
Scannable
Scanner Pro
Interact
Spark
Readdle
OmniFocus
Wunderlist
Listen
Hours
Focus
Our episode with the Focus developer
Hound
Spotify
Apple Music
Podcasts App
Overcast

Joshua and our special returning guest, John Livingston, review the iPad Pro. How is it shaking up engineering for John? Has it replaced Joshua’s MacBook Air in everyday use? What apps do the guys use to manage files and markup documents? All this and more in our iOS/iPad for professionals review.

*Trying out a different audio player on the website. Let us know what you think. -Joe

Apple vs. FBI?

Watch: Apple CEO Tim Cook Says iPhone-Cracking Software ‘Equivalent of Cancer’
ATP discusses in #158: YOU CAN'T OUTLAW MATH
Upgrade discusses in #77: I Don't Know Why You'd Call Them Friends
Who is John Livingston?
John Livingston on Twitter (@nuclear_ee)
John’s site (about engineering)
What is this iPad Pro you speak of?
Apple’s first generation iPad Pro
The iPad Pro’s smart keyboard cover
The Apple Pencil
Apple Pencilgate?
Apple to launch 9.7-inch iPad Pro, not Air 3
Logitech’s Create Smart Keyboard and Case
Apple’s iPad Pro protective case
Hardware we mention?
Samsung Galaxy Note
Stumps available at the Stump Store online
Software we mention?
Microsoft OneNote - notes on all devices
Microsoft Office for iOS (and other mobile platforms)
PDF Expert 5 - Fill forms, annotate PDFs, sign documents
PDF Converter by Readdle for iOS
Google Docs
Microsoft Office 365
Microsoft SharePoint
Mircosoft OneDrive
The Sweet Setup’s review of PDF Expert
Evernote for iOS
Paper 53
Other stuff we mention?
Watch: Moses destroy the original Ten Commandments Tablets
Here's what the 'i' in iPhone means
Tell me more about Techtonic!
Techtonic’s site
Techtonic on Twitter (@techtonicfm)
Joe on Twitter (@jcsdarnell)
Joshua on Twitter (@joshuapeiffer)
Send email to at [email protected]
Subscribe to the show on iTunes
Subscribe to the show with RSS

Joshua and Joe discuss pro video, Kickstarter campaigns and headphones with Caleb Wojcik.

This week on the podcast, Joshua and Joe are joined by returning special guest, Caleb Wojcik, to discuss video production techniques, hardware and software, workflows for a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the way to shop for professional and consumer level headphones.

Show Notes & Links

Who’s Caleb?
Caleb on Twitter (@CalebWojcik)
Caleb on YouTube
Caleb’s website
Fizzle, Caleb’s former employer

The Freedom Journal Kickstarter campaign:
The Freedom Journal, by The Entrepreneur on Fire
The Kickstarter campaign for John’s book

Caleb’s reviews and such:
Caleb’s review of the C100 Mark II
Where to put Video Lights
Caleb’s review of the best monitor headphones
Sony MDR-7506 monitor headphones review

Tools of the trade (what Caleb’s used):
The Byword app for Caleb’s script writing
Paper 53, used for storyboarding

Miscellany:
Joe’s external Dell monitor
The Revenant, a film with incredible technical complexity
The Wirecutter reviews headphones too
Etymotic Research HF5 Portable In-Ear Earphone

Find us online:
TechTonic.fm

If you dig the show, leave us an iTunes review:
TechTonic podcast on iTunes

We’d love to correspond by way of old-fashioned email:
[email protected]

Get better acquainted with us on Twitter:
@_JoeDarnell
@JoshuaPeiffer
@TechTonicFM