Developing Perspective

00:00:00 ◼   ► Hello and welcome to episode 0.2 of Developing Perspective.

00:00:05 ◼   ► Developing Perspective is a near daily podcast by me, your host, David Smith, talking about

00:00:13 ◼   ► what I find interesting.

00:00:15 ◼   ► And I'm an independent iOS developer, Mac geek, general technophile.

00:00:20 ◼   ► So if those kinds of things interest you, this may be the place for you.

00:00:24 ◼   ► The show format's fairly straightforward.

00:00:27 ◼   ► I'm going to walk through a couple of interesting links from yesterday's news, and then I will

00:00:35 ◼   ► typically have sort of a more general discussion towards the end.

00:00:39 ◼   ► The show will never be longer than 15 minutes, so it's hopefully a nice little adjunct to

00:00:44 ◼   ► your day rather than a heavy investment.

00:00:47 ◼   ► And without further ado, let's get started.

00:00:50 ◼   ► If you're an iOS developer, one of the biggest bits of news yesterday is that Apple has rebounded

00:00:57 ◼   ► the pricing of their international app stores. So this means that for most

00:01:04 ◼   ► developers it looks like you'll probably make more money, or at least for a

00:01:11 ◼   ► typical app, mostly because the price increased in the UK market, which in my

00:01:18 ◼   ► experience anyway is the second largest compared to all the others. So as an

00:01:25 ◼   ► example I was looking at my recent sales. This is for the last 30 days and the US

00:01:35 ◼   ► was by far the big leader. And then the next largest market is the UK which is

00:01:43 ◼   ► about 20% as large as the US market. And then all of Europe is still not as large

00:01:51 ◼   ► as the UK market. So, in general, by raising the price there, they, I think by ten pence,

00:02:00 ◼   ► is, that's just money in the bank for most iOS developers and generally good news. If

00:02:07 ◼   ► you were an Australian app developer or a Japanese app developer or have apps that are

00:02:13 ◼   ► particularly popular in those areas, you may be hurting a little bit as a result of this

00:02:18 ◼   ► if they lowered the prices there by commensurate amount.

00:02:21 ◼   ► And this is all just to sort of balance

00:02:24 ◼   ► out the exchange rate discrepancies that have existed

00:02:28 ◼   ► since the App Store was launched a couple of years ago.

00:02:30 ◼   ► Where as the pound has gotten stronger

00:02:33 ◼   ► or the Australian dollar has gotten weaker or stronger,

00:02:36 ◼   ► those discrepancies became pretty substantial

00:02:39 ◼   ► where you actually make quite a substantially different amount

00:02:43 ◼   ► of money in one market versus another.

00:02:46 ◼   ► So, good thing to look for, something to notice, and hopefully more money in the bank.

00:02:53 ◼   ► Secondly, a little bit of follow-up to yesterday's show where I talked about how Tapbot's Tweetbot

00:03:02 ◼   ► is now my go-to iOS Twitter client.

00:03:09 ◼   ► They posted a little blog post yesterday which was great news to anybody who likes Tweetbot,

00:03:16 ◼   ► they are bringing push notifications to Tweetbot in the next update.

00:03:22 ◼   ► There are a few caveats.

00:03:23 ◼   ► You should go look at the post in the show notes if you're interested.

00:03:27 ◼   ► But essentially, for the first 10,000 users who sign up for them, so when you open up

00:03:34 ◼   ► the app and it says, "Would you like to enable push notifications?"

00:03:37 ◼   ► You say yes.

00:03:38 ◼   ► And as long as you keep one of those active, they will now be providing push notifications

00:03:44 ◼   ► for you, which is delightful. So you can see when someone direct messages you, when you

00:03:49 ◼   ► get mentioned, those types of things. I'm sure it's however you set up the settings.

00:03:54 ◼   ► It's also an interesting post if you are a bit of a geek to kind of get a sense of what's

00:03:59 ◼   ► involved in actually building a Twitter push notification system. It's actually pretty

00:04:04 ◼   ► involved using their streaming service, and it sounds like quite a bit of engineering.

00:04:09 ◼   ► So definitely check that out.

00:04:13 ◼   ► The last post, or link that I'm going to talk about at the beginning of the show today is

00:04:18 ◼   ► a really interesting diagram that I found linked, which was originally done by Andrew

00:04:26 ◼   ► Durden.

00:04:27 ◼   ► And it's basically a schematic diagram of all the different ways that the iOS home button

00:04:35 ◼   ► is used.

00:04:37 ◼   ► And as much as you may think you know how it works, you probably don't because it's

00:04:43 ◼   ► quite remarkable that from any particular area you can do so many different things.

00:04:51 ◼   ► If you double tap from the home screen, you get to the multitasking screen.

00:04:55 ◼   ► From there, if you triple tap, you'll access the accessibility menu.

00:05:00 ◼   ► If you've--from there or if you were back on the multitasking screen and you double

00:05:07 ◼   ► tap, you're moved to your previous screen.

00:05:09 ◼   ► From there, if you single tap, you can do all these other things.

00:05:12 ◼   ► And so it's just kind of a fascinating thing where you can--it's interesting from usability

00:05:16 ◼   ► perspective because a lot of people have noted that Apple is kind of singular in just having

00:05:22 ◼   ► a single home button.

00:05:26 ◼   ► And it makes the usability of the app so much simpler.

00:05:30 ◼   ► Even sort of people are very unfamiliar with technology, there's only one button.

00:05:35 ◼   ► And when you do it, it tends to do the thing that you would most likely want.

00:05:40 ◼   ► And as a result, that works pretty well.

00:05:44 ◼   ► So just something to check out if you like that kind of stuff.

00:05:49 ◼   ► All right.

00:05:50 ◼   ► Alright, so now I'm going to transition into the main topic for today's show.

00:05:57 ◼   ► And that's going to be a little discussion on software patents.

00:06:03 ◼   ► And mostly I'm bringing that up because Craig Hockenberry of the Icon Factory posted an interesting article entitled

00:06:17 ◼   ► and fall of the independent app developer.

00:06:21 ◼   ► And the thing that's basically he's talking about here is,

00:06:26 ◼   ► if you're doing it with the background,

00:06:27 ◼   ► the icon factory was included in the recent LOD-SYS patent

00:06:35 ◼   ► infringement cases.

00:06:36 ◼   ► So they're essentially being sued over Twitterrific

00:06:39 ◼   ► and I believe specifically their in-app purchase

00:06:43 ◼   ► to upgrade the application.

00:06:45 ◼   ► where it was Twitterrific, when you just get it, it's a free app,

00:06:49 ◼   ► but includes advertising, and it can only work for one account.

00:06:52 ◼   ► If you purchase the in-app purchase, then you can use it

00:06:57 ◼   ► on any number of accounts, and the ads go away.

00:06:59 ◼   ► And basically, they're being sued, saying that they infringed

00:07:04 ◼   ► on this company, LODSIS, as patents of that.

00:07:10 ◼   ► And, I mean, from my perspective, that's just horrific and sort of indefensible that we

00:07:19 ◼   ► live in a legal system where someone who makes excellently well-crafted software that does

00:07:25 ◼   ► a very obvious thing has to be worried about that.

00:07:30 ◼   ► But that's kind of a different discussion.

00:07:32 ◼   ► What Craig is talking about here, and that is so worrying as an independent app developer,

00:07:40 ◼   ► his concern is more that what it will do is swing the pendulum back from small independent

00:07:50 ◼   ► teams or individuals making applications to forcing it to be only large, medium-sized

00:07:59 ◼   ► corporations that are able to do it, companies like EA or similar, where you--they have a

00:08:07 ◼   ► legal department.

00:08:08 ◼   ► a standing group of lawyers who are more than happy to defend the company against whatever

00:08:13 ◼   ► it is that's going on.

00:08:16 ◼   ► And that would just be a horrible thing.

00:08:19 ◼   ► Here's a quote from the article.

00:08:22 ◼   ► And of course, only large companies and publishers can bear these costs, these legal costs.

00:08:27 ◼   ► My fear is that it's only a matter of time before developers find the risks and expenses

00:08:32 ◼   ► prohibitive and retreat to the safety of a larger organization.

00:08:35 ◼   ► We'll be going back to square one.

00:08:37 ◼   ► And I couldn't agree more.

00:08:39 ◼   ► If that happened, it would just be a horrible step back because you would lose so much

00:08:46 ◼   ► of the agility of the -- I hate using that word, but of that flexibility,

00:08:51 ◼   ► maybe is a better use, of small developers taking for them large risks and expanding

00:08:59 ◼   ► and learning things that a large organization probably wouldn't be able to do.

00:09:05 ◼   ► That would be taking very slow risks, kind of meandering their way along, and that's just horrible.

00:09:11 ◼   ► I really hope that he's wrong, and I really hope that Apple's motion to intervene in this case

00:09:19 ◼   ► and those recently related, you know, progressions in the actual legal case get sorted out quickly.

00:09:26 ◼   ► And I guess at this point that's just a hope.

00:09:30 ◼   ► It's hard to know anything from that.

00:09:32 ◼   ► But an interesting follow-up related but not as a direct follow-up to Craig Hockenberry's article was

00:09:43 ◼   ► in an article on Marco.org where he was talking about Google's recent patent problems.

00:09:49 ◼   ► And here's a quick quote from him.

00:09:51 ◼   ► "The best thing to happen to software patent disliking geeks might be for Google

00:09:57 ◼   ► to get their ass kicked a bit by patent litigation.

00:10:00 ◼   ► So they're motivated to challenge the patent system

00:10:02 ◼   ► from more seriously than any of us ever could."

00:10:06 ◼   ► End quote.

00:10:07 ◼   ► And I think that is spot on.

00:10:10 ◼   ► I think what really needs to happen

00:10:12 ◼   ► for software patent litigation to get sorted out is

00:10:18 ◼   ► for a large organization, someone like Google,

00:10:20 ◼   ► someone like Apple, someone who is a large company

00:10:25 ◼   ► with a large war chest and some actual clout to be

00:10:29 ◼   ► on the receiving end of the pain and suffering

00:10:32 ◼   ► that is software patents.

00:10:34 ◼   ► And I'm very glad they lost that recent Nortel patent auction

00:10:39 ◼   ► and as a result they may now find themselves in a position

00:10:45 ◼   ► where they either have a patent cost of having

00:10:48 ◼   ► to license all these patents in order to do their work

00:10:51 ◼   ► or they could take the other alternative and say, you know,

00:10:54 ◼   ► we're going to take the money that we could be spending there

00:10:58 ◼   ► and instead put it into our lobbying and our legal defense

00:11:02 ◼   ► and those types of things and go after the system itself.

00:11:04 ◼   ► And if they do, we would all be the better for it.

00:11:08 ◼   ► I think my summary on software patents, I was kind of thinking

00:11:13 ◼   ► about it yesterday and I think the thing

00:11:15 ◼   ► in summary why software patents are so repulsive to me

00:11:20 ◼   ► and to every other developer I know is

00:11:24 ◼   ► that a software patent is a system

00:11:28 ◼   ► that values the idea over the execution.

00:11:31 ◼   ► And if there's anything I've learned in software development,

00:11:35 ◼   ► it's that execution is immeasurably more valuable

00:11:39 ◼   ► than an idea.

00:11:41 ◼   ► Say, I mean to quote, so the social network, right,

00:11:44 ◼   ► if you'd invented Facebook, you would have invented Facebook.

00:11:48 ◼   ► If you have an idea for something but you're unable

00:11:51 ◼   ► to execute that, that is irrelevant, that is useless.

00:11:57 ◼   ► It's like, well, great.

00:11:58 ◼   ► Software is all about execution.

00:12:00 ◼   ► It's the difference between taking the time, the effort

00:12:04 ◼   ► to really develop a quality product and not.

00:12:08 ◼   ► And so I think that's why for me anyway that is just so repul--

00:12:13 ◼   ► sort of software patents are so repulsive

00:12:15 ◼   ► because I've changed that entirely and I may

00:12:17 ◼   ► as well just be sitting around coming up with ideas,

00:12:19 ◼   ► writing a patent application, waiting for my checks

00:12:21 ◼   ► to get cashed, and that's horrible.

00:12:23 ◼   ► Lastly, which is I guess a bit of a pro--

00:12:27 ◼   ► sort of an epilogue to today's show,

00:12:31 ◼   ► there's a fascinating article that was linked

00:12:35 ◼   ► to from Craig Hockenberry's article called The Life,

00:12:39 ◼   ► and this is a very old, back from 2005 article

00:12:43 ◼   ► on the Daring Fireball, and it's talking

00:12:45 ◼   ► about when Net News Wire was initially acquired,

00:12:49 ◼   ► and talking about what it is to sort of sell out as a software engineer,

00:12:55 ◼   ► specifically a small software engineer, and go from being independent

00:13:02 ◼   ► to having a large organization acquire what you do and the benefits

00:13:08 ◼   ► and drawbacks associated with that.

00:13:11 ◼   ► And it's just a really interesting article.

00:13:13 ◼   ► If you're independent or you've thought about being independent,

00:13:16 ◼   ► it's definitely something that I would recommend reading.

00:13:18 ◼   ► as it's a very well-written discussion of the challenges

00:13:21 ◼   ► that a small development shop entertains as well as some

00:13:26 ◼   ► of the benefits that it has and makes you think about, huh,

00:13:30 ◼   ► wonder what it would be like to be bought out,

00:13:34 ◼   ► what that would look like if that's for me.

00:13:36 ◼   ► So I just definitely would recommend looking that up.

00:13:40 ◼   ► All right, that's today's show.

00:13:42 ◼   ► Hope you enjoyed it.

00:13:43 ◼   ► Next, some things you might want to look for in tomorrow's show.

00:13:47 ◼   ► I think I'll have a pretty big response to this week's Build and Analyze episode with

00:13:52 ◼   ► Marco.

00:13:53 ◼   ► He's talking about specifically his discussions on iAd, which are very different than the

00:13:57 ◼   ► experiences that I had, though I agree with much of what he says.

00:14:01 ◼   ► So we'll have a bit of that, and we'll just have to wait and see what news unfolds.

00:14:06 ◼   ► Maybe Lion will come out.

00:14:08 ◼   ► Maybe new MacBook Airs will come out.

00:14:10 ◼   ► Who knows?

00:14:11 ◼   ► Anyway, until then, have a good day and happy coding.