TechCrunch: “Remember when everyone was freaking out over the Apple in-app subscription changes? You should. It was just a month ago. And while some of the fears that arose do appear to be very real, the two things most people focused on were Amazon’s Kindle app and the Netflix app. Well guess what? Both received updates today, and neither includes the supposedly mandatory changes.”
That’s a relief. Let’s hope this doesn’t change.
TechCrunch: The city isn’t thanking Twitter for bringing all these high paying jobs to San Francisco, either. Rather, some supervisors don’t want the tax break at all, and seem quite willing to see Twitter bail to tax-free Brisbane. Says Supervisor John Avalos: “Who are the [Twitter] investors? Probably some of the wealthiest people in this country. And we are giving them more wealth.â€
Dave Winer: “When I designed Radio2, I aimed to create the thinnest possible blogging tool, one that did the least possible and still was useful. Simple yet useful, and usable.”
Dave’s latest cut at weblogging and social media. It has a very simple UI and he’s sharing it.
Very nice.
Politico: “I came here to warn you, the party may be over,” Franken said. “They’re coming after the Internet hoping to destroy the very thing that makes it such an important [medium] for independent artists and entrepreneurs: its openness and freedom.â€
Bummer.
tap tap tap: “The reality is the gold rush days of the App Store are long over – that’s not to say there isn’t loads of gold still locked up in the hills, it’s just all the easy gold deposits have been scoured and panned for and found. The market has matured, and App Store customers’ tastes and demands have grown more sophisticated. Success stories these days tend to be of hard earned fortunes and corporate bought victories instead of the parade of indie lottery-winner stories we heard again and again during the App Store’s early days.”
Back when Jay and I were working on RxCalc I was hoping to make a few hundred dollars a month. The reality of it was all together something else. A few dollars a month. On a good day we sell five copies. I haven’t given up on the idea of making a living on iOS or OS X, but it’s not going to be easy.
Scripting News: “1. If you make a Twitter client, you have a bit of time to get out of that business. If you were thinking about writing one, don’t.”
I haven’t read the entire “consistency and ecosystem” post but there’s a lot of language in there around do’s and don’ts. A lot of it is to help make the service as good as it can possibly be, you don’t want, or need, a bunch of spammers abusing the API’s, right? Me neither, but what about Twitter advertising, or things like the #dickbar that had users of the Twitter iPhone client up in arms? What if your client WAS REQUIRED to show the #dickbar? How would you feel about that? Probably not so good.
Is it time for that distributed “Twitter-like” service without the single authority? Maybe.
If you’re a Twitter Client developer you’d better read the new Twitter API Terms of Service, now.
Good morning movie liners, we have a winner.
Congratulations to Mr. Chris Ledoux!
The correct answer was…
as delivered by Edna ‘E’ Mode.
Good morning, here’s the line, good luck!
Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.
Manton Reece: “Free apps and the problem of exclusive distribution are linked. Get rid of free apps, and the store can support itself naturally. Get rid of exclusive distribution, and Apple can be more creative about charging developers who do want to participate in the App Store. If Amazon isn’t happy with Apple’s terms, users can install the Kindle app outside the store and it doesn’t cost Apple anything to maintain.”
I can’t see this happening, but I’m sure a lot of folks would like to see it. I don’t happen to be one, at least not today.
Mike Ash: “As anyone who does threaded programming knows, it’s difficult. Really difficult. Threaded execution results in highly unpredictable timing with how multiple threads interact with each other. The result is that code which appears to be correct and passes tests can be subtly flawed in such a way that it fails rarely and mysteriously.
There are many rules to follow when writing threaded code, but the most important one is this: lock all access to shared data.”
If you’re a Windows developer, and have had the pleasure of coding a threaded application, OSAtomic sounds pretty darned familiar, without reading Mike’s article. If your brain instantly went to InterlockedIncrement you’re not alone.
Threading can be difficult. Read what Mr. Ash has to say if you’re new to Cocoa, or new to development. Threads can be your best friend or your worst enemy.