Build And Analyze

Dan and Marco revisit text editors and discuss clicky tenkeyless keyboards and ergonomics, the Mac App Store's sandboxing issues, designing apps with stock UIKit widgets, foreign App Store reviews, and some of Instapaper's feature decisions including non-native Twitter integration, bookmarklet mechanics, and the lack of highlights or annotations.

Dan and Marco discuss how to research and find good products, portable and window air conditioners, the unfortunate status of TextMate 2 and the search for alternatives, Sparrow's business and acquisition, and App.net's chances of success.

Dan and Marco discuss chicken salad, Chicago pizza, the in-app purchase hack, depressingly realistic first-person shooters, gender and demographic myopia among developers, how well the 7.85" iPad might sell and what that might mean, Penny Arcade's Kickstarter, Ben Brooks' paywall, and how to get started with programming or making apps.

Dan and Marco discuss corrupt App Store binaries, responding to customer reviews, advertisers paying more than customers, VC-funded startups' road to acquisition, the business culture of condescension and euphemisms, the security of hosting sensitive files on Dropbox or GitHub, and Amazon Cloud Search.

Dan and Marco discuss keyboard-screen imprinting, Google's odd TV ball, Sirius and Pulsar, the difference between copyright and patent infringement, Instapaper's price-change results, the iPad 1 installed base, the Nexus 7, Apple's Podcasts app, why Apple probably won't offer paid podcasts, Facebook's native iOS app and why web companies need to treat mobile apps as a first-class platform, Twitter's ominous threat to client developers, and Tumblr's pinned posts.

Dan and Marco discuss cable TV, HBO, and piracy, challenges that Windows 8 and Microsoft Surface will face with developer and enterprise adoption, why other Retina Mac models may take longer than we expect, the case for Instapaper offering a "mobilizer", and Marco's diversification and innovation strategy.

Dan and Marco discuss the results of the Starbucks promotion, why it's different from making a free version of the app, Instapaper's price experiment, originality in customer-submitted ideas, the costs of filing and enforcing patents, and Marco's new-old Mac Pro.

Marco checks in from his hotel room at WWDC to talk with Dan about Apple's new hardware and software announcements.

In this truly big week, Dan and Marco discuss Instapaper's ad on Howard Stern, the Android app launch, the Starbucks App Of The Week, background location updates with geofencing, and conservative predictions about the TBA sessions at WWDC.

Dan and Marco discuss Twitter's neglected desktop and iPad apps, Flattr followup and Instacast's rejection for integrating it in-app, Zynga, personal standards and dignity, originality, getting stuck on hard problems, types of web hosting, tips for self-managed servers, and basics of web scaling.

Dan and Marco discuss Flattr, API versioning, web frameworks, and Marco's formerly secret App Store experiment: a brand new app that's nothing like Instapaper.

Dan and Marco discuss the new 5by5 Radio app, why Apple may not want to add paid upgrades to the App Store, the infinite market for podcast clients and to-do apps, Instacast's in-app-purchase backlash, how and why to remove features from an app, the new 15" MacBook Pro rumors, Thunderbolt's likely overshadowing by USB 3, and near-future concerns for a Retina laptop.

Instacast 2.0's interesting pricing, RubyMotion, seemingly impossible requirements in job postings, undercutting competitors on price, and why 5by5 probably shouldn't do a parenting show.

Marco's new baby, working from home with kids, tightening car seats, speaking at conferences, baby monitors, the costs of hiring someone, the Instapaper website job description, Read It Later and Pocket, paying attention to competitors, the future direction of Instapaper, and what Apple should do about WWDC tickets.

With Marco on paternity leave this week, Dan is joined by Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software. They discuss the origins of Daniel's flagship product, MarsEdit, the long hours often required of independent developers, and more.

Readability's failed payment system, why Instagram was worth so much to Facebook, advertisers outbidding customers, the rumored taller-screen iPhone and its effects on apps, WWDC, and Dan's bold feature decisions in the upcoming 5by5 Radio app.

Upgrades in the App Store (or the lack thereof), gesture discoverability, iPad 3 renderInContext slowdowns, the inelegant transition periods of the Pentium Pro and A5X, and burning hamburgers.

Draw Something, myths of overnight successes, the lottery mindset contributing to idea people and patent policy, how good colleges and computer science degrees affect your future career, a review of three leading iOS podcast apps, and follow-up on the BMW M5 (F10).

Dan and Marco discuss the "www" prefix, Eye-Fi with Aperture, using Kickstarter to fund large software projects, iPad Warmgate, being featured in the App Store, customer reactions to requiring iOS 5, instant coffee, and theoretical 3G-equipped MacBooks.

Dan and Marco discuss Retina-screen design considerations, Retina graphics on the web, the benefits of requiring iOS 5, and the ethics of app analytics.