Transmit iOS was great, and yet
Panic is winding down Transmit iOS. I am surprised. I assumed they were doing good. They are, as a company. But even great companies that create compelling app have problems in justifying further investments on products that don’t bring in enough money. It’s a bittersweet announcement. It must have been a tough call. I think it’s important to not fall in the “if Panic can’t make it, I can’t make it either” trap.
Bye bye white label apps
I listened to the last episode of Release Notes about the new App Store guidelines. There’s a new clause. 4.2.6 Apps created from a commercialized template or app generation service will be rejected. App Store guidelines source My first reaction was “finally!”. There’s too many clones in the App Store and it’s time to clean it up. So bravo Apple. But my thinking here is mostly based about clones of games.
Apps need a subtitle in the App Store
With the great news announced by Apple there will be some challenges in renaming applications. David Smith has an interesting post about it. 50 characters for a name is not a lot. Tweetbot - A beautiful Twitter client is 38. I’d have to struggle a bit with Podrover. These all fit: Podrover - Track and collect podcast reviews Podrover - Keep track of podcast reviews Podrover - Stay on top of your podcast reviews As I was listening to Release Notes today, Joe came up with an interesting proposal: an app should have a subtitle.
Good news on App Store policies
Apple announced a bunch of changes to the App Store The best news is that … there are also apps on the App Store that no longer function as intended or follow current review guidelines, and others which have not been supported with compatibility updates for a long time. We are implementing an ongoing process of evaluating apps for these issues, notifying their developers, and removing problematic and abandoned apps from the App Store.
Vesper shutting down
A few weeks after Vesper launched I clearly remember I was in Union Square in San Francisco, talking to a friend. At some point of the conversation we agreed on the following thought: If they can’t pull it off, who can? “They” is a sort of dream team: Brent Simmons, Dave Wiskus and John Gruber. I didn’t even think it was possible for Vesper to fail. Not to belittle the skills of Brent and Dave but I thought the “marketing power” of Gruber was essentially endless.
Supporting IPv6 Networks
In my list of transitions I forgot to mention IPv6 support. Mostly because I didn’t stumble upon it. Until today. I knew it was announced. I just didn’t recall when it was the deadline. It was June 1st 2016. From that day on every iOS (and maybe Mac app?) has to support IPv6. So yesterday I submitted an app for a client and my jaw dropped when it was rejected because it didn’t support IPv6.
Not Easy as PIE
I was submitting a new app to the App Store. I didn’t use TestFlight for beta testing. So new app, new id, new everything. Archive and validate. Once validation passes I usually think I am done. So I start uploading and bragging about it. Until … the upload fails. Must be a glitch, I retry. Failed again. I try many times and I end up with this on iTunes connect.
Apps like Music Singles
I’d rather Apple do tons of crazy experiments, some of which may hurt my business, than keep neglecting their major role in the entire consumer-software market by continuing to treat apps like music singles forever. Marco Arment source Apps have been treated like music singles, released once and NEVER meant to be updated. Since the beginning. Let’s give Phil Schiller some time to rearrange the App Store.