• Ten years of Overcast: A new foundation

    Today, on the tenth anniversary of Overcast 1.0, I’m happy to launch a complete rewrite and redesign of most of the iOS app, built to carry Overcast into the next decade — and hopefully beyond. Like podcasts better than blog posts? Listen to ATP #596 for more! What’s new Much faster, more responsive, more reliable,…

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  • Introducing Voice Boost 2: Remaster your podcasts

    The latest update to Overcast includes a feature that I’m especially proud of that took over a year to build. Voice Boost 2 is an all-new audio engine that includes professional-grade, mastering-quality loudness normalization. When I first introduced Overcast in 2014, Voice Boost was one of its headlining features: Voice Boost is a combination of…

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  • In-App Purchase Rules

    A summary of today’s changes to 3.1.3 Other Purchase Methods: Your app must use Apple’s in-app-purchase (IAP) system for all purchases made in the app. Unless they’re purchases for goods or services that are consumed outside the app, in which case you are prohibited from using IAP. Unless those goods or services consumed outside the…

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  • Developer relations

    Apple’s leaders continue to deny developers of two obvious truths: That our apps provide substantial value to iOS beyond the purchase commissions collected by Apple. That any portion of our customers came to our apps from our own marketing or reputation, rather than the App Store. For Apple to continue to deny these is dishonest,…

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  • The future of the App Store

    After the dust settles from the developer class-action settlement, the South Korean law, the JFTC announcement, and the Apple v. Epic decision, I think the most likely long-term outcome isn’t very different from the status quo — and that’s a good thing. Allowing external purchases Here’s what I think we’ll end up with: Apple will…

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  • Clip sharing with Overcast

    Sharing podcasts has never been easy, but I’ve always tried to lead the way with Overcast, with publicly shareable episode links and optional recommendations from your Twitter friends since version 1.0 in 2014. Podcast sharing has been limited to audio and links, but today’s social networks are more reliant on images and video, especially Instagram.…

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  • Apple is Listening

    Something big changed at Apple around the beginning of 2017. They had encountered significant turbulence in the product line over the preceding years, especially Macs. It was a rough time to be a pro Mac user. The “trash can” 2013 Mac Pro addressed only a fraction of the needs solved by the previous “cheese grater”…

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  • Overcast summer update

    Today’s Overcast update (2019.6) brings some great new features. But first, I need to set low expectations for iOS 13, watchOS 6, and macOS Catalina updates this fall. Halfway through the summer, I’ve made much less progress than expected, having been overwhelmed by the required OS changes, my own technical and design debts, and unusually…

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  • The 16-inch MacBook Pro

    After my first day with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro, I’m very optimistic about it. 🎧  Hear more on today’s Accidental Tech Podcast! Two years ago, I wrote a wishlist to fix the MacBook Pro, and the 16-inch doesn’t actually deliver most of it. But time and technological progress are slowly getting Apple off the hook:…

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  • Low Power Mode for Mac laptops: making the case again

    In light of today’s rumor that a Pro Mode may be coming that seems to offer benefits in the opposite direction,1 I wanted to re-make the case for a Low Power Mode on macOS — and explain why now is the time. Modern hardware constantly pushes thermal and power limits, trying to strike a balance…

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