Just throwing out some early impressions of iPad Pro, after having used it only a day or so.

• It’s heavy. Not heavier than you expect heavy, but as heavy as you expect, which is different from the most recent iPads. After a year of holding an iPad Air 2, this is surprising. If you’re used to a 3rd-gen iPad or iPad 1, it’ll feel right at home.
• This is not a hold in one hand, tap with the other device. At least not for long periods. It’s a sit down with the iPad on a desk while tapping with both hands device. Developers should keep that in mind when deciding where buttons should go. The Air is a better form factor for those who need to work while standing.
• The screen is gorgeous, as expected. Split screen becomes a whole lot more useful with all that extra real estate. This is a productivity machine, to be sure.
• I tweeted a pic of myself using Keynote and OmniOutliner in split view. This will change how I prep talks in the future. It’s about more than art apps, in other words. Tons of use cases for this device. Apple is right to be marketing it to everyone, not just artists. The ”Pro" name almost seems wrong, given this.
• Having said all that, the Pro will also be a great consumption device. Videos on this thing are awesome. Now I just need 12South to make a HoverBar attachment that fits the new size, and watching TV in bed will become as good as if I had a 40-inch television across the room.
• Split View Controllers should really show both Master and Detail in portrait as well as landscape. Developers can override the standard behavior on on their own, but Apple should make it automatic. Give the Pro its own size classes. That would be even better.
• I understand some people are upset the Pencil and Smart Keyboard weren’t ready at launch. But if you think about it from a Retail perspective, they couldn’t wait until December to ship this thing. And personally, I don’t think either accessory is as critical to the Pro as others think. I have no plans to ever get a keyboard for this thing. I will likely buy the Pencil but not use it for long. In the end, the device makes perfect sense for a lot of people without either.
• Apps that aren’t yet ready for the new screen size scale, the way they do on the larger iPhones. And somehow, the scaling doesn’t look as bad as it does on the phones. Until you need a keyboard. Then it’s “Oh my god, this expereince is total crap” territory. Seriously, the scaled up keyboard is a horrifying experience. Lesson: get your app ready for multitasking and the new screen size ASAP if you’re a dev. This won’t be a problem for long for most apps.
• Speaking of keyboards, I’m still getting used to the on-screen one. It’s technically big enough in landscape to use my pinky on both hands, but I’m still typing with six fingers and thumbs like I do on my Air. Having devoted number keys is awesome. Having devoted keys for brackets, apostrophes, etc. is nice, too. But I wonder what the thinking was behind removing gestures like the swipe up on comma to get an apostrophe. That gesture is so engrained in my head from my Air that I can’t stop doing it.
• Experimenting more, I see that swiping up on certain keys, such as comma, period, semicolon, etc. gives you the same effect as if you had tapped shift first. That’s sort of handy, but it’s inconsistent. Why doesn’t the same gesture give me capital letters?
• My text replacement shortcuts still haven’ synced from my iCloud accout. Why is that so inconsistent?
• I’m really missing the ability to do multiple user accounts with this thing. It would be silly to buy two of these, and yet both Jessica and I would gladly share it for our various work tasks.
• Battery life seems as good as any iPad, if not better. Glad they didn’t make it heavier by adding more battery.

In conclusion: using the Pro for the first hour or so, I didn’t feel drawn or connected to it. I liked it, but I didn’t feel affection for it, if that makes sense. Then again, I really loved my iPad mini, but I found myself using it very little. I wanted to hold it more than I wanted to use it for anything productive. I suspect the Air is the ultimate balance for the three iPad form factors. Having said that, I do think I’ll find plenty of uses for this larger one. And the more I use it, the more I seem to like it. It fits in my Waterfield Muzetto, just barely. So it is still as portable, from a practical standpoint, as my Air 2. But I imagine this device will stay at home more often than not. Unless I start seeing some apps that compel me to want to use it in the field, so to speak. If Apple were to make Mainstage, for instance, for this iPad, I’d take it on stage in a heartbeat. Perhaps as we see new apps arise, there will be more and more use cases where the Pro really shines.

Seeing this tweet a lot today in my timeline.

Here's another way of looking at it. Original iPhone screen in the empty space between the apps on the iPad Pro. pic.twitter.com/MwVLiwp8cL

— Dennis Munsie (@dmunsie) November 11, 2015

The comparison is wrongheaded, because the people sharing it are confusing points with pixels.

The original iPhone screen did indeed have 320 horizontal pixels. It was also a 1x screen, which means it had 320 points, as well.

The iPad Pro’s screen, on the other hand, is a 2X Retina screen. Thus, the 324 pixels between the app columns on the home screen represent 162pts, or roughly half the width of the original iPhone’s screen. Even that isn’t quite accurate, because the two screens also have different pixel densities. But the point is, the comparison makes no sense.

I am typing this on an iPad Pro, and I assure you, an original iPhone’s screen wouldn’t come close to fitting in between the home screen columns of the Pro.

More importantly, the point those who are sharing this are trying to make is also flawed. More space on the home screen does not mean we should jam pack it with more icons. Just because you have the space, that doesn’t mean you should fill it with more options. This is UX design 101.

I don’t know what the maximum number of icons on a screen is before the number of options becomes too confusing to the average user, but I’m willing to bet Apple does. I’m also willing to bet there’s value to having a little bit more consistency between the layouts of the various home screens of our iOS devices. Imagine setting up your new iPad Pro from a backup of your old iPad Air. Having all your apps not only restore, but restore to their familiar layout goes a long way to making that first run experience more familiar and pleasant.

“But the home screen just looks ridiculous with all that space between the icons.” This is an unbelievebly dumb reason to add another column or row of icons as well.

There’s no doubt in my mind Apple tested the Pro home screen with more densely packed icons and decided it was a bad idea. They obviously have the technical expertise to have the Springboard space icons in various ways, because they’ve done it with the various screen sizes of the iPhone. Perhaps in this case, the extra icons didn’t add value. Perhaps they have research from their customers that users find it annoying having inconsistent layouts. Who knows? The assumption that Apple is simply being lazy, or that average Twitter guy knows better is astounding, though.

I remember attending “business” talks at conferences in the early days of the App Store. Internet famous, recently made millionaire spends 45 minutes talking about his Ferrari and how you too can be just as successful with your app. Just make sure you hire a designer for your icon.

It was inspiring, and you always went home thinking you were just months away from wealth and fame. As soon as you find that designer…

Fast forward seven years, and that sort of talk doesn’t really fly anymore.
The wealth is consolidating; every year, fewer apps take a bigger percentage of the overall pie, and more small players drop out entirely or at least stop trying. Sound familiar? It’s called capitalism. It’s exactly what’s supposed to happen in a maturing market.

But as I walk up and down the island of Manhattan most days, I notice small local hardware stores, restaurants, even computer repair shops. There’s still room for indies in the post Home Depot, Olive Garden, and Apple Store world. Just as there is still room for indie developers in the post King, EA Sports, and Facebook world. There aren’t riches and fame awaiting every developer with a half-decent grasp of Xcode. But there is definitely an opportunity for some of us to make a living as independent entrepreneurs on the world’s largest software platform.

Maybe you are one of the people who has already given up. Maybe you feel like you missed your shot, and the gold rush is over. But if not, if you’re actually willing to develop your business skills and want to make a real go at sustainability — even if that takes years — then you are actually better off now that so many are starting to take their balls and go home.

The playing field for independent software development is about to get less crowded. But the remaining players will all be pros. So you’d better be ready to play like a pro.

More Recent business talks at indie iOS and Mac conferences are different from the talks of old. You may or may not have heard of the speaker or their app. But if the talk is any good, you can be sure that person knows exactly how they succeeded and has advice that goes way beyond “build a great product, and they will come.” You listen to the struggles, the failures, the strategies, and you take it all in and say to yourself “I can make it work, too.” You still go home inspired, but now you are also armed with some knowledge you can actually apply.

We can’t expect Apple or any other multi-billion dollar corporation to support us or make our success easier. All we have is each other. This community of independent entrepreneurs that is constantly experimenting, adapting, learning, and sharing.

Isn’t it great that we do have each other, at least?

This is why Release Notes exists. Charles and I know we’re not alone in wanting to succeed at this thing. We also know that there are some who are actually succeeding at this thing, though we don’t hear much about them. For 120+ episodes, we’ve attempted to present our views and those of our guests about what seems to work and what doesn’t. And now with our conference, we’re inviting this community into a room for three days to network, learn from each other, establish relationships, and compare data.

If we’re not willing to struggle together, then we are missing an incredible opportunity. This is how we survive as a small fish in an ocean of corporations.

There will be no Ferrari drivers who don’t know why they are successful on our stage. Instead, what we will have is plenty of honest, practical advice you can apply to your business. Some of our speakers are succeeding on the App Store. Others are coming from other parts of the tech world, where the market matured years ago. Some are kicking it solo, while others have built companies from one or two employees into something much larger.

Most importantly, the room will be filled with people from all over the world who belong to this community. Meals will be shared. Conversations will be had. Emails will be exchanged. And relationships will be formed.

I’ve been going to conferences a long time. I know exactly how valuable they have been to my business. But never before in the iOS and Mac development community has there been a conference focused solely on improving our business skills. And the time has never been more right, as we transition into this mature market.

Release Notes will take place on October 21–23 in Indianapolis, IN, USA. Tickets are still available, but time and availability are running out. Get yours today and join us.

Airplane Mode’s first music video goes live today. I can’t even express how much fun this was to make. Nor can I express my gratitude for everyone involved in the process.

I’ll have more to say on the Airplane Mode blog later. Dave has written a wonderful piece about putting the video together from his perspective.

In the meantime, enjoy the video. And if you’re in NYC tonight, come to Subject LES for our release party at 7pm.

And don’t miss our podcast episode about this song. Lots of background info, for those of you who like the inside scoop.

Setlists 2.0 finally hits the App Store today. It’s a huge update that involved not only tons of under-the-hood improvements to take advantage of Apple’s latest iOS technologies, but also the addition of a large number of our most requested new features. To say it was a massive undertaking is an understatement. The team really outdid themselves on this one.

I can’t wait to use it on stage during the next few Airplane Mode gigs.

The most interesting aspect of this update for most of my readers, I’m guessing, is the change we’re making to our pricing strategy. For years, Setlists has always been a paid-up-front, “premium” app at $9.99 USD. This time around, though, we’ve decided to experiment with making the app free to download, with a single in-app purchase to unlock the app’s full potential.[1]

Will this make Setlists a better business for us? We’ve looked at a lot of other apps that have similar strategies, and we’ve tried to avoid the pitfalls others have warned us about—but time will tell what the results of our experiment will be.

One interesting way to look at this switch is that our marketing no longer has the burden of making the sale. Our web site, our screenshots, whatever press we get, whatever ads we buy—all of that now only needs to convince people to download and try the app. Still not an easy task, but it’s easier than asking them to fork over money for an app they’ve never used.

The app itself now has to make the sale. And that sits better with me. I’d rather be judged by the app than the ads we place for the app or how pretty our screenshots are. Whatever the downsides of freemium (and there are many) that one change is certainly a good thing.

We’re confident once musicians try Setlists, a large number of them will find it suits their needs. So much so that we made the price to unlock $14.99 rather than $9.99. This might not be a “free trial” officially, but as with a free trial, our buyers aren’t being forced to take as great a risk, and thus we can charge accordingly.

In any event, everyone at Bombing Brain is looking forward to much smaller, incremental updates for a long while after this.

1. I know, we’re late to the freemium party, but we’re still not at all convinced that freemium is right for every app out there.  ↩