It occurs to me that the people trading barbs about the whole maps controversy on iOS are wasting time and getting bent out of shape about nothing. There’s a very simple and logical way to decide which maps app, Google’s or Apple’s, you want to use.

• If you live in an area where Apple’s map data sucks, use Google.
• If you live in an area where Google’s map data isn’t as good as Apple’s (Yes, those places exist.), use Apple’s.
• If you need transit directions, and you aren’t satisfied with the many third-party transit solutions out there for your home town (or you just don’t feel you should have to rely on a separate app for this) use Google.
• If you live in one of the many areas where the mapping data is good enough on either, try them both and decide for yourself which one works best for you. (I know, hard to believe this is possible, but it is.)
• If you’re uncomfortable with your location being tracked and your data being sold to third parties without your consent or knowledge, you can use Google, but be sure to opt out of that tracking.
• Use the app you like, and then shut the hell up about it. It’s not your job to convert the world to your way of thinking. It’s not your job to tell other people that the app they prefer, the one that works best for them, is terrible, or that they’re an idiot for prefering it. It’s a maps app. Get a life.

I’m sure Apple’s and Google’s apps will both get better over time. So revisit both on occasion if you feel your chosen solution is letting you down for whatever reason. Or don’t. That’s entirely up to you.

This is what that famous ‘competition’ so many people claim to love looks like. Be happy we have choices. If you can’t admit that both solutions have their advantages and disadvantages, you’re being a zealot, not a rational judge of the true merits of either solution. Which is fine, as long as you’re aware of that.

25-GPU cluster cracks every standard Windows password in  <6 hours For the time being, readers should assume that the vast majority of their passwords are hashed with fast algorithms. That means passwords should never be less than nine characters, and using 13 or even 20 characters offers even better security. But long passwords aren’t enough. Given the prevalence of cracking lists measured in the hundreds of millions, it’s also crucial that passwords not be names, words, or common phrases. One easy way to make sure a passcode isn’t contained in such lists is to choose a text string that’s randomly generated using Password Safe or another password management program.

via Ars Technica

The operative phrase in that quote is “for the time being.” You can increase the number of characters in your password all you want; some guy is just going to build a 35-GPU cluster and crack it next week.

As I’ve said before, the concept of username and password needs to die a quick and horrible death.

Just as the TSA has it all wrong, treating everyone as guilty until proven innocent, so too does computer security waste time and money targeting the wrong people. And, similarly, it’s terrible at stopping actual criminals.

The current crop of security experts keeps reacting to this issue with more and more user-hostile solutions. Make the passwords longer. Make sure they don’t use complete words. Force them to have at least one number, one special character, one capital letter. Change it every three months. Take off your shoes. No more than 3-ounces of liquids…

I’m sorry, but that’s crap. If you walk up to me, I can tell whether it’s you or not immediately, without you doing anything. My phone needs to do the same thing, or at least something similar.

Imagine a world where a computer simply recognizes you, and you go to work. The burden rests on the computer, not on the user.

I know that’s not easy. So get some money together, assemble a team of the smartest people in the world, and get on it. There’s billions of dollars to be made for anyone who solves this problem. Is that not exactly the sort of thing Silicon Valley startups are supposed to be doing with all that venture capital?

Or are we just going to be finding new ways to share pictures of bacon for the next ten years?

Buy More Apps | Outside Xcode: “And just like the friend who explains how good, proper coffee tastes, and that it’s worth the effort… From time to time tell your friends and family that developers put a lot of effort into building well designed apps – and that quality is worth paying for.”

(Via. Outside Xcode)

Exactly. It seems like a small thing, but just talking amongst your friends and family about what goes into developing a great app, just reminding yourself that this is craftsmanship and that it should be valued, goes a long way to bolstering public opinion about software and its inherent worth to the greater community. Educating the public, selling your skills to the uninitiated, is part of your job as a software engineer or designer. If you’re not willing to be an evangelist for yourself and your craft, why are you in the software business?

You have to believe in the value of what you do enough to not be uncomfortable telling others about it. Every small businessperson is in Sales, whether he or she wants to be or not.

Many great points here by Gavin Hope, reacting to my Loren Brichter article from last week. I love that my little piece is echoing around the web a little, getting even more people to talk about this topic, keeping the conversation going. And I get to discover some new voices I hadn’t discovered yet.

I’d recommend checking out the rest of Gavin’s blog. Some really good stuff there.

In September 2011, I attended 360iDev for the first time. At the time, Fantastical for Mac was a very new app, and I was happy to see that one of its creators, Michael Simmons, would be giving a talk. After his talk, I told him how much I liked Fantastical and that I was hoping he’d make an iPhone version. He gave me a coy “We’re looking into it” response, and I went home thinking it was likely coming in the next six months or so.

Fast forward to September 2012, and I’m giving a talk at 360iDev. This time, Michael Simmons would be watching me speak, and Fantastical for iPhone was still a few months from release. The day before my talk, I bumped into Michael at the elevator, re-introduced myself, and told him again how much I liked Fantastical. He immediately invited me to hang out with him and his friends for dinner and introduced me to many of the other speakers.

My point here is that Michael is an extremely approachable guy. We had a great conversation over dinner about App Store pricing, and he gave me some valuable advice. He also attended my talk the next day and gave me lots of encouraging feedback.

Fast forward to yesterday, and Fantastical is finally released for iPhone. Somewhere in the middle of the day, I see this tweet from Michael:

Take that, Angry Birds AND Star Wars! instagr.am/p/SoU8GeumQ-/

— Michael Simmons (@macguitar) November 29, 2012

For at least a few hours on launch day, Fantastical for iPhone was the number 1 iPhone app. It was beating out Angry Birds Star Wars, a game that combines two amazingly powerful brands held by two multi-million (billion in the case of Star Wars) dollar companies. Flexibits is a small, independent operation. This shouldn’t be possible.

But the image he attached actually tells an even more important story. Angry Birds Star Wars sells for $0.99. Fantastical was selling at an “introductory rate” of $1.99. So that means Fantastical, for at least a few hours yesterday, was making more than double the amount of money that Angry Birds Star Wars was. With a non-game app made by an indie shop that was more than $0.99.

That’s mind-numbing.

Imagine my shock when exactly no one in the tech press wrote that story yesterday.

(Correction: Matthew Panzarino did in fact write this exact story for thenextweb.com. I apologize for the error. And kudos to him for bringing this story some bona fide media attention.)

What’s my point in all this? Well, on Wednesday, I said that you should forget the top charts on the App Store, that you’re never going to get on them. And I still stand by that advice. Because you’re not Loren Brichter, and you’re not Michael Simmons, either. But seeing Loren and Michael break that barrier, get themselves up on these lists as small independent shops, should be encouraging to you, as long as you don’t take away the wrong lessons from their successes.

You see, neither Michael Simmons nor Loren Brichter were trying to get on the top charts. The goal was to create a great app first and then get it into as many hands as possible. The fact that they reached the top of the chart is evidence that they succeeded in their goal, not the goal itself.

Loren made it to the top of the chart with a freemium game. Michael made it there with a $2 productivity app. The price had less to do with either success than most people think.

Another thing I said two days ago was that most iOS developers are great at code, terrible at business. Guess what Michael Simmons is amazingly good at?

You need both a great app and a good head for business to succeed at this thing. If you’re confident that you’re making the best apps you can possibly make, and you’re still not really breaking through in the App Store, it’s probably time to start studying sales and marketing.

Time will tell how long Fantastical will stay high up on the charts. I suspect that it will fade slowly down to a comfortable spot in the top fifty or so, like most popular apps do. But that amazing launch day alone netted Flexibits more money than most apps make in a lifetime. And the giant user base of mostly happy customers who bought Fantastical yesterday is going to evangelize the crap out of Fantastical, bringing a nice steady stream of sales for years.

In short, Fantastical is a role model for how to succeed on the App Store as an independent developer.

So if you want a tip from your old pal, Joe, here it is: Keep an eye on Flexibits. When you come across interviews with Michael Simmons, particularly ones where he reveals some secrets about how to have a successful launch, read or listen to them. When you see he’s speaking at some event somewhere, go watch him talk. And introduce yourself afterwards.

And as you begin to succeed on the App Store yourself, and you bump into someone you don’t know who tells you he or she likes your work, take a few moments to be gracious and encouraging, and share some of your wisdom. Having a reputation for being a genuinely nice, generous person never seems to hurt.

Realmac Blog – App Pricing and the Freemium Trend: “So what does this mean for us and the future of apps? Given the right product, a freemium model is something that we may have to consider. To throw in some business speak, the right product matched to the right target market is critically important here, and when done properly going freemium could be a massively successful strategy. That said, how it affects the perceived value of our craft remains to be seen.”

(Via. Realmac Blog)

While I agree with Rob that there’s a place for freemium, this disturbing trend of assuming that price is the major factor in a particular app’s success always gives me pause.

I think Letterpress would have done fine if it weren’t freemium. Why? Because it was made by Loren Brichter, and it’s an awesome game. You can’t just look at the pricing model and assume that’s the reason why something hit or didn’t. We have no way of knowing for sure how well Letterpress would have done at $2 or $5, but we can’t assume that it would have done worse. It could have made more money.

A couple of things to keep in mind if you’re getting into the App Store software business, especially if you want to make a productivity, or some other sort of “non-game” app:

• The vast majority of iPhone and iPad owners only buy games. Actually, to be more accurate, most of them don’t buy games; they download free games. And then a very small percentage of those folks actually pay the $1 or whatever for the “advanced” features. Those hundreds of millions of devices that Apple talks about at every keynote? Most of them are never going to run your app at any price. Not because these users are cheap. They paid for an iPhone or iPad. They have a few bucks to spare. Not because they hate you. They don’t know you. It’s just that paying for apps is not on the radar. They just like playing casual games once in a while, and that’s all they need from their phone. So forget them. They’re not your customers. There are hundreds of thousands of other iOS users who are interested in your product and do pay for software regularly. Don’t confuse those users with everyone else. They are two very different groups of people. You don’t need to get them all.
• The Top Grossing Apps list is a complete waste of your time. Repeat after me: You will never be on this list. Furthermore, the apps on this list have almost nothing to do with your success or failure. Everyone there has all sorts of advantages (connections, press, luck, VC backing, etc.) that you don’t have. Trying to emulate anything about any of these apps is an exercise in futility. You can make money just fine without ever paying attention to this list at all. In fact, you’re more likely to make money if you forget the list exists.
• You’re not Loren Brichter. You’re just not. Maybe you’re a genius, and you’ve made an app that’s even better than anything Loren has ever done. That’s nice, but you’re still not Loren Brichter. You didn’t work at Apple on the original iPhone. You didn’t have one of the early App Store successes with Tweetie. You haven’t guest lectured at Stanford. You didn’t earn the reputation he has for building the highest quality stuff, and you aren’t universally adored in the Apple community as an all-around nice guy. You may be all those things some day if you keep working at it like he did, but you’re not there yet, and you’re not getting there this week. If you want to emulate anything about Loren, emulate his commitment to quality, his ability to take advantage of the luck that comes his way, and his focus on the product rather than the profit motive. Don’t emulate his freemium game pricing model. That’s like donning a white suit and thinking you can dance like Travolta. Not going to happen.
• There are ten times more failed freemium apps than successful ones. The bottom grossing apps are mostly free or freemium, too. You know why? Because far too many devs embrace freemium as the “only way to make money.” Most devs are smart engineers but terrible business people. Don’t be that.
• The goal isn’t to get rich quick and retire young. That could happen on the App Store, but there are much easier ways to reach that goal. You haven’t heard many stories about the dev who makes an app in his spare time and hits it big a la Steve Detemer lately because we’re past that stage. Far richer and more connected people have descended on the App Store with well-known brands and armies of resources, and they get the bulk of the attention and the money. But that’s fine. There’s still plenty of room for you. Find a measure of success that’s both realistic and noble, and work towards it. Make something you’re proud of and figure out a way to make a living with it so you can make it better. Be ready for that to take years.
• Buy apps. And start encouraging everyone you know to pay for quality. If you balk at paying $1.99 for any app that genuinely interests you, get out of the business immediately. You’re part of the problem.
• If you’re in the apps business to get rich quick or to get into the Top Grossing list, you have to be prepared to play an entirely different game, with venture capital, millions in investment, teams of engineers, and an exit strategy. Just making your app free to play isn’t going to do you any good. That’s one piece of a much larger and very different business strategy.