I’ve been keeping all my music in iTunes Match, Apple’s $24.99/year subscription service that syncs your entire music library across all your Apple devices. But I just got the Amazon Echo, so it’s time to give all my music to Alexa instead!
The off switch for the iTunes Match subscription is tucked away in settings, so I made this video to help anyone who wants to cancel their subscription, too.
awake. head throbbing. vision blurry.
So begins one of the most unique games to ever hit the App Store. What follows is an experience that takes the player through a dystopian world that starts with the simple gathering of wood and slowly grows in scope to places you’d never expect.
Amir Rajan discovered the original web-based A Dark Room (developed by Michael Townsend) on Hacker News and knew it needed to be on mobile. He negotiated the rights to create the iOS app and began his journey into RubyMotion and Objective-C development. He shares how he promoted his app and what it felt like to have a meteoric rise to the top of the App Store.
You should listen to this episode if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to have a best-selling app.
NOTE: It’s highly recommend that you finish A Dark Room before listening to this episode!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:15 — 44.4MB) | Embed
I was still working retail when I truly felt what it was like to be a novice. I was just starting the second chapter of a book on Objective-C (after two other books and a video course couldn’t help me) and the words were beginning to sound like gibberish. I just couldn’t make it any farther in my journey to learn programming.
Each of these resources contained a small disclaimer in the intro: some prior programming experience required. At that point in my life, I had done a little HTML and CSS, and figured that experience was a solid foundation for learning more advanced programming with the right guidance.
But nothing made sense. And it wasn’t a matter Googling terms I didn’t understand — I didn’t even know what I should be Googling or how to determine a helpful answer. Everything I read went over my head, and it was impossible to sort the helpful information from the advanced stuff that I really wasn’t ready for yet.
That’s when I discovered Programming in Objective-C by Stephen Kochan. It taught a language I was interested in learning, and didn’t require any prior programming experience. I didn’t need to learn C before tackling Objective-C. The book simply started from the beginning. It was for novices like me.
Programming teaches you a new way to think. Yet even after finishing that book, I still remembered what it felt like to be in the dark. When I talked to other people interested in learning to code, I saw them in the same place I was years before…and I wanted to help.
That’s why I launched Novice No Longer, to help people build apps even if they had no prior programming experience. I launched the podcast in order to further this goal. Over time, the podcast drifted away from this vision, and became more a business/entrepreneur/lifestyle design podcast. It’s been amazing, and I’ve had some amazing guests on the show, but it’s time to get back to the original vision.
I’m taking a break from the podcast for a short while for the revamp. When we return, we’re going to have some top app developers on the show, like Jeremy from Tapity and Dan Councell from Realmac Software.
Is there someone you’d like to see on the show? Let me know.
I’m also introducing a brand new segment to the show, called Ask a Developer. Each week, I’m going to play a question asked by you, the listener, and my guest and I will do our best to provide an answer. It’s a chance to get your biggest questions answered by the masters.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:33 — 7.0MB) | Embed
I was really into zines when I was in high school. I spent almost all my time on alt.zines, spent way too much time hunting for old issues of Urban Hermitt, and constantly found myself browsing the fantastic zine section at Tower Records. Almost all my money went to Microcosm Publishing.
But whenever I’d browse Microcosm Publishing, one number always caught my eye: the wholesale pricing. It was so much less than the full price. I wanted to pay that price, not retail.
I launched my own zine distribution, Deranged Distro, and stocked only the zines that I wanted to read. Selling copies more than made up for the cost of the issues I bought myself. It was a perfect situation.
My guest today is Bobby Gill, founder of BlueLabel Labs. BlueLabel Labs doesn’t just build apps for other people, it spends half its time working on its own mobile applications. Bobby has a passion for apps and some fantastic business insights. He even shares the reason why his new iOS game is only available in Canada.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:21 — 36.5MB) | Embed
Some entrepreneurs spend their entire lives trying to build the Next Big Thing, but there’s another much more successful group of business owners: lifestyle entrepreneurs. The best part about being in the latter group is that there is practically no luck involved, just skills that can be practiced and learned. Follow a fairly simple formula and you’ll find success.
On this weeks episode of the podcast, I talked to Massimo, the creator of iReal Pro, an amazing music app that helps musicians practice and prepare for gigs. Massimo has been absolutely killing it with his niche app since 2008, and it doesn’t look like things are slowing down anytime soon.
I really respect Massimo because he had an idea for a useful app, taught himself how to code, and went on to build a product that absolutely dominates his niche. He shares his tactics for getting recurring revenue through in-app purchases, and why he has no fear of larger companies like Apple and Google.
If you want a reliable formula for creating income-generating apps, you’ll want to listen to this episode.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 53:37 — 50.6MB) | Embed