Weatherlutionary: Pocket Weather HD 2.0
We’re stoked to announce that our shiny new Pocket Weather HD 2.0 update has been approved by Apple. What’s new? Retina graphics. That’s what.
Pocket Weather HD looks absolutely stunning on the new iPad’s retina display. The high resolution Sky and Dark themes look so good, you’ll want to show off the weather to your friends.
… And show it off to your friends you should, because Pocket Weather HD only utilises trusted weather data from Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology.
Pocket Weather HD is still the best way to check Australia’s weather conditions on your iPad. This version contains all the best features from the iPhone, enhanced and tweaked to look great on your iPad.
Get it from the app store today!
Australian Weather on your Mac: It’s About Time
At Shifty Jelly we only build apps that we want to use, and for a long time now we’ve been missing one thing. Accurate, easy to get to Australian Weather, on our Macs. Well it is missing no more! Introducing Australian Weather for Mac:
So if you live in Australia, and have a mac, you know what to do: Buy it now!
Still not convinced, then allow us to help you. Lion has been the #1 paid app in Australia for as long as we can remember, so we’d like you to help us take the big cat down:
Your time has come Mufasa...
Do it for Australia! Send the big cat a message, your time has come!
And yes, before you ask, this is a hint of things to come if you own an iPod, iPad, iPhone or Android Device…more Pocket Weather goodness will be coming your way this year 
2012 The Shifty Jelly Year Of The Shiny
Welcome to 2012, and goodbye to January…where on earth does the time go! This is the first year we’ve sat down and actually planned the year ahead. It’s been quite an exciting task and today we thought we’d share a little bit of that planning process with you. Nothing is guaranteed of course, we’re not exactly renowned for sticking to deadlines, or plans, so we’ll see how it goes.
First things first, we present to you Shiny Item #1:
Our New Website Click Me Click Me!
Off you go, visit it, marvel at it, behold it’s simple, shiny beauty. The next thing you’ll probably notice is Shiny Item #2:
Ohhh...what could it be?!
That’s right, we’ve been working on a brand new Mac app. No details yet, we’ll just let you marvel mysteriously.
But of course it wouldn’t be the Official Year of Shiny Things (why yes, I did just make that up, thanks for asking) if there wasn’t more than just those two things, and there certainly is. We plan on making some very big changes to our existing iOS apps, as well as our Android apps. This is the first year we’re going to turn our Android development into a first class experience. What we’ll be striving for is an equal (or better!) app experience on our Android apps in comparison to our iOS ones.
Suffice it to say we’re very excited about 2012, and if you own an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android Phone, Android Tablet or a Mac you should be too! If on the other hand you own only Windows products, then perhaps it’s time to evaluate where you are in life, and what on earth you’re doing reading our blog…
Standing Up For Android
It seems these days you don’t have to go far to find people that want to belittle Android, often for reasons they feel are perfectly objective and valid. I’d call out Marco Arment and John Gruber as two of the biggest offenders, but the problem runs far deeper than that. Gruber plays with Android phones and always seems curious, but he’s someone who loves iOS, and just doesn’t get why people choose Android. As for Marco, how many Android apps has he made? 0 as far as we’re aware. He thinks it’s pointless, and would be a waste of his time. Would it? As someone who develops for both platforms, we’d like to delve a bit deeper here. This is for all the Marcos & Grubers of the world. Before we continue though, can we just note that I haven’t called Gruber or Marco a ‘fanboi’. I would love it if we could just erase that word from our vocabulary in 2012. To be clear: calling someone a ‘fanboi’ is not a valid argument, it’s just plain idiotic.
First some background. We’ve been in the iOS app store since August of 2008, which for those that are counting is only a month or so after it first launched. We’ve been on Android now for about a year. We make serious apps like Pocket Casts and Pocket Weather AU, things that take a lot of development effort and involve serious server back-ends. We’ve made enough money since then to support 2 full time staff, and 2 part time designers. Yes we’re the guys who had the run in with Amazon, the email from Steve Jobs, and we’re not millionaires.
So first, let’s cover the Android/iOS myths that absolutely infuriate us:
Myth 1: Android users only buy Android because they are cheap, and they have no idea what OS it’s running
Fact: We talk regularly to all our Android users, and the #1 reason they buy Android is because they prefer it. It’s different for every phone and every person but there’s normally a hardware or software reason they choose Android over iOS. In every case they were aware of the iPhone, a lot even owned an iPhone in the past.
Myth 2: iPhone users only buy iPhones because they have an Apple logo on them
Fact: It should be as obvious as myth 1, but no matter how fanatical some Apple lovers might appear, they choose the device because they like it, because it suits the way they want to use the phone and integrates into their lives.
Myth 3: You can’t make money in the Google Market selling Paid Apps
Fact: As a developer who earnt more in the Android store this month than on the iOS store, with a paid app (no ads), we’re fairly certain we can call this one busted. Here’s a graph for you visual types:
Sales: Android (green) vs iOS (blue)
Pocket Casts Sales: Android (green) vs iOS (blue)
Two points to make here: firstly yes, you can make real money on Android. Secondly Pocket Casts on iOS has been quite a success, yet the Android version has made it look like a dismal failure. 95% of all Pocket Casts revenue in November was made on Android, not iOS.
Myth 4: Android users don’t care about quality, smoothness or well designed apps
Fact: If you haven’t realised by now, it should be becoming clear, you can’t stereotype the users of a platform into a neat box. We’ve found the opposite though, Android users love quality and well designed apps as much as their iOS counterparts. There are people that prefer Android, just as there are people that prefer iOS. You get a free head slap if you were thinking that’s just because they hate Apple. You don’t have to hate something to love something else.
Myth 5: Apple/Google need to lose so that Google/Apple can win
Fact: It’s infuriating (have we over-used that word yet?) to see people debate who is winning in the mobile space, Apple or Google. They do it by market share, they do it by profit numbers. Here’s a radical thought: they are both winning! Every month sees their install base grow, at a very rapid rate. Why can’t they both win? The mobile space is huge, and there’s no logical reason you can’t have both Apple and Google win, without them annihilating one another…so can we just stop with this already?
So here’s what it comes down to as a developer: your customers are choosing both Android and iOS. If you have the resources, you should be developing for both. You can choose not to of course, but that’s your loss. It’s almost 2012 let’s stop pretending that Android users are all pirates with leprosy.
Finally, we’d like to publicly challenge Marco Arment to bring Instapaper to Android and drop the negative attitude. We’ll bet you one large cup of our finest Australian Coffee that you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how great the Google Market is. In many ways it’s a better place to be than iOS, since so many developers are ignoring it, and yet there is a massive install base waiting to give you their money.
Update: Marco responds here
Pocket Casts Lite Now Available
Feel like getting a taste of Pocket Casts without having to pay, now you can!
Just in case you’re still reading this:
Free Version:
- Limited to 5 podcast subscriptions
- Instant refresh (our server monitors your feeds, so your phone doesn’t have to. Save your data & your time!)
- Stream or download without file size limits, over 3G or WIFI.
- Background downloading on supported devices (so you can do other things while your podcasts download)
- Quick skip feature, one tap of the screen and you can jump forward or back through your podcasts
- Supports Air Play for both audio and video podcasts (so you can stream them to your speakers, or Apple TV)
- Supports headphone controls & multi-tasking toolbar
- Playlist for continuous playback
- Watch video podcasts as video or audio
- Variable playback speed
- Podcast chapter support
- Download two files at once, and feel like you’re from the future!
- Share your podcasts, episodes or even your position in an episode with anyone who cares
- Maintains where you are up to in each of your podcasts (streaming or downloaded) and restarts from there next time you play that episode
In the full version:
- Unlimited number of podcasts
- Automatic cleanup of old episodes, which you can choose per podcast or globally (or both!)
- Push notifications when new episodes are available
- Settings for all sorts of things, how far to skip forward and back, stop downloads on 3G, etc
- OPML import & export
- Ability to have custom cover art and titles
- Warm fuzzy feelings (think puppies, kittens and rainbow unicorns) knowing you’ve supported a small developer
You Guys Are Millionaires Right?
People often ask, “What’s it like to be an independent developer?”, “You guys are millionaires right?”, “Your job sounds awesome, tell me more!”. So let’s talk about what it’s like to be an independent developer. First things first, no we’re not millionaires, few indie devs are. Philip drives a Magna (the Australian equivalent of a Yugo/Lada), I drive a lease car, Matt doesn’t have a car. None of us own houses, though 2 of us have mortgages. I’d like to address some common mis-conceptions and answer some questions. Like a true politician I’ve seeded the question list myself, and I’ll be answering. For once though we’ll leave the comments open, so feel free to ask any questions you may have.
So you guys are rolling in money right?
No. In fact we’ve been losing money for the last 6 months. By losing money, I mean literally every month the amount of money in our bank account has been going down. Before we got featured by Google on the Android market place, we were about a month away from having no money whatsoever. I’ve talked to many indie developers in Australia, and they are universally in the same boat. Some have taken on client work to try and fill the gap, others are working from home trying to minimise every expense they have. And I’m talking about the successful ones, the companies with great apps that have done well.
So it’s tough being independent?
Yes. You put an enormous amount of effort (and yourself) into every product you make. Sometimes you find people deriding it, or dismissing it after spending 13.2 seconds using it. People tell you not to take that personally. Good luck with that. When you invest 6 months of your life, day and night, creating a product there’s no way in hell you can’t take other people’s comments personally. Reading App Store reviews can be as much fun as slapping yourself in the face with an ice cold trout on days where you manage to ship a bug with your product.
Your decisions are often constrained by practical matters like ‘what do I need to do today, to feed my family in 2 months time?’ and silly things like keeping your company in business. You have to deal with IAS, BAS, Superannuation Insurance and tax up the wazoo. You invent words like wazoo just to stay sane.
Then you see an app like ’101 sex positions’ or ’301 Fart Noises’ reach the lofty heights of App Store Success. They spent a week on a gimmick and made bank, you spent 6 months building an app of utility and are struggling. Let’s not even get into the long debates you get into with people about whether they should buy your $1.99 app. People will spend hours researching a $2 purchase, browsing reviews, emailing the developer, checking online forums. Then they will go to a coffee shop they’ve never been before and buy a $4 coffee. From the developer they expect unlimited support, unlimited free updates. From the coffee shop they expect nothing except mediocre coffee.
Finally it’s not a level playing field either. There are companies with millions of dollars behind them making apps, whole teams of people. At the other end of the spectrum there are young, keen enthusiasts working out of their parents basements. The former might crush you with the sheer size of their teams, and the level of features and integration they provide. The latter may kill you because they don’t care much for, or need to make money and can undercut you at every turn.
But there’s good bits too right?
Yes, of course. You get to do what you love, and nobody is your boss. You get to create great products that people love using. You get emails from people telling you how your apps have changed their lives, touched them (in strictly non-sexual) and awesome ways. The good really does outweigh the bad, no question at all. I wouldn’t trade this job for any other in the world, except maybe the one Richard Branson has…the idea of your own private islands does have a certain appeal…
Piracy?
It’s a problem, always has been in the software industry. As a kid I pirated all my software, because I felt like these were giant, faceless corporations that didn’t need my money, and I had no money to give them anyway. I pirated operating systems, I pirated apps, I pirated games. Then one day I got a job, and learnt just how hard it is to make good software, and a switch went off in my head. Now I pay for every piece of software I have, sometimes I buy apps I don’t even need, just because I appreciate the level of crafts(wo)manship and care that went into them. If it’s too expensive and I can’t afford it, I just don’t use it.
The real problem is that when you’re a company of 2.5 people, piracy really hurts. Every lost sale makes it harder to stay around and keep making (what are hopefully) great apps. You can argue all day about how these people wouldn’t have bought your app anyway, and piracy is good because more people get to try your apps, but that doesn’t change the fact that piracy costs us money. We spend money on server infrastructure that is used by paying customers and pirates alike. We answer emails and support from pirates (we know who you are by the way). You can’t stop piracy, people that want to steal your app badly will find a way. You can minimise it, but our feeling is every minute you spend fighting piracy you’ve wasted. It’s better served devoted to your paying customers. Up until now all we’ve done to our software is put in server & client code so we know who the pirates are, and who the paying customers are. We don’t do anything with that information, it’s just food for thought.
Speaking of food, I’ll leave you with this thought: every time you pirate a piece of software from an independent developer, we get closer to that developer never making another app, or updating their app, because they’ve gone off and got another job. It’s like breaking into your favourite corner store, do it enough times, and they’ll close their doors forever.
Shouldn’t all software be free? How can you live with yourself for charging for it?
No. Very few bits of software ever written were not funded by someone. People have to eat, they have to sleep somewhere and feed their families. Take Android for example: it’s free, and open-source, yet every Google engineer working on it is paid, likely far higher than you are. They are able to not charge you, because they make all their money in search & advertising. Notice that they don’t open-source any of their search code, for good reason: that’s their core business, Android isn’t. To me truly free, open-source software is a religious myth, in much the same way that [pick a religion you don't agree with] is. It comes with it’s own proselytes, zealots and ideologies, but it’s ultimately a lie.
Further to the above, what’s so offensive about charging for software? When was the last time you walked into a shop, saw a great product you really needed, and just stole it? When was the last time you debated with a shop-keeper about how this product you wanted should really be free? Software costs money to make, real money. Charging for it is how that money is recovered. Don’t let all the VC funded startups that give out everything for free fool you, paid software is often how you get great software. Since great people are able to make great things, without having to worry about how they are going to feed and clothe themselves.
Developers seem greedy to me, especially the ones that charge for separate iPad apps or charge for upgrades!
Independent developers are rarely, very rarely driven by greed. We made Pocket Weather AU and Pocket Weather AU HD two separate apps because we wanted to start again, and because it was just far easier to do that with two apps. I respect developers who charge for major updates, even though we’ve yet to do that. Normally we’re talking about sums of money under $5. If it means they can fund themselves to keep giving me great features, then I’m all for it.
So would you recommend the life of an independent developer to others?
If you have the right personality, then sure, being an independent developer is a huge blast. Don’t come expecting millions of dollars to fall into your lap though, it’s damn hard work. Chances are you’ll make less than you would working for a giant, faceless corporation…but you’ll enjoy life so much more
Pocket Casts 3.2 for iOS
The 3.2 update for iOS is out, go grab it. Highlights include:
- Added variable speed video playback, tap fast forward to speed up, rewind to slow down
- Filter buttons on the episodes list page are now configurable, hold down your finger on one, and choose what you want displayed. You can even bring back the old Everything I Haven’t Downloaded view
- Settings for stopping the app initiating downloads and streaming while on 3G -> Handy for those with small data caps
- the app will now auto-switch to downloaded episode if you’re streaming or progressively playing when a podcast finishes downloading
- configuration option for whether you want your headphone/bluetooth/lock screen controls to jump through a podcast, or control the playlist
- Enhanced podcasts with many images per chapter are now supported
- More information sent to stereos for your viewing pleasure
- Many performance improvements, bug fixes, and other smallish enhancements (were’s the fun if we tell you what they all are!)
- Bonus 1000 points if you read all the way to here. Points are redeemable for more points in future.
Pocket Casts 3.0 for iOS
We’re proud to announce the availability of Pocket Casts 3.0, for iOS: http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/pocket-casts/id414834813?mt=8
Over 3 months ago we took a long, hard look at Pocket Casts. It was by far our favourite app, yet it was selling really badly. So we had a decision to make: let it go and move on to something else, or double down and work on making it better. We loved it too much to let it go, I for one use it twice a day, if not more. So we made a decision that’s not easy as a small developer with very tight cash flow…we decided to spend whatever it took on getting the app right. ‘Whatever it took’ turned out to be 3 months. That’s a huge risk, but we think it was worth it.
New Look, New Layout, New Flow
The first thing you’ll notice when you open version 3.0 is that everything has changed. The look, the feel, the flow of the entire app. There are many reasons for this, but the main one for us was always about making the app more usable and more friendly. For long time users of our application, we realise this can be quite jarring at first but give it a few days we think you’ll love it. We can’t explain every single change we made, but we’d like to cover a few.
When we first created Pocket Casts, we came up with the concept of the updates tab. New episodes stayed there, until you either downloaded or deleted them. We loved this, but it confused people to no end. Some people don’t like deleting, others were confused when after a podcast was downloaded, it would disappear from the updates tab. Where did it go, what did I do…they didn’t know. So the concept of ‘Recent’ and the Episodes page was born:
The way it works now is that episodes that you’re phone has found out about recently, appear in the ‘recent’ page. Downloading them leaves them there, but also places them in the ‘downloaded’ page (which also flashes briefly when you download something. This makes it clearer where your podcasts are, and how to get to them. Another new feature is that the app will now download 2 podcasts at once, which is handy when one podcast authors site is screamingly fast, while the other is slow.
Cloud Power! (Notifications, Speed, Data Use)
Pocket Casts is the only podcast application for iOS (as far as we know) that does all its podcast processing on a server. What this means is that when your phone needs to see what’s new, instead of downloading individual podcast feeds (which can be very large), it just calls our server once “hey what’s new” it says. “Here are 3 episodes that are new since the last time you checked” says our server. That’s about 10kb’s worth of data, vs potentially many megabytes worth. Also worth noting is it’s a lot faster.
Talk is cheap though. Let’s compare Pocket Casts with the highest ranking of our competitors. I installed both apps cleanly, and imported my OPML file with the 27 podcasts that I subscribe to. I let both do their first refresh/setup without timing. Next I quit both apps, and performed a refresh in each one in turn, measuring the amount of data used, and the time taken. The results might surprise you:
Pocket Casts took 1 second to refresh all 27 of my podcasts. Our competitor took almost 2 minutes (105 seconds). That’s about 70x longer. It’s worth noting here that I could have been really mean and added 100 podcasts. Pocket Casts would still do those in 1 second, while the competing app (without a server) could take up to 10 minutes. It’s not rocket science, their app has to go off and look at every single RSS feed for every single podcast and see what’s new. That’s where our server comes in, it refreshes podcast feeds at a rate of about one million per day! All this so that your phone doesn’t have to.
Time aside, I decided to monitor the data use. To refresh 27 podcasts Pocket Casts sends 5kb to our server, and receives 3kb, for a total of 8kb. That’s tiny. The competing app sent 69kb and received 2252kb for a total of 2321kb (2.3 megabytes). In this case the competing app uses 290x more data than Pocket Casts. Note that we’re not deriding our competitor in any way, you can’t do any better than that, since you have to parse the feeds from the phone. That’s why we designed our app to have a server, because we wanted fast refreshes with minimal data use. And not just any old server, we currently run 11 high-end servers, that plow through many, many gigabytes worth of data each and every day. Yes, we do take this very, very seriously.
Speed, and bandwidth aside, having a server also adds one more benefit, the ability to do push notifications. Something we’ve expanded quite a lot in the new version:
You can now opt to receive text notifications, along with a sound when new podcasts are released. You can even turn this on or off per podcast, if you like some more than others. What it means is that you’re always notified about what’s new, even if you have the app closed.
Now Playing
The old now playing screen was ok, but there were a few things that bothered us. Firstly the progress bar was too close to the top of the screen, which didn’t work well with iOS 5 and its new notification pull down. Secondly the controls were a bit small, and felt cramped down the bottom. Lastly there didn’t seem to be any consistency as to how we placed these controls on the page. In the new version we’ve fixed all that, while retaining the ability to see all the podcast artwork by tapping in the middle of the screen. The show notes are now much more accessible as well, just swipe to the right to see them. We also download the show notes when the podcast is downloaded, so no more having to have an internet connection to read them. On the list screens, you can now see exactly where you are up to in each podcast (and it updates if the podcast is playing) as well as being able to pause and play right from those screens. Lastly (and this is one of our favourite features) you can now start playing a podcast while it’s downloading.
Storage
Podcast Settings
New to Pocket Casts v3.0 is the Podcast Settings page. We realised fairly early on that some podcasts have really terrible album artwork. Others have long and cumbersome names. Well worry about those things no longer:
Now you can change the name of a podcast, or its artwork at any time. We may have accidentally also created a way to listen to more…how shall we say…’risque’ podcasts with this feature, but that wasn’t our intention. Honest.
Sharing
The Small Things
We could go on for hours (quite literally) about all the things we’ve changed, but we’ll leave you with a few extra things:
- You can stop an episode from playing (or streaming) by long pressing on the now playing tab icon.
- We now have podcast chapter support, swipe to the left to see all the chapters, tap on one to play it
- You can now export your subscriptions to an OPML file, for backup and to use in other podcasting apps
- You can now turn our giant skip buttons off, handy for people that want to listen to advertising
- You can now check out the podcast description, and visit the podcasts website from the podcast page
- You can tap on the first podcasting tab to switch from the tile view to the episode view
- You can now add videos into your playlist as well. By default they’ll play as audio, but one tap and you can be watching the video instead.
Steve
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
It’s the quote that made us take a leap and start our full time career at Shifty Jelly, and it’s quote I won’t soon forget. If you’re living on the moon and haven’t watched the video it came from: it’s here.
Thanks for everything Steve.
The Dust Has Settled
It’s been just over two weeks since our post about our Amazon App Store experience, so we thought we’d give you a quick update:
- We received A LOT of unexpected press coverage, everyone from Daring Fireball to podcasts like Tech News Today and Buzz Out Loud. Since our goal was to raise awareness of how the Free App Of The Day Promotion works, I think we’ve succeeded there. Anyone who thinks this was a calculated marketing ploy, clearly has very little idea about how clueless about marketing we are, and just how hard it is to get covered by some of these publications.
- The next most amazing thing was the volume of people that wrote into us with their support, and their stories about how they had since purchased our app, and just how much they loved it. To each and every one of those people, we thank you, we really do. Let it never be said that Android users don’t pay for apps or care about developers.
- There is still some confusion as to why we did what we did, and the answer is really simple: we were angry about the strict privacy Amazon enforces around these back door deals, and we wanted to expose them.
- There’s no denying that other developers in the same situation as us, would have been jumping for joy at the exposure that 100,000+ downloads brings. More power to you, it may well be in some situations it would be a great thing.
Thank you for your message. We need to verify that you are removing the same app(s) from any Similar Services (defined as any Android OS application store which distributes in the U.S. and its territories and possessions) at the same time barring other agreements that may prevent you from listing the app(s) in the Amazon Appstore. Please refer to the Distribution Agreement for Amazon Appstore:
3.a. Delivery Commitment for Apps. You will deliver electronically to us and continue to make available during the Term all versions of all software applications, games or other digital products (including any special or collector’s editions) (i) that are designed for the Platform, (ii) for which you have the rights required under this Agreement, and (iii) that are the same versions and editions (except as otherwise provided in this Agreement) that you or your affiliates make available directly or indirectly to any Similar Service….
Please respond to confirm that your request for app(s) withdrawal is compliant with our policies. Once we hear back from you, we will verify and then let you know how we will proceed.
That’s right, they responded asking us to remove our application from the Google Market, and then they would let us know how they would proceed. Needless to say that creeped us out a bit, but again it’s a case of read the developer agreement (every last page of it) before signing up. Easy to say in retrospect, but admit it, how many developers out there read every single one Apple/Google send out to them before clicking ‘I Agree’?
Finally we gave up and asked them to terminate our developer agreement, a full week later, we received this response:
Thank you for your email requesting termination of your Amazon Appstore Distribution Agreement. Your account is terminated.
Feel free to read that in the ‘Arnie’ voice, it really does make it sound better. So far we’ve yet to figure out what being ‘terminated’ means, since we can still log into their admin area, and they still have our app in the ‘suppressed’ state. If that means new people can’t buy it, but people that have it currently can update to the latest version, then we’re all for that. If on the other hand it means one day they can just start selling it again, well you’d hope not, but at this stage nothing would surprise us.
Finally they sent us a cheque for around $700 representing 3 months worth of app sales, addressed to ‘RUSSELL RUSSELL’. It’s no doubt safe to assume that was a clerical error (since no Russell Russell works here), but I’d like to think they issued us a cheque we couldn’t bank as a final act of defiance, to show who The Boss really is. Sorry Jeff, want to hug and make up?
If you really haven’t had enough, then I think you could do far worse than watch Rob Woodbridge’s interview with our own Russell Ivanovic. It goes through the full history of our company up to this point, and why we did what we did. It really puts a human side to this whole nonsense, which is so often missed in reporting: [Flash Version] [Direct Link]
