Great update Marco! Did you work with a (graphic/interaction) designer on this update or did you do it all and maybe threw in some stock icons along the way?
This is great, looking forward to installing it. However looking at the screenshots I can't help but wonder if something other than an ellipsis would be better for indicating footnotes, especially now the voice dictation in iOS has commandeered it.
It's great to see a one man show like Instapaper doing so well. His space is becoming more crowded yet Marco's focus and drive means Instapaper keeps delivering more and more value. The changes in 4.0 look great.
Kudos Marco. You're an inspiration to solo founders (and anyone) looking to start something online. P.s. check out Marco's show with Dan Benjamin, Build and Analyze. I've been listening while I walk to work. It's interesting and insightful.
Marco comes across as a real ass on his podcast. Which has made me not listen to Build & Analyze, or use his app. Hell, "Build & Analyze" isn't so much about "Building & Analyzing" as it is him bitching about stuff. I'm not even talking about the coffee discussions, I can get through that stuff, the bullshit attitude I can't get through though.
He used to be pretty humble in the first dozen episodes, but he's slowly gotten a big head and turned into a dick. At least from my perspective.
I don't recommend his app any longer, instead, I suggest people use one of it's competitors, Read It Later.
Again, the podcast isn't so much about building apps as it is a soapbox for him to complain about other applications and other developers. While he does discuss some of the aspects of Instapaper, he may as well have called the podcast something else. If you're expecting developer oriented discussion there are better podcasts to listen to.
If you're going to spend time listening to a 5by5 podcast, I suggest two that are much better. Hypercritical with John Siracusa. John at least knows how to complain while being constructive, unlike Marco. The second would be The Incomparable, on a totally different topic but very worthwhile.
As as example of marco being an ass. Just listen to any of the podcasts from 10-onward. Also, listen especially to the programming episodes where he tries to argue against Siracusa but instead sounds like a whiny brat.
edit: Keep on down voting people. Seriously. It's called an opinion. If you don't like it, too bad. But it helps people make a valid attempt at determining whether they want to listen to something, or read something, otherwise spending their time with something. Make your own opinion of the podcast and Marco. But down voting simply because my opinion is different than yours is just stupid.
The problem might be that you haven't really supplied any of the reasoning behind your opinion. Your argument ceases at "he is an ass" and "he's slowly gotten a big head".
I apologize to everyone else for the metaspam, but I thought gks needed a reason to avoid problems in the future. I just wanted to let you know that I just downvoted you as well, and while I cannot explain why others downvoted you, I can explain my position. My biggest issue was the phrase "turned into a dick". Feel free to express your opinion, and I respect it, but I could personally do with less high schoolish namecalling.
...unless, of course, this guy was actually transforming into a large male body part, in which case this is a major event in the world of science but irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Nah, I know what you mean. I just do not have to support the manner in which you express it.
I love Instapaper and will continue to support Marco with a paid subscription.
But B&A has become more of a Marco Rant show instead of what it was the first few episodes. But I think that's an intended common theme of 5by5 shows. Dan Benjamin encourages that sort of behavior with his hosts and wants that sort of image.
I can't figure the show out anymore. It was once filled with great dev related discussions, but now mostly, like you said, Marco going on at length about the same 3 or 4 topics (Android, Amazon, Textmate, etc).
I still listen, but find myself being less interested.
Core Intuition (http://www.coreint.org/), is a really great podcast by two iOS/Mac developers (Daniel Jalkut of MarsEdit fame, and Manton Reece of tweetmarker). Daniel's shtick is that he's a punkass, but it's immediately apparent that both of them are pretty humble, and always trying to keep it positive. The most insightful part of the show they take questions from the audience and answer them.
I was hoping Build and Analyze would be more of the same, but the show took another direction.
5by5 podcasts seem to indulge their hosts too much and Dan Benjamin needs to put a bit more structure and a bit more focus around them. There's only so far taking a smart, interesting person and letting them rant and ramble can take you before you need to ask them to focus and prepare a bit more.
Whenever I see a weekly tech podcast of this sort clocking in around the hour mark my instant reaction is "you didn't prepare enough and you didn't edit enough".
See also the StackExchange / StackOverflow podcast.
It is roughly as unstructured as a typical 5by5 podcast. There are often topics and/or guests selected in advance, with some or a lot of rambling.
(Personally, I like some rambling. A good podcast is like a good essay in that it will go off on tangents. But there needs to be unifying theme acting like gravity to reel the tangents back to Earth. For the StackOverflow podcast, the initial unifying theme was building StackOverflow, with the cofounders debating various decisions. With 5by5's The Talk Show it's typically one (or more) Apple events from the week plus a James Bond movie at the end. For The Pipeline and some other podcasts, the focus of each show is the guest who comes on the show that week.)
I don't mind the length, in fact I prefer it, but you're right that Dan needs to jump in more often. My favorite podcasts on 5by5 are those in which Dan has a strong part in the discussion.
While you make your opinion harshly, I have to agree completely. Marco is an intelligent, driven guy who has been successful with Instapaper. It's a shame to hear him complain so much, and I've stopped listening to Build & Analyze as a result.
That's a good point. I think the success is what changed him. When the podcast started he was just starting to become a member of the "outspoken" members of the community. Thus, he was sort of the new guy.
You know what I'm talking about. The new guy that's quiet because no one knows him outside of "hey, he's the new guy." But as you get to know him, and he becomes more comfortable he starts to show who he really is as he becomes more outspoken.
Now, I don't want to say to not be yourself, and you can't please everyone. But I preferred the first 5-6 episodes of B&A over all the others. He was humble and interesting. Somewhere between 7-15 the humble was disappearing and the interesting vanished.
I find your comment really amusing. Your whining and complaining about Marco's podcast doesn't exactly make you look like the paragon of humility, reason, and understanding.
It's almost as if HN has become a soapbox for you to complain about some application or developer ... ok sorry for that last (clearly hyperbolic) jab. I hope you get the point though, and take it in the friendly and jocular way it was intended.
It wasn't intended to come out as if I was complaining. Someone mentioned the podcast, it's not as though I brought it up myself. I liked the podcast in the beginning. It just simply took a different path than it should've in my opinion.
The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.
But instead there is very little discussion of building... and the analyzing is ranty and uninspired.
One of the recommendations I made was Hypercritical with John Siracusa. Let's compare and contrast a bit..
Siracusa is one of those guys that just knows how to take something, whittle it down to nothing and find the faults. There's nothing wrong with finding fault in things. There will _always_ be faults, however big or small. The difference is in how Siracusa talks about them. He's critical of things to the point of beating a dead horse. Hypercritical is perfect for his podcast. Probably the most apt name I've ever seen for a podcast. But when he discusses these faults he provides some of the best examples he can come up with for _why_ he feels that way, and/or _how_ the faults they could be corrected.
Marco on the other hand just. Complains. I think he tried in the beginning to provide just cause for his complaining. But in the end he failed to be able to do it consistently. Instead, the podcast turned into another version of The Talk Show. At least with the Talk Show Gruber can be entertaining. Though I rarely listen unless the show notes show me something interesting. But Marco is trying to emulate Gruber and failing hard. Even his blog is taking on the same type of thing with a tiny bit more iOS discussion.
Either way. People can make their own opinion. I just hoped to make it a quick way for people to know to avoid it. If they're like me and they find annoying dick-ish podcast hosts to be on the do-not-listen list then they know right away that Build & Analyze isn't for them.
The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.
The title is actually taken from a feature in Apple's Xcode, and as far as I can tell is just meant to indicate, "Here are the thoughts of an iOS developer." Nothing wrong with that.
And it's not as if I "dislike" him. I dislike his show and the attitude I see on it. He might be a perfectly nice guy in person. It's his online persona or whatever that I dislike so much.
The fact that he comes across the way he does makes me not want to use his app or recommend it, or listen to his show.
Again, he may be perfectly fine in person, but he isn't showing me any good reason to not "dislike" him online.
Many of the 5by5 shows have morphed into "listen to a nerd rant for 60-90 minutes about boring topics"
If Dan could keep his "hosts" on a leash, introduce some structure, and cut the shows down to 30 minutes then they might have something that was more listenable.
Once they started spending 30+ minutes talking about "which Mac they should each buy to replace their current one" I had to stop listening. Siracusa is good, though.
Why wouldn't you recommend the app if it's good, regardless of how he comes across in the podcast?
The biggest challenge for Instapaper was the iOS5 "Read Later" feature. This version of the app shows to his customers that they didn't waste their money and ensures that their loyalty continues. It's a great response from a small software vendor, and I applaud him for releasing it at the perfect time right after the new iOS5 feature is out.
No. Why should it? I don’t understand, are you implying it should?
I don’t think personality flaws of the creators that don’t impact the product are ever a good reason for not using a product. That line of thinking doesn’t even make sense to me.
(Note that I’m not talking about products where the personality of the creators also impacts my experience of it. I’m perfectly willing to give up on a restaurant – even if I quite like the food – if the waiters are rude and annoying. Now, the food might be so great that I’m willing to overlook those flaws but at the very least the personality flaws figure into my decision. I can, however, happily use Facebook without ever being confronted with Zuckerberg’s personality flaws.)
I just listened to the podcast (episode 46) and was expecting Marco to be some major ego-maniac. I didn't see that. Marco seemed thoughtful and insightful to me.
Sure, he's opinionated, but not in any offensive way. Personally I find it appealing when a podcast/radio host has a strong opinion, whether or not I agree with it.
One show is one thing. I think you'll get a better picture after several. But hey, if you like it you like it. No harm in that.
I was merely saying, maybe in a hyperbolic way, that his attitude rubs me the wrong way. It bothers me that such a high profile example of a "successful" indie developer can be so abrasive towards others on his podcast.
Yes, the app is nice, the latest version is stellar looking. But this is one of those "speaking with my wallet" moments. Sad fact is I've already paid for the Pro version, but I won't be paying him again unless I see the attitude change. That's probably fine by him too. He doesn't strike me as the type of person to be bothered by someone voicing their opinion of him. Needless to say, you put yourself out there and become a "indie" developer heart-throb you get some of the good with the bad. That was his choice. He writes publicly, he speaks publicly on his podcast. It's the same thing with any other person in that type of position.
As for podcasts, there's definitely better out there that I'd recommend way before his.
I don't think Marco is too arrogant, just highly opinionated (like the way he doesn't want to support Android - he just isn't interested in that environment, and really like Apple), but I wish they'd talk more about Building and Analyzing and less about coffee or Macs. I was hoping he'd talk more about programming and software development. When he starts to overlap with Siracusa and Gruber I start to tune out. Especially Gruber, when they both talk about Apple stuff. Siracusa isn't too Apple centric on Hypercritical and has some good episodes on more general programming topics and things like Perl, so he doesn't overlap with Marco too often.
Agreed. The bottom line is I'm not really interested in Marco's opinion on tech products. He may be no more biased than Gruber, but he's rarely as insightful from a consumer perspective. I don't need to hear the umpteenth rant about how inferior Amazon's tablet will be, or how you can't make money in the Android Market. I love my Apple stuff, I just can't get anything out of that kind of cheerleading.
On the other hand, when he talks about actually building stuff or even tangential stuff like the App Store review process, that's where he distinguishes himself and can hold his own against Siracusa and Gruber who are stronger pundits.
while we're naming 5by5 shows that are awesome—back to work with merlin mann http://5by5.tv/b2w start with episode 1 or just dive right in. productivity porn has never been this good, or this hilarious.
“Build and Analyze” is the name of a button in one of the older versions of Xcode (the program in which you code and test iOS and OS X applications). The name is just a play off of that; it’s not supposed to be a succinct description of the show’s purpose.
Marco's show is still very young. Making it short or more focused wouldn't allow it to develop as quickly (the man needs more hours not less). I still very much enjoy the show and think Marco is more free than he used to be and more enjoyable as a result. I think Marco's value or not an a good talk radio host is not in the more focused show.
Hypercritical is a more focused and is a great show in its own right.
As Dan would say "Sorry to lose you as a listener".
You may be being down-voted because of hyperbole rather than disagreement...
You sound a bit harsh, but I'm going to agree. In the first episodes Marco came off as an everyman developer in the trenches trying to make an awesome product. I bought Instapaper to support him. That changed.
One thing I started noticing was that he was parroting things he read about Android without checking the facts. I write mobile apps for both iOS (my preferred platform) and Android, and he says things about Android that are false and misleading.
I agree with the recommendation for Hypercritical. Siracusa holds himself up to a level of truth that some of the other tech-related, mac-focused 5 by 5 shows do not. I also recommend The Pipeline, where Dan Benjamin does a great job of getting inspirational material from his guests.
I agree with you about the podcast. I listened to a few episodes and stopped listening to any of 5by5 podcasts.
In general, I have not listened to many different podcasts, but so far I felt that they were very repetitive and there was very little to gain from them. It kind of felt like I was reading a forum with debates about text editors. It is addictive, but not productive.
Aside: If anyone has a good podcast to recommend, please do.
Seeing those images side-by-side, the matte black with simple icons on the iPad looks clean and appealing and the glossy beveled borders on the iPhone look a bit garish. Also the type for the iPad interface is much more pleasing.
I don't think I would have noticed if they images weren't right next to each other.
I agree. The iPad version is flawless and I don't like the glossy borders on the iPhone. I can't believe I'm saying this but I would rather have the stitched leather look that Apple has been using on their apps recently.
Of course, it looks beautiful, and I really want it.
Is there any solution for Android? I've messed with some of the 3rd party apps but I haven't had any success.
Marco talked about Android support on his 5by5 podcast "Build and Analyze" sometime over the summer I think. I don't recall if it was the focus of the episode or just a side-topic. I believe at that time he had concluded that it wasn't worth the amount of work required to support two platforms.
Read It Later is a simple solution for it. I am using it a for a long time now, it is not as polished as Instapaper but is good and is very cheap (I think I paid one dollar for the Android app).
I dont think any of the Android clients use the Instapaper API (http://www.instapaper.com/api/full) - they scrape the website, making it impossible to do things like sync reading postion across devices.
Interestingly the Terms of the Instapaper API prevent any integration with other "Read Later" apps, though Read It Later API terms do not seems to have this restriction.
"Apps must not include support for any other services that compete with or are substantially similar to Instapaper, unless the app uses only the “Add Bookmark” and/or “Verify Credentials” methods from this API. Instapaper reserves the right to decide whether another service or application is considered a competitor or substantially similar."
(http://www.instapaper.com/api/terms)
Do this mean I can no longer move articles to the archive with one click?
It may sound a little trivial but I tend to remove the articles when I have read them and it gets annoying when I have to remove 15 (I tend to add a lot of articles).
Yes and (kind of) no. You get the additional popup on delete, but you can also multi-select and delete. That means (with your 15 article use case) like 1.1 clicks per article.
I understand the need to have archive and delete, and the confusion of two buttons, but I'd really rather have a setting. I Pinboard articles i want to keep archived, so I would always want to delete.
This is a brilliant example showing what great visual design and typography can do for an app. I never liked using Instapaper because I thought it looked so ugly. Now it's on par with the likes of Reeder and Twitter and I'm much more likely to use it.
I'm not sure how many people think like me but I just can't stand using software I think is ugly. It's no fun for me.
(That said, I think the actual user experience has also improved – which is equally as important.)
While I love Instapaper for bringing me back to reading long-form articles, I personally moved to Readability a while back. It's $5 (minimum)/month, but it has a lot more polish, and I actually prefer the mobile app to Instapaper's iOS ones - it's nice knowing if I decide to leave the iOS ecosystem, I'll still have my articles, while Marco has refused to make official Instapaper clients for other mobile OS's (understandable, as he's only one man). I also like a handful of features in Readability's desktop web app that Instapaper lacks - scroll tracking, more options for how it looks, etc.
However, if I get an iPad, I may move back just for Instapaper's iPad app. Looks beautiful.
I prefer Readability as well. I can't justify the $5 per month subscription though. I'd happily pay $20 for a lifetime subscription, but I'm not sure what they're providing that is any different from Read it Later, Instapaper, etc. that justifies the monthly cost. I know they are attempting to pay back authors, but I don't understand why that must be a recurring cost. $5 per month is just a tad cheaper than what I pay for Netflix or prgmr.com, and I don't think it provides near the value of those two. Now when I get a Kindle Touch I might change my mind.
How wouldn't paying back authors be a recurring cost? It's quite simple actually; how do you divide your $20 between publishers? You can't (before you either die or stop reading that is). A monthly subscription on the other hand can be divided between the articles you've read that month.
The way this version handles footnotes[1] looks absolutely outstanding. More e-reading software should have a pop-over like this. I'd pay way more than $5 to get this feature on my Kindle.
Also, a footnote of my own on the search subscription: Marco's talked a bit on his podcast about people wanting to subscribe to Instapaper via in-app purcase rather than through PayPal. However, Apple won't let you have an in-app purchase that doesn't add any functionality. Putting 2 and 2 together gives you a "search subscription" that is identical to a normal Instapaper subscription.
I have been using this Chrome extensions[1] which handles footnotes the same way on most sites (including Wikipedia and Daring Fireball, the only 2 I can recall off the top of my head).
tl;dr Instapaper is great for iOS. A Kindle + Readability's Send to Kindle bookmarklet is an excellent alternative.
I was an avid Instapaper user on my iPod Touch until I got an Android phone. Marco has publicly stated his reluctance to support Android, and the third party apps for instapaper were all pretty pathetic. So I switched to Read it Later for a while.
Until I got a Kindle, which changed the game for me. Reading on the Kindle is so much a better experience than on another glowing screen that I don't even bother to try to read long form on the phone anymore.
I went back to Instapaper for a while, using a Windows app called Wordcycler to sync, but now use Readability's Send to Kindle bookmarklet. It cuts out the syncing part (the Kindle just downloads content automatically when it has an internet connection), and I've found that it retains author and publication data more reliably.
It's the only thing I wish had an equivalent on the nook. (There's plenty of ways to sync a feed, but I plug my nook into a computer about once every two months.)
No; in fact, you don't even need an account. Just add kindle@readability.com to your Kindle's approved sender list & install the browser extension[0] or bookmarklet[1].
Maybe I'm missing exactly what you want to do but I use instapaper+kindle for hands-free kindle syncing with zero hassle, all for free.
Save articles i want to read to instapaper, and once a day (or on demand with one click) it emails the .mobi file with your top instapapers to your kindle email address. Delivery is free if connected on wifi and you send to username@kindle.free.com.
Fair enough. I actually like the way instapaper puts it all together in to one file - i get a kinda of 'personal newspaper' that has it's own contents page etc. And no way I would get through more than 20 articles of reading daily.
Yeah, I can see how that would work. When I was using it, it didn't even have different names or dates or anything for the different files, so it was impossible to even guess where a specific article was.
And I didn't say anything about getting through more than 20 articles. I said I save that many. I try to read a few every night, but usually on a weekend or on an airplane is where I get a lot of reading done.
Marco has another bookmarklet currently available for testing by subscribers that lets you send individual articles directly to your Kindle, bypassing your Instapaper queue entirely. I haven't tried this yet, however.
Do you still have to fetch the full page view before sending to Instapaper? That's the one thing that annoys me about this app/service. Readability does it all for you. I hate getting to the end of a piece in Instapaper and realizing there are more pages, but they weren't downloaded.
Yes, you do - in one of the Build and Analyze podcasts, Marco mentioned that he didn't support that behavior and probably wasn't going to anytime soon. I think it was in a discussion about Readability (which will do that), but I don't remember exactly which episode it was in.
This is a major FAIL on his part. Readability is one-click. Instapaper often requires several clicks to save. Fail. (Not to mention Readability pagination is light years better.)
Spend years creating software that thousands of people love, have anonymous internet commenter cry "FAIL" (sic) from the rooftops because of minor missing feature.
The advantage of sending the content instead of the link is that you can save things that exist behind paywalls or that require logging in.
(Do you work for Readability? Literally every single comment you've ever made here mentions it.)
This is a major FAIL on his part. Readability is one-click. Instapaper often requires several clicks to save. Fail. (Not to mention Readability pagination is light years better.)
The bad news: a change in how iOS manages files in version 5 means Instapaper's ability to store articles for you to read offline has reached something of a limit. If you get low on space iOS will now delete Instapaper's copies of articles:
I've got a question for my fellow long-form-reading HNers.
I check my phone for quick hits of information, but I hate reading long-form articles on it. Do you guys know of any "Send to Kindle" apps or bookmarklets for iPhone/iOS?
I know, I know: this is a hell of a first-world problem, but I'd like to read on glowing screens as little as possible.
If you use Instapaper and install the "Read Later" bookmarklet on iOS (it's just a bookmarklet in Safari), then you'll be able to add articles to Instapaper from Safari, and you'll have those articles both on the Instapaper iOS app and the Kindle with Instapaper's Kindle sync.
spool is great but my only complaint is that it sometimes takes forever for an article to download. I dont want to wait half a hour/day to read an article I sent to spool but when it does download its really an amazing app!
hi, one of the makers of Spool here. Thanks for kicking the tires on it. Now that our coverage is up, we are optimizing for speed now, so those wait times will come down.
I dont know how to contact you/message you on HN but there's one thing that has gotten a little annoying on spool; when you get to the bottom of the article - it brings up a big spool banner and this gets in the way of finishing up reading the article. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature but it's a little annoying :-/
I kinda feel like I'm stuck using Instapaper regardless of how good it is. I use the official Twitter iOS app, which only has Instapaper or Read It Later support, meaning there's no way I can fully jump to the likes of Spool if I wanted to.
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[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 399 ms ] threadSource: https://twitter.com/#!/qiansh/status/125938836562919424 (vetted by @Gedeon & @Iconfactory)
https://twitter.com/#!/marcoarment/status/125991945523822592
Edit: Dan's post here: http://simplebits.com/notebook/2011/10/17/instapaper4/
Kudos Marco. You're an inspiration to solo founders (and anyone) looking to start something online. P.s. check out Marco's show with Dan Benjamin, Build and Analyze. I've been listening while I walk to work. It's interesting and insightful.
He used to be pretty humble in the first dozen episodes, but he's slowly gotten a big head and turned into a dick. At least from my perspective.
I don't recommend his app any longer, instead, I suggest people use one of it's competitors, Read It Later.
Again, the podcast isn't so much about building apps as it is a soapbox for him to complain about other applications and other developers. While he does discuss some of the aspects of Instapaper, he may as well have called the podcast something else. If you're expecting developer oriented discussion there are better podcasts to listen to.
If you're going to spend time listening to a 5by5 podcast, I suggest two that are much better. Hypercritical with John Siracusa. John at least knows how to complain while being constructive, unlike Marco. The second would be The Incomparable, on a totally different topic but very worthwhile.
As as example of marco being an ass. Just listen to any of the podcasts from 10-onward. Also, listen especially to the programming episodes where he tries to argue against Siracusa but instead sounds like a whiny brat.
edit: Keep on down voting people. Seriously. It's called an opinion. If you don't like it, too bad. But it helps people make a valid attempt at determining whether they want to listen to something, or read something, otherwise spending their time with something. Make your own opinion of the podcast and Marco. But down voting simply because my opinion is different than yours is just stupid.
...unless, of course, this guy was actually transforming into a large male body part, in which case this is a major event in the world of science but irrelevant to the discussion at hand. Nah, I know what you mean. I just do not have to support the manner in which you express it.
But B&A has become more of a Marco Rant show instead of what it was the first few episodes. But I think that's an intended common theme of 5by5 shows. Dan Benjamin encourages that sort of behavior with his hosts and wants that sort of image.
I still listen, but find myself being less interested.
What are some good alternatives?
I was hoping Build and Analyze would be more of the same, but the show took another direction.
Whenever I see a weekly tech podcast of this sort clocking in around the hour mark my instant reaction is "you didn't prepare enough and you didn't edit enough".
See also the StackExchange / StackOverflow podcast.
(Personally, I like some rambling. A good podcast is like a good essay in that it will go off on tangents. But there needs to be unifying theme acting like gravity to reel the tangents back to Earth. For the StackOverflow podcast, the initial unifying theme was building StackOverflow, with the cofounders debating various decisions. With 5by5's The Talk Show it's typically one (or more) Apple events from the week plus a James Bond movie at the end. For The Pipeline and some other podcasts, the focus of each show is the guest who comes on the show that week.)
You know what I'm talking about. The new guy that's quiet because no one knows him outside of "hey, he's the new guy." But as you get to know him, and he becomes more comfortable he starts to show who he really is as he becomes more outspoken.
Now, I don't want to say to not be yourself, and you can't please everyone. But I preferred the first 5-6 episodes of B&A over all the others. He was humble and interesting. Somewhere between 7-15 the humble was disappearing and the interesting vanished.
It's almost as if HN has become a soapbox for you to complain about some application or developer ... ok sorry for that last (clearly hyperbolic) jab. I hope you get the point though, and take it in the friendly and jocular way it was intended.
The title of it is "Build & Analyze" right? So, it should be about "building" things (whether that be coding, building said code, or as a metaphor for other things in life) and "analyzing" things related to the same... code or life.
But instead there is very little discussion of building... and the analyzing is ranty and uninspired.
One of the recommendations I made was Hypercritical with John Siracusa. Let's compare and contrast a bit..
Siracusa is one of those guys that just knows how to take something, whittle it down to nothing and find the faults. There's nothing wrong with finding fault in things. There will _always_ be faults, however big or small. The difference is in how Siracusa talks about them. He's critical of things to the point of beating a dead horse. Hypercritical is perfect for his podcast. Probably the most apt name I've ever seen for a podcast. But when he discusses these faults he provides some of the best examples he can come up with for _why_ he feels that way, and/or _how_ the faults they could be corrected.
Marco on the other hand just. Complains. I think he tried in the beginning to provide just cause for his complaining. But in the end he failed to be able to do it consistently. Instead, the podcast turned into another version of The Talk Show. At least with the Talk Show Gruber can be entertaining. Though I rarely listen unless the show notes show me something interesting. But Marco is trying to emulate Gruber and failing hard. Even his blog is taking on the same type of thing with a tiny bit more iOS discussion.
Either way. People can make their own opinion. I just hoped to make it a quick way for people to know to avoid it. If they're like me and they find annoying dick-ish podcast hosts to be on the do-not-listen list then they know right away that Build & Analyze isn't for them.
The title is actually taken from a feature in Apple's Xcode, and as far as I can tell is just meant to indicate, "Here are the thoughts of an iOS developer." Nothing wrong with that.
The fact that he comes across the way he does makes me not want to use his app or recommend it, or listen to his show.
Again, he may be perfectly fine in person, but he isn't showing me any good reason to not "dislike" him online.
If Dan could keep his "hosts" on a leash, introduce some structure, and cut the shows down to 30 minutes then they might have something that was more listenable.
Once they started spending 30+ minutes talking about "which Mac they should each buy to replace their current one" I had to stop listening. Siracusa is good, though.
The biggest challenge for Instapaper was the iOS5 "Read Later" feature. This version of the app shows to his customers that they didn't waste their money and ensures that their loyalty continues. It's a great response from a small software vendor, and I applaud him for releasing it at the perfect time right after the new iOS5 feature is out.
I don’t think personality flaws of the creators that don’t impact the product are ever a good reason for not using a product. That line of thinking doesn’t even make sense to me.
(Note that I’m not talking about products where the personality of the creators also impacts my experience of it. I’m perfectly willing to give up on a restaurant – even if I quite like the food – if the waiters are rude and annoying. Now, the food might be so great that I’m willing to overlook those flaws but at the very least the personality flaws figure into my decision. I can, however, happily use Facebook without ever being confronted with Zuckerberg’s personality flaws.)
Sure, he's opinionated, but not in any offensive way. Personally I find it appealing when a podcast/radio host has a strong opinion, whether or not I agree with it.
I was merely saying, maybe in a hyperbolic way, that his attitude rubs me the wrong way. It bothers me that such a high profile example of a "successful" indie developer can be so abrasive towards others on his podcast.
Yes, the app is nice, the latest version is stellar looking. But this is one of those "speaking with my wallet" moments. Sad fact is I've already paid for the Pro version, but I won't be paying him again unless I see the attitude change. That's probably fine by him too. He doesn't strike me as the type of person to be bothered by someone voicing their opinion of him. Needless to say, you put yourself out there and become a "indie" developer heart-throb you get some of the good with the bad. That was his choice. He writes publicly, he speaks publicly on his podcast. It's the same thing with any other person in that type of position.
As for podcasts, there's definitely better out there that I'd recommend way before his.
Agreed 100%. I like Marco, Siracusa, and Gruber's podcasts but it'd be nice if they did a better job coordinating their topics.
On the other hand, when he talks about actually building stuff or even tangential stuff like the App Store review process, that's where he distinguishes himself and can hold his own against Siracusa and Gruber who are stronger pundits.
Hypercritical is a more focused and is a great show in its own right.
As Dan would say "Sorry to lose you as a listener".
You may be being down-voted because of hyperbole rather than disagreement...
One thing I started noticing was that he was parroting things he read about Android without checking the facts. I write mobile apps for both iOS (my preferred platform) and Android, and he says things about Android that are false and misleading.
I agree with the recommendation for Hypercritical. Siracusa holds himself up to a level of truth that some of the other tech-related, mac-focused 5 by 5 shows do not. I also recommend The Pipeline, where Dan Benjamin does a great job of getting inspirational material from his guests.
In general, I have not listened to many different podcasts, but so far I felt that they were very repetitive and there was very little to gain from them. It kind of felt like I was reading a forum with debates about text editors. It is addictive, but not productive.
Aside: If anyone has a good podcast to recommend, please do.
I don't think I would have noticed if they images weren't right next to each other.
Perhaps it was ep 38 [1]...?
[1]: http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze/38-decaf-compatibility-stick
There is a decent Window Phone 7 client that uses the API - Stacks for Instapaper (http://www.stacksforinstapaper.com/) and one for HP/Palm webOS - Paper Mache (http://ryanwatkins.net/software/papermache/ - disclosure, its my app)
Interestingly the Terms of the Instapaper API prevent any integration with other "Read Later" apps, though Read It Later API terms do not seems to have this restriction.
"Apps must not include support for any other services that compete with or are substantially similar to Instapaper, unless the app uses only the “Add Bookmark” and/or “Verify Credentials” methods from this API. Instapaper reserves the right to decide whether another service or application is considered a competitor or substantially similar." (http://www.instapaper.com/api/terms)
It may sound a little trivial but I tend to remove the articles when I have read them and it gets annoying when I have to remove 15 (I tend to add a lot of articles).
I understand the need to have archive and delete, and the confusion of two buttons, but I'd really rather have a setting. I Pinboard articles i want to keep archived, so I would always want to delete.
I'm not sure how many people think like me but I just can't stand using software I think is ugly. It's no fun for me.
(That said, I think the actual user experience has also improved – which is equally as important.)
However, if I get an iPad, I may move back just for Instapaper's iPad app. Looks beautiful.
[1] http://www.marco.org/media/2011/10/ip4-footnote.png
Also, a footnote of my own on the search subscription: Marco's talked a bit on his podcast about people wanting to subscribe to Instapaper via in-app purcase rather than through PayPal. However, Apple won't let you have an in-app purchase that doesn't add any functionality. Putting 2 and 2 together gives you a "search subscription" that is identical to a normal Instapaper subscription.
[1] http://openideas.ideon.co/2011/rehabilitate-disruptive-footn...
I was an avid Instapaper user on my iPod Touch until I got an Android phone. Marco has publicly stated his reluctance to support Android, and the third party apps for instapaper were all pretty pathetic. So I switched to Read it Later for a while.
Until I got a Kindle, which changed the game for me. Reading on the Kindle is so much a better experience than on another glowing screen that I don't even bother to try to read long form on the phone anymore.
I went back to Instapaper for a while, using a Windows app called Wordcycler to sync, but now use Readability's Send to Kindle bookmarklet. It cuts out the syncing part (the Kindle just downloads content automatically when it has an internet connection), and I've found that it retains author and publication data more reliably.
klip.me's "Send to Kindle" extension is free and also pretty awesome http://www.klip.me/
0: http://www.readability.com/addons 1: http://www.readability.com/bookmarklets
Save articles i want to read to instapaper, and once a day (or on demand with one click) it emails the .mobi file with your top instapapers to your kindle email address. Delivery is free if connected on wifi and you send to username@kindle.free.com.
http://www.instapaper.com/user/kindle
Readability makes them all separate items in my reading list, and does a better job (last time I checked) of keeping the author and publication info.
And I didn't say anything about getting through more than 20 articles. I said I save that many. I try to read a few every night, but usually on a weekend or on an airplane is where I get a lot of reading done.
The advantage of sending the content instead of the link is that you can save things that exist behind paywalls or that require logging in.
(Do you work for Readability? Literally every single comment you've ever made here mentions it.)
http://www.marco.org/2011/07/19/siracusa-multipage
http://www.marco.org/2011/10/13/ios5-caches-cleaning
This is less of a problem if you are online all the time as Instapaper will redownload them, but it still kinda sucks.
I check my phone for quick hits of information, but I hate reading long-form articles on it. Do you guys know of any "Send to Kindle" apps or bookmarklets for iPhone/iOS?
I know, I know: this is a hell of a first-world problem, but I'd like to read on glowing screens as little as possible.
I use it all the time (and vastly prefer it over the timed, once-a-day-at-most send-a-batch-of-stuff option).
https://getspool.com/
Both text and video. First-class Android and iPhone support. Alas, no iPad support, but I don't use that much anymore.
I dont know how to contact you/message you on HN but there's one thing that has gotten a little annoying on spool; when you get to the bottom of the article - it brings up a big spool banner and this gets in the way of finishing up reading the article. I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature but it's a little annoying :-/