Under the Radar: Recent Episodes
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From development and design to marketing and support, Under the Radar is all about independent app development. It's never longer than 30 minutes. Hosted by Marco Arment and David Smith.
The rush to submit our iOS 17 apps for its general release, and the last window of opportunity to prepare our test devices for last year's OSes.
Our final plans and preparation for iOS 17's launch, now that we can confidently predict its timing.
How to communicate new features to new and existing customers — and which features are worth communicating.
Splitting your time between iOS 17 and visionOS development, and tips for attending a visionOS lab.
Examining the constant anxiety of feeling like you're falling "behind" in your app's development.
An interview with Josh Shaffer and Chris Thielen about Swift macros, SwiftData, interactive widgets, and more, recorded at Apple Park during WWDC 2023.
Refining and improving the most boring and rudimentary experiences in our apps, and testing variations on Widgetsmith's paywall.
Feeling unmotivated, inspiration vs. motivation, and techniques to get moving again.
Be kind to yourself.
We don't have the capabilities of larger staffs, and we can't do everything, so we must keep our scope and expectations within the capacity of what one person can do.
Are SwiftUI apps destined to be mediocre, or can we still make great apps? Introducing the famous App Development Pentagon.
Rewriting major parts of your app with aggressive new targets while keeping the old code around for compatibility.
With the dust settling from WWDC, we have more realistic expectations of the new APIs and can make achievable plans for the summer.
In this special extended episode, we interview Serenity Caldwell and Andreas Wendker from Apple in the new Developer Center from WWDC 2022.
An update on our hardware and software setups for development, considering Apple's current lineup.
A collection of mini-topics: the WWDC announcement, Phased Release for Automatic Updates, and the value of in-app Help documentation.
So you have an idea to make an app. Is it available, is it worthwhile, and will you feel good about doing it? What happens if it works?
How our expectations for 2021 panned out, and the kind of work we're planning to do in 2022.
Finally starting the Overcast redesign, and pragmatic considerations when tackling modernization of older codebases.
A healthy balance for subscription-expiry grace periods, and how the new MacBook Pro helps our development workflows.
Getting over shyness to ask your app's users for money in more prominent and direct ways.
How we decide whether, when, and to what degree we should adopt the headlining features of each iOS release.
We were given a reprieve with a lack of new developer-facing features in the iPhone 13 line and Apple Watch Series 7, but with the continuation of the Series 3, we all lose.
The effects of legal settlements and regulations on independent iOS developers, and how we can ensure that we still have a place in the scary potential futures that may come.
Needing to offer different features and experiences to different parts of your userbase due to hardware limitations and OS differences.
The power of default settings and choices, and the impact of changing your app's default behavior.
The second digital-only WWDC, how iOS 15 and watchOS 8 impact our apps, and what we'll be tackling first this summer.
What to expect from WWDC, how to prepare for the virtual event, and how to follow the material.
WWDC 2021's announcement, and whether Overcast should adopt a terminology change along with Apple and Spotify.
A _DavidSmith Story Half-Hour on the surprising journey to build a simple photo complication for Apple Watch. How hard could it be?
Deforestation, timber production, and wood preparation. [taps earpiece] What?… Oh, sorry. Scratch that. Writing lines of text to files for diagnostic purposes.
Copying someone else's work as a learning exercise, and the tricky balance between copying and inspiration.
The kind of year we expect 2021 to be for Apple-platform developers, and an update on Overcast's SwiftUI progress.
Apple's new privacy labels in the App Store, and how we've designed our custom analytics frameworks for minimal data collection.
The tricky balance of making big changes to your app to better serve your current market without upsetting your initial customers.
How the M1 Macs are game-changers for developers, and our thoughts on the lower fees from the App Store Small Business Program.
The continued challenges of modernizing Overcast with Swift and SwiftUI, and deciding whether to rewrite Objective-C components in Swift.
Refactoring and rewriting the foundations of a 6-year-old Objective-C codebase using Swift and modern APIs.
Settling into a baseline, leaving no room to be undercut, and where Widgetsmith goes from here.
Dave's app is number one in the App Store! We explore the mind-bending scale and perspective of such a defining moment in an indie developer's career.
Our second-annual wishlist for how we hope this fall's Apple hardware spends the efficiency gains from another year of technological progress.
How the online-only format of WWDC 2020 is working out in practice, and how quickly we plan to adopt the new APIs.
Using compatibility shims and abstractions to gain some of the newest APIs' benefits on previous OS versions.
The risks and rewards of using custom fonts, and how to implement them in a modern app.
The launch of David's new app that pushes the boundaries of watchOS and finally makes our smartwatch faces actually smart.
Considering how Apple could replace and expand the roles filled by WWDC if it's canceled due to COVID-19 concerns.
How we tackle the occasional need for more advanced math skills than what we actually have.
Looking back at the launch of the iPad, and what its present and future hold, from an app-development and business perspective.
As Marco discovers the value of staying with the old, David plows headfirst into the new.
Making plans, setting goals, and setting guidelines for decision-making — and, taking a page from our friends at Cortex, our chosen themes for 2020.
Revisiting the decision to go iOS 13-only with Overcast, and the pros and cons of potentially re-adding support for iOS 12.
Time-saving tips and tricks, and the value of test-harness mini-apps during development.
Energy logs, API-misuse terminations, and other unexpected ways our apps crash due to system policy enforcement.
Gather around the campfire as Uncle Dave tells the tale of how the conditions formed for today's App Store subscription scams.
David's new app, Moon++, and experiences working with SwiftUI and the standalone App Store on the Apple Watch.
New possibilities for users and developers opened up by the always-on screen of the Apple Watch Series 5.
We didn't think we had anything to talk about, but then we discovered unit testing and version control.
Recognizing three groups that only partially overlap, and how to prioritize the feedback we get from them.
How we'd improve the Apple Watch by "spending" the power-efficiency gains likely to come in the next hardware update.
Our makeshift travel-work setups, and managing expectations about how much and what types of work you'll get done while traveling.
As the dust settles on an overwhelming WWDC 2019, we figure out what we should tackle first.
As WWDC 2019 approaches, we review the major changes announced in WWDC 2018 and how they've actually played out over the past year.
The advantages of switching from semantic versioning to a sequential calendar-based system with no semantic implications, and the different marketing mindset it brings.
Using David's upcoming app as an example, we take a journey through curiosity, excitement, productivity, despair, polishing, and shipping.
The design challenge of a podcast app's now-playing screen, how Overcast's design has progressed over the years, and the unexpected usability failures along the way.
Taking vacations or staycations to get a lot of work done in a short time and take full advantage of being in the zone.
Creating a new app as a fun exercise, and making choices that minimize its ongoing maintenance needs.
Producing and embedding content in your app that changes continuously, such as monthly challenges, directories, and user-generated content.
Running servers is easy the vast majority of the time. But sometimes, something goes wrong at the worst possible time.
Tracking down hard-to-find, hard-to-reproduce bugs that don't show up in your own usage.
Exercising atrophied programming muscles by experimenting with languages, technologies, and environments that lack the safety and convenience of our usual work.
Small design features, flourishes, and other indulgences to satisfy ourselves and make our apps feel more delightful.
Budgeting our time for ongoing commitments vs. exploratory and hobby projects, and an update on iOS device statistics.
Accepting that our motivation and productivity are cyclical, with periods of very little work getting done.
Developer-relevant analysis of this week's Apple releases and how we can use them in our work.
Why the Apple Watch needs third-party faces, tools to make them for yourself today, and overcoming the reasons why Apple may not want to offer them.
Long-term career planning, predicting where Apple is going, betting on the right technologies, and wondering whether we'll still be doing this in ten years.
Concepts and considerations for implementing full-text search in your app, with examples from Overcast 5.
Finalizing our iOS 12 and watchOS 5 updates, and updating our apps for the new iPhones and Apple Watches before we can actually buy them.
Setting up your business for extended times away, and how to start working again when you get back.
The huge gifts we were given in watchOS 5, and today's environment for building Apple Watch apps.
Live interviews at Social Policy in San Jose, with first impressions from Curtis Hurbert, Joe Cieplinski, and Kaya Thomas.
The challenge of trying to form a union or other collective action group for developers.
Considering accessibility as part of usability, and testing with the most common iOS accessibility APIs.
Whether you need one of the new .app domains, and the ramifications of Microsoft's lower app-store commissions.
Lessons from Android's success, hot new things from past WWDCs that didn't pan out, and trying to improve or avoid social problems with our apps.
Planning out our apps before writing any code, deciding which ideas NOT to pursue, a converged "Marzipan" world, and accessibility.
In our third Q&A episode, we address the many questions we received about running servers.
Our second-ever Q&A episode, including questions on React Native, reusable code vs. duplication, learning beyond Hello World, and the art of packing lightly for travel.
The fast drop-off of typical usage over time, and how to improve our customer-retention rates.
Minimizing the collection and storage of your users' personal data, and high-level strategies to think about in the dawn of the EU's new GDPR law.
The development and release of Sleep++ 3.0, and best practices for prompting the user for permission to access iOS-protected data or features.
Whether to sign up for a WWDC 2018 ticket and what to do if you don't get one, and the ramifications of David's latest Apple Watch usage stats.
Celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the first iPhone SDK release, imagining alternate timelines that could have been, and remembering what we were doing ten years ago.
Considering the temptation and pitfalls of developing features out of fear of missing an opportunity. Also, how best to communicate changes to customers.
Adopting inefficient hacks to save developer time, since hardware is so fast that it's often a worthwhile tradeoff.
Considerations for travel, coffeeshops, offices, vacations, and other secondary work setups.
Tackling complex math, data analysis, or other challenging problems to give your app a competitive advantage.
Desktops vs. laptops, single vs. multiple monitors, and how we're enjoying our iMac Pros so far.
A two-part crash course in starting an indie business. In part 2, we cover health insurance, retirement planning, professional services, and other common expenses.
A two-part crash course in starting an indie business. In part 1, we cover business entities, taxes, and income.
Being pressured by users or reality into features or choices we don't think we should need to do.
Considering the potential benefits and ramifications of the rumored unified app framework between macOS and iOS.
David keeps a diary of what the day was like while he launched Workouts++ 2.0. It didn't turn out exactly how he'd hoped.
Our experiences and best practices we've found for App Store Search Ads after a year of use, and whether to use the new Search Ads Basic.
Lessons from Overcast's public beta, and using Slack as a feedback and bug-reporting channel.
Procrastinating by working on other productive tasks instead of the big one we really don't want to do.
Real-world results of switching in-app purchases from multiple price tiers to a single option.
(Sent with Balloons) How to view and start projects that have a good chance of making it to episode 100.
An "off-the-air" discussion working through the challenges of standalone Apple Watch podcast playback.
New design challenges to tackle for the iPhone X, and new potential unlocked by the Apple Watch Series 3 with LTE.
The responsibilities we have to ensure that we're protecting and respecting our users' privacy when we embed third-party code in our apps.
Supporting multiple screen sizes and device types, and strategies to make adoption of new sizes easier.
What trademarks do, searching for conflicts before you name something, and whether indies should file for their own.
Which Mac models are usable for software development, and the benefits and drawbacks of using desktops, laptops, or both.
Deciding whether to adopt the newest iOS styles and APIs in existing apps that may not have needed them.
Adopting the new fields and changes in our apps' product pages in the redesigned iOS 11 App Store.
How and when to efficiently watch WWDC session videos, and reviewing the new capabilities in watchOS 4.
Optimizing performance using Instruments, Xcode, and the iOS Simulator — and when not to bother.
The new Sources and Metrics in iTunes Connect that show us more about where our customers come from within the App Store.
Tackling hard problems to improve our skills, or simply as a form of intellectual indulgence.
In the second of a two-part series, we discuss app creation in iTunes Connect, including screenshots, keywords, descriptions, and other metadata.
In the first of a two-part series, we explore the non-app parts of iTunes Connect, including reporting, sales, and analytics.
Deciding which App Store reviews to respond to, and the types of responses worth giving.
Minimizing the mental burden and labor cost of accounting and taxes by optimizing for simplicity.
Planning for WWDC attendance (or not), and the value of the other conferences and social events around WWDC 2017.
Building apps with acquisition in mind, calculating your app's valuation, and what to expect in a sale.
Accumulating a portfolio of apps that provide long-term income with minimal maintenance.
The difference between good and bad hacks, and some glorious hacks we've shipped in our apps.
Adding features to your app that you don't want or won't use in order to satisfy requests or reach new markets.
Preparing for and reacting to Apple implementing your app's core functionality themselves.
The potential impacts of the new "rate this app" API and our upcoming ability to respond to App Store reviews.
Experiences and skills we lack by being indie developers, and whether our career path may ever include them.
The significance of App Store star ratings and reviews, and how to tastefully ask people to review your app.
Unrelated abilities and techniques that prove surprisingly useful in indie app development.
Deciding how much of your app to keep secret before release, and how to slowly reveal it.
Strategies for surviving the ups, downs, and increasing challenges of today's App Store and nearby businesses.
Appearance managers, self-theming views, and rapid design iteration with code and variables.
Planning for annual events and marketing opportunities, and accommodating variable cycles of productivity.
The challenges of learning new languages, APIs, and tools, how we avoid facing these difficulties, and what drives us to overcome them.
Overcoming fears of speaking at conferences, how much work it really takes, and deciding whether it's worthwhile.
An overview of advertising terms, costs, and metrics, and getting started with App Store Search Ads for indie developers.
Adopting techniques, tools, and APIs long after they've been introduced, with specific examples from Overcast's development.
Choosing a database or scheme for local data storage, including Core Data, SQLite, property lists, JSON, user defaults, and NSURLCache.
Ramifications of pruning very old apps from the App Store and cracking down on title-keyword spam.
Preparations in the final week before a major iOS release, and handling Apple requests for promotional artwork.
Lessons from Vesper's shutdown and strategies to navigate the difficult environment for paid apps today.
Using lessons and analytics from watchOS 1 and 2 to rethink our Apple Watch apps for watchOS 3, using Overcast's app as a case study.
Techniques often used by games to increase engagement, revenue, and addictiveness, and their potential ethical uses in our apps.
Creating and managing shared code, using Git submodules effectively, and whether to open-source your libraries.
The value of app ideas, evaluating their feasibility, and considering the business you want to be in.
Concluding our WWDC 2016 coverage, we discuss what's new (or not?) for indie developers in tvOS, macOS, and Swift.
Following on from last week's discussion of the newly announced changes to watchOS 3, this week we dive into iOS 10. We discuss what changes are especially relevant and how we think we might adopt them.
Using data, market research, and analytics to improve your apps and better allocate your time.
Tips on avoiding rejections by Apple's app-review staff and what to do when your app get rejected.
In the second of a two-part series, we discuss some specific ideas on how the App Store could realistically be improved.
In the first of a two-part series, we discuss whether the App Store needs improvement for our benefit, or whether it's working well enough for Apple and customers already.
Considering paid-up-front, freemium, ad-supported, and completely free business models for David's newest app.
Accommodating unexpectedly heavy usage, basic web security, and avoiding user-generated spam.
Weighing the costs of external dependencies in the wake of the Parse shutdown announcement.
Apps with personality vs. neutral voices, and whether independent developers should project a corporate image.
Real-world experience with ad-funded apps, and what the iAd shutdown announcement may mean.
Ensuring your work setup is as comfortable as possible for long-term use and reducing the risks of developing RSI.
Why we haven't adopted Swift yet, when we might, and whether we should expand into additional platforms instead.
How independent iOS app developers can find ways to thrive in a highly competitive, commoditized App Store.