Marco Arment’s popular podcast client, Overcast, was released today in 2.0 guise.
It supports a whole host of improvements, most notably streaming support. If you listen to podcasts, you should go download it now. After that, you can stop using Apple’s terrible first party version. And while you’re at it, patronize him for the measly $12 he’s asking.
Somewhat serendipitously, today I stumbled upon a post by Ben Brooks, in which he satirically places coffee ahead of apps, playing on the layperson’s attitude towards paid apps.
Here are some funny tidbits:
A common refrain when people try to encourage others to buy mobile apps is to say things like: look your Starbucks “latte” cost you $4 and you will finish it inside of 30 minutes (one hopes), but this app is $1.99 and you will use it for months — if not years. Clearly the better value is the app, not the Starbucks.
That’s the common argument.
This is a terrible argument, and I’ll tell you all the reasons why:
- Apps don’t taste nearly as good as all that milk and sugar.
- Apps don’t provide any caffeine.
- Apps don’t help me fit in with a crowd — at all. I can’t walk around showing people I bought the app, but everyone can see that green logo on my white cup as I walk around — with perhaps my chin a little higher than normal, but that’s of no relevance here.
- There was actual work put into this “latte”, and I know the because I saw them do it. Look, my nephew makes “apps” in his basement and I think it’s not very hard because he’s just not very smart. He can’t even carry a conversation — like at all. I think he mostly just watches porn down there, but that’s pure speculation as I am far too engaged in my social graph to go check.
Obviously, his “reasons” why ~$5 is better spent on coffee than apps is just as comical as when regular people make the same argument in real life. Note: people “say” plenty without using words. Some folks are hard-pressed to spend a few bucks on an app that is so much better than the default app Apple includes on every iPhone.
Their refusal to pay for an app that a developer(s) has spent months working on is just mind-boggling to me. Most iPhone users don’t think paying $5 for an app is something they should have to do. “Oh, there’s a free version of the same app. I’ll get that one.” Other [shady] developers’ race to the bottom of the App Store charts has fostered these feelings in non-nerdy types. It needs to stop.
That’s what Brooks’ post is about.
He also throws in the old adage of small businesses expecting web developers/designers to offer support for the lifetime of the business website, because, you know, the developer should feel thankful to even have a job with said business:
You know what you do in that scenario? You do the updates for free because you should be so lucky as to have the business want to work with you in the first place. Besides: it’s only writing a new layout, aligning it to a grid, choosing new colors, a new typography hierarchy, writing the copy, taking the stock images, and then doing 10-15 rounds of iteration. My nephew, again, does this all the time and as we have covered: he is not that smart. Further, think how great this will look in your portfolio the next time a business wants to grace you with not paying you. This is what business leaders call “win-win”.
“Win-win.”
It would be funnier if Brooks’ sarcasm was a unrealistic take on the actuality. But from what I gather on Twitter (I’m not a developer), it’s pretty spot-on.
Since we’re talking coffee, I thought I’d include one of Starbucks’ most gourmet creation, the Chocolate Cookie Crumble Crème Frappuccino®, inspired by the authentic Italian coffee beverage of the same name (not really):