The most salient point here:

Andreessen does have a solid point in the fact that app stores are in some ways a pain in the ass — particularly Apple’s App Store, with its deliberative and at times opaque approval process. But app stores are mostly only a pain in the ass for developers, not users.

I don’t think this can be overstated. App stores are incredibly convenient as a computer user. Even as a developer, the fact that I don’t have to think about collecting money when I make an app is – for 99% of apps – worth any pain endured in the opaque approval process.

I’ve had the opportunity to develop a large number of apps and websites at my day job. We build custom apps and websites for clients. So we get the “what should we build” question all the time.

Here’s how I break it down for them.

• Apps are great if you want your customer to take ownership of and be connected with your brand. They are giving you space on their phone. My dead grandfather is always in my heart; your app is always in my pocket. It’s that big a deal.
• Websites are great if you need a communication platform that can reach the largest number of users at any moment. There are hundreds of tools that let you get in somebody’s inbox, their text messages, their feed reader, and draw them back to your website, where you can communicate whatever you want to them.
• Apps are an investment in your end user – you’re giving them a tool that is literally a piece of your business, whether it’s a service component, a calculator, a visualizer. You’re giving them the tool and trusting them to use it for something great.
• Websites are an investment in your public relations and marketing departments. You’re giving them a tool to communicate effectively and play offense.

This doesn’t mean you can’t use apps to communicate marketing messages – and it doesn’t mean you can’t put tools on your website. It’s just where the two platforms shine. Ultimately, they are different things, and I don’t see them converging in the same way that Andreessen does.

Yes, the opaque approval process is a pain in the butt – especially when you are guiding a client through the process, and managing their expectations – but if the problem you’re trying to solve is better solved by a native app than a website, then it’s something you live with so that your users love you.

Why?

A number of reasons.

First, I bought my daughter an iPod touch, and although there are a lot of great games out there, I didn’t see exactly the alphabet game I’d give her.

Second, I just don’t do that much real programming at work these days. I’ve slowly shifted into managing, and although I still take on the occasional project, I just can’t keep up with my duties if I do as much programming as would scratch my itch at work.

Third, I had an idea that burned. Really, that’s probably first, now that I think about it.

Now, the app isn’t for everybody. Actually, unless you’re under the age of four, you’ll probably not get much use or entertainment out of it.

Although I think there is probably a profitable niche market here, I have no illusions that I’ll earn the order-of-magnitude more money selling Typey Typey than I do at my day job to be worth quitting. I hope to make some amount money. Maybe save for Evelyn’s college – that would be awesome.

I want to say thanks here to my lovely wife for helping out with a few of the animal illustrations, as well as being patient with me when I stayed up nights scratching my itch. I also want to thank my beta testers, who suffered through TestFlight’s opaque signup and device registration process to try things out and give feedback.

The app itself is available today, but I’ve already got an update in review that adds a new font and a few more animals. I have about a million ideas on where I’m taking this thing, and I’ll likely continue to blog about my experiences and motivations here – though you can likely tell I’m keeping the real promotion for other venues.

Anyway, feel free to grab the app – 99¢ until I have all the letters of the alphabet paired up with an animal picture, then $1.99 – on iTunes. Gift it to a friend with an old iPad and a young child. Send me feedback on Twitter via the @TypeyTypey account. And thanks for reading!

It would be hard to say that this year will be different and not mean it. Teeny, Evie, and I will soon be joined by DeLeeuw Family Member #4. That won’t be the official name. I’m thinking “Bertrand”. Bert.

Teeny produces some amazing stuff with her sewing and craft room. Evie’s twin cousins – also due in the coming months – have inspired her to take on some new projects, and she’s come a very long way on some incredible tactile goods.

Evie is amazing and adorable. Her listening vocabulary is incredible; she can form pretty complex phrases with sign, and she’s starting to verbalize a number of words as well.

I’ve got a few personal projects that I’ve been putting together over the last six months. My hope is that they’ll be released as well this year – ideally before June 30th, Bert’s due date.

Okay, maybe not “Bertrand”.

Anyway, all I’ll say right now is that one of my projects is a website, and the other is an iOS app. Both are nearing completion, and I’ll be spending the next few months polishing one of them for release (although I’ll need to flip a coin to decide which to focus on). Tina’s artwork will also heavily play into the iOS app.

We’re looking forward to the new year, new babies, and new opportunities. I hope all is well with you, and I’ll write you again soon.

I don’t know that I entirely disagree when Andy says that consumers lose due to the results of the Samsung / Apple litigation. Maybe I do disagree simply from the fact that it’s not particularly provable, and that there are so many choices in this space that Apple has chosen not to litigate against – at least not yet. Perhaps this is a slippery slope, and Apple will chase others now that it has the taste of victory? On the other hand, I believe Tim Cook when he says he doesn’t care for litigation. Whatever that’s worth.

I can see how it will slow down how many of these devices will pop out, at least of Samsung. It’s definitely more complicated, with the chilling effect this verdict will place on the market, to bring a device to market without stepping on one of Apple’s patents. However, as Marco states, there’s plenty of room for additional innovation here, and there’s only a real handful of pretty specific things that have been ruled in violation.

I don’t think that slightly fewer choices is bad for consumers. Maybe it’s bad for consumers in the sense that having $100 is worse than having $105. I doubt most consumers are looking for a vast array of choices in the market anyway – they either know they want the iPhone, they know they don’t want the iPhone, or they know they want the closest they can get to the iPhone without breaking their budget. Or – a not insignificant part of the market – they don’t want a smartphone at all.

Besides, Samsung has been ripping off lots of electronics companies’ innovations for quite some time. They had it coming, and Apple might be the only company with the right gumption (and budget) to give these guys a bloody nose.

Here’s why I think this is better for consumers.

• Precedent.

  Companies who are making their bones thinking of copying without licensing will now need and want to invest in development on the things they now know they should avoid, and they’ll also be able to invest in finessing the things they now know that they can do. Remember: Apple didn’t win every count, and there are plenty of areas where the court determined Samsung did not violate patents or trade dress.

• Innovation.

  If you need to use a patent, license it. License it because it’s essential to do the amazing new thing that you’re going to build on and advance the market. Copying is fine, as long as the mutations in your copy machine lead to a cooler, better, faster thing than the thing you copied – and you gave your due to the original inventor.

• History.

  Samsung innovates in pricing models. Apple innovates in device models. You’d be hard pressed to name an innovative Samsung device that was a market success off the top of your head – but most people can name at least three innovative Apple products, because they’re the same three products Apple still sells. Mac. iPod. iPhone. Giving Apple even more money to innovate with is probably long-term better for consumers than letting Samsung keep it.

So, short-term, I think there may be some “loss” to consumers in the form of fewer available devices. I very much doubt they’ll get more expensive – there’s too much competition with other Android manufacturers, let alone Apple, for Samsung to pass the buck.

Long-term, I see a lot of upside, if for no other reason than that Apple has a proven track record and Samsung does not – at least in terms of bringing great, creative, consumer-friendly products to market.

Full disclosure: I am nobody of any interest or importance to either company. I do, however own several AppleTV’s which are each hooked up to a Samsung TV. So there’s that.

But this is something that has been going on for years, and I think given that there’s real video of the discussion within Georgetown now, it’s a good time to properly comment on the township’s lack of funding, and, frankly, ownership of the station.

If you watch the video, you can see one individual of Georgetown’s governing body ask that the township fund the station at a level comparable – per capita – to that of its co-owners, the cities of Grandville and Hudsonville. He makes a reasonable argument.

Another gentleman then counters his argument with points that, at face value, are also reasonable. But there’s a few inconsistencies, and I think it’s worth pointing them out.

He states that the station is running a surplus this year of $93,000. I don’t doubt that’s true, but it’s very likely that it’s not “unallocated” the way he states. If you’re familiar with the cost of film and video production, you know that $93,000 could buy you a couple pretty nice cameras, and that’s about it.

I don’t (currently) have inside knowledge, but knowing how these things have worked in the past, you typically allocate significant savings over the course of several years, so that you can do large upgrades all in one year. I’d bet that that current budget surplus represents a future upgrade to the studio or the mobile coverage truck that has yet to happen, simply because $93,000 isn’t enough to buy reasonable-quality production equipment that’s going to hold up over the several years it will take to buy the next round of new equipment.

The statement that you’d be “taking money from police and fire” to fund WCET-TV is an appeal to emotion. It’s a “support the troops” mentality – nobody wants to vote “against” police and fire. What’s more, it’s unfair to cable subscribers that they are effectively paying a little more on each cable bill into general services – that’s what taxes are for. If you want to effectively fund police and fire, then put a milage on the ballot and ask people to vote it. That is a completely separate issue from PEG and Franchise Fee funding of a community access station.

There are other good points here to make, but I think the biggest has to do with ownership. To me, the question isn’t how much is enough. The question is, why doesn’t Georgetown value this service enough to make it great?

Georgetown has the largest citizenry of the three communities contributing. They have the largest area to cover, and I’ll bet that a majority of the events covered by WCET-TV are relevant to Georgetown township residents. That means that it is absolutely fair for Georgetown to contribute a majority of funding – WCET-TV is not discriminatory. They don’t pick-and-chose which communities to cover based on who funds them more – they simply cover everything they feel the community finds valuable.

Georgetown residents certainly take advantage of this. One of the best shows on the station is the Georgetown Journal, which is hosted by Georgetown resident Gil Dykstra. The show is filmed weekly at WCET’s studio, and takes most of the station’s staff and volunteers to film every Monday. Look at the Sunday lineup, and tell me how many Georgetown churches you see broadcasting their services – there’s quite a few.

In the tragedy of the commons, three farmers share a field that is large enough to feed 30 cows. They all contribute to the maintenance, and thus each get to field 10 cows in the pasture. But eventually, one farmer is greedy, and fields an extra cow, while shirking his maintenance duties. In the long-term, all the farmers do the same, and you end up with 100 starving cows standing in a barren muck field.

Georgetown township is acting as the greedy farmer, and although Hudsonville and Grandville are still contributing admirably to the continued operation of WCET-TV, it won’t be that way forever. That’s the great thing about conservative politics – if they can do it, you can too.

So, residents of Georgetown, talk to your representatives and convince them that you want your franchise fees allocated at an equal percentage as that of Hudsonville and Grandville.  It’s fair, it’s right, and you won’t believe how much of an improvement you could see in quality of recording, broadcasting, and programming if WCET got the level of funding you could make happen.

In case you’ve not seen it yet, Tina and I are blogging things for Evelyn to read someday. You can find it over here:

For Evelyn

I think I’ll keep the “stuff I’m learning about parenting” posts here on my personal space, but I like keeping an archive of fun / special things for Evelyn over there. Feel free to keep an eye on it as you like.

The Talk Show has moved over to Mule Radio Syndicate.  The places this is being reported are littered with comment threads about how Gruber’s a jerk on the air, Benjamin’s a jerk off the air, and the show won’t be any good elsewhere.

The show’s been fairly stagnant on 5by5.  It’s one of the original podcasts for the network – the first run preceded 5by5, if I have my timeline right – but since the full run of Bond movies finished, there’s not been a lot of great content short of the usual decent Gruber Apple commentary – and that just doesn’t carry a show week-to-week anymore… see MacBreak Weekly.

(I also love MBW.  But there are definite lulls of good content in that well.)

One thing that is a frequent topic on all the 5by5 shows is that you’ve got to love what you’re doing, and you’ve got to focus on it to make it work. I’m going to hazard a guess that both Dan and John felt the show declining in its current form, and simply couldn’t agree on exactly the direction to take it.

The great thing I’m seeing – or not seeing, I should say – is any kind of public bad-mouthing of “the other guy” by either party. Despite a number of calls for an explanation, some commentary, an acknowledgement of the situation, neither party feels this is worth addressing – and frankly, I agree. There’s a disagreement happening, it has no business being public, and it doesn’t need to be.  I hope neither party says anything in public save a simple, “Great working with him, I wish him the best.”

I doubt we’ll ever know the real reason behind all this, any more than we would know the real reason behind any given Apple product decision. The show isn’t about the show. It’s about the content, and these guys apparently have different decisions on how to present the content going forward.

So, it’s a change. I wasn’t consulted, neither were you, and neither of us deserves an explanation. I’m going to give the new show a try for a little bit, and I’m going to wear my The Talk Show T-Shirt when it arrives with pride. And I sincerely hope that both John and Dan get exactly what they need by doing what they do best: producing great content the way they want.

Update:

Dan posted a very nice response, that’s right in line with what I had hoped to hear above.

It’s pretty simple.  We have a freedom of speech – at least, we have it here in the U.S., where I’m writing this.

Speech, in everyday situations is carried by air.  When I speak – literally – I make vocalizations, which create sound waves, which are carried by the air to another person’s ears.  Or, often, just my own ears, as I talk to myself altogether too much.

This literal, physical speech knows no boundaries save the physical limitations of the space you are in.  If my friend is standing in Canada, and I’m in earshot in the US, he’ll hear me.

Speech, in the internet sense, is carried by technologies like TCP/IP.  It’s directed by DNS and NAT.

But because it’s carried by technology, which we’ve invented and thus can theoretically control, it’s somehow treated differently than speech carried by air.  Many countries have made laws about what speech is allowed to travel on the internet.

Now, I’m all for preventing child pornography.  I’m all for preventing piracy.  But not at the risk of sucking the air out of the atmosphere.  Let’s keep that kind of hijinks relegated to the movie Spaceballs, please.

We can use the DMCA to fight piracy.  We can use existing laws to find and prosecute child pornographers.

What we don’t need to do is hobble the fundamental nature of the Internet simply to protect a business model.  In fact, for the sake of capitalism, we should allow companies that cannot adapt to the realities of the Internet to whither and die.  Anything less than that is government protectionism – and not the good kind that keeps people in jobs and mortgages.  The bad kind that keeps unsustainable businesses taxing our economy.

The good news seems to be that The People are in agreement about what shouldn’t be done to Their Internet. The bad news is The People can’t afford their own Senators.  We just elect them.

Hopefully that’s enough for the politicians.  Hopefully, it’s enough to make them behave like Statesmen, which is what we expect them to be.

Banks are a valuable part of our society.  We bailed them out.  Car companies, maybe a little less valuable – but a big job center, and we bailed them out.

Hollywood doesn’t deserve a bailout; not when tickets are double-digit dollars in the theater.  Not when they’ve plugged their ears to Internet distribution.  Not when the movies suck.

We have no need to protect these guys.  They aren’t a significant factor in our economy, and they could use a new and improved business model.

It goes like this: Put it in the theater.  Then, put it on the internet.  No Blu-rays, no DVD’s, no pay-per-view (save internet rental) and no HBO window.  Scrap all the contracts, and get the best content to your customers the most convenient – and fastest – way possible.

We’ll be watching.  And we’ll be breathing.

Unfortunately, I’m in that position right now.  It wouldn’t be fair for me to pretend that I can still support people whose websites, and sometimes businesses, depend on me and my services.

I took a job just over two years ago that ended up being a really great thing for me.  I was given a lot of autonomy, and lots of opportunity to do things that really interested me.  All I had to do was sign on.  Full time.  8:30 am – 5 pm.

Since then I’ve learned a lot about my craft, a lot about project management, and a lot about how people I knew before the job depended on me.

Many of those people realized, without prodding, that I wasn’t as available to support them.  Many simply decided to go in a different direction.  I supported that every time – because hey, if I’m honest, I know that it’s better for my ex-client to find somebody who will focus their full attention on what ex-client needs.

Now it’s time to kick the rest out.  I’m drafting a nice – but stern – email that will effectively state that my services will go dark completely in a few months.  It goes out this Saturday.  Option A is to find another provider.  Option B is to say goodbye to your site.  (And in some cases, Option B has probably already been exercised anyway – none of these sites are so big that they’re daily movers.)

I really loved running my own business.  I miss being able to work from home, in my pajamas. On the other hand – I make a lot more money, a lot more reliably (direct deposit!) than I ever did running a business.  That’s enabled me to really start a family and provide them with a nice house and good meals – without going further into debt every day.

Someday, I do want to return to running my own business.  Someday, I want to go back to teaching classes at the University.  In both cases, I know there’s some things I’d do differently.  But today I want to work a 9-5, come home, and enjoy the family I’m working to care for.

So goodbye, former clients.  I will, really, miss you.  Thank you, and I hope you understand.

Doing a little tweaking to the ol’ blog here.  Picked up a nice responsive design theme for WordPress based on Skeleton.  It’s not perfect, but it’s nice to start with something solid and work from there.

So, have a little look around.  I’ve eliminated some of the busy stuff, and I’ll probably trim it further still.  I’m going to try to get better at consistently blogging.

Rock on, all.