John’s Blog

Speaking of WWDC, it starts in just over an hour. I’m sad I won’t be there this year — but neither will anyone else! Hopefully by next year we’ll be back to a normal conference schedule.

Last year John Sundell published a fantastic and comprehensive site full of goodies about WWDC, and he’s doing it again this year. It’s a great resource to follow along throughout and after the week’s events.

Just in time before the start of WWDC today, it looks like there is a nice resolution between Basecamp and Apple.

Jason Fried:

So we got down to it, and worked the weekend to get an update on Apple's desk Monday morning. Our team did a great job implementing the product changes that Schiller asked for, and first thing this morning, right after we shipped 1.0.2 to our customers, we submitted 1.0.3 to the App Store for approval.

This new version introduces a new free option for the iOS app. Now users can sign up directly in-app for a free, temporary, randomized @hey.com email address that works for 14 days. Think of it like a temporary SIM card you buy when traveling. Or for when you don't want to give out your real email address, like a short term "for sale" listing, like Craigslist does it.

We've also accelerated our multi-user HEY for Work offering where the company pays but the employees don't. This brings HEY in line with Basecamp, and dozens of other high profile multi-platform enterprise offerings that have been permitted in the App Store for a decade.

I suspect this isn't the last we'll hear of this issue, but it's great to see a peaceful resolution between my two favorite companies. ❤️

This response by Jason Fried to Apple on why they don't want to use In App Purchase is pure gold. He's 100% spot on, and anyone that has run a subscription business knows these truths well.

When Apple forces companies to offer In App Purchases in order to be on their platform, they also dictate the limits to which you can help your customer. This has a detrimental impact on the customer experience, and your relationship with your customer. It can flat out ruin an interaction, damage your reputation, and it can literally cost you customers. It prevents us from providing exceptional customer service when someone who uses our product needs help.

[…]

For example, at Basecamp we help people for all sorts of reasons. We apply credit to accounts for all sorts of reasons. We provide hardship exceptions for all sorts of reasons. We discount our software for teachers. We provide free versions for first responders. We extend trials for those who need more time. We extend payment terms occasionally for those who can't make ends meet this month. We make exceptions because people are exceptional. We take enormous pride in helping people out. And we're damn good at it.

If we had to push our customers through Apple's system, we couldn't do any of that. Apple's rules prevent us from servicing our customers, yet Apple gives us no choice but to submit to those onerous rules or not be represented on their platform. That's flat out hostile - to us, to our customers, and to the community.

The whole piece is wonderful.

There's a mess brewing between Apple and third-party developers again. I sure hope that this issue doesn't overshadow the launch of Hey, about which I'm very excited, but it's hard to not focus on it today.

Yesterday, on Twitter, David Heinemeier Hansson posted this note:

Wow. I'm literally stunned. Apple just doubled down on their rejection of HEY's ability to provide bug fixes and new features, unless we submit to their outrageous demand of 15-30% of our revenue. Even worse: We're told that unless we comply, they'll REMOVE THE APP.

This is a really bad look for Apple. The Hey app is free in the store, and does not mention how to sign up or offer any other option to sign up for the service. It's just an app for existing members to use. Just like Slack, Gmail, Basecamp itself, and countless others.

Reporting at Protocol, David Pierce has the full story:

On Tuesday afternoon, Apple sent Basecamp a slightly softer written notice. "We noticed that your app allows customers to access content, subscriptions, or features they have purchased elsewhere, but those items were not available as in-app purchases within the app," it said. Because Hey didn't qualify as a "Reader" app, Apple said that existing subscribers could log in as normal but Hey needed to make all subscriptions available to new users as in-app purchases.

Apple told me that its actual mistake was approving the app in the first place, when it didn't conform to its guidelines. Apple allows these kinds of client apps — where you can't sign up, only sign in — for business services but not consumer products. That's why Basecamp, which companies typically pay for, is allowed on the App Store when Hey, which users pay for, isn't. Anyone who purchased Hey from elsewhere could access it on iOS as usual, the company said, but the app must have a way for users to sign up and pay through Apple's infrastructure. That's how Apple supports and pays for its work on the platform.

John Gruber chimes in with an excellent response:

[H]ow could such a distinction be made in writing? There are some apps that are definitely "business services" and some that are definitely "consumer products" (games for example), but to say that the area in between encompasses many shades of gray is an understatement. The entire mobile era of computing — an era which Apple itself has inarguably largely defined — is about the obliteration of distinct lines between business and consumer products.

Let's hope Apple fixes this quickly. It's a ridiculous decision that's only going to cause further problems down the road. If they wanted to instate a new policy, they picked the wrong independent company to bully around. I'm sure DHH won't go down quietly.

This week is the official launch of Hey.com, the new e-mail service from the folks at Basecamp. I haven’t been this excited about e-mail since Gmail launched over 15 years ago. (Remember how cool it was that they offered 1GB of storage, and didn’t force you to put things in folders?) The thinking behind Hey is nothing less than you’d expect from the Basecamp team. They didn’t just create a new e-mail client. They rethought everything about how e-mail works and what it should be in 2020. Some of the highlights from the tour on Hey.com:

1. Screening of e-mails and senders, just like incoming phone calls.
2. Renaming subject lines and grouping related threads together to keep things organized.
3. Surfacing all files that have been received and sent in one simple file browser. Hallelujah.
4. No push notifications, unless you opt-in.
5. A first-party way to reply to something later. Perfectly suited towards organizing and prioritizing your replies.
6. A “paper trail” section to keep all receipts. Brilliant.
7. A single page readable view for newsletters.
8. A way to add notes and reminders for yourself inline with your e-mails.
9. Safe image loading through a proxy on Hey’s servers, and automatic spy pixel blocking.

On the interface design front, there are some very nice patterns  here too. Everything is super fast. There are keyboard shortcuts for (nearly?) everything you see. The interface is clearly designed to be useful and get out of your way. It looks lovely. Hey is a very opinionated product. It’s not going to be for everyone. That’s by design, and the product is better for it. Last but not least, I love the video tour that’s posted on Basecamp’s YouTube page. It’s just Jason Fried walking you through the features of Hey while sharing his screen. No frills, no super polished animations or faceless voiceovers. Just the creator of the product telling you about how it works and why they made the decisions they did. Everything about this product is completely refreshing.

Today’s episode of “The Daily” was a great update on the virus featuring Donald G. McNeil Jr. In short: states that were initially hit hard with the virus are seeing improvements, where states that didn’t have as many cases early on are now surging. Especially in areas like Florida and Texas.

Anecdotally, here in Texas, people seem to have forgotten that there ever was a virus and are pretending like it no longer exists. I was talking with someone yesterday who scoffed at the word COVID. “Oh that’s over”, he said.

Nice interview here by Dan Buettner with Dr. Michael Osterholm:

In short, Dr. Osterholm is arguably one of the most dependable, non-political sources for straight answers on what COVID-19 means to us and our world in the immediate future. In his 2017 book, Deadliest Enemy, he correctly foretells a global pandemic and offers the best strategy for fighting it now and avoiding it in the future. Here are the highlights of our conversation. But if you really want to understand this disease, read the whole interview.  This disease may be the biggest event of our lifetimes.

This thing isn’t over, and it’s only getting worse. A good reminder to keep vigilant.

Great message from Marques, aka MKBHD, on YouTube.

...I want to try to be something to look up to for kids like the 15 year old me. To kids that want to be able to look at a high level of something and see someone that looks like them, making the right choices, and finding success.

He also links to Neil deGrasse Tyson’s post of the same name.

There’s exceptionally hard work ahead. I recognize this work has been happening for years, often ignored or unappreciated by many people, including me. How frustrating it must be to work so hard, and see such little progress, on something so elemental. Change will require a massive, sustained effort by millions over many years. A change in perspective, mindset, and approach. And that work will certainly be met with future setbacks, which is why change requires optimism, too (which is in short supply in moments like these). I hope we can find it, and support those who need it. I’ll be working to educate myself, and break my own patterns of ignorance. This sense of urgency is, embarrassingly, new to me, so I have a lot to learn – which organizations to support, what books to read, what history to absorb, and who to listen to. I’m starting on that today. If you’re like me, I hope you’ll do the same.

Barack Obama, on Medium:

I recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting — that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life. But watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks, of every race and every station, makes me hopeful. If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation’s long journey to live up to our highest ideals. Let’s get to work.

A brief glimpse into what it would be like to have real leadership in charge.

Oliver Darcy, writing in this morning's Reliable Sources newsletter:

yet againtweeted

Sara Fischer, reporting for Axios:

The New York Times will no longer use 3rd-party data to target ads come 2021, executives tell Axios, and it is building out a proprietary first-party data platform.

Beginning in July, The Times will begin to offer clients 45 new proprietary first-party audience segments to target ads

This is great news and I hope others follow. It's going to be tough for them to pull away from the giant data providers, but I hope that publishers can do it. Third-party tracking and sharing of user data is gross and a privacy nightmare.

As an aside, I do happen to run a small independent publisher that is partially supported by sponsored ads at Air Mail. When I built the tech for Air Mail, I specifically and intentionally created a system that wouldn't allow any third-party tracking of ad data. We host and serve all of our ads in a first-party and private matter. Tracking clicks and impressions is standard practice for ad servers and ours does it entirely in the background as well. This allows our sponsors to check their numbers without compromising on one ounce of customer data from our readers. I created the type of system that I wouldn't mind using as a reader.

It's not that complicated if you design your ad systems with privacy in mind from the beginning. Here's hoping more of the publishing world catches on.

Ashley Carman for The Verge:

Joe Rogan, comedian and host of one of the most popular podcasts in the world, is taking his show to Spotify. The Joe Rogan Experience will soon become a Spotify exclusive, meaning episodes' full audio and video will only be available through the platform starting later this year. Up until now, Rogan's show has never been available on Spotify, let alone exclusive to any platform.

Spotify is quickly eating up the "podcast" world. Not great. A "podcast" that is only available on one app and does not provide an open feed to access its shows is not a podcast. Maybe we need a new name for these type of things. We need more independent podcast publishers, not consolidation of power into the hands of the few.

Dave Grohl in the Atlantic:

In today’s world of fear and unease and social distancing, it’s hard to imagine sharing experiences like these ever again. I don’t know when it will be safe to return to singing arm in arm at the top of our lungs, hearts racing, bodies moving, souls bursting with life. But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to. It’s not a choice. We’re human. We need moments that reassure us that we are not alone. That we are understood. That we are imperfect. And, most important, that we need each other. I have shared my music, my words, my life with the people who come to our shows. And they have shared their voices with me. Without that audience—that screaming, sweating audience—my songs would only be sound. But together, we are instruments in a sonic cathedral, one that we build together night after night. And one that we will surely build again.

Amen.

The bit about Springsteen in the piece is priceless too.

(via Daring Fireball)

David Peisner, writing about the making of Jason Isbell’s new album for the New York Times:

After all the strife the album caused, it’d be understandable if Shires never wanted to hear it again, but that’s not the case. “It’s the worst recording experience I’ve ever been a part of, but it’s my favorite record he’s made,” she said. “I’d like to say we’re stronger because of it, but we’re not. We just know that our strength is more than we thought.”

Isbell doesn’t think the album was affected by the turmoil he underwent making it but allowed for the possibility he could be wrong. “Maybe you can hear it,” he said. “Maybe the record is better for it. I don’t know. I try not to ask that question because I don’t want to get in a pattern of [expletive] my life up to make better records.”

What a refreshingly honest piece. Tough discussion I’m sure. Isbell is by far my favorite artist of the past 5 years or so. Looking forward to the new album. (Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t listen to singles ahead of the release. I like to wait for the full thing.)