We released another major update to Micro.blog for macOS today: version 1.5. Here are the changes:
You can choose “Check for Updates” in the app or download the latest version here.
Still can’t believe that pass interference no-call in the Saints game. Hard to imagine anything more obvious or more decisive on the outcome of a game. Disappointing. 🏈
Posted the latest Core Intuition with a discussion of Dark Mode, maps in DuckDuckGo, and some optimism for Apple expanding their web services.
I love having a business model for Micro.blog that means we can work with third-party developers instead of against them. True story from last week: I’m at dinner with family, and my kids were playing around with the Micro.blog iOS app. While we waited for our table at the restaurant, they were giving me all sorts of feedback, including that Micro.blog should have a tab bar on iOS instead of a menu to switch between the timeline and mentions. (I like the current design because it lets the full height of the screen be used for reading posts, and you can swipe anywhere to go back, but that’s beside the point.)
“You should download the third-party app Icro,” I said to them. “It’s a beautiful app that has a tab bar.”
Everyone downloads Icro.
“Oh yeah, dad, Icro is much better than your app.” 🙂
And that’s fine. What we care about is whether more people are blogging, storing photos at their own domain name, and moving away from the massive ad-based social networks. There should be a variety of apps to accomplish that. I’m just happy that an increasing number of apps work so well with Micro.blog.
It might surprise some developers to learn that the 4 official apps for Micro.blog — the iOS and macOS apps, Sunlit, and our microcasting app Wavelength — don’t actually share very much Objective-C or Swift code. To minimize dependencies and so that we could more easily develop each app quickly on its own schedule, in some cases we’ve duplicated similar networking or controller code between projects. Now that the apps are becoming more mature, we want to consolidate the Micro.blog API logic in a shared codebase.
Jonathan Hays has been developing a Swift-based framework and example app for the Micro.blog API. It has already been added to the next version of Sunlit, and the plan is to add it to the other apps as well. We’re making it available as open source for anyone who wants to use it as a starting point for their own apps. It supports iOS, macOS, and even tvOS. It’s still early, but we welcome any feedback or pull requests. Enjoy!
Speaking of Android, I’ve added a link to Dialog from the Micro.blog “New Post” page. Plus new app icons!
Nice update from Vincent Ritter on his upcoming Android app for Micro.blog, Gluon. Looking good!
I wrote in a post last year — and in the companion podcast episode — that pushback against Instagram is coming. This week, John Gruber didn’t hold back on how much worse Instagram already is:
At the time Facebook acquired Instagram, Instagram was by far the nicest social media experience I’d seen. It is now quickly descending into a cesspool of crap. I fully expected Facebook to Facebook-ify Instagram, but it’s sad watching it happen. It seems to be accelerating in the wake of the departure of co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger — again, surprising no one.
The way forward is clear: post your photos to your own blog. Here’s a selection of recent photos on Micro.blog, all starting on someone’s blog.
Basecamp has moved their blog Signal v Noise off Medium.com and back to their control. DHH’s post is so well aligned with what we believe in for Micro.blog that it almost reads like part of our mission statement:
Beyond that, though, we’ve grown ever more aware of the problems with centralizing the internet. Traditional blogs might have swung out of favor, as we all discovered the benefits of social media and aggregating platforms, but we think they’re about to swing back in style, as we all discover the real costs and problems brought by such centralization.
Medium.com was swinging in the wrong direction, especially with the change last year to no longer allow custom domain names. I think 2019 is going to be a great year for blogging.
We shipped version 1.4 of Micro.blog for macOS today. This update includes the following changes:
As part of preparing this release, I accidentally opted in to Dark Mode in macOS Mojave before Micro.blog was ready for it. I’ve released a 1.4.1 update to revert this. However, if you love Dark Mode and want to see the in-progress version of Micro.blog, you can download a beta of version 1.5 here. The timeline and posting screen still have a white background, so when those features are ready we’ll do a final 1.5 release.
Very happy to see that Dialog is now out of beta! Dialog is the first Micro.blog app for Android available in Google Play. From the blog post announcement by Mike Haynes:
It is with great excitement that I announce Dialog is now officially out of beta. If you were a part of our public beta, there should be an update available soon — if there isn’t already — and new users can download the app now via the Play Store. We also encourage everyone to leave a review for the app there if they have the time.
Dialog is a full-featured Micro.blog app. Browse the timeline, Discover, favorites, view conversations, post to your blog, and send replies. I’ve also updated the Micro.blog help site to link to the new Dialog web site.
Registration is open for IndieWebCamp Austin. February 23-24.
It’s become a tradition during WWDC that I always head out to the Presidio on Sunday to have lunch and visit the Walt Disney Family Museum. Looking forward to this exhibit of Mickey Mouse drawings curated by Andreas Deja.
We’ve got a new help site! Special thanks to @paulrobertlloyd for the redesign. Love the new search box.
What a game. Spurs get the win over the Thunder in 2 OTs. All sorts of records in this one. Spurs start with 14 3s in a row, then Aldridge finishes the game with 56 points. 🏀
On today’s Core Intuition — the tech and business podcast pretending to be a developer podcast — @danielpunkass and I talk about whether Apple is leaving their core values behind as they grow into services and media, plus an update on Black Ink for iOS.
Homebrew Website Club is tonight in Austin! 6:30pm at Mozart’s Coffee. Join us for a coffee and chat about the IndieWeb and plans for IndieWebCamp Austin. (Which will be February 23-24… Registration open soon.)
We’ve been playing Catan this weekend. I love the design and how balanced the game feels. Nice way to spend some time as the holiday break winds down for the kids.
For the first episode of 2019, we catch up a little on what Daniel has been coding on, then talk about our hopes for growing our businesses this year. From the show notes:
Daniel and Manton greet the New Year with a vague sense of optimism, as Daniel moves closer to serious iOS development, and Manton remains confident and focused on Micro.blog. They talk about finding a balance between optimistic enthusiasm and realism about chance of failure. Finally, Daniel talks about his shifting plans for Black Ink 2 and the possibility of co-launching it with an iOS version.
DeRozan gets the first triple-double of his career against his old team. Kawhi gets boos. I had hoped the crowd would give him a better reception… But a great win. I love how well DeRozan fits on the Spurs. 🏀
We’ve extended our holiday giveaway through this weekend. If you invite someone to Micro.blog, they’ll get 3 free months of blog hosting.
Shawn Blanc on making small changes instead of big New Year’s resolutions:
I do not overhaul my life on January first. Instead, I pick a few things that I know I can stick with. The compounding impact of small routines done regularly is so much more powerful than that one giant event.
I started using Streaks on January 1st and put it on my home screen. I’ve added just a few tasks to it so far — fairly easy tasks, but things I want to do every day — and already it has made a big difference.
Sorry for the late notice — no Homebrew Website Club in Austin tonight. Because of the holidays and weather, we’re pushing the meetup to next week. Jan 9th, 6:30pm at Mozart’s Coffee.
Dialog for M.b got a major update for the new year, including a new posting screen. Available as a public beta in Google Play.
Very cold and rainy day in Austin as it’s starting to feel like 2019 is really here. I’ve been wrapping up a new foundation for themes and customization on M.b that I can’t wait to share.
