The Talk Show With John Gruber

Special guest Jason Snell joins the show for a year-end extravaganza. Topics include Jason’s first three months writing (and podcasting) as an indie at his new Six Colors; a look back at his 20-year career at MacUser and soon thereafter Macworld; tricky edge cases when booking sponsorships, and the whole situation with separating advertising sales from editorial integrity when you’re running a one-person publication; the Sony/North Korea hacking and The Interview, and iTunes’s slightly belated release thereof; and we pour one out for good old Movable Type. Sponsored by: Hover: The world’s best domain registrar. Use coupon code “bourbon” and save 10 percent on any order. Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled, online backup for Mac. Squarespace 7: Start here. Go anywhere. Use code “jg” and save 10 percent. Links: McSweeney’s: “Email Addresses It Would Be Really Hard to Give Out Over the Phone” (a classic). Jason Snell at Six Colors: “No Other Gatekeeper But Me” Power Computing, the leading Mac clone maker. Mac clones. The 1997 merger of MacUser and Macworld. Chandler reading Macworld on Friends Daring Fireball piece on software bundles back in 2006: “The Iniquities of the Selfish”. Wilfredo Sanchez’s crackerjack whitepaper from 2000: “The Challenges of Integrating the Unix and Mac OS Environments”. Lycos, not dead yet. John Gruber, Dan Moren, and Jason Snell talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark on episode 8 of The Incomparable back in 2010.

Special guest Rene Ritchie returns to the show for a special Apple 2014 year-in-review episode. Just a few of the many topics covered: Apple’s Beats acquisition; WWDC 2014 in hindsight; an aside speculating on the alternate universe where Google acquired WebOS instead of Android; the similarities between the “projected UI” nature of AirPlay, CarPlay, and WatchKit; UI fonts (Helvetica Neue in Yosemite, Apple Sans, and the Watch’s San Francisco (a.k.a. “DINvetica”)); Apple’s growing ability to design and bring to market its own hardware internals and components; recent controversies and confusing rejections at the App Store (and the need for a public-facing App Store ombudsman); and what we’re looking forward to in 2015. Sponsored by: Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled, online backup for Mac. Hover: The world’s best domain registrar. Use coupon code “scotch” and save 10 percent on any order. lynda.com: Online video training and tutorials. Use this link for a 7-day free trial. Links: Debug, Rene’s tech podcast with Guy English. ReviewCast, Rene’s movie/pop culture podcast Rumors of a new 4-inch iPhone in 2015 (a.k.a. the iPhone 6S Minus). App Store rejection hijinx: Drafts, Transmit, PCalc.

Special guest Dan Frommer joins the show to talk about prop bets in Vegas, more Star Wars, some follow-up on James Bond, what should Apple do with its mountains of cash?, speculation on why iPad sales growth has stagnated, and more. Also, some in-depth segments on Instagram and the concept of “institutional taste”. Sponsored by: Hullo: Your favorite pillow. Guaranteed. Harry's: Quality men’s shaving products. Use code “talkshow” and save $5. Squarespace: Start here. Go anywhere. Use code “jg” and save 10 percent. Links: Great photo of Dan, recording the show at Quartz’s office. Dan’s article, “Ten Things We Learned About Apple in 2014”. The Cubs sign ex-Rays manager Joe Madden and pitcher Jon Lester. Superbowl 51 will go back to stupid Roman numerals. Eric Jackson’s piece for Forbes, “Apple’s $100 Billion Waste: Tim Cook’s Single Biggest Mistake As CEO”, wherein he argues Apple should buy Tesla, Twitter, and Pinterest. GT Advanced and their crazy approach to making deals. Instagram active user announcement. Ev Williams “doesn’t give a shit” about Instagram’s numbers. OK Go’s latest video. Seriously, watch this. Stephen Colbert on the new Sith lightsaber in The Force Awakens teaser.

Special guest Dave Wiskus joins the show to talk about the new teaser trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and just-announced title and cast for the 24th EON Productions Bond movie, Spectre. Other topics include the untapped potential of podcasting and YouTubing, cutting babies in half, turtle copulation, and kangaroo genitalia. Sponsored by: lynda.com: Online video training and tutorials. Use this link for a 7-day free trial. Need: Refined retailer and lifestyle magazine for men. Squarespace: Start here. Go anywhere. Use code “JG” and save 10 percent. Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for Mac. Links: Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser Spectre, the upcoming 24th EON Productions James Bond film Midnight Run Original 1976 Star Wars trailer, sans John Williams’s score, with uncolored lightsabers and a Helvetica Bold logotype John Brownlee: “In Defense of the New Star Wars Lightsaber” BBC’s Fleming miniseries (It’s currently streaming on Netflix.) Everything or Nothing — good documentary on the Bond films, also streaming on Netflix currently Fantastic re-cut Never Say Never Again intro, including Dionne Warwick’s unused recording of John Barry’s “Mr. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” for the opening credits Dave Addey: “Typeset in the Future: Alien” Unprofessional Wiskus’s “Better Elevation” video show, and the recent “Podcast Intervention” and “How to Make a Hit App” episodes CGP Grey

Special guest Christa Mrgan joins the show to talk about Yosemite UI design, Apple TV’s aesthetics (and its shitty IR remote control), Apple Watch speculation (including using it as an Apple TV remote), the Watch’s new San Francisco font, bling in icon design, and more. It’s a Thanksgiving week design-focused spectacular. Sponsored by: lynda.com: Online video training and tutorials. Use this link for a 7-day free trial. Hover: The world’s best domain registrar. Use coupon code “vodka” and save 10 percent on any order. Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like. Links: Christa Mrgan on Twitter. Rogue Amoeba software (and Piezo in particular). Super Bowl 50.

Who else but very special guest John Moltz to ring in The Talk Show’s centurial episode. Topics include iPhone display sizes (and in particular, our mutual preference for the old 5S 4-inch size over the 4.7-inch iPhone 6); the new book Moltz co-wrote, The Visual Guide to Minecraft; writing tools, including word processors and Markdown; shopping for gaming PCs as a Mac person; Microsoft Office going free on mobile platforms; Twitter’s stilted strategy statement; President Obama’s statement on Net Neutrality; and Tim Cook’s eloquent essay announcing that he’s gay. Sponsored by: Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like. Harry’s: Quality men’s shaving products. Use code “talkshow” and save $5. Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for your Mac, for just $5/month. Squarespace: Start here. Go anywhere. Use code “jg” and save 10 percent. Links: The Visual Guide to Minecraft, co-written by Moltz. Twitter’s “strategy statement”. Tim Cook: “I’m proud to be gay.” David Sparks’s Markdown Field Guide Fountain — a Markdown-inspired plain text format for screenplays. Highland — A Fountain viewer/editor. Slugline — A more WYSIWYG-style Fountain editor. Punch-cutting double-density (800 KB) 3.5-inch floppy disks to make them work as high-density (1.4 MB) disks The CocoaLove conference in Philadelphia President Obama on Net Neutrality Paul Lynde

Very special guest Merlin Mann returns to the show to talk about Comcast customer service, cable-cutting, Marlins Man (no relation) and his showboating-spectator predecessors, and the state of podcasting today. Also: daylight saving time and Roman numerals. Sponsored by: Need: A refined retailer and lifestyle magazine for men. Warby Parker: Stylish high-quality eyewear at revolutionary prices. Igloo: The intranet you’ll actually like. Squarespace 7: Build your own website. Links: Xfinity’s amazing illustration for a service outage The Kansas Royals tried to get Marlins Man to move seats during the World Series “Fan Man” James Miller Rockin’ Rollen Stewart, a.k.a. Rainbow Man, a.k.a. John 3:16 Guy Roderick on the Line

Special guest John Siracusa returns to the show to discuss last week’s Apple event (introducing the iPad Air 2), and OS X Yosemite (and his review thereof). Sponsored by: Casper: Premium mattresses for a fraction of the price. Squarespace 7: Everything you need to create an exceptional website. Backblaze: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for Macs. Links: Siracusa’s Yosemite review. Meta post about his Yosemite review. ATP Application Enhancer. Quora thread on garbage collected systems (like Android) needing more RAM than non-GC systems (like iOS). Daniel Jalkut on creating status bar icons that work with Yosemite’s dark menu bar. FTL: WebKit’s LLVM based JIT. Secrets: A database of hidden settings for Mac OS X. Crystal Quest for Xbox.

Special guest Guy English returns to the show to talk about iOS 8 quality concerns, and whether Apple’s annual software cycle is stretching the company too thin. Then things devolve into a bitter argument over the merits of file name extensions. Sponsored by: Harry’s: High-quality men’s shaving products. Backblaze.com: Unlimited, unthrottled online backup for the Mac. uBar: A taskbar for the Mac. Save 50 percent with code “GRUBEREDITION”. Links: iOS 8 adoption rate lags behind iOS 7 and 6 “Note to Self: It’s the Storage Space, Stupid” Businessweek’s unflattering portrait of Gene Munster From the DF Archive: “The Good, the Bad, and the Avie” Donnie Baseball grabs some popcorn

Special guest Ben Thompson joins the show for an Apple Watch discussion: what it’ll cost, what it’ll do, how it will be sold, and more. Other topics include “Bend-gate”, Apple’s growing prowess in mobile chip design, and Derek Jeter. Sponsored by: uBar: A taskbar for the Mac. Save 50 percent with code “STANDARDGRUBER”. Need: A refined retailer and lifestyle magazine for men. Fracture: Your photos printed directly on glass. Save 20 percent with code “GRUBER”. Links: Apple Spotlight: A Brief History of iPhonegates Derek Jeter’s 2001 “flip play” AnandTech benchmarks show year-old iPhone 5S is still a top-five phone