Thanks to Tom Hesser for inviting me to be on the show. It was a blast!

You can read the review here:

http://www.iphoneappreviews.net/2008/12/13/lightastic/

You might also read the comments, I’ve responded to the review and provide a sneak peek of what’s in store for our little app.

You can check it out here.

While you’re there, check out some of the other amazing iPhone apps they’re featuring. I’m happy to find I own several that they show, and I found a few more great apps I didn’t know about at all.

Thanks, Apple!

The show just went live, and you can listen to it here. This particular episode focuses on using your Mac (and iPhone!) for managing your finances, and Victor thought Loan Shark fit right it. It’s good stuff, so head on over!

During the show, Dave (with whom I’ve had dust-ups before) claims that Podcasting in iTunes had nothing to do with why Ray Slakinski and I gave up developing iPodderX, the first true podcasting application. Of course, Dave never talked to Ray or me about this. He makes a blanket statement about iPodderX with absolutely no information whatsoever (something he regularly lambasts journalists for).

The fact of the matter is this: Yes, iTunes killed iPodderX, plain and simple. Here’s a graph of our sales:

As you can easily see, iTunes 4.9 with podcasting caused a precipitous drop in sales.

Sure, Ray and I could have pursued iPodderX for a while longer, and we debated long and hard about what to do. But, as usual, Dave is missing out on a couple of really important details.

First, unlike Dave, I’m not independently wealthy. Like most people, I need to work to pay the bills. Creating and distributing software for free doesn’t appeal to my girlfriend, my bank, or my mortgage holder, and while Ray and I would have loved to continue working on iPodderX, it simply didn’t make financial sense.

Second, podcasting is simply the reading of syndicated information, in most cases in an RSS feed. This means that podcasting clients are basically specialized RSS readers. In fact, iPodderX had already become a full-fledged newsreader long before iTunes 4.9. If we had kept developing iPodderX, we’d have had not one, but two 800 pound gorillas to deal with: Apple with iTunes, and Newsgator with NetNewsWire.

We had no interest in fighting these two behemoths; it’s not hard to see that we’d have gotten crushed. And, given that NetNewsWire/Newsgator is now free (and other RSS readers are following suit), I am more certain than ever that Ray and I made the right decision at the right time.

It’s funny that Winer uses this podcast to plug the “podcasting application” he’s working on himself. I wish him luck, but, as I survey the market, I know he’ll get very few users, and certainly not enough to make a dent in the iTunes hegemony.

iTunes won, Dave, but you go right ahead tilting at those windmills.

[Update: Here's Ray's take.]

[Update 2: Ray has updated his post to include graphical data from the iPodder/Juice project. Even though theirs was open source and free, their download count mimics our sales, and the release of iTunes 4.9 had the same effect on them.]

There are lots of minor improvements and fixes here, and one big new feature: “Cover Sets.” Cover Sets allow you to define different “covers” for your Desktop. Switching between them is then just a quick trip to the menu bar. It’s great when you need one backdrop for screenshots, one for presentations, or one for everyday use. Or, just go crazy and let your mood choose your background.

I’ve also used this version as an opportunity to lay the groundwork for some great features in the pipeline. While you won’t see the changes in this version, they’ll speed things along for the next version.

If you’re not already the proud owner of a copy of Desktopple, we’re offering a Macworld Special: buy before the end of Macworld 2008, and get 30% off!

And for those of you waiting for a Leopard-compatible version of Server Siren, that’s tops on my list. Expect news on that front very soon.

It was a lot of fun doing this, and I’m already knees deep in another book. Plus, I’ve got updates of Desktopple and Server Siren in the pipeline. More soon!

And if you don’t mind, send me some Digg love.

I’ll have more details soon…

In fact, though I really didn’t intend to buy the phone for business purposes, it’s helped me out considerably with several of my clients. I’ve been helping them optimize their websites for use with the iPhone. While the phone does handle just about any website with aplomb, there are lots of tweaks you can make so the iPhone-user’s experience is even better.

I’ve also helped a couple of clients develop iPhone-only versions of their site. I don’t like the idea of separate sites for different browsers (it’s taken long enough to stop that behavior with IE-only sites…), but with modern, template-based websites, doing this isn’t too hard. Plus, with so many iPhones coming on board (Apple is hoping to sell 10 million next year alone), having iPhone-only versions of a website actually has some merit.

I’ll have more to say on the iPhone later, but suffice it to say, I couldn’t be happier with my new little gadget.