Linked List: September 20, 2015

Sunday, 20 September 2015

MacUpdate’s Fall 2015 Bundle ★

You’ve probably noticed that there’s a lot of talk about online advertising and sponsorships this week. I’ve been thinking about this my entire career — sustainable win-win-win advertising is the central tenet of Daring Fireball as a business. What I mean by “win-win-win” is that it is good for the sponsor (they get a response that makes the money they’ve paid worthwhile), good for me (financially and branding-wise — that these are all products and services I’m happy to promote to DF’s audience), and most importantly, good for you, the reader.

There are cynics in this debate who believe there is no such thing as “good advertising”. I beg to differ, and I can think of no better example than this week’s DF RSS feed sponsor, MacUpdate. They’ve been putting together great bundles of Mac software for years, and have been sponsoring DF’s RSS feed to promote them ever since April 2008. This week is the 11th time they’ve sponsored DF.

The benefits are obvious: MacUpdate gets their bundle promoted to an audience that cares about great apps; and you, the readers, get the opportunity to save a ton of money and score some great apps. (It seems to work out well for the developers, too — a lot of the participating developers have had apps in MacUpdate’s bundles before.)

With a value of over $550 and priced at just $49.99, their current bundle is another winner. With 10 of the best titles for the Mac, including ExpanDrive 5, DEVONthink, iMazing, and Toast 14, there’s something for everyone. Even if you just want one or two of these apps, it’s a good deal, and you get the rest of the bundle for free, effectively. The bundle only runs for another week, so don’t wait. The first 5,000 buyers will also receive Seasonality Core, a great weather app for the Mac. That’s 11 great Mac apps for only $49.99.

If you like great apps, saving money, and helping support one of the longest-running sponsors of Daring Fireball, go check it out.

Wired Gives Apple News Four-Day Exclusive on Feature Story ★

Wired:

This story is being previewed exclusively on Apple News until Tuesday, September 22nd. Please check this page again at that time.

To view this story in the Apple News app on your iOS 9 device, follow this link: https://news.apple.com/A-oPQmJNfTyi9oHKs1xCY3w.

Interesting. I wonder what they’re getting from Apple for this? Cash? Is anyone else doing this? Update: Consensus is that no money was exchanged, and Wired did this purely for the promotional value.

You can’t even read this on a Mac until Tuesday, because Apple News is (for now) iOS-only.