434: ‘Knee-Jerk Contrarian’, With Dan Frommer
The Talk Show With John Gruber
11/18/25
•114m
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Special guest Dan Frommer returns to the show. Topics include the indie media business, the iPhone Pocket, the iPhone Air (including rumors about the second generation model), AI “personalities”, and five years of Apple Silicon Macs. Also, six years of Dan’s site, The New Consumer.
Sponsored by:
- Factor: Healthy eating, made easy. Get 50% off your first box, plus free breakfast for 1 year, with code talkshow50off.
- Notion: The AI workspace where teams and AI agents get more done together.
- Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.
Links:
- Dan’s site: The New Consumer.
- iPhone Pocket:
- iPhone Air:
- Jason Snell at Six Colors, in 2022: “Find Photos Taken by Specific iPhone Lenses”.
- Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz, Two MLB Pitchers, Charged in Gambling Investigation.
- Ricoh GR IIIx:
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Previous Episode
433: ‘Meat Bags’, With Brian Mueller
October 31, 2025
•87m
Special guest Brian Mueller, developer of Carrot Weather, joins the show to commemorate the 10th anniversary of his utterly ridiculous but totally serious weather app.
Sponsored by:
- Squarespace: Save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code talkshow.
- Uncommon Goods: Out of the ordinary gifts. Get 15% off your next purchase.
Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.
Links:
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
Next Episode
435: ‘Lincoln Bio Services’, With Stephen Robles
November 21, 2025
•78m
Special guest Stephen Robles joins the show. Topics include indie media and YouTube, Shortcuts and automation, and the state of podcasting.
Sponsored by:
- Uncommon Goods: Out of the ordinary gifts, great for the holidays. Save 15% off your next purchase after following that link.
Transcripts: Unofficial but surprisingly good.
Links:
- Stephen goes indie:
- Stephen’s YouTube channel.
- Announcement: “I Don't Have a Job Anymore, Thanks to You”.
- Video: “These Shortcuts Are Magic”.
- Primary Technology: Stephen's podcast, with cohost Jason Aten.
- Apple Podcasts and AI-generated chapters:
- Apple Podcasts for Creators: “Enhance Your Episodes With Chapters, Links, and More”.
- Daring Fireball: “Apple Podcasts Is Adding AI-Generated Chapters for Podcasts Without Chapters”.
- Primary Technology discussion.
- Beard.fm: “Apple’s Losing Its Podcast Legacy”.
- Downie, a fantastic Mac app for downloading local copies of videos from the web (especially YouTube).
- Daring Fireball post on Downie 4, from early this year.
- Transloader — Apps from Eternal Storms that allow you to initiate downloads on a Mac remotely from an iPhone, iPad, or another Mac.
- F-Bomb paperweight at sponsor Uncommon Goods.
This episode of The Talk Show was edited by Caleb Sexton.
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