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Merlin on MacBreak Weekly 75

Submitted by Merlin on January 30, 2008 - 5:47am.

MacBreak Weekly 75: MacHeist Replies

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Hosts: Leo Laporte, Merlin Mann, Andy Ihnatko, Scott Bourne, and Alex Lindsay

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Guests: Philip Ryu of MacHeist, Andrew Welch of Ambrosia.

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Apple reports record earnings… then stock tanks, Philip Ryu of MacHeist and Andrew Welch of Ambrosia give counterpoints to MacHeist discussion, and more.

Here’s a direct MP3 download of our marathon 107 minute, nearly-ruined-by-Skype-farts MBW 75.

And, hey, whaddaya know? MBW is having its Diamond Anniversary. I should pick up a necklace or an industrial drill for Leo.

This week, Leo invited Philip and Andrew on to talk about MacHeist. I hope they feel like they got a fair hearing and were able to say their piece. For myself, I’m still not sure how I feel about MacHeist, but I’m persuaded that the process is improved over the first time it was offered. On a personal level, it was cool to be given a chance to talk to Andrew, whose Ambrosia Software has been with me like a secret friend for almost as long as I’ve used a Mac.

This time around my pick of the week is Airfoil by Rogue Amoeba (although I also profess my affection for lots of other stuff Paul makes). Good interview from last year with Paul over on Ars Technica.

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RE: Vesuvio on Merlin on MacBreak 75

Submitted by Mark1701 on February 1, 2008 - 6:53pm.

I wonder if there is a better analogy then someone putting together a campaign for public office. What MacHeist is doing seems to be what most middle-men do in business, namely, act as a go-between the consumer and the producers. In a business like paper products, they would be the distributors. Now as someone who has a brother in the paper distribution business I can understand why one might have a problem with these businesses. They don’t produce anything, they simply advertise and bundle products. Maybe what Merlin and others are reacting to is the archaic feel of a 20th century mode of distribution. As web saavy 21st century individuals, I think many of us may feel that producers (developers) shouldn’t have to go through distributors and subsequently lose a portion of the value of their product. While I can understand the intuitive negative reaction MacHeist might engender as a distributor, there doesn’t seem to me to be anything inherently wrong with developers going that route - a route which does in this case benefit consumers.