Sponsor

Speaking of Google and Apple, one aspect where the two companies differ is on the question of privacy. Online privacy isn’t just something you should be hoping for – it’s something you should expect. You should ensure your browsing history stays private and is not harvested by ad networks.

By blocking ad trackers, Magic Lasso Adblock stops you being followed by ads around the web. 

It’s a native Safari content blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac that’s been designed from the ground up to protect your privacy. 

Over 280,000+ users rely on Magic Lasso Adblock to:

• Remove ad trackers, annoyances and background crypto-mining scripts
• Browse common websites 2.0x faster
• Block over 10 types of YouTube ads, including pre-roll video ads
• Double battery life during heavy web browsing
• Lower data usage when on the go

And unlike some other ad blockers, Magic Lasso Adblock doesn’t accept payment from advertisers and is 100% supported by its community of users.

With over 5,000 five star reviews; it’s simply the best ad blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Want to experience twice as fast load times in Safari on your iPhone, iPad and Mac? 

Then download Magic Lasso Adblock – the ad blocker designed for you. It’s easy to setup, blocks all YouTube ads, and doubles the speed at which Safari loads.

Magic Lasso Adblock is an efficient and high performance ad blocker for your iPhone, iPad and Mac. It simply and easily blocks all intrusive ads, trackers and annoyances in Safari. Just enable to browse in bliss.

By cutting down on ads and trackers, common news websites load 2x faster and use less data.

Over 280,000+ users rely on Magic Lasso Adblock to:

• Improve their privacy and security by removing ad trackers
• Block over 10 types of YouTube ads, including pre-roll video ads
• Double battery life during heavy web browsing
• Lower data usage when on the go

And unlike some other ad blockers, Magic Lasso Adblock respects your privacy, doesn’t accept payment from advertisers and is 100% supported by its community of users.

Download today via the Magic Lasso website, the App Store and Mac App Store.

My thanks to Magic Lasso Adblock for sponsoring Asymco.com this week.

Software is eating the world. But are users consuming software?

Every day, the software industry wastes millions of dollars developing flawed software that's abandoned by users. Yet the industry’s focus continues to be on the supply side: client or server, full-stack or specialized, out-source or in-house.

The Jobs to be Done method presents a fresh approach. By studying the demand side, developers can focus on how products are used by consumers to overcome their daily struggles. This method has brought success to a range of popular consumer products, from Snickers to Tide Pods. 

Friend of the blog IGEN has been building software with top Jobs to be Done thought leaders for the past six years. Amplified with 30 years of software development experience, this makes IGEN the ideal partner to realize the ambitions of corporate leaders, nimble startups, and multi-national initiatives, alike. 

Start 2021 with a Jobs to be Done Consult for your product. IGEN will conduct 21 free, 1-hour sessions before February 21. Sign up today, first come, first serve.

We’ve partnered up with Asymco to bring you an exclusive $25 credit for new users. Just sign up through this link.

SaneBox is like a super-smart assistant who’s been with you for years and knows what’s important to you. It moves unimportant emails from the inbox into a new folder and summarizes them in a digest, where you can quickly bulk-process them. An average SaneBox customer saves 12+ hours/month.

Additional features:

• SaneBlackHole – Instantly unsubscribe from annoying marketers, mailing lists and newsletters
• SaneReminders – Get a reminder if someone doesn’t respond to you
• SaneSnooze – Snooze non-urgent emails
• …and more features to enhance your existing email setup

With glowing reviews from TechCrunch, Forbes, The New York Times and emailers everywhere, you can rest assured that you will fall in love with email again. And it’s risk free—cancel and your email returns to the way it was.

There is no such thing as a free internet. If you engage online you are being monitored and someone is looking to extract data from your actions. Your online life is under constant surveillance from social networks, data brokers, ad companies and others looking to "monetize" your actions. You don't have to accept this.

IVPN was built by a team of security experts and privacy activists as a tool of resistance against constant online monitoring. When using IVPN on your personal devices, an encrypted tunnel prevents the logging of your browsing history, while web trackers and ads stop following you around.

IVPN was the first VPN provider to integrate the WireGuard protocol to their Android, Windows, macOS and iOS apps, helping you achieve lightning-fast connection speeds on any platform.

In addition, unlike most VPN providers, IVPN has strong ethical standards and rejects targeted advertising, paid reviews and misleading affiliates. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Join IVPN in taking a stand against surveillance. Begin with a free, no-obligations trial.

We love Gmail and Calendar, but we believe multitasking kills productivity. That's why we've built the most minimal, yet powerful Gmail and Calendar apps for Mac. We're partnering up with Asymco to give you an exclusive 30% discount: click here to get it.

Instead of a list of features, here's what our users say about Boxy Suite:

• Framer co-founder Jorn van Dijk: "Boxy Suite is the best way to use Gmail and Google Calendar on your Mac. I use it every day and love it."
• Zee M Kane, former The Next Web CEO: "Boxy makes G Suite beautiful and gives it those extra priceless features that should have been there from the start."
• Ryan Kulp, founder of FOMO: "Just downloaded Boxy Suite and already in love. Killed ~13 permanently open tabs with their suite of native clients."

Try it for free and we're sure you'll kill many Chrome tabs too.

InstantDomains.com is the fastest domain search tool ever built, you can search domain availability for all 500+ domain extensions in milliseconds. Results load instantly and with an incredibly friendly user interface it's easy to scan through which domains are and aren't available.

A domain name generator additionally suggests alternative domains to the one you've searched for and you can filter results by 55 different industries to make results even more relevant.

Instant Domains works in 32 different languages and will display the most relevant and popular domain extensions based on your location.

If you're in the market for a more premium or brandable domain you can search domains for sale with results in milliseconds.

Instant Domains will quickly become you're favourite tool of choice for domain name searches and availability checks. Try it out now.

I've received many supportive comments following the Fortune piece. Many also worried that the site is fragile due to a lack of income.  I'd like to put those worries to rest.

First, I want to state one goal for the site which defines my attitude toward how to monetize it: I intend this site to be a useful resource to the reader.

From utility comes value. I want readers to obtain value with a high signal/noise ratio. Unless well targeted, advertising drives up the noise factor and lowers usefulness. I would only accept advertising if it improved the value to the reader. Since ad networks will push ads over which I have no control I cannot be sure that they are adding value and not contradicting my content. But as you see in the right-most column, I do accept advertisements (sponsors) whose message I can evaluate and curate. You can be a sponsor (see the sponsorship page for a measure of what value you can gain from exposure through Asymco).

Second, there is also another way to support Asymco: if you use iTunes, do your music, movies, app or TV show shopping through the affiliate link in my site. It's the App Store logo in the upper right corner. Or bookmark this link: Support Asymco by buying content. I receive a commission of up to 5% from any purchase made through that link. It has already been enough to pay for my hosting.

Third, there are also indirect ways in which I derive value from Asymco. I offer consulting, data and services to clients directly. If you are interested in any of these feel free to contact me directly by email.

Thanks to all who read and contribute comments to this site. The biggest value to me is the learning I get from interacting with the readers.

I would like to thank Sunset Lake Software for sponsoring Asymco over the past week. Unlike traditional calculators, Pi Cubed lets you construct, typeset, and instantly evaluate mathematical expressions using an interactive menu system.

The ability to compose complex equations visually and then evaluate them instantly makes the iPhone a superior scientific calculator that, with this app, takes the concept to a new level. You literally touch the equation to edit it and can enter values to evaluate it. The visual representation lets you instantly recognize errors in composition, unlike formulas encoded in textual representations. You can share it, use templates and re-use it. It even exports to PDF for use with other documents.

If you are a student of any discipline where math is used, this $9.99 app is a no brainer. If you are a professional engineer, scientist, or an analyst like myself, this is an app you can't afford not to have.

Available at the App Store here.

Highly recommended.