With all the success of last year, I am trying to ensure that I can continue growing in the future while also trying to focus on refining the products that got me here. This is going to be harder than it sounds.

I am asked repeatedly about adding new products to the lineup. While I have some ideas in the pipeline, I am having trouble staying on top of the existing lineup as it is. Between the support effort (for which I thankfully have help), and constant revisions to Apple’s OSes, it’s hard to find the time to come up with more products (and huge feature additions) when you’re constantly playing catch-up. (See: Fire and Motion.)

With that said, I’m excited about what this year holds. There is a lot of work to do on every single one of my products, and that’s a great problem to have. I have no shortage of work to do, and I look forward to continuing my work on a lineup of products that I’m proud to have built.

So to answer the question: What’s coming in 2012? Exciting updates to all of my products, and hopefully the release of one that I’ve had in my back pocket for a while now. Stay tuned.

If you didn’t already catch the news, Capo won an Apple Design Award, and I’m still coming down from that high.

But even if I took that out of the equation, the week still rocked hard for me.

I went into WWDC 2011 expecting to hear all the fancy new user-facing Lion features, and attend sessions about trivial things such as the full-screen and multitouch advancements. After the kickoff sessions, my attitude changed completely. I felt that I had to attend a good deal of sessions—even with videos (allegedly) around the corner!

Apple has given developers a great deal of new goodies to make our code go faster, less error-prone, and easier to maintain. With Apple in such a strong position right now, it would be very easy for them to sit back and add features to an already quite solid foundation. I’m so very glad that they’ve not taken that route.

It seems that Apple is never quite done perfecting their products, and the developer tools and APIs come across as a very important Apple product in itself. It’s not only the foundation of their own software, but also the software which is used by third parties to extend their platform further.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to be writing software for Apple’s platforms, and I can’t wait to dive into the exciting projects that I am working on. I’d also like to thank Apple for putting on a great show this year, as usual. You guys work very hard on this stuff, and it really shows!

As usual, there is quite a bit of work on my plate heading into WWDC, and I hope to utilize the labs as much as I can to get around the issues I’m currently struggling with. However, this year seems to offer much more intriguing content than last year (Hello, Lion!), so it won’t be such an easy decision to skip most of the sessions like I did in 2011.

While I realize there will be videos available afterwards, I like to try and attend the sessions for any new technology that affects me directly. Often Apple will offer labs that relate to the new content, and it’s a great place for me to direct my pointed questions to the engineers behind the technology.

But what really excites me about WWDC isn’t the content, labs, or even the keynote. By the end of the week, you leave San Francisco with your creative fires stoked, a stronger bond with long-time friends from around the world, and a handful of new ones.

Here’s to an exciting week ahead…

I’d like to thank all my Indie Mac Software Brethren who’ve helped keep me sane during the 3 years I’ve spent alone in my home. With a mixture of IRC, iChat, and Twitter, it’s hard to really describe my work situation as “lonely.”

I’d also like to thank my customers for contributing to SuperMegaUltraGroovy’s success. You have not only supported me financially, but also spiritually. I am continually receiving praise in my support email and app reviews, and that helps me stay motivated to keep doing what I do.

Since it’s been a few years, I’ll let you in on a little secret: The anniversary of “going indie” is also my birthday! Now I have a much less depressing milestone to track as I grow older. It’ll be far more exciting to throw a party for 20 years of SuperMegaUltraGroovy, rather than my 48th birthday.

(And, if this growth keeps up, it’s going to be quite an event…)

There were a few music-related acquisitions over the years, such as a 32-key MIDI controller for noodling around with a demo version of Reason, and an 88-key fully-weighted MIDI controller to try and get back on the piano-playing bandwagon, but nothing really stuck.

In November 2007, a few months before leaving my job to work on SuperMegaUltraGroovy full-time, I purchased an acoustic guitar. I don’t recall the specifics of what drove me to get one, but I knew I wanted to learn how to play. After I quit my job to pursue my indie software development dreams, I was able to spend my downtime practicing.

Several months into my new career, and after learning the basics via youtube/etc, I decided to upgrade my main acoustic guitar to something a little more substantial. About a week or so after that, I signed up for lessons to take my playing past the plateau I was stuck at.

So here I am, about 16 months, 7 months of lessons, 5 guitar purchases, 1 guitar return, and 1 guitar sale later, and I’m hopeful again about music in my life. I’m very passionate about this new hobby, and playing the guitar has helped me stay sane while working alone in my home.

Playing the guitar has also helped to fuel my application idea engine, just as building speakers did back in 2004. As a result, I’ve been working on something great since the holidays that stems from this new hobby. I can’t wait to release it, but I don’t want to reveal anything until I feel the product is ready.

So, stay tuned…