Better Elevation

I’ll go buy a brand new iPhone in June, even if this is the only feature Apple adds.

Link to video. Statement stressing my enjoyment of said video. Punchy closing line.

The LA Times has this to say about Apple’s crossing into the major, major leagues:

Apple joins an exclusive club that includes Exxon Mobil, Microsoft and Wal-Mart Stores. But some analysts are starting to wonder if now may be a good time to sell the company’s stock.

Right before the iPad is released? Those analysts are fucking stupid.

Paul Carr is the only reason to bother reading Techcrunch. Every word of this is pure gold:

Tip One: Don’t go to South by Southwest Interactive.

I’m serious. It sucked last year, and it’s going to suck again this year. You’re kidding yourself if you think otherwise. The idea that SXSWi is a conference – or even a festival – for people doing interesting and useful things in technology is a fallacy. In reality, it’s just a non-stop orgy of bullshit fanboyism – a chance for people with stickers on their laptops to go and add more stickers to their laptops; an opportunity for sweaty dorks in Diggnation t-shirts to line up for two hours in the hope of getting Alex Albrecht to – I dunno – sign their laptop, I suppose, or maybe give them another freaking sticker. Even the parties – which are basically the only reason to go – are horrible: the free bars runs out too soon, and they’re always rammed with the kind of people who you could be forgiven for assuming have never been inside licenced premises before.

Try WWDC instead. It’s like SxSW, except the parties are accessible, the community is friendlier, and the people who attend actually make money at what they do.

I really can’t argue with that title.

(Via Turing Eret)

Chris Clark explains the problem with scrolling on multitouch devices:

Dragging through thousands of words of prose isn’t skimming, isn’t navigation… it’s laborious. You’re paginating by hand.

Devin makes an interesting and valid point, but I disagree with his assertion here:

Without the collective network of millions, Facebook would not exist. We are the customers because we’re paying with a different (and arguably, more sparse) currency: attention.

We are the product. Advertisers are the customer. This may seem like a semantic distinction — at least in context — but there is a fundamental difference in how customers and products are treated, even if both groups are made up of human beings.

Jersey Girl was more enjoyable.

It turns my stomach to agree with Arrington on anything, but this is flat-out unacceptable.

Brent Simmons talks up 360|iDev and name-drops yours truly.

And yeah, it’s been a weird, crazy year. I look at the list of my fellow speakers and I feel both honored and humbled.

Watching this makes me want one of these.

Another kind review. One thing that people have pointed out to me is this line:

KeyGrinder isn’t the most visually attractive app you’ll ever see, but it doesn’t need to be pretty.

As the designer of the app, it would be easy for me to read this the wrong way. While I maintain that the UI is good-looking, Sande is right in that the app isn’t flashy or heavy on the visuals. Not only does it not need to be pretty, a core requirement is that the app not be overwhelming.

Perhaps it’s wishful thinking on my part, but I read his comment as a compliment. I designed KeyGrinder to be simple, easy to use, and most importantly, fast. There is nothing in there to distract the user from the task at hand: generating and using a secure password.

KeyGrinder¹ is now available on the App Store.

Alex King once told us that he wished someone would make an iPhone app based on the PwdHash project at Stanford to make it easier to use secure passwords on the iPhone. Rather than just rush something out, we decided to put some thought into the interface, how users would really want to use the app, and how refined the process could become. Should KeyGrinder save passwords? Should there be a bookmarklet? Should there be a web version? Should access require a password?

The end result is something that I feel is an elegant approach to the problem. There is no need to store passwords because they’re so easy to generate, but bookmarking of URLs provides a fast way to re-grind. The bookmarklet should be as easy to install as the iPhone will allow (tip: not very). And passwords should be easy to recover even if you lose your iPhone or iPod touch². And because no critical information is stored, no thief can steal your passwords even if they get their hands on your device.

We’re happy with this app. We hope everyone uses it and creates better passwords.

1. iTunes link [↩]
2. KeyGrinder.com [↩]

Looks to be an interesting talk from Kristofer Baxter and Jason Johnston. If you’re in Denver and work with the web, this should be worth checking out.

On BNET:

You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that[...]

Yes, users are clamoring for more pen interfaces.