Retrievable iPhone numbers mean potential privacy issues [Macworld]

Ick.

Retrievable iPhone numbers mean potential privacy issues | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld

Let’s hope either a) app developers are responsible and don’t exploit this, or b) apple plugs this hole - it would absolutely drive me nuts if app development companies calling me to upgrade their app, and it would cause me to uninstall their product imediatamente!

On the upside, when I first read the caption on the feed post, I thought it was referring to one's contacts being visible, which I personally think would be a more egregious security hole. But with this current issue, it would be important for users/customers of companies that do this kind of thing to give them ample feedback:

• Contacting them and letting them know their actions stink
• Rating them low in iTunes
• Warn potential users in the comments section of the breach of security.

In other words, "what goes around, comes around."

Here's the source article that contains the tests performed by mac4ever (see the bottom of the page for the English version...).

Pear Note - Note Taking Utility for Mac - Useful Fruit Software

Thought this was an interesting application that reminds me of the LiveScribe Pulse, but in an application form.

Pear Note - Note Taking Utility for Mac - Useful Fruit Software

...and it does video.

Text is a UI

Thought this was an interesting quote from Jakob Nielsen in the alertbox article regarding Twitter Tweets...

"Text is a UI
It's a common mistake to think that only full-fledged graphical user interfaces count as interaction design and deserve usability attention. As our earlier research has shown, URLs and email both contribute strongly to the Internet user experience and thus require close attention to usability to enhance the profitability of a company's Internet efforts.

In fact, the shorter it is, the more important it is to design text for usability."

Twitter Postings: Iterative Design (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox):

ASP.NET Forum Tags: Semicolons as Separators?

Ummm... OK I know Microsoft is trying to give the illusion of being user friendly and all, but when the delimiter for tags that categorize a post on the ASP.NET developer forums, they chose semicolons.

Is it just me or is that a ludicrous choice? Why not a space (my preference - a la delicious) or a comma?

In addition, there is no example visible to show you what the legal delimiter is! You have to miraculously divine what it wants, or let it show you what it wants, as I chose to do.

To find out what the delimiter is, I had to do the following:

1. Open the "Select Tags..." dialog.
2. Select two (short) tags. (I notice lots of other folks thought that a space would be a logical delimiter too...!)
3. Close the dialog.
4. Oops. Closing the dialog didn't populate the text box with my selections. Awesome.
5. Trying again... Open the "Select Tags..." dialog.
6. Select two (short) tags, this time at the end of the list where I notice OK and Cancel buttons (yes - you heard that right. The buttons are embedded in the list itself... and at the bottom of the list, no less! They're not on the dialog "window.")
7. Click OK.
8. Observe that text box has the new selections delimited by semicolons.

The auto-populating text box is another usability nightmare deserving of its own article, but I'll let someone else write that one up. ;)

Moving Home

From this point on, my Interactive Logic blog will be located here:

http://blog.interactivelogic.net/

See you there!

Intuit Labs blog – echominder has left the building

The genesis of a truly useful and innovative Intuit product...

Intuit Labs blog – echominder has left the building

...which they, of course, killed.

Nice going.

Comcast DVR & Controller: Pain & Suffering Incarnate.

Bravo to "Rian" who posted this blog entry:

Reflections on user experience: Remote control usability: Comcast vs. Logitech Harmony

I just had to respond with a comment since this is a real hot-button for me these days (i.e. Comcast's DVR un-usability...):

Saying that the Comcast remote and its accompanying DVR system is "Bad" or "isn't that good" is being kind.

I have never seen a bigger pile of steaming crap usability-wise in my life (save for the Bobrick B-2888 Toilet Tissue Dispenser). The Comcast DVR software is pathetically unresponsive (and it's not just unresponsive for OnDemand programs, despite what the service tech tried to tell me...). The Comcast system actually makes my wife visibly angry to even have to touch the remote and use their horrible product.

Unfortunately, I would have to now fork over a significant amount of cash to purchase a TiVo that will do digita & HD, which unfortunately I don't have at the moment... But if I had the cash in hand, I would go buy one in a second and not think twice to drop-kick the Comcast DVR unit and the controller. We have actually kept our analog TiVo in the other room, and guess what? it gets more use because of the pain the Comcast system causes.

Shame on comcast for even thinking of putting out such a lame product. Comcast desperately needs to read "The Essentials of Interaction Design" and totally rearchitect its hardware and software approach.

No wonder they tried to acquire TiVo. Oh yeah... and failed. LOL.