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Changing the experience of the Slide to [x] interaction

In the current version of The Smart Alarm, there is a slider bar at the bottom of the app which allows you to turn off the alarm when it’s time to wake up. I’ve been playing around with alternative ways that the user interacts with the application, and the above example seems to strike a cord for me. - Instead of an interaction which performs one task, the new version allows to the user to swipe from left to right on the screen, but not only does it turn the alarm off, it also reveals the forecast for the day.

(source via Dribbble)

If I were the Product Manager over at Good, I would be scrambling to bring secure files to their connected device as well as a webkit. When looking at the business requirements of companies that I have spoken to, it’s: Secure email, calendar, contacts, to-dos first (in that order), next there are rumblings of app talk, but also accessibility to working docs. Good has already shown what could very well be the next way we work; with a little app icon on all your personal devices, you have the ability to work anywhere, anytime, without major disrupt to your personal preferences. The next steps are to keep it to one icon, but add apps and storage:

Apps - Good is not going to be able to bring native coded apps within their sandbox, and why try. They could try to app store within the sandbox, but now you have multiple versions to maintain and not all businesses needs are similar enough for a one size fits most. By bringing in the Webkit, you point the way for companies to deploy HTML5 web apps for their mobile critical business functions: All platforms, no approval process, in your sandbox.

Storage - Dropbox paved the way as to how beneficial this can be to access to all your files over any of your devices. Cloud storage is where all technology is going and cloud apps. With Good already managing the secure connection to them and the corporate infrastructure the freeways are in place to house docs in the cloud for access from these devices. One of the biggest hurdles, but most critical to this releases success, would be to introduce a desktop component in order for users to manage these docs from all their device (Mac & PC).

Safari, MobileMe and Dropbox can all run as background audio on an iPhone?

So today I had closed out of a YouTube.com video on the iPhone only to go into running apps and see the Safari icon where typically is the iPod icon, or Pandora (top view)… hit the play button and the audio started playing from the YouTube clip in the background = interesting. Test 2: Upload song to MobileMe, and it streams via cellular to the iPhone even with the iDisk logo (bottom view). May just start pushing more playlists into my MobileMe account. Dropbox worked too.

The Smart Alarm 2.0 - New look for the next release

Working out some new features as well as a new look for the next version of The Smart Alarm. This is closer than ever to being the app that I always envisioned. Now only if I could work in some of that Google Weather API goodness to make take this thing global.

www.thesmartalarmapp.com

Crap app idea of the day: iPad Mugshot Board

So yeah, editable board with date, county (maybe by GPS), etc. Might be fun at parties. Anyway, I get a free copy if you make it.

via Flickr