Archive for July 8, 2016

Friday, July 8, 2016

Continuous: C# and F# IDE for iPad

Frank A. Krueger (via Federico Viticci):

Continuous gives you the power of a traditional desktop .NET IDE - full C# 6 and F# 4 language support with semantic highlighting and code completion - while also featuring live code execution so you don’t have to wait around for code to compile and run. Continuous works completely offline so you get super fast compiles and your code is secure.

Continuous gives you access to all of .NET’s standard library, F#’s core library, all of Xamarin’s iOS binding, and Xamarin.Forms. Access to all of these libraries means you won’t be constrained by Continuous - you can write code exactly as you’re used to.

Switching to Apple’s Two-Factor Authentication

Dan Moren:

Apple has, for a while now, offered two separate additional security measures to protect your Macs, iOS devices, and iCloud account, but thanks to some inexpert nomenclature, it can be a little difficult to tell them apart.

The first, two-step verification, has been offered for several years. It prompts you to enter a four-digit code when you sign into your iCloud account, purchase something from one of Apple’s stores on a new device, or make changes to your Apple ID. Those codes were delivered by push notification to an authenticated device of your choosing, or via SMS text message.

[…]

The newer two-factor authentication is an improvement upon that process, which Apple started rolling out last year. While the principle is similar, the execution is refined. The verification code is now six digits and is automatically sent to all of your authorized devices.

[…]

Though Apple didn’t provide an obvious way to make that jump, the key is simply to deactivate your existing two-step authentication[…]

Dan Moren:

If you want to see a list of trusted devices and those that can receive two-factor codes (which largely but not entirely overlap), go to the iCloud preference pane on your Mac, or the iCloud section of Settings on your iOS device, and look at your account, then select Devices. That’ll provide a list of every device logged into your iCloud account; selecting each will tell you if they’re trusted and can receive two-factor codes.

[…]

As mentioned in a subsequent update, two-factor authentication does not remove the need for app-specific passwords, but it does seem that you no longer need them for any Apple services.

Mozilla-Yahoo Contract Clause

Kara Swisher (via Hacker News):

Under terms of a contract that has been seen by Recode, whoever acquires Yahoo might have to pay Mozilla annual payments of $375 million through 2019 if it does not think the buyer is one it wants to work with and walks away.

That’s according to a clause in the Silicon Valley giant’s official agreement with the browser maker that CEO Marissa Mayer struck in late 2014 to become the default search engine on the well-known Firefox browser in the U.S.

Mozilla switched to Yahoo from Google after Mayer offered a much more lucrative deal that included what potential buyers of Yahoo say is an unprecedented term to protect Mozilla in a change-of-control scenario.

Slower by Design

Mark Wilson:

The short answer is no. Facebook actually slows down its interface to make users feel safe, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed in an email. “While our systems perform these checks at a much faster speed than people can actually see, it’s important that they understand what we do behind the scenes to protect their Facebook account,” the spokesperson wrote. “UX can be a powerful education tool and walking people through this process at a slower speed allows us to provide a better explanation and an opportunity for people to review and understand each step along the way.”

If half of Facebook’s billion users spend 5 seconds waiting on this check, that’s 694,444 hours, or 28,935 days of collective time lost. But Facebook isn’t alone. Websites and apps now operate on the magnitude of milliseconds. But such speed can make users skeptical or even confused, so companies are responding by building slower, more deliberate interfaces. Wells Fargo admitted to slowing down its app’s retinal scanners, because customers didn’t realize they worked otherwise, while various services on the web including travel sites, mortgage engines, and security checks are all making a conscious effort to slow down their omnipotent minds because our puny human brains expect things to take longer.

Why is it that Kayak has to slow down its search so people believe it’s working hard to find them the best deals, but no one doubts Google’s quick search results?