http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

What’s great about designs like this is that they teach you one simple rule and invite you to explore more. At its basic level, the Magic Mouse can move your cursor. That aspect is as evident as with any other mouse. But if you can additionally grasp the fact that the entire surface is also interactive, your own exploration (not through a manual) will allow you to discover more power.

By swiping, dragging, and rubbing on the top of the mouse, you can achieve lots of interaction that a normal mouse can’t do. Less buttons and interface actually lead to more flexibility, and more features.

Also nice to see is that this product targets smart users. It gives the user credit. It’s not the McDonalds coffee cup that says “contents hot.” There just might be a tiny “smarts” barrier of entry to use this product- and that’s just fine.

Today it’s even easier to find people and projects in Staction. Now search is context specific to the page you’re viewing. Use it to quickly find projects on the projects page, or people on the people page.

In Staction, any custom view you make can be saved, and is dynamically updated as new content matches the criteria. Individual saved views even have their own RSS feeds.

Check out https://entermotion.staction.com/help/article/9/ for more ideas on how to make the most of your saved views.

I’m not a nerd. Well, I guess I’m kind of a nerd… but not really.

I’m Kristin, and I work for a web app development company. To be (brutally) honest with you, I don’t know much tech lingo or a lot about web design in general. But I do find it fascinating. So what am I doing here? I guess you could say I’m sort of a journalist inside my own company; I work to pull out the information people might find captivating (or at least, a little bit appealing) about what we do here at Paste Interactive. 

The truth is, I’m not so different from my co-workers, even though I don’t have a design degree and reading code is like reading another language. We’re all here to solve a problem. They’re here to solve the problem of disorganization and they do that by creating great web apps that help people simplify their lives. I’m here to solve the problem of what happens when they’ve dug themselves so deep into their work that they have trouble seeing when something is really interesting and worth sharing. I talk to them, probe a little bit to find out what they’re working on. I ask them to explain things to me. I look it up online, and then I attempt  to translate everything into plain english, which sometimes is the most difficult part.

It’s a really great and interesting gig, though, because as much as I disliked school, I’m thrilled with doing research all the time. Seemingly tedious tasks like that can be so rewarding when there is genuine interest. 

So I’m a writer. Of words, not code. But I’m going to do my best to be a good translator. 

Here at Paste we decided that we’d like you to get to know us a little better. To do that, we’re starting a new string of posts called “The 5 Series.” In these short articles, we’ll give you little insights into our personal lives (but never TMI!).

And so, meet Brian, our main developer of both Jumpchart and Staction. Here are 5 desktop apps he uses most often.

1. Things.app
“I use Things on my Mac and iPhone to keep my life outside work organized. I keep wishlists, gift ideas, grocery lists and much more on it. The synchronization with my iPhone makes it perfect to take everywhere I go.”

2. Yojimbo
“I started using this to plan a trip last month, and haven’t been able to stop using it since! It’s my little box of collection of things I’ll need sometime in the future.”

3. Tweetie
“Again, I use it for my Mac and iPhone- it’s just the best Twitter client.”

4. Airfoil and Airfoil Speakers
“Whenever I’m working in the living room, this pair of apps works perfectly to stream music from my laptop to my media center that’s connected to my home theater system.”

5. Audio Hijack Pro
“I use this to mute the sound on Firefox. I hate websites and banners that play music!”

If you’re reading this, you just might be one of a few dudes in a room working on something similar to what we built. Or a few ladies in a room, or pick your combo. No matter, if you’re one of the readers of this blog who is also working on putting out a web app, then you know this feeling: You work, work, work, and then you wonder what to do…

Our business is a weird business. In many ways it’s like other product-focused industries- but it’s different. When other product companies send a product to manufacturing, there is a gap. A time between the original products, revisions, and next products.

In the web app industry there is no such gap. No such cycle to give us cues on how to live, or work. As soon as you’re done, tweaking begins, then you find it hard to draw a line between tweaking, and adding. You’re never done. Keep Reading

Most of you reading this in the USA probably own a car conceived, or produced outside of the USA. You don’t have to feel bad about that- the rest of the world caught the USA slipping on the very ideas they invented years ago. The ideas of the assembly line, and the industrial revolution were around long before Henry Ford, but like many of the most intriguing figures in history, he took the new ideas from his own time and repackaged them simply for public consumption.

As we watch the US automotive industry get reinvented, let’s take a moment to see what us app developers can learn from the past with a few Henry Ford quotes. Keep Reading

We’ve spent the past two years watching Jumpchart grow, and have seen some great developments in that period of time. It feels like watching a kid get another year older; we can’t wait to see what Jumpchart is capable of doing in the years to come!

So… Happy Birthday to Jumpchart!

Jumpchart is turning two, and to celebrate, we’re giving the presents instead of getting them. Tune in to our Twitter feed for all kinds of coupons and free stuff- it’s happening all month long!

You can follow us here: http://twitter.com/_paste.

I’ve recently started using the Summarize Service built into OSX a lot. It’s been there for a long time, but it just never occurred to me how useful it could be.

With the new shortcuts preference pane in Snow Leopard, Summarize popped back onto my radar. I re-added it to my preferred services list by checking the box, then I additionally assigned it a keyboard shortcut. Keep Reading

We’re very happy to announce that as of today, all of our paid accounts on Staction now have a free 30 day trial included. We’re hoping this gives new users more freedom to fully test out all the features of Staction while they decide if they like it, and to see which account best fits their needs. Keep Reading