Listen up Apple.
We know you have a sherlocking habit. That’s the slang term referring to Apple’s apparent tendency to put a developer out of business by integrating an app’s core functionality into one of its own operating systems.
Well, Apple, Our Pad (Free, iPad-only) is a concept you need to Sherlock, asap. Of course, TUAW would prefer you did this by paying the developers large sums of money rather than via simple intellectual appropriation as is your modus operandus.
Our Pad lets you browse your favorite websites using multiple user-accounts. That means you and your partner can share an iPad while maintaining separate social networking credentials.
Each user signs in individually using a clever adaptation of the Android-style unlock pattern password. Here, you’re presented with a grid of dots, and your password is a path through those dots.
Here is a discussion of the security of this approach. I slightly prefer the new photo passwords of Windows 8, but this is an elegant solution for fast user switching.
The problem with Our Pad is that you’re stuck in the blinged-up single application browser instead of providing a system-wide multi-user solution in Safari. There are just too many single-purpose browsers.
Apps like Our Pad (as well as all the VLC clones on the market, plus the Flash-enabling browsers) point out where Apple is missing the point. You shouldn’t have to hop out of Safari to get the job. These apps shouldn’t need to exist, and when they do show up, they should not be as newsworthy as Our Pad.
So how did Our Pad do in TUAW’s testing? In a nutshell, it crashed a lot (no, really, a lot), had an eerie fixation on uppercase, had terrible design aesthetics and, in my opinion, over-promises on security. It very well may be secure but I personally would not use/trust this app because I tend to avoid any third party app that wants me to trust its safe-keeping of multiple credentials. We barely know each other, and you want me to trust you with what!!??
At the same time, this is where Apple should be: offering easy tablet-minded password-protected user-switching for devices in multi-user households.
[Via Lifehacker]
Our Pad introduces multiple-account support for iOS social networking sites originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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