Having helped to design a list-making app myself, I’m something of a connoisseur of apps in the category. So the new Clear app by Realmac Software certainly caught my attention. As you can see in the video, it takes minimalism to a new extreme, with apparently no on-screen controls at all, using gestures for every action.

It looks like a very striking design, brilliantly executed, and I’m sure it’s going to sell extremely well. I have a couple of comments though:

• Gestures are the keyboard shortcuts of touch apps. Clear looks pretty intuitive, but I’m not sure if I’d be able to remember them all. I bought Calvetica because it looked cool, but ended up using the built-in calendar app more often because I couldn’t remember the Calvetica gestures.
• Two-finger gestures require the use of two hands, which is not efficient, and sometimes not possible.

Khoi Vinh thinks this new Canon mouse is ridiculous:

As someone who spends a lot of time using Excel, I beg to differ. The mouse is not only a calculator but also works as a numeric keypad for your computer. When spreadsheeting, my right hand is constantly going back and forth between the mouse and the number keypad to enter data. I’m also constantly doing simple arithmetic to check my Excel results. This mouse, if it’s not too uncomfortable, could actually make spreadsheeting more productive and efficient. Although I imagine it might be tricky to get the mouse to stay still when you punch the buttons.