Alex Payne

Alex Payne is Platform Lead at Twitter, where he develops services that enable programmers to build atop the popular social messaging service. Alex has previously built web applications for political campaigns, non-profits, and early-stage startups, and supported information security efforts for military and intelligence customers. In his free time, Alex studies, speaks, and writes about the history, present use, and evolution of programming languages, as well as minimalist art and design.

I’m as surprised as anyone that after all the success of the App Store, most of what’s on my home screen are apps that Apple provides. Essentially, what I keep there are tools for planning my time, navigating, and communicating. I’m tentative about foursquare, which hasn’t proven particularly useful but is fun to update. I’d also prefer not to have Yelp on my home screen, but I do use often enough to warrant the placement. Tweetie 2, Groceries, and Things are all brilliant examples of the best of what an iPhone app can be and I couldn’t have them anywhere other than up front. Trainspotters may note that I keep my apps alphabetized.