Q&A with Jon Arne Sæterås

I am a "mobilist" living in Norway. I have been working with ways to distribute content and services to mobile devices since the very beginning. Back then I was doing hands on development. After a while of doing that, I co-founded Mobiletech, which soon grew to power the mobile efforts of major global brands. This is still my occupation, but coding is now only done for recreation. Most of my time is now spend making the web work better on mobile devices. Mobile meaning small little things you carry with you.

Hardware

Latest 13 inch Macbook Pro, 3GHz Intel Core i7, 8 gigs ram. Usually connected to a 24 inch screen with a keyboard and mouse. In addition, the iPad and iPhone. Without noticing, really, I became an Apple fanboy over the last years. Must not forget to mention my Bose CQ15 headphones which is my best travel friend! Complete silence.

Software

I notice I spend more SaaS like software, mostly for collaboration, sharing, and storage. Google Drive is a winner. And the usual social networks of the world. Mostly active on twitter. Skype for voice. Also spend a lot of time in Keynote. Chrome has also become more than just a browser. It is now a really good tool for doing web development and debugging. Other than that, I am a fan of Sublime Text 2, Coda 2 and the shell.

I would love a Cinema Display! And maybe a Macbook Air. Software wise I am pretty happy. Although I kind of miss the old days in web dev when you had an IDE that just fixed everything for you (once you got it working). Today a development environment is so fragmented.

Inspiration 

My inspiration is everyday innovation. Exploring how you can take something you know well, use it differently or put it somewhere it does not belong, and see how it can provide value. Other than that, the nature reboots me.