David Pogue, the New York Times: The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype.

Steven Levy, Newsweek: At Last, the iPhone.

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal: Testing Out the iPhone.

Edward C. Baig, USA Today: Apple’s iPhone isn’t perfect, but it’s worthy of the hype.

All reviews are positive on balance. The negatives mainly coalesce around AT&T and EDGE as well as getting used to the keyboard. The keyboard gets better, EDGE does not.

The most surprising thing to me was how they all said the iPhone seems virtually scratch-proof. They’ve all tossed in their pockets, knocked it with change and keys, and keep it unprotected during the duration of their tests. And virtually no marks. That’s impressive. Some funky new materials or treatments perhaps?

Come on Friday!!!

Highrise was our first foray into accepting OpenID as a sign-in option. OpenID is a web-wide single sign-on service. You can find out more at the official OpenID site.

We then added OpenID sign-in to the Basecamp and Highrise forums. We also have OpenID running on an internal app. It’s easier to remember one OpenID than remember multiple usernames and passwords for multiple sites.

And now OpenID comes to Basecamp

Today we announce that you can use your OpenID login with Basecamp as well. This means you can use the same login for Highrise, the Highrise Forums, the Basecamp Forums, and Basecamp. Plus you can use that same login at any OpenID-enabled site on the web. Here’s how to use your OpenID with Basecamp.

OpenID enables single sign-on

Many people have multiple Basecamp accounts: One for work, one for personal, one for a volunteer organization they’re part of, etc. We’ve heard lots of requests for a single sign-on option: Log in to one Basecamp account and be logged into all your Basecamp accounts. OpenID and “Open Bar” makes this possible.

Open Bar

If you have multiple Basecamp accounts, and you use your OpenID to log into each account, you’ll see a thin black bar at the top of the screen. We’re calling this the “Open Bar.” In the example below I have four OpenID-enabled Basecamp accounts. I’m currently looking at the “37signals Extranet.”

The black Open Bar lists all your OpenID-enabled Basecamp accounts. The one you’re currently looking at is white and bold, the others are grey. Just click an account to switch to that account without having to log in. If we click on “400 North May” we’ll switch to that Basecamp account.

Open Bar will expand

Currently the Open Bar will only list your Basecamp accounts, but we have plans to add your Highrise accounts up there too. And once we move OpenID to Backpack and our other products you’ll have one-click pre-signed-in access to all the 37signals products you use.

Once you go OpenID you won’t go back

I was a skeptic at first, but once I switched to OpenID I can’t imagine going back. Find out more about OpenID on our site or the official OpenID site. We hope you give it a shot. We think you’ll find it useful.

We’re working on an iPhone-optimized version of Ta-da List.

As I was working on some UI ideas, Ryan and I were talking about some of really cool things about designing for the iPhone.

I remarked that I loved the constraints. For example, we know the exact screen size/resolution, we know the exact typeface, we know how the face renders on the screen, we know the colors, we know the browser, etc.

Then Ryan nailed it: Designing for the iPhone is like a hybrid of print and web design.

The web we all know is rife with uncertainty. We don’t know the viewer’s screen size or resolution, we don’t know the gamma of someone’s screen, we don’t know if they’ve got a certain typeface and/or exactly how that face renders on in their browser, we don’t know the browser they’re going to use, etc.

But paper, on the other hand, is full of controls. Fixed size, fixed faces, fixed colors. What you print is exactly what someone sees (assuming you’ve done your homework on color and paper, etc).

So the iPhone is a weird mix. It’s the web, and things can scroll, and the data is pulled from remote servers, but it’s also a fixed width, a fixed browser, fixed typefaces, etc. It’s pretty cool and a really refreshing design exercise.

In other ways it’s also like going back to the early days of the web when people’s connections were a lot slower. The EDGE network and mobile phone latency emphasizes the need to keep page size down, images sparse, etc. It’s a return to the power of text, shape, color, and basic HTML.

I love it.

I’ve always preferred sketching UIs with an as-thick-as-I-can-find Sharpie over a thin ballpoint pen or finely sharpened pencil.

Ballpoints and fine tips just don’t fill the page like a Sharpie does. Fine tips invite you to draw while Sharpies invite you to just to get your concepts out into big bold shapes and lines. When you sketch with a thin tip you tend to draw at a higher resolution and worry a bit too much about making things look good. Sharpies encourage you to ignore details early on.

If you sketch, try a thick Sharpie next time. You may find you’re better able to focus on the concept and less on the drawing. That’s a good thing.

Steve Jobs made a very interesting announcement today at the WWDC Keynote. Wanna write for apps for the iPhone? Make them web apps that work on Safari. Done.

That is a bold idea. Very forward thinking. A whole new product with the opportunity for a whole new platform. But instead Apple chooses simple and familiar: HTML and Javascript. Tens of millions of developers already know it. Instant developer uptake and an instant batch of apps that likely already work with the iPhone.

This is the coming out party for web apps. We are very excited about this. These are exciting times.

And one more thing… Something else that makes us smile is a paragraph on this page at the Apple Site:

Mac OS X is now the ideal platform for all kinds of script-based development. Ruby 1.8.6 and Python 2.5 are both first-class languages for Mac development, thanks to Cocoa bridges, Xcode and Interface Builder support, DTrace monitoring, and Framework builds — plus AppleEvent bindings via the new Scripting Bridge. Leopard is also the premier platform for Ruby on Rails development, thanks to Rails, Mongrel, and Capistrano bundling.

Hells yeah.

Michael Bierut’s “Everything I Know About Design I Learned from The Sopranos” is an especially fun read on The Morning After the end of the Sopranos.

Even more entertaining are the reviews encouraging you to cancel your HBO subscription. More reviews here. And here.

It’s funny to hear people bitch about the end. There are lots of people saying it was lazy and lacked creativity, but in the same breath they fire off all the possible endings they envisioned.

Isn’t a large part of creativity about the unexpected? If it was predicable it wasn’t creative. If it was formulaic it wasn’t creative. if it was obvious is wasn’t creative.

I think last night’s show was one of the most creative finales I’ve ever seen. The show may be over, but it didn’t end. Or did it? That’s creative.

If you dig Basecamp we’d love if you’ve vote for Basecamp in the Webware 100. Thanks for your support!

An edge on every brownie. Now that’s creative. Great design.

Most copywriting on the web sucks because it’s written for the writer, not for the reader. Write for the reader. That is all.

How does a chef break big and become a household name? One of the best ways is to release a cookbook or have a big cooking show on TV.

Mario Batali, Julia Child, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Rachael Ray, Rick Bayless, etc. You probably know these chefs better than you know the chef of one of your favorite restaurants down the street.

These chefs give away their recipes, their secrets. They say “This is how I do it and you can do it too. Don’t worry, it’s not hard, just follow along.”

The more they give, the better off they are. The more they open up, the better off they are. The more they let you inside their kitchen the better off they are. These chefs have built empires by making their knowledge available to the public. They are astute business people.

If you’re looking for a way to break your business in a big way, follow their lead. How can you give away your formula, your secrets, your recipes? How can you give away what you know to increase your exposure and expertise?

Our cookbook is Getting Real (and Ruby on Rails to a certain extent). What’s your cookbook?