Federico Viticci

10804 posts on MacStories since April 2009

Federico is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of MacStories, where he writes about Apple with a focus on apps, developers, iPad, and iOS productivity. He founded MacStories in April 2009 and has been writing about Apple since. Federico is also the co-host of AppStories, a weekly podcast exploring the world of apps, Unwind, a fun exploration of media and more, and NPC: Next Portable Console, a show about portable gaming and the handheld revolution.
@viticci@macstories.net
@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

QuickCursor Brings Text Editors To Other Apps - Coming To The Mac App Store

Coming soon to the Mac App Store (which opens for business on January 6), QuickCursor is a new utility by HogBay Software (WriteRoom, PlainText) which will help you write text in any Mac app using your favorite text editor.

Say you’re composing a new message in Gmail through Safari, or writing down a long note attached to a task in OmniFocus; wouldn’t it be great to use your favorite text editor instead of an app’s standard text field? QuickCursor will do just that: as you can see in the demo video on HogBay’s website, with a keyboard shortcut you’ll be able to fire up your text editor of choice, write, close it and have the changes saved in the app you were using in the first place, like Gmail.

QuickCursor will work with a variety of text editors including the popular Espresso, WriteRoom and TextMate. We don’t know if the app will be available on January 6th for the Mac App Store grand opening, but we’re surely looking forward to it.

CNN: Antennagate Biggest Tech Fail of 2010 (Ping’s In There, Too)

It was June, summer was about to start, we just bought our shiny new iPhone 4s…and the Internet went crazy about what eventually got the name of “Antennagate”. You remember this story. The “weak spot” of the iPhone 4 which, due to a new antenna design, can make the device lose signal when you’re holding it in a specific way. Again, this is not something we’re going to forget easily. Perhaps one day we’ll tell our grandkids “I was there”. Whatever.

Still, CNN thought it was time to bring the whole Antennagate thing to the surface again and name it the biggest tech fail of 2010. We tried to bury Cupertino’s most favorite scandal deep down in our minds; CNN makes it clear that 2010 in tech was all about Antennagate:

First Apple said the problem didn’t exist. Then they said it was a software issue. Then they kind-of admitted it existed and gave away free cases to help. Then, they said it doesn’t really exist anymore and stopped giving away the bumpers. Months later, the problem is all but forgotten and the phones show no sign of dipping in popularity. So “fail,” in this case, is a pretty relative term.

Antennagate is not alone in the chart, though. 3D TVs made the list as well (seriously, I haven’t seen one or heard of a single friend of mine who bought / considered buying one) together with the Nexus One, the Microsoft Kin, Facebook’s privacy issues and the Gawker media security breach. Looking back, it looks like we had a great 2010 full of interesting tech stories and theories.

There’s only one sad point: Ping is, again, listed as one of the fails of 2o10. I feel bad for Ping: no one likes it. It just needs…a little bit of everything.

App Store Updates Are Back, Camera+ Sells Over 78,000 Copies On Christmas Day

In case you missed it, iTunes Connect is back online. The web interface that allows developers to submit apps, updates and price changes went down on December 23 for the so-called “holiday shutdown” which didn’t freeze the App Store charts as many believed, but still made it impossible for developers to submit apps and users to find updates in iTunes. iTunes Connect went back online a few hours ago, and app updates are now showing up in iTunes and propagating through the App Store. Read more

Apple Selling Beatles Gift Cards So You’ll Never Forget

They may be gone from Apple’s homepage, but they hold a strong presence in every international Apple Store. The Beatles are such a big deal for Apple they decided to produce dedicated iTunes gift cards for them, as noted by iLounge. After the iPad gift cards and the iBooks ones, the Beatles-themed iTunes cards come in two different flavors: a $149 one that features the band on a white background and should give you access to “The Beatles Box Set” and a standard $50 one which appears to be a regular iTunes card to buy anything you want.

By the way, I almost forgot “the day I would never forget” was more than a month ago. You know, it’s hard to keep track of everything.

8mm For iPhone Applies Vintage Effects to Videos In Real-Time

Hipstamatic is one of the most popular iPhone apps in the App Store: not only it’s a great app with a cool camera-like interface and tons of filters, films and flashes to choose from, it has also been named “iPhone App of the Year” by Apple and journalists at the New York Times use it. Hipstamatic is the closest thing to having an old analog camera on your iPhone. Some say it’s overly designed and too complicated for the average users, I think the results and popularity of the software speak by themselves.

Then again, Hipstamatic (and other apps that apply cool effects to photos like Instagram or Camera+) is for photos.  8mm Vintage Camera by Nexvio is a new app that can apply vintage film effects to videos, all in real-time through the iPhone’s rear and front-facing cameras. Read more

Dock Spaces Brings Multiple Docks to OS X - Review & Giveaway

By default, OS X allows you to set up one and only one dock on your machine. Many users keep their dock at the bottom, with all the apps installed on their computer, some prefer to keep it hidden with only the most used apps – others keep it on the left. The dock is one of the most recognizable features of the Mac, the tool that lets you access your application with just a click. But the default dock doesn’t come with all the customization features offered by Patrick Chamelo’s Dock Spaces.

Dock Spaces, recently updated to version 4.0, enables you to set up multiple and customized docks depending on what kind of dock you need at any given time. Just like other apps like Hyperspaces let you create multiple spaces with different preferences, Dock Spaces is a tweak that comes as a preference panel which you can use to switch between different, contextual docks. Say you’re working on Photoshop and together with that you need easy access to other apps for graphic design: you can create a dock with all those apps, other than your “default” OS X dock. Basing on this same concept, you can set up as many docks as you want for all the different contexts and situations you’re going to use your computer. Read more

iTunes 12 Days of Christmas: Day 3

Thanks to the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas promotion, every day from December 26th to January 6th users will be able to download a “fantastic selection of songs, music videos, apps, books, TV episodes and a film” completely for free on iTunes.

The free app for iPhone and iPad that lets you receive push notifications for daily offers is available here. Today, you can download a free Duran Duran EP called From Mediterranea With Love.

Stay tuned for promotions coming every day until January 6.

iPad-controlled Yacht Is Cutting-Edge Luxury

The Solemates superyacht lets you control stuff on board with an iPad. This $600,000 yacht, in fact, comes with built-in technologies that allow passengers, staff and the captain to control the entertainment and climate systems, adjust lights and close the blindings in their cabins – or just call a crewmember to get a cocktail. Yes, this whole thing is for rich people who happen to have an iPad and are willing to step aboard a superyacht with people who bring you cocktails.

Or, if you have the money but haven’t thought about getting an iPad, the captain will give you one as you enter the Solemates.

The interior, designed by Glade Johnson, blends elegant, rich woods and textures with contemporary sleek lines in a soothing palette of earth tones. The main and upper deck salons are awash with natural light and offer impressive spaces for formal dining or casual dining and entertaining. The sun deck features a dining area and a sun lounge wrapped around the Jacuzzi forward. A disco sound and lighting system turns it into an al fresco nightclub at nightfall.

I don’t want to think about the functionalities the iPad can gain at night on the Solemates. Maybe it’s got nightclub integration, who knows. [9to5mac via JamesList]

iPad 2 Rumors: Three Different Versions, Kindle-like Display

Digitimes has more iPad 2 speculation to share this morning. According to the publication, Apple is getting ready to launch three different version of the next generation iPad (dubbed iPad 2) in 2011 with a combination of WiFi, CDMA and UMTS chips. According to Digitimes, production will start in the second half of January 2011, with around 500,000 ready to be shipped to channels.

The sources pointed out that about 60-65% of current iPad shipments are 3G models, indicating that consumers prefer models that are able to connect to the Internet all the time, therefore Apple is aiming to work even more closely with telecom carriers by offering more wireless solutions for iPad 2 to satisfy market demand.

It is no surprise that the 3G model, even if it didn’t come out in April as the original WiFi-only iPad, is the favorite amongst users. It provides a way to stay always connected thanks to the built-in SIM thus eliminating the need of portable hotspots or jailbroken iPhones running software like MyWi for wireless tethering.

Digitimes is also reporting that Apple has been working in making the next gen iPad display similar to Amazon’s Kindle one:

In addition to wireless functions, Apple is also working on strengthening the iPad 2’s anti-smudge and anti-reflective treatments in order to compete against Kindle and attract more consumers, the sources noted.

iPad 2 shipments should reach 40 million units in 2011. Yesterday, Japanese blog Macotakara reported that the iPad 2 will come with an updated design similar to the curent generation iPod touch.