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

Found Footage: Steve Jobs Demoes The Daddy Of OS X

This one’s an awesome finding via Reddit: while many of you may have already seen the following video (it should come straight from 1991), for all those who haven’t – well, it’s about Steve Jobs demoing the father of OS X, the NeXT computer.

In the video you can see Jobs talking about many features that eventually made their way to OS X, such as Interface Builder or the Dock. It’s also interesting to notice how, almost 20 years ago, Jobs and the team at NeXT were focused on making an operating system suitable for business users.

Fast forward today, and we’re waiting for 10.7 Lion that should bring more consumer-friendly features such as the Launchpad or fullscreen apps.

Jailbroken iPad Gets Android-like Animated Wallpaper [Video]

One of the neat features of Android devices is the possibility to install custom “animated” wallpapers that will display moving elements behind or through icons. The effect’s pretty cool and some of those wallpapers are simply crazy.

It turns out, people have found a way to achieve a similar setup on the iPad. Thanks to a tweak called vWallpaper and a video specifically resized for the iPad’s screen, it is possible to set an animated background and keep swiping on the homescreen.

Check out the (brief) demo video below, and go download the butterfly video wallpaper here. Read more

Review: Cloud Calendar, Google Calendar Client for iPad

While searching for interesting alternatives to Apple’s own calendar application for iPhone and iPad, I stumbled upon Cloud Calendar by Clean Cut Code. Cloud Calendar is a new calendar app for iPad that’s specifically meant to work with Google Calendar – and being Google’s calendar solution part of my workflow already, I decided to give it a try.

Cloud Calendar is undoubtedly a very good app to manage your calendars on the iPad, it comes with an elegant interface design and it’s intuitive enough to let you add new events with one tap. It still needs some additional customization options though, the ones that could probably break the app for “calendar power users” that can’t live without edit mode in shared calendars. It’s a very good app overall, so read on past the break for all the details. Read more

A Wooden MacBook Case I’d Actually Buy

Usually, I’m not into wooden accessories. Heck, I’m not even a fan of wooden-like interfaces (hello, iBooks) – I just don’t like the feeling of wood when put next to a shiny Apple product.

The wooden cases from BlackBox, though, are a different thing of beauty. They are detailed, hand oiled, hand rubbed and numbered. They are unique pieces made for the exclusive Apple user. And they don’t come cheap: $129 for the 13” and 15” cases.

Still: they look good. Even to someone who’s not into this kind of accessories. [Gizmodo via BlackBox]

Mozilla Evangelist Asks Google and Apple To Stop Being Evil

Asa Dotzler isn’t happy about the behavior of software giants like Google, Apple and Microsoft. In fact, Mozilla evangelist and co-founder of the Spread Firefox project in 2004 thinks they all should stop being evil. How so? He’s tired of finding unwanted plug-ins installed in Firefox by software such as iTunes, Windows Live and Google Earth.

Why do Microsoft, Google, Apple, and others think that it is an OK practice to add plug-ins to Firefox when I’m installing their software packages. When I installed iTunes, in order to manage my music collection and sync to my iPod, why did Apple think it was OK to add the iTunes Application Detector plug-in to my Firefox web browser without asking me? Why did Microsoft think it was OK to sneak their Windows Live Photo Gallery or Office Live Plug-in for Firefox into my browser (presumably) when I installed Microsoft Office? What makes Google think it’s reasonable behavior for them to slip a Google Update plug-in into Firefox when I installed Google Earth or Google Chrome (not sure which one caused this) without asking me first?

Read more

The Making Of The Glif [Video]

The Glif is an iPhone accessory we’re really looking forward to. It’s a tripod mount / stand for the iPhone 4 we’ve covered quite a few times in the past, and now the project is nearing completion with mass production of the units at Premier Source in Brookings, South Dakota.

The creators of The Glif posted a “making of” video of the product last night, which we have embedded below. Check it out, and go pre-order it if you still haven’t. Read more

iPad 2 Camera Lens Maker Reportedly Selected

Last week a rumor surfaced indicating that the next iPad, so far known as “iPad 2”, will sport new features such as a gyroscope, a Retina Display and USB ports. While we have our doubts about the Retina resolution and Apple willing to put USB ports in its magical tablet, we know it’s very likely that the next iteration of the iPad will get FaceTime capabilities with a front-facing camera. Apple wants FaceTime on as many devices as possible and the iPad is the most logical next step. Read more

Read It Later 2.3: New Article Parser, Better Attribution

Before falling in love with Instapaper, I was a loyal Read It Later user. I used the service for months and couldn’t be happier with it. So what made me switch to Instapaper? The fact that Marco Arment’s software had a better text parser – that little magic that takes content from the cluttered web and presents it in a beautiful, readable and uncluttered fashion.

Read It Later introduced a few minutes ago a new “insane” article parser, which doesn’t stop at text but extends the service’s capabilities to images and embedded videos. Plus, developer Nate Weiner has refined the whole text parsing process to make RIL smarter and faster at fetching articles.

Am I going to ditch Instapaper and jump on the Read It Later bandwagon all over again? No, but I’m going to give this a deep week-long second try. Read more