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

The White iPhone 4 Shows Up Again. In Apple’s Own Store App.

MacRumors forum member Bandolier spotted an interesting iPhone model up for reservation in the updated Apple Store app: the white iPhone 4.

When you open the app, press Store, Reservations, Reserve Products, iPhone, and from there you are now able to select the white iPhone 4 (16 and 32 GB) to reserve.

Unfortunately, when you select a white iPhone the app seem to return the following message:

Because of high demand, we are not currently taking iPhone reservations.

I’ve personally tried and when I tap on the Store tab I get a “We’ll be back soon” message. Perhaps it’s because I’m in Italy, or maybe Apple is already fixing the error. But then again, maybe this is not an error at all and we’ll really hear white iPhone 4 news later today or this week.

As you may know, Apple was expected to release the white model together with the black one, but alleged manufacturing problems forced the company to delay the release date. Two weeks ago a “gentleman” was spotted in New York carrying an iPhone 4.

Apple Store App Update Goes Live

Just like we previously reported, Apple has updated its official Apple Store iPhone app to include support for reservations, check-ins and locations services.

The free 1.1 update, available in the App Store here, also introduces support for engraving and free wrapping, the possibility to add reservations to iCal. iOS 4 is required to access the new check-in based features.

Screenshots and changelog below. Read more

“Back to the Mac” Event in 100 Seconds, Full 1080p Video Now On Youtube

For those of you who’ve just come home from work and would like to fire up some videos on that shiny new Apple TV: you can either choose between a 50 to 1 slimmed down version of the Back to the Mac event video, or enjoy the full show in 1080p on Youtube.

Both videos are embedded below. With HD version finally available for streaming, expect us to dig into those Lion screenshots even more. Read more

Did Conde Nast Fix Its iPad Apps?

Two weeks ago we wrote about a nasty bug some users discovered in the Conde Nast iPad applications based on Adobe’s publishing technologies (oh byt the way, they just made the deal official) which, through a rather simple hack of preference files inside the app’s folder, allowed to download paid issues for free.

Back then, an Adobe spokesperson confirmed a new version of the Digital Content Viewer had been already shipped to developers and a fix would be released soon. Read more

Note & Share: A Note Taking App, With Twitter and Dropbox Support

There are so many note taking apps for iPhone and iPad out there in the App Store, I don’t want to even keep a list of them anymore. Since Dropbox announced the possibility for developers to plug into the system and people remembered that Evernote has always been a great solution to store notes, developers rushed to release both great and terrible clients to create notes and save them to multiple online locations. Me? I’ve been using Simplenote all along and I’m not moving away from it, although PlainText makes a great note taking application with excellent Dropbox support.  Read more

iPhone Security Hole Lets You Make Calls When The Phone Is Locked

It seems like there’s a huge bug in iOS 4.1 for iPhone: with a combination of sleep / power button and a fake emergency call, it is possible to access the iPhone’s contact list and phone keypad even if the device is locked. I personally tested the method and, indeed, it works: I was able to bypass iOS’ passcode lock check and make a phone call to a friend of mine. Read more

“Apple Sacrificing Usability For Platform Consistency”→

“Apple Sacrificing Usability For Platform Consistency”

Craig Grannell on iOS scrollbars coming to OS X and the mute button on iOS 4.2 for iPad:

Both these things point to Apple wanting to merge concepts in iOS and Mac OS X at all costs. Some cross-pollination is undoubtedly a good idea—Mac OS X having system-wise auto-save/app-resumption will be a major productivity boost if implemented properly; but Apple must also remember that what works on one system won’t necessarily work on the other—and it should also realise that some things really don’t work from a usability standpoint on iOS as it is, and so welding such concepts to Mac OS X isn’t a great idea.

The mute button is a terrible idea. As for iOS scrollbars and scrolling system coming to the desktop, my only concern is whether these features will bring any real improvement besides graphical eye candy. On the iPhone and iPad, rubber-banding is nice because you actually touch the screen and you get this neat scrolling effect. What about the Mac, though, where you place your fingers on a trackpad and you see a pointer on screen?

[via Dan Frakes]

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