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

Backflip Studios Making Half A Million Dollars Per Month With In-Game Ads

So much for in-app advertising being a non-sustainable business mode. Backflip Studios, developers of the popular Paper Toss and Ninjump games for iPhone, is making half a million dollars per month from in-game ads alone. The company dramatically increased ad revenue since last May, when they confirmed they had managed to make $1 million in six months.

Backflip generated more than 45 million installs on iOS, 5.5 million on Android devices.

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VLC for iPhone Now Available

VLC, the popular media player already ported by developer Applidium to the iPad, is now available as a universal app for iPhone. The latest 1.1.0 update, approved last night, adds support for iPhone 4, 3GS and latest gen iPod Touches, introduces in-app file management without the need of having to go through iTunes to delete files and increases the compatibility of the app with different filetypes.

No word yet if the app supports beta versions of iOS 4.2, guess we’ll have to find out on our own.

VLC for iPhone and iPad is free and available here. Check out the screenshots and full changelog below. Read more

Apple’s Massive Data Center Beginning Operations “Any Day Now”

Apple’s $1 billion million data center in Maiden, North Carolina is where iTunes in the cloud will live. And the Mac App Store. And MobileMe. And whatever Apple has in mind for its cloud-based features.

According to a report by DataCenterKnowledge, the data center “is expected to begin operations any day now”. Which means it’s ready, and as Apple promised in July it’ll be up and running before the end of the year. Read more

Mac App Store and Micro-Apps→

Mac App Store and Micro-Apps

MG Siegler:

This weekend, Ryan Block put up an interesting post on gdgt entitled: Will the Mac App Store have enough to sell? He raises a number of good points for why Apple may not be able to replicate their current App Store success with this new desktop store. But I’m left wondering if the store won’t lead to a new class of app: a sort of micro-app for the desktop.

Block makes the following points: a) high-end software like Photoshop won’t be placed in this store because Adobe won’t want to give Apple a 30 percent cut of all sales. b) most paid desktop software is dead or dying due to free replacements on the web. c) Apple’s strict rules will prevent developers from using this new store for test or demo software. I agree with all of those points. And that’s why I’m wondering if this store won’t instead lead to this new type of app environment.

Yours truly, two days ago:

The worst scenario would be: “simple apps” are sold in the Mac App Store, “real apps” are available on the developers’ website. For as much as the Mac App Store is a great opportunity and I’m sure it’ll be huge among consumers, I can imagine some developers, frustrated either with Apple’s restrictions or lack of trial support, will end up selling software only on their websites.

Either “micro” or “simple”, it is clear that the biggest issue Apple has to face is convincing the big names to jump on board. Or maybe Apple doesn’t need them, as they’ll come back on their own once they’ll see the money “simple micro apps” can make.

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iPod: Rise & Fall

Remember when the iPod used to be the most important product for Apple? Now it’s all about the iPhone and iPad. The Mac’s coming back (and frankly, with Lion and the Mac App Store what a comeback), and the iPod sales are slowing down.

The chart below, Sonic-style, gives you an idea of how times change. [via Fortune] Read more

FullScreen for Safari Update Will Introduce Action Popup | Cydia Store

FullScreen for Safari is a great tweak available in Cydia at $1.49 which I previously reviewed here, that brings a lot more features to Apple’s default browser. Fullscreen navigation mode, gestures, customizable activation methods for almost anything you can do with Safari but Apple doesn’t let you act on.

FullScreen for Safari is undoubtedly the best way to make the best mobile browser out there even better. Read more