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

Mark Read, Must-Have Tweak To Quickly Mark Mail Messages As Read | Cydia Store

Ever wake up with an inbox full of Facebook emails? Annoyed by newsletters you’re not going to read anyway? Going through all of them just to get rid of the red badge just takes too much time. This is why we invented Mark Read, an easy way to mark either your entire inbox or just the emails you want as read/unread, right within Mail.app.

Exactly: Mark Read is a useful tweak available in Cydia which helps you getting rid of that damn red badge from Mail.app in a few taps. Admittedly, going through every email in the morning is annoying, especially if you do get a lot of emails. Why didn’t Apple think of this before? All you have to do to activate Mark Read is tap on the Edit button in your inbox, then you have two options: mark all messages as read/unread, or select some manually. That’s it. Simple and effective.

Mark Read is available at $1.99 on the Cydia Store. Read more

Europe’s Trademark Office Confirms iPad Dual Dock Connectors?

We have already seen pictures of an alleged iPad 2 prototype featuring dual dock connectors, one on each side of the device. Today Patently Apple has found out that the European Trademark Office published a series of designs related to an iPad model featuring multiple 30-pin dock connectors.

The patent was filed in July 2010 and published three days ago. Both Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive are mentioned in the design credits, so maybe something’s really happening this time? I don’t know - just like every tech company, Apple files a lot of patents - but it’s interesting to notice that the design patent was filed in July, months after the release of the iPad. Perhaps Apple listened to user’s feedback? Read more

Text-to-Speech On Your iPhone With Action Menu Voice | Cydia

If there’s something great about OS X’ default text-to-speech feature is that it’s a perfect tool to scare people who don’t know anything about it. “The computer has spoken!” - something like that. I’d like to tell you about this summer’s joke with two friends of mine and some polish dudes sitting next to my computer, but not now.

What we have here is an Action Menu (the amazing tweak developed by Ryan Petrich which adds additional buttons to the standard copy & paste menu) plugin which allows your device to “read and speak” selected text. Read more

HDREnabler Brings HDR Capabilities To The iPod Touch | Cydia

The new iPod Touch is good but it’s not an iPhone 4. In fact, it hasn’t got the same Retina Display (no IPS technology for iPod Touch users) and it can’t shoot photos as well as the iPhone 4 can. Particularly, iPod Touch users have been looking for a way to enable HDR photography, and now thanks to HDREnabler (version 1.1-1) available for free in Cydia they can. Read more

FaceTime Does Work In The Middle East, With The iPod Touch

The “FaceTime in the Middle East” saga is undergoing another major development today: according to website iRamadah (Google Translation, via 9to5) Apple’s video calling system is working perfectly fine, only with an iPod Touch 4th generation. We have previously reported about the weird removal of all FaceTime images and mentions from Apple’s eastern websites, then Apple itself posted a supported document regarding the absence of FaceTime in certain Middle East countries due to problems with the carriers. Read more

Mark Zuckerberg Checks In At Jobs’ House For Dinner

Apple wants to make Ping work. The music-based social network is struggling to gain traction, and Steve Jobs needs to figure out a way to let people engage with the system and share data with their contacts - all in order to collect more data and drive more clicks to the iTunes Store. It’s a good plan, but it’s not working as expected because Apple hasn’t got the social infrastructure Facebook has. So Steve invited Facebook’s CEO over at dinner to discuss some Ping related stuff including Facebook integration, the Los Angeles Times reports:

They are two of Silicon Valley’s most famous founders: Jobs created the world’s must-have gadgets, Zuckerberg the world’s most popular social networking service. These days they are often mentioned in the same breath. Now apparently the two also recently broke bread.

Apparently Jobs invited Zuckerberg for dinner at his house to talk about Ping two weeks ago. That’s when a tipster spotted them on a stroll in Palo Alto.

Read more

iLife and iWork Backordered at BestBuy - Announcement On Wednesday?

9to5mac noticed that both iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09 are currently backordered at BestBuy.com. Shipping times for the two software suites have been delayed to 1 / weeks, which usually means BestBuy is short on units and an update is coming.

On Wednesday, October 20th Apple is having its “Back to the Mac” media event. Mac’s not dead, and it’s about time for an iLife and iWork update. We’re waiting.

Leaked Picture Of The New MacBook Air?

Engadget just posted a picture of what appears to be the inside of the new MacBook Air, the one Apple is going to announce on Wednesday at the “Back to the Mac” event. The picture doesn’t show a 11.6-inch chassis, but a regular 13-inch one with extra room for battery cells and no hard drive. Does this confirm that Apple managed to stuff a SSD somewhere else in the unibody structure?

Read more

How Much Money Can You Make On The App Store?→

How Much Money Can You Make On The App Store?

Dylan Ginsburg, developer of River of News for iPad (which I reviewed here), quits his day job to become a full-time iOS developer. As a first step, he posts the results of RoN in the App Store so far.

“OK, what about satisfaction with my work? I don’t have a chart for that but I don’t think I need one. Developing River of News has been the most rewarding “work” of my life. It’s not even close. My sleeping is all screwed up because I keep thinking about how I can make my software better. That’s right, “my software.” What a great thing to be able to say. I’ve gotten such tremendous satisfaction from creating something that people use and like.

Less money, more satisfaction. What do I do?

I resigned from my job this week. My employer treated me well and I thank them but I’ve got a shot to do something amazing and I’m not going to pass it up. If I can be successful at this then all I need to earn a living is a laptop and an internet connection. I can do that anywhere in the world and on my own schedule. Wow. That’s a life changer.”

It is indeed. $20,000 in two months is not bad, but he could get a lot more with full-time development. I bet he will. Also, developers:

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared. I’ve always had a reliable salary and a good standard of living. But I’m taking my shot.”

It’s stories like this one that keep the App Store running. Take your shot.

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