Federico Viticci

10788 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.

Apple Actually Had Considered AMOLED Displays

It turns out that Apple really thought about implementing AMOLED displays in the next generation iPhone, but had to reject the idea due to problem with supply and technology.

As Digitimes reports:

“According to our sources, Apple had spoken with Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) about the possibility for AMOLED panels since the development of the iPhone 3GS, but production capacity remains a big issue. SMD only has the capability to fulfill 50-60% of iPhone orders at the moment even it dedicated all AMOLED capacity to Apple.

Of course, cost is always a concern. AMOLED panels cost US$34-38. TN panels cost less than US$10 and IPS panels around US$20.

AMOLED also has display weaknesses. SMD uses PenTile technology developed by Clairvoyante to produce AMOLED, which is less suitable for displaying text. With Apple quite keen on pushing e-reading businesses, AMOLED may not be the best solution at the moment.”

So there you have it, folks. The whole truth is coming in 12 days, by the way.


They’re Telling Us We Shouldn’t Hold Our Breath for WWDC

Gene Munster is telling us that we shouldn’t hold our breath for the upcoming WWDC and the stuff Steve Jobs is going to announce. He says that Apple has “little room for surprise”.

Let me ask you this: even if you knew that Apple was set to announce a tablet device back in January, did you enjoy the event? Even if you thought you knew what the device might look like, didn’t your jaw drop when you saw the iPad in action?

These predictions are useless. It’s like saying “don’t read that book because we all know it’s got a happy ending”. What about the content of the book? What about how the iPhone 4G works and relies on the new iPhone OS 4.0 features? Here’s a suggestion for analysts: try to focus more on the content sometimes, because Apple is not about surprises - not as much as it’s about refinements.


Apple Is Now Worth More Than Microsoft

Business Insider reports that Apple’s business value is now higher than Microsoft’s. Apple’s business is in fact now worth $200 billion, while Microsoft’s is worth $197 billion.

“A company’s stock market capitalization includes the net value of the cash and debt on the company’s books. To figure out the imputed value of the company’s actual business, therefore, you have to adjust for the value of those other things.”

It will be interesting to see what’s Microsoft gonna do next, specifically in the mobile market.



App Store Now Showing 200 Apps in Top Charts

Apple is making some small changes to the App Store (maybe because the iPad is becoming available in other countries) and one of these changes includes the revamped top charts.

Now you’ll be able to see the top 200 apps both in free / paid charts and single categories instead of 100 apps. A very welcome change for developers and users who want to see what’s trending and selling in the Store.

Read more


TypeSaver for iPad: When Typography Meets Famous Words

We’ve been talking a lot about the iPad as a digital frame for your photos, music, news and tweets. It could be a frame for anything, if you want. What about words? Yeah, like those cool slideshows of words from popular people that say shit about life. Got the idea?

Now, think about an iPad app that mixes words, great typography and Sh*t My Dad Says together with Obama and you get the hang of this awesome thing called TypeSaver.

Read more


Extensions Coming to Safari?

John Gruber is well known for making predictions weeks before Apple announces stuff. He usually puts it as a joke, but God knows why he’s usually right.

The latest from our beloved John is the following piece about Safari:

“The other big thing that’s missing (compared to both Chrome and Firefox) is a proper extension API. If only Apple had an imminent developer conference where they could unveil such a thing.”

Read more



Snes HD, An iPhone Controlled Real Snes for iPad

Snes HD is a new Super Nintendo emulator available in Cydia that is based on ZodTTD’s snes4iphone but it’s optimized for the iPad. The app allows you to browse games in split view mode and shows a “real” US Snes on the right, where you can even see the cartridge and the name of the connected player.

Indeed you can connect to the emulator by using the My ControlPad app for iPhone (also available in Cydia) which lets you use the iPhone as a remote Snes controller. It’s one of the coolest thing you could ever have with a jailbroken iPad.

The emulation is smooth and fast, you can trigger autosaving features and smooth scaling, even though I found the non-scaled version absolutely enjoyable. All this goodness is available in Cydia at this repo: http://wherethewoozlewasnt.com/cydia.

Check out the screenshots after the break.

Read more