Federico Viticci

10880 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.

This Week's Sponsor:

Finalist

A paper-inspired daily planner with notes for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and now Apple Watch. A day you design your way.




Take Control Of Your Google Account with G-Whizz for iPad (and iPhone)

If you’re following me on Twitter, you may’ve noticed that last week I decided to start moving my workflow to the cloud, taking advantage of all the services Google has to offer. Up until 5 days ago I was a proud user of Gmail and Google Reader, but I never really considered using all those other apps such as Docs, Buzz and Talk. Not to mention Location services, Calendar and Tasks.

Read more


First Look: Netvibes for iPad

I don’t know how many people are still using Netvibes, but I’ve always been interested in trying out the service. And it turns out that maybe I’ll be able to do it this week, when the company will launch a first beta of their iPad optimized website.

Read more


Find the Perfect Bowtie Theme with Bowcase

Bowtie is a great music controller for Mac and iPhone we reviewed back in February. It allows you to control what’s playing in iTunes without the need to actually open iTunes, it’s minimal and, most of all, it’s customizable.

One of the greatest strengths of the app is indeed the possibility to apply themes to it, and these themes are essentially made of simple HTML, CSS and Javascript.

Read more



Former Apple Exec Warns About Ballmer’s “Distortion Field”

Jean-Louis Gassée is a former Apple exec and BeOS founder, and he’s warning us about Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer distortion field.

As you can read on Monday Note:

“Microsoft shareholders ought to worry about Steve Ballmer’s own distortion, and about the self-inflicted effects of such a strong field,” Gassée writes today. “We all remember Vista, it was a godsend for Apple. Did Ballmer acknowledge that there were problems? What about the Xbox 360 reliability nightmare? The apologies were left to underlings.”

Seems like everybody hates Ballmer these days. Remember when he was rumored to get on stage at the WWDC and introduce developer tools for iPhone OS? Good times.

[via 9to5mac]


Leaked Intel Roadmap Reveals 2.8GHz Core i7 Processors, New Macbooks Later This Year?

A leaked Intel roadmap has surfaced on Engadget, and it turns out that the company will release a speed bumped Core i7 processor later this year. As Macrumors reports:

“The upcoming Core i7-640M will run at a base frequency of 2.8GHz with “turbo boost” speeds up to 3.46GHz. This new processor draws the same power as the current MacBook Pro processors so should be a natural upgrade for Apple.”

Indeed it’s very likely that Apple will implement these new processors in the new Macbooks sometime this fall or next year, but you can bet that the next Macbook line won’t be just about speed bumping. Also, we don’t think we’ll be hearing anything about desktop computers at the upcoming WWDC. Remember, it’s about the iPhone OS platform.


Opera Releases 10.60 Alpha

Opera has just released a first alpha version of its browser, labelled 10.60. It’s available for download here, and the final version will be released “this summer” for Mac, Windows and Linux at the same time.

10.60 seems to be a “finely tuned” version of the popular 10.50, with enhanced tab functions (visual peeks on hover) and an even faster Javascript engine. Other changes include widescreen speed dials, a more visible Menu button and many other fixes.

Go download it here.