Federico Viticci

10789 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.

Even More Screenshots of IM+ for iPad

German blog Touch-this.de has received some extra screenshots of IM+ for the iPad directly from Shape Services, which show more of the functionalities the developers are implementing in the upcoming new version.

Modal windows, popovers, icons in top toolbars, emoticons in keyboard. Sure they look good, but there are some elements (like the aforementioned icons) that really seem out of place and, most of all, not so easy to actually touch, due to the lack of spacing between them. It’s good to know that the developers are adopting the new UI standards for developing an iPad app, not just mimicking the old iPhone guidelines on a bigger screen.



The iPhone Font, Created From 540 iPhone Apps

We saw spoof videos, people getting married in an Apple Store and even iPhone fridge magnets - but I never thought stuff like this one would be possible. Created by Urikane, the iPhone Font / Alphabet is an example of what people can do with “540 apps and too much free time”: this guy managed to recreate the entire alphabet in his homescreen by simply combining the icons of various iPhone applications, basing on their primary color.

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Bing iPhone App Removed From All the International App Stores

This one is weird: the official Bing app has disappeared from all the App Stores except for the US one since Monday. If you search for it in, say, the Italian App Store or the Brazilian one, the application isn’t there anymore.

There’s no official statement about it, but we remember Microsoft said something months ago regarding the fact that they didn’t want the app to be available worldwide, as it’s been for 3 months now. They left the app for 3 months in the App Store, and now it’s just gone.

We’ll keep you posted about this.



Apple Updates iWork.com, Adds Social and iPhone Features

iWork.com, the beta service from Apple that integrates with iWork desktop and allows you to retrieve your documents on the web, has just received an update, which adds a number of interesting features. First, Apple has finally enabled support for public links for documents, thus enabling to share your work wherever you want. As far as we can tell, the viewers of public links won’t see document comments and notes.

Also, the iWork.com webpage has been redesigned for mobile access (webapp) with the iPhone and iPad. After a few initial tests with the new look, I guess there’s some Pastrykit going on with the webapp.

Seems like Apple is finally giving iWork the consideration it deserves and, with the iPad coming out in a few weeks, I’m pretty sure we’ll see even more.


MacUpdate Promo Spring Bundle 2010 Launches

It’s time for another MacUpdate Promo bundle and, as usual, it’s pretty good. At the price of $49.99 you can buy 11 Mac apps, and if you add $3.99 you can also download and activate MacUpdate Desktop for 6 months.

Here’s the full list of the apps:

Parallels 5

Hyperspaces

Foreversave

Websnapper

Hydra

SpellCatcher X

Timeline 3D

Back In Time

MacDVDRipper Pro

MacScan.

There are some apps I wouldn’t buy anyway, but Hyperspaces and Parallels alone make this bundle seriously worth to consider. The promo ends in two weeks, and first 10.000 buyers also get DVDRemaster Pro for free.


Snow Stack - Webkit Only Photo Gallery Made with CSS 3D Visual Effects

Developed by Satine.org months ago, if you still haven’t tried Snow Stack you should head over the demo webpage right now. Snow Stack is a photo gallery, similar to Cooliris, that displays photos as a “wall” that you can navigate. Cool thing is, everything happens thanks to Webkit’s CSS 3D capabilities, you can use your keyboard to browse and zoom photos (spacebar zooms just like Quicklook) and overall, it’s beautiful.

Of course, Firefox and Opera are not supported.