Federico Viticci

10779 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.
@[email protected]
@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

Secrets: A Beautifully Simple Password Manager, Now Free on the App Store [Sponsor]

Secrets is a simple, secure password manager for Mac and iOS. With version 2.0 released this week, the app is adopting a freemium model so you can try it for free on all your devices.

Secrets lets you securely store confidential information such as passwords and bank details. The app leverages industry-standard encryption algorithms to provide secure storage, plus macOS and iOS native features to automatically fill logins on webpages. Thanks to an action extension for iOS, you’ll be able to log into your favorite sites directly from Safari. The app can also generate one-time passwords for services that support two-factor authentication.

At the same time, Secrets has a clean and beautiful user interface that is easy to use and functional. Logins are displayed with rich icons, which are also synced across all your devices with iCloud.

With version 2.0, Secrets is now based on a freemium model: the app is free to download and use with up to 10 items; with a $9.99 In-App Purchase ($19.99 on macOS), you’ll unlock unlimited items and iCloud sync.

Secrets 2.0 is available on the App Store for iOS and macOS.

Our thanks to Secrets for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Canvas, Episode 23: Workflow - Variables and Built-in Actions→

This week Fraser and Federico continue the Workflow series with a look at how to use Variables and Workflow’s built-in actions.

On the second episode of Canvas’ Workflow series, we cover one of the key features of the app, variables, which are key to building workflows. In the second half of the show, we talk about Workflow’s built-in actions and some of its system integrations.

If you haven’t listened to the first episode of the series yet, you’ll want to go back and start from there.

  1. Workflow - The Basics
  2. Workflow - Variables and Built-in Actions

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Connected, Episode 116: Undead Zombie Echo Fish→

Myke is back to talk about dongles. Stephen has opinions about the Mac Pro. Federico is trying a new notes app.

More than you ever wanted to know about dongles and terrifying Alexa experiments on this week’s Connected. Also, we talk about Bear and the business of indie apps towards the end of the show. You can listen here.

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How Slack Is Using Emoji→

After introducing emoji reactions last year, our own Slack team saw a dip in the total number of messages sent. With hundreds of members communicating across a couple thousand channels, it was a welcome change. Before emoji reactions, messages begot more messages: replies, questions, acknowledgment. In a word, noise.

Fascinating look at how Slack is using emoji inside the company. It’s sort of amazing how versatile emoji can be when used in work communications with a bit of creativity. I’m also going to implement this idea for our own Slack:

Speaking of 18F, check out their blog post about using emoji reactions for knowledge management. They tag all “evergreen” content found in channels with :evergreen_tree:, and use a search query like the one mentioned above to find new messages worth codifying in their handbooks. At Slack, we do something similar, where anyone can tag a message with :notebook: to indicate it might be worth adding to the company’s internal documentation.

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How Apple’s Apps Will Use the Touch Bar→

Good overview by Benjamin Mayo of all the Apple apps that will have Touch Bar integration on the new MacBook Pros. Apple certainly had the time to build extensive support for the new API while waiting for the new Pros to ship.

That’s a total of 23 Apple apps that live in the /Applications root folder with Touch Bar support as of the current macOS 10.12.1 build. The following apps have no Touch Bar integration as far as I could tell; App Store, Automator, Chess, Dashboard, Dictionary, DVD Player, Font Book, Image Capture, Photo Booth and Stickies. I expect all of Apple’s apps to flesh out their Touch Bar integrations in future macOS update.

See also: Steve Troughton-Smith’s utility to grab a screenshot of the currently active app in the Touch Bar.

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