Federico Viticci

10768 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

Byword Updated with Handoff, Document Providers on iOS 8→

Byword, my favorite general-purpose Markdown editor for iOS has been updated today with iOS 8 features that include Document Providers, Handoff, and iCloud Drive. While I can’t try Handoff with my Mac and I’ve yet to figure out if I want to try iCloud Drive, I’ve tested Document Providers in Byword and they work as advertised. You can open documents from other apps in Byword, edit them, and changes will appear back in the originating app with no Copy or Move operations required. I tested this with TextEdit and Readdle Documents, and it worked perfectly – a nice reminder of how better document management can be on iOS 8 when compared to the old system.

Byword for iOS with the latest iOS 8 features is available on the App Store.

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Dropbox and Microsoft Team Up for Dropbox Sync in Office Mobile Apps→

With a blog post, Dropbox today announced that they are partnering with Microsoft to extend integration with Dropbox storage to the Office mobile apps for iOS and Android. “In the next few weeks”, users will be able to open Office documents in Microsoft’s apps directly from the Dropbox app, and Dropbox sync will be bundled into Office for iPad to create, edit, and sync documents across devices. Dropbox will coexist with Microsoft’s own OneDrive service, and users will even be able to browse their Dropbox account and copy shareable links to files without leaving Office for iOS.

From the Dropbox blog:

We know that much of the world relies on a combination of Dropbox and Microsoft Office to get work done. In fact, Dropbox is home to over 35 billion Office documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. That’s why we’re partnering with Microsoft to help you do more on your phones, tablets, and the web. Soon you’ll be able to access your Dropbox directly from Office apps, and edit Office files from the Dropbox app.

Tom Warren writes at The Verge:

“Access to Dropbox content popped as one of the very first [iPad for Office] requests that customers had,” explains Kirk Koenigsbauer, head of Microsoft’s Office Engineering team. “They want access to where their content is. We’re doing it to make sure customers have a great experience.” Although Microsoft has its own OneDrive cloud storage, Dropbox will appear alongside Microsoft’s own service in the Office for iPad apps, allowing users to natively browse, open, and edit Office documents stored on Dropbox from directly within the app.

I find this interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Microsoft was long criticized for ignoring Office on mobile devices, but, under CEO Satya Nadella, they appear to be actively listening to how people want to use Office on the go – Dropbox is an obvious choice for file storage and sharing, but Microsoft still requires an Office 365 subscription to fully use the iOS apps (side note: Word for iPad is a regular fixture of the App Store’s Top Grossing chart).

It’s also notable that Microsoft has chosen to develop their own custom integration rather than simply rely on Apple’s new document provider feature of iOS 8. As you can see from the screenshots, Word for iPad will have a custom Dropbox file browser with support for multiple accounts that doesn’t require you to open a document picker to switch between file storage locations. Given the complexity of sync and the strategic importance of this partnership, it makes sense for Microsoft to control this integration with a custom, full-featured approach.

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Trent Reznor on Beats Music→

Billboard’s Joe Levy posted an interview with Trent Reznor last week, and among various questions he asked about his new role with Beats Music at Apple:

Is it about music delivery?

It’s in that world. It’s exciting to me, and I think it could have a big enough impact that it’s worth the effort. I’m fully in it right now, and it’s challenging, and it’s unfamiliar and it’s kind of everything I asked for – and the bad thing is it’s everything I asked for.

Reznor added that “the right streaming service could solve everybody’s problems”. This isn’t the first time Reznor has expressed his thoughts on how a music streaming platform could go beyond the traditional feature set of streaming services. From an interview with USA Today in January:

“We’re going to offer artists metrics in terms of where their music is being consumed in the service, we’ll allow artists to curate their own pages, and in general provide a friendly place where artists can make fans aware of T-shirts or concert tickets, and consumers can learn more about music and culture,” says Reznor, who in particular is excited about being able to present his true face to fans.

“Not to throw stones at Spotify, because I know those guys, but on their site, I sit behind an impenetrable wall,” he says. “I’ve got an old bio, old photos and a discography with some bootlegs. I feel like I’m walking into a mall record shop and my little area has the wrong picture of me and the catalog stinks.”

It’s unclear if and when Apple will introduce new artist or listener features in Beats Music. According to recent speculation from Re/Code, Apple is looking to cut the $10 monthly fee of Beats Music with an overhaul planned for next year.

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Igloo: An intranet that actually works on your phone [Sponsor]

Work doesn’t stop when you leave your desk (although most intranet software will have you believe that).
 
With Igloo’s responsive design, your intranet can be fully optimized for almost any device you’re using. Manage tasks, share status updates, download documents — almost everything you can do on your desktop, you can do on your tablet or phone. It will even work on your new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. Boom.
 
Plus, when you design your Igloo, any change you make to the look and feel carries across all devices.
 
Igloo is free to use with up to ten people. Sign up now to start building your mobile-friendly intranet.

Our thanks to Igloo for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Nintendo, One Year Later→

Lukas Mathis, checking back after a year on the idea that Nintendo should drop consoles and make games for iOS:

Now, one year later, Nintendo just announced that it made a quarterly profit of 24.2 billion yen (about 224 million US$). Ars Technica notes that this is mainly due to strong sales of its first-party titles, mostly on the 3DS. However, even the Wii U is starting to show sustainable game sales numbers. So far, Mario Kart 8 sold roughly 3 million copies on the Wii U, and it continues to sell well. At 60 US$ a piece, it’s not clear to me that Nintendo could make the same amount of money selling games for iOS. Even a platform that’s doing poorly, like the Wii U, might be a better option if you can sell games for 60 bucks a piece, and reach a 50% attach rate.

As I argued last year in Nintendo Vs. Apple Pundits, Nintendo consoles exist to support the company’s crown jewels – first-party games. The kind of experiences that Nintendo is able to craft on the 3DS and Wii U wouldn’t simply be possible on iOS (from both technical and economic perspectives).

As Mathis notes, the rest of the console industry isn’t doing too bad after a year either, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 reporting higher sales numbers than the previous generation.

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Apple No Longer Rejecting iOS 8 Calculator Widgets→

According to TechCrunch, Apple has changed its mind on calculator widgets for iOS 8 following yesterday’s PCalc news:

But now we’re hearing that Apple is changing its course. The PCalc app and widget will remain in the App Store, and all calculator-type widgets will be allowed as well, an Apple spokesperson has confirmed to us.

From our understanding, the calculator use case was not one that Apple had anticipated, which is why an App Store reviewer originally explained to Thomson that he would need to adjust the app, or risk being pulled from the App Store.

James Thomson still hasn’t heard anything from Apple officially, and, obviously, there are hundreds of apps that are mysteriously rejected every week and that aren’t covered by dozens of tech blogs in a single day.

Still, this is the right decision from Apple, and it’ll hopefully turn into an opportunity to clarify the App Store Review Guidelines for widgets and improve the company’s internal Schrödinger process that makes an app featured and at risk of rejection at the same time.

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Apple Asks PCalc Developer to Remove iOS 8 Widget

As tweeted by PCalc developer James Thomson today, he will be forced to remove the app’s iOS 8 widget. Following an approval that saw PCalc 3.3 launch alongside iOS 8 and a feature in Apple’s “Great Apps for iOS 8” App Store section, the company has informed Thomson that “Notification Center widgets on iOS cannot perform any calculations”.

Curious app rejections aren’t new to the App Store, but being forced to remove a feature that was approved, featured by the App Store team, and appreciated by thousands of users is a different story. As Thomson tweeted, he invested time and resources into the development of the widget, which was a fantastic addition to the app and a nice way to perform quick calculations directly in the Today view of Notification Center. More importantly, it was a great showcase of the new capabilities of iOS 8.

Thomson wasn’t alone in thinking that a widget calculator would be a good idea: dozens of iOS 8 widgets with the same feature have been released since last month (such as Wdgts) and Apple itself offers a calculator widget in OS X Yosemite.

But even with the following examples in mind, being forced to remove apps or features that had been previously approved isn’t news either (case in point). Rather, what is disappointing is the persistence of contradicting signals from a company that many developers saw as “more open” after WWDC ‘14. Developers like Thomson will keep finding themselves in the position of risking to implement a feature or create an app that may be approved, gain users, and be shut down by Apple for a sudden policy change.

PCalc will continue to be a great app even without its widget. But at some point, we’ll have to wonder whether technology limitations or murky App Store policies are truly holding iOS back, preventing developers from building innovative iOS-first apps that dare to go beyond the status quo. Today, that’s happening to a calculator widget.