Federico Viticci

10766 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

Much Ado About The iPad→

Riccardo Mori, in an excellent collection of thoughts about the iPad’s cyclical demise:

Also, it would be interesting to further investigate where those ‘unrealistic expectations’ come from. I’m aware it’s not a huge statistical sample, but considering the people I know, online and offline, who own an iPad, and considering the people I’ve helped with their iPad, virtually none of them has manifested dissatisfaction with the device in an ‘unmet expectations’ kind of way. Everyone I know seems to have been aware of the scope of the device when they purchased it. They knew or understood what they could and what they could not do with it. There has been the occasional nuisance, but nothing that can be considered a ‘deal breaker.’

It’s important to keep in mind that, despite all the things iOS could do better, we shouldn’t confuse the average iPad customer with tech bloggers trying to use WordPress on an iPad.

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Motion UI Design Principles→

Great collection of motion patterns in iPhone user interfaces by Grant Liddall (via iOS Dev Weekly and collected from Capptivate):

Steer clear of distracting or even confusing the user with too much animation, Subtlety is key. It should be used to maintain or help focus. Not take it away. Also don’t over elaborate aspects such as screen transitions. This becomes increasingly frustrating to the user over time. Or if they are simply left waiting for what seems like “forever”.

Since iOS 7 came out, I’ve seen developers who failed to acknowledge the new OS’ reliance on context through motion and, on the other end of the spectrum, those who implemented too many heavy-handed transitions and animations that always become gaudy and detrimental to the user experience after a few days. Even Apple is guilty of this with some of the animations throughout the OS.

As usual, it’s hard to balance the abundance of available tools with good design, but the best iOS 7 apps are the ones that meaningfully rely on motion when necessary, not just because it looks good or new.

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The Prompt: Is It Okay To Be Nervous?→

This week, with Myke at the Úll Conference, the Southern one and the Italian one discuss WebObjects, the recent MacBook Air update and OS X’s possible impending redesign before talking about what may be ailing the iPad as a product.

Our pre-WWDC discussion starts with concerns about a possible redesign of OS X, rumored to be on track for a June announcement.

Get the episode here.

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Apple Highlights Best App Store Releases In “Best Of April” Section

With today’s weekly App Store refresh, Apple has launched a new curated section highlighting the best app and game releases of April 2014, called “Best of April”. The new showcase, available on the iPhone and iPad App Store but absent from the Mac App Store, suggests Apple’s intention to start offering a monthly recap of the App Store’s best releases, handpicked and curated by the App Store’s editorial team.

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Twitter Experimenting With Mute Feature In iOS App→

Casey Newton, writing at The Verge:

One of the most-requested features for Twitter’s mobile apps may be on the cusp of arriving. Some users of the company’s iOS and Android clients are now seeing an option to mute accounts that they follow, preventing another user’s tweets and retweets from appearing in their timeline. The user remains muted until you manually unmute them. In essence, then, the mute feature works as a kind of stealth unfollow — you won’t be seeing another person’s tweets, but they won’t know that.

Alongside timeline sync and streaming, mute is one of the most popular features of third-party iOS clients such as Tweetbot and Twitterrific. Based on screenshots from people who can see the feature in their Twitter app, it looks like Twitter is experimenting with a simple account-based option; in Tweetbot, you can create complex mute filters for keywords and usernames.

While I don’t see myself moving away from Tweetbot 3 any time soon, I’d certainly welcome a mute button in Twitter for iOS (which I like to use when looking for news).

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One Year of Feed Wrangler→

Feed Wrangler launched a year ago today. David Smith’s RSS service is still my favorite one in the post-Reader era, and I’m glad I decided to support Smith and his vision last year.

Today, Smith has posted his thoughts on the past year and shared initial details on the Feed Wrangler roadmap. You can read them here.

The second year of Feed Wrangler is shaping up to be one with several substantial improvements. The first year necessitated a significant investment and focus in the backend and infrastructure components of the service. The second year should allow me to focus more heavily on the more user visible parts. I have a number of projects I’m actively working on to improve the overall experience of using the service.

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