Federico Viticci

10758 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

Sublpress - Sublime Text WordPress Plugin→

Interesting work by Nicolas Dienstbier:

Sublpress is a Sublime Text WordPress Plugin that allows you to remotely manage many WordPress 3.5 installations from within Sublime Text. The mostly quick panel based system allows for managing settings, posts(and custom post types), pages and taxonomy terms of a WordPress blog.

I use Sublime Text 2 as a Markdown text editor every day, and I’m intrigued by this plugin. Once I’m done with a post in Sublime, I fire up Marked, hit CMD+Shift+C to copy the HTML code, and go to WordPress to post it. With Sublpress, I could do the posting directly from Sublime, so I’ll make sure to check it out.

Sublpress works with both Sublime Text 2 and 3. You can find it on GitHub (via Brett on Pinboard).

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Facebook SDK 3.5 for iOS→

Some nice updates for developers who integrate Facebook functionality in their iOS apps. A new native Share Dialog, with support for photos like the iOS 6 Share Sheet, will be available in beta today:

The native Share Dialog is simple to integrate and significantly improves people’s sharing experiences from your native mobile app. It has built-in support for publishing Open Graph actions. In addition, people now have the option to share activity from apps through this dialog without needing to login to Facebook first. This makes it faster and easier for people to share.

The data and publishing permission dialogs look good as well. Facebook says they’re 20% faster, too.

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Thoughts On Twitter #music

Music

Music

Earlier today, Twitter released its official #music app.[1] This first release, like Vine before, is iPhone-only with a web counterpart. I believe that Music, more than Vine, can give an indication of the direction Twitter may take in regards to its media strategy. But first, I’d like to highlight two excerpts from Twitter’s blog post announcing Music:

Twitter and music go great together. People share and discover new songs and albums every day. Many of the most-followed accounts on Twitter are musicians, and half of all users follow at least one musician. This is why artists turn to Twitter first to connect with their fans — and why we wanted to find a way to surface songs people are tweeting about.

Today, we’re releasing Twitter #music, a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists. It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.

“Tweets and engagement” are key factors of the algorithm Twitter is using to “detect and surface” tracks, both popular and emerging. The fact that half of all users (active or not) follow at least one musician on Twitter is an important metric to keep in mind. Read more

Yahoo Releases New Weather and Mail Apps→

Casey Newton:

Yahoo Weather represents one such attempt to delight users into giving the rest of the company’s products a try. Meteorology has been a strength for Yahoo, which has provided data for the default weather app for iPhone since it came out in 2007. But Apple’s weather app has evolved very little over the years, and Yahoo decided to build a new app that emphasizes photos over text. Open Yahoo Weather in big cities around the world and you’ll see sharp, high-resolution images that have been gathered from Yahoo-owned Flickr. The app displays different photos based on location, weather conditions, and time of day.

Nice updates by Yahoo, which seems to be iterating faster than ever with Marissa Mayer at the helm. The new Weather app uses a photo background fetched from Flickr, with clean font and icon overlays for weather information. For my location, the app can only fetch one photo; interestingly, weather data for forecasts is provided by Wunderground.

There are several nice touches in the app. Information is laid out vertically, and as you swipe the background is slightly blurred to put the focus on weather data. There’s no pagination, and the only screen that snaps into view is the first one; at the very bottom, the Wind & Pressure and Sun & Moon sections are both animated (and the current time of the day is reflected in Sun & Moon). Something I don’t like is the advertisement for other Yahoo apps in the left sidebar, though I understand why the company wants people to know Yahoo does still make stuff for the App Store.

I won’t switch from Today Weather, but Yahoo Weather is a good 1.0 release. I like it more than Apple’s own Weather app (which is powered by Yahoo).

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Skitch 2.5 Adds PDF Annotations

Skitch

Skitch

Skitch, the image annotation and sharing tool that Evernote acquired in the summer of 2011, has today been updated on iOS to include support for PDF annotations. I have been testing the new feature for the past few months, and, while not as full-featured as a dedicated PDF annotation app, I believe it is a solid addition to Skitch. Read more

Twitter Announces #music App→

From the Twitter blog:

Today, we’re releasing Twitter #music, a new service that will change the way people find music, based on Twitter. It uses Twitter activity, including Tweets and engagement, to detect and surface the most popular tracks and emerging artists. It also brings artists’ music-related Twitter activity front and center: go to their profiles to see which music artists they follow and listen to songs by those artists. And, of course, you can tweet songs right from the app.

The new app isn’t available on the App Store yet (tip: to check, refresh Twitter’s page in iTunes using CMD+R). Twitter #music will launch with direct support for iTunes previews, plus Rdio and Spotify streaming for users who have accounts on those service. I’m interested to see how Twitter will handle the login process for Rdio and Spotify, but based on what I’m reading, it sounds like a good idea. Maybe Twitter does have the network infrastructure and willingness to do social music right.

I’ll leave more thoughts for a review. In the meantime, check out Twitter’s official #music landing page, and Joanna Stern’s preview of the app at ABC News.

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Rdio Brings New Sharing Interface To iOS App

Rdio Share

Rdio Share

Earlier today, music streaming service Rdio updated its iOS app with a new sharing interface. Alongside the existing Facebook and Twitter options, the new sharing UI includes an updated menu to send a song or album directly to a Rdio user that you’re following: from the Share view (which was introduced two months ago), you can now tap on profile pictures of your friends, or you can use the old Twitter and Facebook sharing features, which have also been given a fresh coat of paint in this new release.

Interestingly enough, while previous design changes were made exclusively on the iPhone, this time Rdio for iPad has received the new Sharing interface in the form of a modal window (but it still lacks the full-screen album art view of the iPhone app). Items shared by your friends will appear in the notifications area on the Rdio website and desktop app, and you’ll also receive an email notification (if you have allowed the service to notify you via email); the iOS apps can share items, but they still can’t access notifications from other users.

I previously took a look at Rdio’s major 2.0 release and 2.1 update. Version 2.1.7 is out now on the App Store.

Update: this new version also restores visibility of the iOS status bar. Personally, this is a very welcome change.

Evernote Wants To Build Hardware→

Jay Alabaster for PCWorld:

The CEO of archiving service Evernote said his company will soon release branded hardware with partners, as it moves toward creating its own devices.

“We won’t actually do the manufacturing, but we’ll do the co-design together,” said Phil Libin, who spoke to IDG News Service on the sidelines of the New Economy Summit, a technology conference held Tuesday in Tokyo.

After 6 apps, 2 web tools (Clearly and Web Clipper), a Business service, and expansion on 3 major platforms (OS X, Windows, Android) it makes sense for Evernote to consider more collaborations on the hardware side. Some facts worth keeping in mind: Evernote has its own developer platform and ecosystem for both apps and compatible hardware; the company signed a partnership with Moleskine to enable automatic tagging of notebook pages using stickers; they have a Chinese version of the service; and, they’re not new to other kinds of collaborations such as carrier deals and smart fridges. Evernote wants to grow.

Tighter integration with hardware would, in theory, allow Evernote to create apps that have a more direct connection with the OS. I don’t think it’d be absurd to guess Evernote is considering a Home-like approach: Evernote’s tools span note-taking, document management, photos, location, contact management, and even digital handwriting. Why wouldn’t Evernote want deeper access to mobile OSes for phones and tablets?

Again, from PCWorld:

Libin emphasized that the company aims to make devices that are “new and magical,” rather than entering an existing product category.

We’ll see in a few years.

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