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.
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@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

Plants vs. Zombies Now Available In The Mac App Store

While we’re still waiting for Bejeweled 3 to become available on the iPhone and iPad, PopCap Games has released its hugely popular “Plants vs. Zombies” in the Mac App Store. You can find it here at $9.99.

The game, successful on the iOS App Store and firmly positioned in the first spots of the paid software charts, looks like a straight port of the iPad version, made bigger to run on every Mac’s screen. That means you’ll find the 49 zombie-killing plants you know and love, 26 different types of zombies to block from accessing your house and all the strategies and skills you’ve already implemented on the iOS platform. The game, for those unaware of its addictiveness, revolves around the concept of killing a horde of zombies marching towards your property using only seeds, powders and bombs released by…plants. Colorful graphics and funny sound effects, together with a great gameplay, made this game an absolute must-have for iPhone and iPad owners.

Perhaps Plants vs. Zombies for Mac won’t generate the same sales numbers of the iOS counterpart, but if Angry Birds is of any indication – it really looks like users are willing to pay again to play their favorite iPhone games on OS X. Go download the game here, and don’t forget to play The Cranberries’ “Zombie” every once in a while. Just to get in the right mood.

Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye To Headline iTunes Festival 2011

Liam Gallagher’s Beady Eye have announced this morning that they will headline the iTunes Festival in London on July 5th. The band, a new project of the former Oasis frontman that counts 3 members of the popular Manchester group, is set to release its debut album “Different Gear, Still Speeding” on February 28th. The album is available for pre-order on iTunes and a special LP version will be released as well, containing two exclusive tracks.

In January, Apple announced the iTunes Festival 2011 will take place at the usual Roundhouse location in London, where for the entire month of July more than 60 artists will perform 31 consecutive live performances. Beady Eye join Linkin Park, Duran Duran, White Lies and Rumer as the confirmed bands for the venue.

Tickets for the iTunes Festival 2011 are only available through prize draw, so you can head over the official website to apply for tickets and stay up to date by following iTunes Festival on Facebook and Twitter. In 2010, more than 2 million people applied for tickets. If you get the chance to see Beady Eye live in July, don’t forget to send us a photo.

Sony Will Stay On iTunes, “Music Unlimited” Service Launching Today

Last week, Sony PlayStation’s Australian group chief Michael Ephraim hinted that Sony might soon remove its music content from the iTunes Store as, according to him, publishers were “held ransom” by Apple’s terms and lead in the digital music industry. The statement, picked by all major Apple-related publications, quickly made the rounds of the Internet as proof that Sony, disappointed by the rejection of their ebook reader application for iOS, was aiming at leaving Apple’s infrastructure altogether to focus on its Music Unlimited service.

Today, Sony Network Entertainment COO Brandon Layden says the company has no intention of leaving iTunes, although, in fact, Music Unlimited is launching today in the US, Australia and New Zealand:

Sony Music as I understand it has no intention of withdrawing from iTunes, they’re one of our biggest partners in the digital domain. I think those words were either taken out of context or the person who spoke them was unclear on the circumstances.

Layden is not directly involved with Sony’s music business but he sure would know if the company (one of the biggest iTunes music publishers) was planning on ditching the iTunes Music Store. Admittedly, Sony would be crazy to remove its catalogue from the iTunes Store – which is still the most successful online distribution service for music and movies. In the meantime, Sony is launching their music streaming platform today (for $10 a month), but it won’t work on iPhones and iPods. And i likely never will, unless Sony will agree on Apple’s 30% cut on subscriptions offered through the App Store.

Are iPhone App Users Really Worth More Than Android Users?

An interesting chart put together by mobile advertising company Mobclix shows that the value of iPhone app users is higher than Android app users. This value has been calculated dividing the average revenue of apps from the Utilities, Games and Entertainment categories by the number of unique users per month. Other criteria used to create this infographic include “active users” (people who launch an app at least 3 times a week and use it for at least 5 minutes) and apps that spent “an average of two weeks in their categories ‘Top 10′ listing and are Free apps”.

As you can see in the image above, apparently the value of iPhone app users is higher. But as noted by TUAW, we have to consider the nature of this chart. First off, the value of the Games category is lower, but only because there are lots more users playing games on the iPhone than doing math with a utility app. Just think about the 200 million minutes spent every day playing Angry Birds. Similarly, we could apply this concept to Android users overall: paid apps struggle to generate great numbers in the Android Market, but it’s not a secret that there are more Android handsets out there than iPhones (basing on the shipment numbers that come out every month from companies like Millenial).

So the question is – are iPhone users really worth more, or does a chart like this simply play well with the revenue and average users from the iOS platform? I believe a little bit of both. Perhaps categories (games) and platforms (Android) with large userbases aren’t really meant for an infographic like this, but there is no doubt the App Store offers developers a more solid source of income than Google’s Market. It’ll be interesting to take another look at this chart a year from now, with several Android tablets on the market and after Google’s rumored efforts to put more focus on paid software.

Apple Store in Grand Central To Be The Largest In The World?

Two weeks ago, The New York Observer reported Apple was planning on opening a new store in Grand Central Terminal, the popular and crowded retail hub a mile away from the existing Apple Store in Fifth Avenue. Today, according to a rumor posted by Cult Of Mac, Apple is actually aiming at a September opening for the new Store, which will be Apple’s largest retail location in the world – even bigger than the Apple Store in Covent Garden, London, which  is about 40,000 feet.

Cult of Mac reports the store already has been provided the name “Apple Store, Grand Central”, and the main purpose of this opening is to take the pressure off the Fifth Ave. one and build an impressive store to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Apple Retail.

The Observer said Apple isn’t expected to take one of the traditional retail spaces, but will locate right in the terminal.

Our source suggested that Apple may be taking walls down — but didn’t elaborate.

The terminal sees more than 700,000 visitors a day, most heading for trains or subway. But about 250,000 come to look at Vanderbilt Hall or eat at the 35 restaurants, including the historic Oyster Bar on the lower level.

Apple has also been rumored to be considering a revamp of the current Palo Alto store and a launch of a new location in the suburbs of Paris.

iOS Game Developers - Is $0.99 Too Low?→

iOS Game Developers -  Is $0.99 Too Low?

Interesting discussion over at Pocketful of Megabytes. The author concludes:

So is $0.99 really too low? Well, yes and no. It’s not too low, because that’s where it needs to be for games in this ruthless and uncharted territory to prosper (and because consumers love cheap goods), but it is too low because it inaccurately depicts the worth of a game’s contents. Without higher profits, money cannot be spent on improving the overall quality of the content found therein. Low profits mean low budgets and low budgets mean cheaply-made apps… the price tag is low out of necessity. It’s not ideal, but we’re stuck with it.

With $0.99 apps you attract more customers, but hard work is undervalued. On the other hand it is true that you never know what app you’re going to buy (no trials), but we also have to consider Apple’s 30% cut on those .99 cents.

So here’s an idea. What if Apple discontinued the $0.99 price tag, and automatically raised all prices to $1.99 – thus making it the lowest price point? Perhaps a more feasible business model for indie developers?

Would that stop you from buying the next Angry Birds or Trainyard?

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Apple Releases Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.6

A few minutes ago Apple issues a Digital Camera RAW Compatibility update, version 3.6. The update brings RAW compatibility in iPhoto ‘11 and Aperture 3 for these cameras:

  • Canon EOS Rebel T3 / 1100D / Kiss X50
  • Canon EOS Rebel T3i / 600D / Kiss X5
  • Olympus E-5
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ100
  • Pentax K-r
  • Pentax K-5

The update also fixes issues with the following cameras:

  • Nikon D7000
  • Nikon COOLPIX P7000
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1
  • Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2

You can download it here, or fire up Software Update.

Restaurant Chain Will Let You Design Your Own Pizza - With An iPad

Since the iPad’s release, we have seen several restaurants replacing printed menus with iPads, which provide a good solution to build an interactive experience for customers and save on the cost of paper and ink with a constantly updating menu that’s also cool to use. Digital menus, however, might become a thing of the past as soon as Stacked: Food Well Built launches its restaurant chain, heavily based on iPads to order and design meals.

As USA Today reports, the co-founders of Stacked aim at placing 100 iPads per restaurant atop every table, allowing diners to order meals using static menus or design their own burger, pizza or salad through the iPad’s intuitive multi-touch interface and a custom app built specifically for the restaurant chain. The setup:

The iPads at Stacked will be in metal frames that sit about 3 inches off the tabletops. Folks wanting to order burgers will select the type of bun, meat and toppings on the iPad by clicking and dragging icons. The burger stacks visually on the iPad screen. Ditto for pizzas and salads.

Oh, and what if you try to steal the iPad by carrying it out in your bag? An alarm will go off. This sounds like a really clever implementation (do they have custom doors with iPad recognition?) and marketing technique, although the founders claim they won’t market their chain as “the iPad restaurants”. Still, it’ll be interesting to see how the iPad will further integrate with restaurants, coffee shops and bars in the next years. iPad cash registers are already in place in New York City.

Unicode Symbols In The iOS Keyboard with Jailbreak Tweak

You know Unicode symbols, right? The ones you might find in tweets from time to time, or in links from Daring Fireball and Shawn Blanc’s website. Yes, these symbols. It turns out, they’re pretty cute. And it also appears that people love to use them to prettify their messages, tweets, Facebook walls and whatever else you can do on the Internet (suggestion: don’t use them too much on Reddit). Anyway, thanks to the efforts of the folks over at Vintendo, jailbreakers can now install a tweak that brings Unicode symbols onto the default iOS keyboard.

The tweak, called Vmoji and available in Cydia through Vintendo’s repo, can be activated the pressing the numeric keys in the keyboard. It’s kind of obtrusive, but I guess it gets its job done. So there you have it: a new way to get those cute symbols into your tweets. Just use them responsibly. [via RazorianFly]