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

OnCue Brings Great Queue Features To iPod App

OnCue is one of those iPhone apps you don’t know you need until you start playing with it. The concept is simple: Apple’s default iPod app allows you to import playlists from iTunes and customize the way you listen to music by combining different songs and artists in a single list, it lets you shuffle your music, but it’s doesn’t come with any queue functionality.

While you’re listening to music on your iPhone or iPod touch and you’re on the go, it’d be nice to be able to select the songs you want to listen to without having to pull out the device from your pockets every time. Use a playlist, you might suggest. But what if I don’t want to create a playlist for each day? I just want to say “hey, today I want to listen to these songs in this specific order”.  You can’t create a new playlist every day, yet you know what songs you want. You need a queue function. OnCue does just that, and it works with both songs and podcasts. Read more

China Mobile Chairman: Apple Will Support LTE

As reported by Reuters this morning, China Mobile’s Chairman Wang Jianzhou gave out some interesting details on Apple’s upcoming radio cellular technologies the Cupertino company is expected to implement in the near future on the iPhone. Specifically, Wang referred to an iPhone capable of running on China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA (since Apple can already do CDMA iPhones) and TD-LTE. China Mobile is the world’s largest network with 584 million subscribers as of December 2010.

We hope that when they develop the next-generation models, since Apple can create CDMA, they can also consider developing TD-SCDMA,” China Mobile Chairman Wang Jianzhou was quoted as saying on Wednesday by the Sina Technology news portal.

“These two years we have been discussing the issue. Right now the situation is moving forward. Apple has made it clear they will support TD-LTE,” Wang said in Davos, Switzerland.

For what it’s worth, Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak seems pretty sure an LTE iPhone will happen at some point. But that’s sort of a given if the technology evolves and becomes a standard.

This iPhone Case Will Cost You More Than An Actual iPhone

Franck Muller is a luxury fashion brand that’s very popular in Europe and is now starting to get a name in the US as well. Many of you may not have heard of Muller before, but the company really makes great accessories. And expensive ones, above all. Like this new line of iPhone 4 cases, produced my Franck Muller in Switzerland and up for pre-order though Japanese carrier Softbank.

The only problem is, this series will be produced as limited edition, with 6 different models manufactured 500 times each. Each case will cost you $1270. Ouch. Not exactly cheap.

Still, it’s Franck Muller. If you’re a fan of the brand, happen to have some bucks to spend and you can find a way to pre-order them with Softbank, go ahead. [via CrunchGear]

Reminder: Macworld 2011 Kicks Off Today

Apple may have stopped attending Macworld and announcing new products there, but the expo is doing well. So well that, according to stats provided by CultOfMac, more than 25,000 attendees are expected to walk around booths at the Moscone Center where 230 exhibitors will launch 100 new products. The show’s numbers are up from last year, when they dramatically dropped since Apple confirmed they wouldn’t go to Macworld anymore.

The show is shaping up good,” Macworld general manager Paul Kent told CultofMac.com. “If the numbers go right, we’re going to have about a 25% increase in attendance.

It’s a really fun time,” said Kent. “Macworld is a celebration. There’s a high joy quotient. It’s a fun place to be. There’s not a lot of places were people can do this any more.

We won’t be at Macworld, but we will try to aggregate, starting today through Saturday, the best new accessories, apps and Mac software we’ll be notified of. For all the details about the expo and the schedule of events, go here.

Power Mac Wall Clock & The Mighty Pendulum

No, what you’re reading above isn’t the title of a new movie or a web comic, it’s an actual mod realized by Justin Tyler Moore. He took a Power  Mac G4, cut it down on the side, place a “cheap clock mechanism” inside and made it all work together with a “Mighty Pendulum” – that is, a Mighty Mouse becoming a pendulum.

Full album can be viewed here. Now somebody please make me a Magic Clock. [Engadget via Justin Tyler Moore]

Date Night: App Store Gets Valentine’s Apps

With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching (mark your calendars, gentlemen) Apple thought it might be appropriate to launch a new dedicated App Store section to showcase apps that can turn out to be useful on that day. Like Yelp and OpenTable (because you want to go to a classy restaurant, right?), OkCupid and iLoveYou in 50 Languages. Apps can be romantic too.

If you don’t feel like going to a fancy place with your loved one, you can follow some cooking advice with the 20 Minute Meals app, featured as well. Oh, and if the dinner turns out to be a disaster, you can call a cab with Taxi Magic.

Date Night: App Store Essentials is available here.

“A Lot Happens In 10 Years”→

“A Lot Happens In 10 Years”

Bottom: Graphite iBook G3, circa 2001-ish.

Top: 11.6” MacBook Air, 2010

Approximately 20x the RAM, 8x the hard drive space (now SSD instead of magnetic), Bluetooth and 802.11n standard, built-in camera, no optical drive, multitouch trackpad, at least 2x the battery life. ~300 MHz to 1.4 GHz x 2 cores on a new architecture. Completely new operating system. 3 or 4 pounds lighter, and who knows how much thinner, but a heck of a lot thinner.

No matter the decade, it always feels like we’re just getting started.

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