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

AT&T and Verizon Finally Together In Apple’s New Ad

So Apple has a new iPhone 4 coming out on February 10 in the U.S., under Verizon’s network. We guess you know everything about it at this point. Well, Apple wants you to take a look at the big picture: iPhone on two carriers is better than iPhone on one carrier. It’s pure and simple Jobsian mathematical art. The iPhone 4 on Big Red and AT&T is something worth launching a new commercial for.

Or, as a commenter on Youtube says, “AT&T and Verizon both in the same commercial? I’m surprised the universe didn’t explode.”

Indeed, think about 3 months ago when this was all rumors.

A Better Way To Search The Mac App Store

The Mac App Store is great and everything, but searching for a specific app might be an annoying procedure for many: open the Mac App Store, place the cursor in the search box (or hit CMD + F), type, wait, scan results. Wouldn’t it be great to do it from the keyboard, in seconds, from the app launcher / Spotlight replacement you use every day?

I use Alfred, and this tip has incredibly improved how I search for apps in the Mac App Store. In Alfred, in fact, you can create custom search queries for any website / search engine and assign them to a quick shortcut that can associate terms to the query. Like “google MacStories” will open a tab in your default browser with a Google search for MacStories, and so forth. With this same method, you can create a Mac App Store search query that will let you search for an app’s name directly in Alfred and have the search results page open automatically in the Mac App Store. Read more

App Store: 10 Billion Apps Downloaded

It’s official: 10 billion apps have been downloaded from the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. The competition Apple launched to celebrate the new milestone has ended, and Apple is now projected towards the next milestones, 15 billion apps and 20 billion apps.

The App Store was launched in 2008, when the only iPhones available were the original iPhone and the 3G. In January 2010 App Store downloads topped 3 billion; the downloads became 5 billion during summer 2010. Thanks to the enoermous success of the iPad and iPhone, Apple added another 5 billion downloads in 6 months.

Will we see 20 billion apps by the end of 2011?

Sending Emails From @mac.com Accounts Will Soon Be Impossible

According to a recent thread on Apple’s Discussion boards and a support document on Apple’s website, users of @mac.com email addresses who upgraded to iOS 4.2 are no longer able to send email messages through a @mac.com account unless it was setup prior to updating to iOS 4.2. Alternatively, the @mac.com account details can be synced through iTunes on the desktop, but this won’t enable push for emails.

A user on Apple Discussions explains:

Because of this unannounced development, I had a sneaking suspicion that Apple may be planning to do the same in the future for sending email from @mac.com addresses via www.me.com and a desktop email client.

It appears my suspicion was true. Here are the relevant sections from a Chat Session I’ve just finished with a very nice MobileMe Support agent.

Read more

1 Megapixel Rear Camera On The iPad 2?

Several rumors are pointing to the next generation iPad as a slight redesign of the original iPad, with tapered edges, flat back, bigger speaker and front / rear facing cameras. According to 9to5mac, which has done further digging into the latest iOS 4.3 SDK, the iPad 2 will have a 1 MP rear camera capable of shooting photos and videos, and a VGA front-facing one for FaceTime and other camera functionalities.

We’ve done some digging in the latest SDK it looks like Apple’s much rumored second-generation iPad will not feature some fancy 5 megapixel camera, but will instead shoot your flicks and take your pics with something close to a 1 megapixel camera. That’s awfully close to the fourth-generation iPod touch’s 0.7 megapixel back camera so we speculate they could be the same thing. That means you’ll be able to take some unwieldy 720P video with your iPad (whether you’ll be able to view that 720P video natively is another question).

The aforementioned SDK files reference to this device carrying a 1 MP camera as K94 and K95; the site speculates these codenames might refer to the next generation iPad. The current one, for instance, has codename K48. Multiple codenames for the iPad 2 might suggest that different versions are in the works, like iPad WiFi, CDMA and GSM. Other references found in iOS 4.3 beta seem to suggest the same thing.

A 1-megapixel camera on the iPad 2 would be significantly lower than the one found on the iPhone 4; we also have some doubts on the actual photo quality that would result from such a camera lens, which will have to display pictures on a 10-inch screen. Previous rumors indicated Largan Precision as the supplier of camera lenses for the next iPad, and a report in November also confirmed Largan was set to ship “5-megapixel lens modules for tablet PCs”.

Angry Birds Valentine’s Edition, Coming February 14

In December we reported Rovio was working on a new update to its incredibly successful series Angry Birds, a new Valentine’s-themed version that was rumored to be scheduled for a February release.

At the end of the video below, you can see the first exclusive footage of Angry Birds Valentine’s Edition (not an official name), which sports lots of hearts, pink-colored birds and clouds. It would be very romantic if the concept of the game wasn’t to kill pigs. I guess from Rovio’s standpoint, that makes sense though.

Still, prepare to see this game become #1 in the App Store. [Electricpig via 9to5mac] Read more

These Are Real-Life Fruit Ninjas

Fruit Ninja is an insanely successful game for iPhone, iPad and Android I think you might have heard of. In the game, you have to slice fruit to get the highest score or simply slice more fruit as possible in a certain amount of time. It’s got several multiplayer options and it’s also quite addictive.

Now, the problem is Fruit Ninja is a game. A game that, if you think about it, doesn’t really make any sense at all: why would you be a ninja to slice fruit with a knife? I don’t know. Still, some shirtless dudes tried to replicate Fruit Ninja in real life, and there is video proof of the hilarious experiments. The videos embedded below might be slightly NSFW – but if your boss is a Fruit Ninja fan you might just go ahead and let him watch them.

Also: please don’t try this at home. Just keep playing the iPhone game. [via Kotaku] Read more

Video: Apple Universal Bumper for Verizon & AT&T iPhone

Shortly after the official announcement of the Verizon iPhone two weeks ago, bloggers and journalists who attended the media event in New York noticed that the CDMA iPhone had a slightly different design for the volume keys and mute switch button on its left side. And when it comes to the iPhone, different design means one thing: some cases won’t fit. Like Apple’s own bumper, for instance.

It appears, though, that Apple already had a solution ready for Verizon’s day one  on February 10: a universal bumper that fits both the Verizon and AT&T iPhone. With narrower, but longer volume and mute switch holes, the new bumper easily adapts itself to standard GSM and CDMA iPhone 4’s.

Video from @Alerio25 embedded below. [Thanks, Mario!] Read more

Apple Adds iPhone 5 Suppliers, Launch “During Summer At The Earliest”

We’ve heard rumors about the next-generation iPhone that suggest the device might get NFC capabilities, a dual-core processor and a brand new redesign, but we didn’t know much about the actual release date. Apple usually unveils new iPhone models at the WWDC in June, with US launch to follow after a few weeks; according to a report from Digitimes this morning, launch of the iPhone 5 will happen “during summer at the earliest”.

Apple has also added new suppliers to the iPhone 5 production chain:

Foxconn will become the iPhone 5’s new earphone supplier. Japan’s Foster was the previous supplier, but a strengthening yen has spurred Apple to look for more cost-effective sources, the report said, noting that related orders are estimated at NT$5 billion (US$171.7 million). Foxlink will produce earphone jack sockets for the iPhone 5.

With a shortage of HDI boards, Apple has also newly added GCE as a supplier, but will continue to source from Compeq Manufacturing and Unimicron Technology as well.

In October, rumors suggested the iPhone 5 had hit “EVT” testing stage.