Federico Viticci

10781 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

Move Your Browser Tabs Across Mac and iOS Devices

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to worry to manually trigger any sync process. Everything would happen in the background, in your local wireless network or over-the-air, and manual sync would be an option to customize contents and options. In today’s world, and especially if we happen to have multiple iOS devices, we’re stuck with cables and fragmented databases.

Several developers are trying to put an end to this by supporting online sync services such as Dropbox in their mobile apps, some devs are even trying to do this on the desktop. Apple, on the other hand, still forces you to sync music, apps and movies with the cable, in iTunes, on your computer. Read more

Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards→

Macworld’s 26th Annual Editors’ Choice Awards

2010 was a big year for the Mac. The beginning of the year was all about the iPad—followed by the iPhone. But the buzz and success of those two products trickled down to the Mac. Later in the year, we saw upgrades to the Mac lineup, as well as solid signs from Apple that the Mac hasn’t been forgotten. With record sales of Macs posted by Apple, it’s a very good time to make products for the Mac.

Some curious choices, but I’m glad gems like Instapaper, Text Expander and Pogoplug Pro made the list. I wonder if Tweetie 2 for Mac will be there next year.

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Watch Flash Videos On iPhone & iPad, No Jailbreak or Apps Required

Most of web video has been optimized to display just fine on iOS devices, but it’s still annoying to open an article from your favorite blog and find out that the author didn’t use Vimeo’s updated embed code compatible with the iPhone and iPad. Vimeo offers a new embed technology to support iOS devices, but it’s not turned on by default. Just like Vimeo, other services such as Flickr, Megavideo and Dailymotion sometimes struggle in offering video embeds capable of being displayed on Apple’s mobile devices.

The Skyfire browser has been making the rounds recently: an iPhone app that can take any Flash video from any web page, and convert it in seconds to an HTML5-based video you can watch on the iPhone. The app is paid though, and perhaps many users don’t need all of its functionalities. Then, some developers even released tweaks and hacks in Cydia to activate Flash on iOS – with very disappointing results, I have to say. Put simply: either you jailbreak your device to sorta gain access to some Flash content on the web, or you buy Skyfire to convert Flash videos. But there’s no easy way built in Mobile Safari to play that Vimeo embed on the iPhone.

This is changing today, thanks to this neat bookmarklet called iOSFlashVideo I found on iSpazio (Italian) and installed on my iPhone and iPad a few minutes ago. With just the tap on the bookmarks bar, you’ll be able to instantly watch videos from Dailymotion, Flickr Video, MegaVideo and Vimeo through the iOS standard media viewer. It’s very simple to install. Read more

Steve Jobs: MobileMe Will Get “A Lot Better” Next Year

Surprised? MacRumors is reporting of a new email from Steve Jobs to one of their readers who, annoyed by MobileMe performance issues such as duplicate entries or unreliable syncing, emailed him to ask if Apple was working on it, to make it better. Jobs, as usual, replied with a very concise email saying that, yes, MobileMe will indeed get a lot better in 2011.

Q: I love my iPad and iPhone4 and am a huge fan of yours and all that Apple does. I desperately want to stay inside of Apple’e ecosystem as much as possible.

However, MobileMe is making it very difficult for me to do so. Unreliable/unpredictable syncing, creating duplicate entries (sometimes scores of them), etc. It’s almost unusable.

And I know from forums (including Apple’s own support boards) that I am not the only one experiencing these very real and frustrating problems.

Please tell me it will get better, and soon?

Jobs: Yes, it will get a lot better in 2011.

Sent from my iPhone

Of course it will get better. Apple is always working on making its product line better year after year and, even if some issues of MobileMe weren’t addressed during 2010, don’t forget Apple made Find My iPhone free, introduced note and iBooks bookmarks syncing, revamped the web UI of MobileMe. Changes were made in 2010, so perhaps 2011 will bring several performance improvements – we’re talking about speed, sync, support for multiple clients. And maybe some new features, too.

Also, don’t forget the data center Apple has been busy building in North Carolina. Because we’re pretty sure that will be behind MobileMe getting a lot better next year.

Ego for iPad Updated for iOS 4.2 Multitasking, Now Available at $2.99

Ego is the best iOS app to check on stats coming from Mint, Twitter, RSS, Vimeo and a variety of other online services. By representing stats as small widgets on a dark background, Ego has managed to become one of my most launched apps both on the iPhone and ipad.

An update to the iPad version (our review) was released a few minutes ago. Version 1.0.6 includes iOS 4.2 compatibility and support for multi-tasking (fast app switching), plus various bug fixes to address Twitter auto-login issues and the detail view on iOS 4.2.

But what’s really cool about this update is that Ego for iPad is now available at $2.99 in the App Store. It’s not a sale, it’s the new price. Go buy it now.

MacStories Giveaway: Win A Copy of djay for iPad and Mac

djay by Algoriddim is an excellent music making / mixing software for OS X that recently made its way to the iPad, with an app that takes full advantage of the new features introduced in iOS 4.2. From our review:

…the great value of djay lies in its own software nature: it’s not a complicated piece of hardware you have to set up and manually wire, it’s a great app that can be used in professional environments and by casual users like me at the same time. I’m sure “pro” users will delve deeper into the app to test all the impressive tech that’s behind it, but for someone like me — who’s not really a DJ nor does know all the terminology necessary to understand all the features of djay — this is just so cool, and useful.

We have two copies of djay to give away: one for the iPad, one for the Mac. Check out the giveaway rules below. Good luck! Read more

A Cydia Tweak That Somehow Fixed My iPhone’s Proximity Sensor Issues

Either a persistent iOS bug that hasn’t been fixed on iOS 4.2.1 or a real issue on my device, the proximity sensor isn’t working well on my iPhone 4. I accidentally drop and / or mute calls every once in a while, but not because or low signal or a bad interface scheme I don’t understand: when I bring the iPhone to my ear during a call, the proximity sensor doesn’t dim the screen and prevent skin contact on phone’s buttons as it should. It doesn’t happen all the time but when it does – it’s pretty annoying.

A new tweak available in the Cydia Store at $0.99, CallLock, changes the behavior of the power button during an outgoing / incoming call to make sure that the phone is actually locked, so that the faulty proximity sensor won’t get in the way and no accidental taps will be registered. CallLock locks the iPhone during a call, simple as that.

CallLock comes with two activation methods: manual and auto-lock. The auto mode will lock the iPhone’s screen as soon as a call is connect, manual will override iOS’ default settings to make the power button lock a call, and not end it.

I found CallLock to be a good compromise when it comes to avoiding calls to be dropped and muted, even though you’ll have to unlock your iPhone after each call. If you can accept the trade-off, CallLock is available at $0.99 in the Big Boss’ repository.

Creepy Guy Destroys iPad, Delivers It To Steve Jobs [Video]

I don’t know what’s going on with mysterious website SayHiToSpace.com. Sure, there’s a countdown in there and even links to email and Twitter, but it’s their Youtube channel that creeps me out. Basically, the first video from SayHiToSpace went viral as it featured a creepy guy finding out that the iPad lacked a camera, then destroying it making a hole in the middle of the device with a water jet.

Here’s the first video:

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