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

Reinventing The Newspaper On The iPad with News+

Bonnier are the developers behind the Popular Science magazine for iPad, and with their latest News+ project they’re trying to reinvent the newspaper, which first appeared 150 years ago. They believe the iPad is the right and most obvious device to do so now, and they’re willing to try by basing the entire concept on fresh navigation methods (gestures), a richer layout (clearly inspired by magazines) and inline media.

News+ combines the depth and editorial choices of a daily newspaper with the web’s possibilities for interaction and quick updates.

Browsing News+ and absorbing the content comes naturally, making readers feel close to the articles and photos. You can follow the most important news as it develops in a special section that is continuously updated, so News+ keeps you on top of the news all day.

Read more

How To: Make Any iPhone Icon Retina-ready With iRetiner

If you’re anything like me, you know how disappointing it iswhen you purchase an app from the App Store and you find out the icon hasn’t been updated for the Retina Display. Ok, it’s just an icon – but you know it looks bad and ruins the feng shui of your homescreen. If you care about your homescreen, you know what I’m talking about.

Now, this tutorial is about a tweak available for free in Cydia that does some kind of magic: it turns any App Store icon into a Retina Display-ready icon with just a few taps and a respring. How is this possible? I don’t know for sure, but from my understanding this tweak, iRetiner, takes the original icon and redraws it automatically at a higher resolution. Most of all, it just works.

So, jailbreakers, jump after the break and take a look at how you can get rid of those awful fuzzy icons with our guide. If you haven’t jailbroken your device yet, well, here are a few reasons why you should. Read more

“My Next iPad Won’t Be A 7-incher”→

“My Next iPad Won’t Be A 7-incher”

My biggest problem with the iPad is its shortcomings as an e-reader. First off, it’s heavy. Josh noticed it in his review, and it hasn’t gotten any lighter over time, no matter how many iPad-curl reps I do. Next up, it’s just a little large for curling up with like you do with a book. Combining the curl-up-incompatibility and the weight and I’ve actually managed to hit myself in the face numerous times with the iPad while attempting to recline with it. Third, the screen’s resolution is inferior to many e-ink displays, along with the high-res LCDs being used on the 7-inch Tab and Nook Color and PlayBook. Finally, the glass front might look classy, but it’s terrible for glare, particularly when it’s outside.

Paul Miller makes some good points, but I wonder how many of his complaints about the current generation iPad will be fixed in the second generation one. With a thinner and lighter form factor, a somehow higher resolution and a better behavior when outside, the “iPad 2” won’t surely  be a 7-incher or become a dedicated ebook – but you can stay assured it’ll be better at things it already does, reading included.

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Orange UK Reveals iPad Subsidies: 3G iPad At £199.00, 2-Year Contract

You may have heard a few UK carriers have been thinking about the possibility to offer subsidized iPads in the WiFi + 3G flavor to combine them with a monthly data plan. A few minutes ago Orange UK announced its plans, with pre-orders starting later today.

As for the iPads, the prices are:

  • iPad 16GB £199.00
  • iPad 32GB £249.00
  • iPad 64GB £349.00

Which, approximately, are $310 for the 16GB model, $390 for the 32GB one, $620 for the 64GB model. You’ll have to subscribe to a 2-year contract, though, that, at £27 ($42) per month, gives you 1GB anytime data usage, 1GB quiet time data (midnight to 4PM according to Orange) and 3GB BT Openzone WiFi.

The plans are available here. Expect T-Mobile and Three to follow in the next weeks with their iPad offers.

MacStories Weekly Game: ChuChu Rocket! HD

I never had the chance to play the original ChuChu Rocket! 10 years ago on the SEGA Dreamcast. I didn’t have a Dreamcast back then. In fact, I think I was playing with the PSX back in 2000, and I’m sure I had a Game Boy Color. A few years later I bought the GBA, a Game Cube and a PS2 – but I never bothered grabbing a Dreamcast to check out the gems released by SEGA and other 3rd party developers. I regret that, mostly because I’m still lacking knowledge in true masterpieces such as Shenmue (although this one’s been re-released on the Xbox) or Jet Set Radio.

Luckily enough for me, looks like iOS devices are somehow here to save the day and allow us to re-enjoy games first appeared years ago and now ready to come to life again under the power of multi-touch. That’s exactly what’s happening with ChuChu Rocket! HD for iPad: released a decade ago and subsequently redesigned to appear on the Game Boy Advance, the game’s now running on the iPad taking advantage of its larger screen and touch controls.

So why is this a Weekly Game anyway? Because it’s as genius as it was 10 years ago, and it’s a truly addictive puzzle game. Read more

Overboard Now iOS 4.2.1 Compatible, Looks Great On iPad | Cydia Store

Overboard, the useful tweak by Ryan Petrich which allows you to easily switch between your Springboard pages with a nice overlay interface, has been updated to work with all devices running iOS 4.2.1. This means the tweak not only works great on the iPhone and iPod Touch, it also runs smoothly on iPads jailbroken using redsn0w.

You can assign a custom activation method to Overboard (with Activator) or simply call it using the icon on the Springboard. I’m using a pinch gesture and it works really well. In the tweak’s settings you can adjust the way it displays pages and icons, choosing from different column layouts, backgrounds and visible dock. If you’re really that convinced Overboard will become your most used app, you cam make it your homescreen.

Overboard is available at $1.99 in the Cydia Store.

The Glif: Now Available→

The Glif: Now Available

Small, simple, and elegant. That’s what we were going for when we created the Glif. But out of this simple design emerges countless uses. Mount your iPhone 4 to a tripod for taking great pictures or making movies. Prop your iPhone up for hands-free FaceTiming or to watch videos.

The tripod mount and stand for the iPhone 4 we’ve come to know and love. You can have one for 20 bucks, and shipping begins in 2-3 weeks.

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Shocker: Apple Rejects Magazine App About Android→

Shocker: Apple Rejects Magazine App About Android

A Danish magazine publisher called Mediaprovider submitted an iOS app to the Apple App Store recently – with probably a pretty good idea that it wouldn’t get approved. Why? Because the app was a digital magazine all about Android called ‘Android Magasinet’.

Straight from Apple’s Review Guidelines for iOS apps:

Apps with metadata that mentions the name of any other mobile platform will be rejected.

Why even bother developing one?

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Times for iPad Updated: Meet Pulp, “Magical” News Reader

Times, a popular RSS app for the Mac developed by Acrylic Apps, made its way to the iPad with a beautiful mobile version known as Times for iPad which was a complete re-imagination and rewrite of the original desktop app, geared towards the new audience of “couch news readers” first discovered by the iPad itself. We reviewed Times for iPad when it came out:

Times is different from Flipboard. They’re different experiences with different goals. Times really is the ultimate visual newsreader for iPad and with Mac sync coming in Times for Mac 2.0 it’s going to be hard for all those other competitors to catch up. Once you see Times for iPad, you’ll understand that you don’t mess with an experienced OS X / iOS developer. Times is cleverly and beautifully crafted, it has its quirks and could use some additional online integrations – but it puts every similar app to shame.

Times for iPad was updated a few minutes ago, and it’s no longer known as Times. To stop dealing with media giants claiming the “Times” name was a no-no, Acrylic Apps changed it to “Pulp for iPad”. I’ve been beta testing the update for a while and it’s really good: most of all, because it brings a feature called “Magic Reader” which with the tap of a button will pull content from truncated RSS feeds and display it in-app. It’s fast (faster than web view), useful for 3G users and will piss off a lot of publishers. That’s what I call a great feature. Read more