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

So Steve Ballmer Walks Into Adobe’s Offices…

…and spends an hour or so discussing a possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft to fight Apple. That’s what The New York Times is reporting today:

Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, recently showed up with a small entourage of deputies at Adobe’s corporate offices in San Francisco to hold a secret meeting with Adobe’s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen.

The meeting, which lasted over an hour, covered a number of topics, but one of the main thrusts of the discussion was Apple and its control of the mobile phone market and how the two companies could partner in the battle against Apple. A possible acquisition of Adobe by Microsoft were among the options.

Steve Ballmer is the same guy who laughed at the iPhone in 2007. I’m sure “business users” would love a Microsoft Slate running Flash.

My Adventure With A Mysterious Instapaper Clone

This is an interesting story about an app I found in the App Store two days ago. Just like every night before I go to sleep, I opened AppShopper to take a quick look at new apps that could be worth a mention on MacStories. I’ve been looking for new great iPad apps recently, but universal ones are, of course, more than welcome.

So I stumbled upon this new application with a nice looking icon called “Reader Mode” which, supposedly, enabled you to browse the web and switch to a text-only view (for long articles with the tap of a button). It was universal and priced at $0.99. I bought it. Read more

How Flipboard Was Created→

How Flipboard Was Created

When I traveled, I would buy magazines before I got on an airplane. I love magazines, I read them all the time. As I was reading them, I’d ask myself: “Why is it that the Web isn’t as beautiful as these magazines? What could we do to make the web a more beautiful place?” And of course, along with that line of thinking, I was saying to myself: “If this Apple tablet that is rumored ever happens, it would be the perfect form factor for doing exactly that - for making websites as beautiful as magazines.

Flipboard is currently featured in the App Store homepage, Apple’s iPad commercial and it’s sitting at #7 of the Free Apps for iPad chart.

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Apple Canceling iPhone 4 Orders In Hong Kong?

We already know that Apple is having some problems in China with the iPhone 4: the Beijing Apple Store had to be closed due to excessive demand by customers - customers who turned out to be smugglers and scalpers buying lots of iPhone to resell them at the grey market. Apple and the Chinese government are also facing another issue: people importing gadgets (so yeah, iPhones) from Hong Kong.

MicGadget is now reporting that Apple has cancelled many orders from the Hong Kong Apple online store, and new ones are not going through either. Read more

FaceNow: Handy FaceTime Shortcuts

I haven’t used FaceTime that much until now, mainly because none of my friends managed to find an iPhone 4 with 3 Italia. Last night, though, I found out that two of them bought one earlier this week (“finally”, they said) and 2 hours ago I got a call from my town’s 3 store about the availability of the 32GB model for my girlfriend. This means that starting tomorrow I’ll use FaceTime a lot. An awful lot.

Thanks to a free app called “FaceNow”, the FaceTime experience will be a lot faster and easier to setup. Read more

HimmelBar Lets You Launch Apps From Your Mac Menubar

Mac users have been debating for years whether applications should be launched from the dock, from the appropriate Finder window, from an app launcher (Launchbar, Quicksilver, Alfred) or even via keyboard-triggered Applescripts. The truth is you can’t find a “better way” for everyone, as a user’s specific workflow is always to be considered and it’s impossible (and silly) to make people agree on a particular way of doing something with a computer.

Debates aside, here’s neat little app I didn’t about before and I’ve just discovered thanks to One Thing Well: HimmelBar lets you launch (and browse) installed applications directly from the menubar. Read more

Ten Dollars And The App Store→

Ten Dollars And The App Store

What did $10 get you 15 years ago? All the games that would fit on a disk. A 5-inch floppy disk. Considering the massive improvements to the user experience, and the amount of utility that an app like Tweet Library offers, that copy of Duke Nukem 3D isn’t looking as expensive anymore. Toss in inflation, and your getting a Rolls Royce for the price of a VW Bug. Or, in more reasonable terms, two of those caramel soy moccachino things you drink every day.

The same happened when OmniFocus for iPad came out. And that app is priced at $40. What is the problem with these people that can’t do anything besides complaining and asking for discounts in forum posts? Why do they keep on criticizing developers when they price professional software (yes, Tweet Library and OmniFocus for iPad are professional apps. That’s it) at anything more than .99 cents?

These hypocrites pay $500 for an iPad an they expect every kind of app to be free / priced at less than a dollar. The real problem is the App Store gives too much visibility to games, and less importance to niche, more focused applications. It’s like go looking for a great bottle of red in a candy shop.

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