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.

Desktop Connect for iPad, Reviewed

Since the iPadʼs announcement I have a feeling that there where quite a few people who planned on using it as a replacement for a laptop or netbook computer. I certainly bought into that school of thought. Say what you will about it, the iPad is an extremely powerful computing device, however lacking it may be in a few areas. One of these areas is the lack of an open filesystem. Iʼd love to be able to use my iPad to carry around all of my homework files to and from school, without having to store them all in Pageʼs file system via iTunes.

The workaround to this, is a VNC or other screensharing app. Iʼve been using Anteceaʼs Desktop Connect since its release last April, and it rocks. I havenʼt tried out iTeleport yet, but even so just given that Desktop Connect costs $10 less than iTeleport Iʼd consider it an awesome deal. (Itʼs $14.99 in the App Store) Read more



Control Your Mac From iOS Using Dropbox And Applescript

Control Your Mac From iOS Using Dropbox And Applescript

So in the past few weeks a bunch of text editing apps for iOS have been released that use Dropbox to sync with your desktop computer. I’ve been really liking Plaintext, and was wondering what I could use it for besides just plain writing text…

And then I remembered Folder Actions, which are an OS X feature that lets you set an applescript to run whenever a file is added to a folder (or deleted).

All you need is remember some Applescripts.

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1TapAlarm: Easy Reminder Notifications for iPhone

Two weeks ago I installed a new app on my iPhone called “Due” which allows me to easily set up reminders for any action I don’t want to dump into my GTD system (powered by OmniFocus), yet I need to be reminded of. Due for iPhone is very simple, and it lets you enter a title for the “task”, a due time and play around with some straightforward settings.

1TapAlarm by ShinyFrog is an even simpler app you can use to setup quick timers on your iPhone. Plus, it’s free in the App Store. Read more


Adidas Cancels iAd Campaign Because Steve Jobs Is A Control Freak

Despite some initial doubts about a not exactly happy start, Apple’s iAd program is predicted to match Google in the mobile market share by year’s end, and we’ve heard stories about iAds becoming a real gold mine for developers. We’ve also heard complaints from advertisers about Apple’s strict control on ad approval - something huge corporations like, say, Nissan or AT&T are not used to. Businesses weren’t used to “ad approval process” before Apple, and that’s all because Steve Jobs wants to build an ad system that engages users at a personal level with curated, rich and beautiful advertisements. Read more


Louis Gray: “Apple TV Extends Fragmentation”

Louis Gray: “Apple TV Extends Fragmentation”

While Android is clearly struggling with the challenge of bringing 2.2 support to all the latest handsets (and making progress), we see Apple TV running a variant of iOS (mixed with the traditional Apple TV OS), different than that of the iPhone/iPod Touch, with iPads still not having iOS 4, and yes, Macs still being Macs.

Let me break it down for you, Louis: Macs have a physical keyboard, iPads and iPhone have a touchscreen, the new Apple TV plugs into your television. Pretty simple to understand.

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A Docking Station For Your iMac, iPad and iPhone

I bought an iMac a few weeks ago, and I had to re-think my workspace to fit a new desktop computer and two docks (iPhone and iPad) on a single desk. It turned out pretty good, and I also managed to hide the cables (USB, FireWire) behind the iMac’s screen and the external hard drive. I wish I could install something like the concept below, though. Read more