Federico Viticci

10878 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

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An API To Keep Track Of User Position in Twitter Timeline→

An API To Keep Track Of User Position in Twitter Timeline

I use Hibari on my desktop, Twitter on my iPhone, and rotate between Twitter and Twitterrific on my iPad. And the experience of Twitter client hopping sucks. That’s because when I switch from one to the other, no client has any idea where I left off in the other. I either skip chunks of tweets against my will, or need to scroll through oodles of tweets I’ve already read.

There’s a better way. And it shouldn’t be on the customer’s side to deal with. This is a problem Twitter developers can and should solve.

I’m proposing — and hosting — an API through which different Twitter clients could painlessly keep track of where users are in their timelines.

Developers: please start supporting this.

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Ringer Profiles for iPhone→

Ringer Profiles for iPhone

Your iPhone would know you’re inside a movie theatre and would automatically set it to “Movie” mode. It’d know when you’re home. When you’re in the office, and when you’re at your second girlfriends house where it would not show a preview of any new text messages (hehe).

The built-in GPS could turn on Airplane Mode when you enter an airport. It could change your roaming and data settings when you’re in a country other than your own. It could even use GPS in combination with the built-in sensors to determine if you’re moving (i.e. on a playing soccer, dancing, or going for a jog.

Together with a Services menu and a new notification system, that’s what I hope to see in iOS 5.

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My Must-Have 25 Mac Apps

Over the years I’ve had to mess with many OS X installations, backups, failures and restores. That’s just the usual life of a OS X geek in a place where people are scared of leaving their Windows PCs, but really would like to get a Mac. In fact, I’m quite proud of all those friends of mine I’ve managed to convince to get on the other side, but I’m even more proud of them because now they’re teaching the basics to someone else. This is the usual chain of events in a life of a standard OS X geek.

Having to deal with installations and restores, I’ve come to the point where I know exactly which apps to install depending on what that user needs, and how. A good friend of mine was so used to Firefox I had to bet (I’m serious) that he would like Safari more if only he gave it a chance. But that’s not the main story here. Over the years I created some sort of personal list of the first apps I install on a fresh new Mac every single time, right after the Network preferences are set up and ready to go. This list, which by no means used to exist on a physical side, is now embedded below for future reference (either mine, or my friends’) and you, who may find a couple of hidden gems in there.

It’s not a huge roundup, and it’s not for every one. These are not my favorite apps: these are first 25 Mac applications I install every time I have a fresh OS to play with, and they’re pretty great. You can call them my must-haves. Read more

No AirPlay For Video Until November→

No AirPlay For Video Until November

Engadget reviewed the AppleTV box today and got some more details on Apple’s new service (better HD quality than Amazon – nice!).  We had thought the previous reviewers forgot to try out Airplay on a 4.2 Beta iOS device.  But it turns out that even the 4.2 betas don’t yet allow AirPlay video to happen.

That’s bad news for developers who are running betas, but it makes sense for Apple to ship a feature when everyone can access it. I guess the Apple TV will get 4.2 in November as well, together with all the other iOS devices.

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MarkdownNote Is The Best App To Write In Markdown On The iPad

Markdown writers and iPad users, rejoice: a new app just came out in the App Store and it’s quite possibly the best choice you have to write using John Gruber’s popular text format on the iPad. I used to write in plain Markdown on the iPad in Simplenote and then do a desktop-side conversion to HTML using Clipmenu’s built-in Markdown tool, but with MarkdownNote by Coding Robots I can now simply write, and send myself an email with the text already correctly converted. Read more

iOS 4.2 Beta 2 for iPad: Faster, Optimized

Apple released the second beta of iOS 4.2 for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad last night, and we immediately installed it on our devices. We reported about the beta being a lot more stable and faster on the iPad, together with a brand new (and beautiful) animation for multitasking. We tested the beta on the iPhone 4 as well, and I’ve noticed that the device feels slightly more responsive than before, especially when handling phone calls. Read more

Eric Schmidt Weighs In On Apple’s “Closed System”

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt was invited on stage to TechCrunch Disrupt, where he gave a quite interesting 39-minutes speech about what Google is really all about, openness, user happiness and yes, Apple.

When asked about “openness” (around the 31:00 minute mark), Schmidt simply said that in order to define something that’s open, you have to take the opposite in consideration. The opposite is Apple, which relies on a closed system based on its own development tools, hardware, marketplace. Google’s Android is about “adding choices”, giving users the possibility to choose what to use on their devices and what not. Interesting enough, apps that come pre-installed by carriers are mentioned as “more choices”, too.

Check out the full video below.
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Sonos Releases iPad Controller App and Spotify Compatibility Update

Sonos users, Christmas came early for you this year. Sure you spent some bucks on that neat wireless product you have in your living room, but it was worth it: earlier today Sonos released the official iPad controller app (for free in the App Store) and the promised 3.3 software update to bring Spotify compatibility to European users.

The Sonos controller app for iPhone hasn’t been updated yet, it should be available soon. Check out the official press release and screenshot of the iPad app below. Read more