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.

Times for iPad: Beautiful Visual Newsreader. Review and Giveaway.

Ever since I bought the iPad, I knew it was going to change the way I read news online. Be it the New York Times or MacStories, TechCrunch or The Huffington Post, the iPad and the developers who create new apps for this new device have changed the way we approach news. At least this is what we thought before Flipboard came out. Flipboard pushed the game to the next level, enabling users to create their own digital magazine starting from their Twitter and Facebook streams - something many had tried in the past but never quite nailed as much as McCue and his guys did.

Now we have choices: RSS readers, apps that start from RSS subscriptions to build something visually new, and Flipboard. In fact, we reviewed a lot of these “visual newsreaders” in the past.

Where does Times for iPad fit?

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Keep Track of Where Your Money Is with Tabs

Sometimes you lend those 5 bucks to that good friend of yours and you never get them back. But he’s a good friend, right? “I promise, I’ll give your money back as soon as I get paid!”.

Sure. I’ve been fooled many times. Too many. Now I have an app for that. And yes, I’m looking at you - you supposedly good friend of mine who still has to give me 37 Euros  for the dinner I bought you three weeks ago.

Tabs by Patrick Mandia lets you keep track of where your money is and notify “your buddies”. You create a new tab for each contact who owes you money, you enter date and amount, then you’ll be able to either call him (mob-style), send him a message or an email. Too bad there’s no “here’s where he lives, go get him” option in the Settings. Perhaps in a future update.

Tabs is only $0.99 in the App Store. Go buy it, but don’t gift it to anyone.

This is an offer you can’t offer you can’t refuse.

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Icebird Updated with Retina Display Graphics

Icebird is an innovative Twitter client I reviewed back in April, and I know that there’s a pretty active userbase loving it. Developer Fabian Kreiser released an update for the app yesterday, which brings Retina Display support, possibility to hide direct messages and connect users with Address Book, improved caching and state saving.

The app is available here at $3.99.


iPhone 4 VS. BlackBerry Torch [Video]

And there are an old BlackBerry Bold 9700 and a Samsung Captivate in there, too. Just look at the scrolling, tap to zoom and yes, raw speed. As Dave Caolo also notices:

“As the tests progress, the testers get desperate for their horse to win. At one point, Dieter notes that enabling Wi-Fi on the iPhone 4 is “…a fiasco.” Grated, he did ensure that two unnecessary taps were required by leaving the Settings app in the Safari settings the last time he used it. Four taps to turn something on is hardly a “fiasco.” Do you know what is? When the entire European Commission and all of Saudi Arabia decide not to use BlackBerries. That’s a fiasco.”

Check out the video below.

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Flickpad: Facebook & Flickr Photos On Your iPad [10 Codes Up for Grabs]

Two weeks ago I wrote that the iPad is not only a great consumption device but, at least for me, an amazing gadget for content creation. Others seem to think the same, too. For as much as I stand up and say that I create content on my iPad, I’m not saying I don’t use it for consumption at all: consuming content (the 2010 way of saying “checking out photos, videos and read articles or books”) on the iPad is a beautiful and immersive experience.

If 2 years ago someone told me in a matter of 24 months I would check out Facebook and Flickr photos on a tablet the way I can with Flickpad I wouldn’t have believed him. Flickpad has been out in the App Store for quite a while, it was even featured by Apple in the New & Noteworthy section, but with the latest updated the Shacked Apps guys stepped up their game and released the best Flickr and Facebook photo browser for iPad.

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