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

Apple Rejects Mosspuppet’s App Because of “References to Walt Mossberg”

Apple has a history for rejecting parody applications, or satirical ones. Remember the Mark Fiore fiasco? They eventually accepted the app in the Store. And the “Me So Holy” rejection? Your call.

What we have here today, though, is quite a thing. If you happen to know Mosspuppet, then you must know that it’s some sort of…parody of Walt Mossberg, well known WSJ tech columnist. I mean, just go watch a video on mosspuppet.com and get the idea. Now, the guys behind this amazing meme / parody / MG Siegler hater built an iPhone app called “Mossboard” that contains Mosspuppet’s typical “sound effects”. Check out the video after the break to see the app in action.

Apple rejected the app because of “references to the well-known third party Walt Mossberg.” Really? What about this? And remember, we’re talking about the official app of a parody here. I hope that this is just a mistake, and that the app will be approved upon a re-submission - even if I have the feeling that because Steve Jobs is close friends with Walt, the app review team decided to reject Mossboard. We’ll see.

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iTunes Cloud Syncing Coming to iPhone and iPad with Wi-Fi Sync 2.0

Wi-Fi Sync is a great tweak available in Cydia that allows iPad and older iPhone users to sync with iTunes without the need of plugging the USB cable in. Just make sure that you’re on the same local network and you’re all set.

Developer Greg Hughes has just confirmed with a tweet that the 2.0 version is in the works and that, together with proper iPad and iPhone 4 support, it’ll bring app synchronization over 3G and VPN. Think about it: you’ll be able to sync apps no matter where you are, as long as you have an active internet connection. I don’t know how the developer will let us remotely connect to our desktop computers (Google account authentication? Something like Here, File File?) but this will be one of the most useful things ever happened to jailbreakers.

iTunes cloud-syncing is one of the most anticipated features among iPad and iPhone users, and much has been said about Apple willing to implement it by 2011 - when the massive NC data center will open its doors to Apple engineers. We’ll see. In the meantime, just wait for Wi-Fi Sync 2.0.

Check out the demo video below, in case you missed it.

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Nozbe: Web-based GTD on iPad and iPhone. Reviewed.

Talking about GTD apps and online tools is difficult, and you know why? Because my method of Getting Things Done will always be different from yours, so will the apps I use, so will the fact that I used to constantly switch between different softwares. More on this tomorrow, though.

Discussing GTD is like talking about favorite foods: at an extent, it’s pointless. I can’t come up here and say “Hey, you should work this way - don’t organize tasks like that”. That’s why when Cody and I reviewed Basecamp and Backpack we decided to talk about our experience, rather than giving away some pretentious advices to wanna-be entrepreneurs and the like.

GTD is personal. A couple of weeks ago I signed up for a Nozbe account and downloaded the iPhone and iPad apps. I was intrigued by the whole “Do in the web, find it again on mobile apps” concept, and I was fascinated by the terrific amount of integration with 3rd party online services the developers advertised.

So, Nozbe. I’ll just throw this out there: if you’re not an OmniFocus user and feel the need of having more than just tasks in your GTD application, Nozbe is the best you can have right now. With real OTA sync. With real Evernote integration. Oh, and with team-management capabilities.

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iPhone 4 Jailbreakers Get An Activator-based Flashlight

iPhone users always had a thing for Flashlight apps. Way before the iPhone 4 came out with its LED flash, iPhone 3G and 3GS users used to install apps that turned the screen white and allowed them to see in the dark. Of course the iPhone 4 makes things simpler by allowing developers to access the LED Flash APIs and develop real Flashlight apps.

Too bad many of these apps are paid apps. Available for free in Cydia, SpringFlash is the first iPhone 4-only Cydia app that lets you turn the LED flash on / off with a simple Activator gesture. Mine is tap on volume heads up display.

Useful.

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Pulse Updated with Posterous Integration: It’s About News Curation All Over Again

It’s been a while since I first reviewed Pulse for iPad. For those who don’t know, Pulse was one of the first “visual news readers” to come out on the tablet: it allows you to browse news from your favorite sources in an innovative interface that makes it easy to read, check out pictures, share and like posts.

In these past months (and after a pretty controversial removal from the App Store), the developers have focused on fixes (the app is very smooth now), readability, Google Reader integration (nice, Flipboard needs this) and, with the latest update, news curation.

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Reeder for iPad 1.1 Available: Improved Article Layout, Bug Fixes

I love when iTunes asks me to update apps like Reeder by Silvio Rizzi. Reeder for iPad, possibly the best RSS reader app for iPad out there, has just been updated to version 1.1. The new version introduces an improved article layout, image zooming, better video handling and lots of bug fixes and performance improvements. Oh, and the app will now use the apple-touch-icon even if the file is smaller than 120 x 120.

You can find the app here at $4.99. Be sure to check out our review if you missed it. Again, must-have.

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How To Prevent iOS From Automatically Loading PDFs [Vulnerability]

Last night JailbreakMe was released in the wild. As we reported, it’s one of the simplest jailbreak tools ever made, as it requires only one slide in Mobile Safari to install Cydia on your device. You visit a link, slide, and wait. As we also reported, though, the exploit seems to based on a PDF vulnerability in iOS: the iPhone automatically downloads PDF files, and Comex injected the jailbreak code in a PDF file.

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