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.
@[email protected]
@viticci.macstories.net
viticci@macstories.net

FaceTime Over 3G Is Now Possible

For jailbreakers, at least. My3G, the tweak that makes iOS believe it’s on Wifi when it’s actually using 3G, has been updated to version 4.1 to include support for FaceTime. Simple as that, you just have to check an option.

My3G is available on Rock ($3.99) or through ModMyi’s repo in Cydia at $2.79. I haven’t tested the app yet, but I’ll keep you posted about my results. It’ll also be interesting to hear from American users whether AT&T’s network will be able to undergo the traffic of jailbreakers or not. Please let us know in the comments below.

This is huge, anyway.

UPDATE: ModMyi’s repo seems to be down at the moment. It should be back online in a hour or so.

UPDATE #2: Check out the video of FaceTime with My3G below, courtesy of 9to5mac.

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Safari Extensions Monday: Sessions, KeySearch, Instapaper in Google Reader

I spent a week using the latest Firefox 4 Beta and now I’m back to Safari. I can’t help it, but Safari has the best support for 1Password out there and that, combined with amazing tools such as ClickToFlash, is too valuable to me. If you add stability, speed and elegance to the mix - I guess you know what I mean.

So, Apple launched the official Safari Extensions Gallery last week, and there are more than 100 “officially approved” extensions in there. It’s a good place to discover new stuff, but I’m wondering how often Apple will update it. Anyway, I’ve just installed three new extensions to start the week, and they’re pretty great.

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The iPhone 4 Around the Globe [Spoiler: Don’t Buy One in Italy]

So you want to purchase an unlocked iPhone 4 in some foreign country. Sounds good, I did the same with mine - and I bought it from an Italian seller who bought it in France and sold it for 200 Euros more. Not a great story, but I needed it. Anyway, iFun put together an interesting chart showing the prices of the iPhone 4 around the world.

It turns out, Italian iPhones are the most expensive. Hong Kong ones are the cheapest. Check out the image below (click for full size). But don’t buy one in Italy.

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Removr for iPhone

I don’t have many games on my iPhone and iPad,  but I enjoy sitting down and play something every once in a while. I loved Canabalt, I bought Real Racing when Firemint introduced Retina Display support, I was a die-hard Orbital fan. Oh, and I download the eBoy game, too.

A few days ago I bought a new game in the App Store, Removr.

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JailbreakMe: The Good, The Bad and The Pointless

A few hours ago @comex finally released his universal jailbreak tool for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad called “JailbreakMe”. Unlike many previous jailbreak tools released in the past three years, this time you don’t need a computer to install Cydia on your device: jailbreakers are using the cloud now, and all you have to do is visit a website in Mobile Safari and wait for the exploit to “land” on your home screen.

Of course Apple isn’t happy about jailbreak. They never were. But this time - this time they have a pretty big issue on their hands. JailbreakMe seems to be based on a PDF vulnerability that is activable in Safari and, potentially, could lead to malicious software sent to users via emails and the browser.

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Today’s List Winners Announced

Thanks everyone who entered the Today’s List giveaway. We also want to thank the Random Accident developers for the promo codes they offered to MacStories readers.

Here are the winners:

AsceticMonk

Alexander Melton

You’ll receive the promo codes in your inbox in a few minutes. Congratulations!

Apple Removes Antenna Videos from Website, Still Available on Youtube

Last night Apple removed all the antenna performance videos from apple.com/antenna. You know, the videos that showcased signal attenuation issues on other handsets such as Blackberry, Droid and Samsung devices. The videos are still available on Apple’s official Youtube channel, just folllow this link to find the videos.

People are speculating that Apple received complaints from cellphone makers and was forced to pull the videos. I don’t think so. I think that, 2 weeks after the July 16th Antenna press event, they’re just reducing attention around this “issue” and start focusing on what they do best: making great products.

Such as new iPods in 5 weeks or so.