Federico Viticci

Editor-in-chief

Twitter: @viticciEmail: viticci@macstories.net

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, and Dialog, a show where creativity meets technology.

He can also be found on his two other podcasts on Relay FM – Connected and Remaster.

321 — May 20, 2022

Three System Features That Should Become Standalone Apps in iOS 16

MACSTORIES COLLECTIONS

Three System Features That Should Become Standalone Apps in iOS 16

WWDC is three weeks away, which means soon enough we’ll see what Apple has been working on for iOS and iPadOS 16. Following last year’s quality-of-life updates, I expect Apple to build upon the foundation they laid two years ago with widgets on the Home Screen in iOS 14, making those widgets more interactive and customizable; I also hope the company will have some major updates in store for iPadOS multitasking and other pro iPad features.

Recently, however, a line in Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter stood out to me:

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321 — May 20, 2022

A Special Shortcut Icon, Bike Meets Obsidian, Drafts' URL Scheme and Dictation, and a Drafts/Todoist Action Group

SPOTLIGHT ON CLUB MACSTORIES+

Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.

A Special Shortcut Icon, Bike Meets Obsidian, Drafts' URL Scheme and Dictation, and a Drafts/Todoist Action Group

Here are the highlights from the Club MacStories Discord this week:

Nate, the winner of the Best Media Shortcut category for Automation April, shared a MacStories-themed red icon for iPod Shuffle, their winning shortcut.

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321 — May 20, 2022

App Debuts

APP DEBUTS

Noteworthy new app releases and updates, handpicked by the MacStories team.

Ancient Board Game Collection

I enjoy history and videogames, so Ancient Board Game Collection immediately caught my eye when I heard from its developer recently. The game is a collection of board games created thousands of years ago around the world. There’s a game played by the Vikings called Hnefatafl, another from Ancient Rome called Latrunculi, and others, all recreated for the iPhone and iPad (and playable on M1 Macs) and designed with artwork from the country that originated the game. In total, there are nine challenging games with more planned for the future.

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320 — May 13, 2022

Remembering the iPod, Downloading YouTube Videos on iPad, Shortcuts and AppleScript, and Recipe RSS Feeds

SPOTLIGHT ON CLUB MACSTORIES+

Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.

Remembering the iPod, Downloading YouTube Videos on iPad, Shortcuts and AppleScript, and Recipe RSS Feeds

Here are the highlights from the Club MacStories Discord this week:

The highlight of the week in the Apple community has certainly been Apple’s announcement that they are discontinuing the last remaining iPod, the iPod touch. That inspired Alex to ask our members to share their iPod photos and memories, and the resulting thread in the #apple channel is just incredible. I miss the iPod already.

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319 — May 6, 2022

Interesting Links

INTERESTING LINKS

Great reads and links from around the web.

If you have a gaming laptop, you may be happy to know that, in the near future, you may not need a huge charging brick anymore. USB-C cables with support for 240W charging are coming…at some point – but they’re real, as reported by The Verge. (Link)

Nvidia’s GeForce Now videogame streaming service just added support for streaming games in 4K to Macs and PCs. (Link)

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319 — May 6, 2022

Going All-In with Reminders Tags and Smart Lists

MACSTORIES EXTRAS

More stories for Club members.

Going All-In with Reminders Tags and Smart Lists

I have a theory: when it comes to Reminders, Apple cares more about tagging than they do about traditional lists. Think about it: regular lists have been essentially left untouched for the past several years; meanwhile, tags have been implemented cross-platform, in two apps (Notes and Reminders), and they are at the foundation of smart lists, which were the major addition to Reminders last year. And that’s not all: the design of the Reminders app itself revolves heavily around smart lists (the default ones at the top are, effectively, smart lists made by Apple), and the Reminders app only supports auto-complete for tags, making the life of those who want to carefully organize their tasks into lists ever so slightly more challenging.

Only tags support auto-complete in Reminders.

So a few days ago, I had a thought: what if I stopped using multiple lists altogether and instead fully embraced tagging and smart lists? This seems to be the more modern experience that Apple is pushing and refining every year, so I figured it’d be fun to at least try to see what a list-free experience in Reminders would feel like.

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318 — April 29, 2022

Music and URL Scheme Shortcuts and a Keyboard Maestro Macro

SPOTLIGHT ON CLUB MACSTORIES+

Highlights of the latest Club MacStories+ happenings.

Music and URL Scheme Shortcuts and a Keyboard Maestro Macro

Here are the highlights from the Club MacStories Discord this week:

FlohGro created a shortcut to transfer new music releases from MusicHarbor to MusicBox, Marcos Tanaka’s new app (currently in beta and available via Beta Beat to Discord members) to bookmark music for later.

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