SkySafari is an excellent sky simulation and charting app for iOS. With it, you can view the sky at any date and time, identify objects in the sky, read about celestial objects, learn the constellations and even control an amateur telescope. On December 15, SkySafari 5 Pro was released, with Basic and Plus versions to…
John Martellaro
John Martellaro was born at an early age and began writing about computers soon after that. With degrees in astrophysics (B.S.) and physics (M.S.), he has worked for NASA, White Sands Missile Range, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Apple. At Apple he worked as a Senior Marketing Manager, a Federal Account Executive and a High Performance Computing manager. His interests include chess, science fiction and astronomy. John is the host of the TMO podcast Background Mode.
Articles by John Martellaro
How Netflix is Delivering Better Video with Less Bandwidth
Netflix uses the H.264/Advanced Video Coding (AVC) compression algorithm for content up to and including 1080p video. Years ago, when they adopted this algorithm, Netflix developed what's called a bitrate ladder. That is, for a given video resolution, they selected bitrates best, on average, for the video stream. This was independent of the kind of…
It's a Good Thing Apple Didn't Acquire Twitter
Apple's “Not much has changed” ad. The article that got me thinking about all this is my showcase article of the week by Myles Udland. “The #hashtag is a false idol.” Amongst the many things the essay addresses is the modern futility of thinking that social media can further the goals of a corporation. Mr.…
How Fast Does the Apple Watch Need to Change?
______________________ We're in an era in which things are changing fast. Every year, Apple offers us a new iPhone that has a bunch of new, cool features and is ridiculously powerful, in Apple's words. Along with that, the Internet and the digital device we own have made it possible to provide new services at a…
Hewlett-Packard's Z27s is a 27-inch 4K Display for Your Mac Without the 4K Price
Hewlett-Packard Z27s 27-inch IPS UHD Display 1. Introduction I spent many years of working with very nice Apple displays, culminating in a 2010 iMac. However, things changed a few years ago when Apple elected to let its 27-inch Thunderbolt display, launched in July 2011, stagnate. That resulted in my search for a suitable display for a…
You Have an iPhone Now - Do As You're Told
Things have evolved from there. For example, “Teens can't tell the difference between Google ads and search results.” And now, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella believes: “Smart agents like Cortana will replace the web browser.” This is all part of an effect that I've written about before, namely, the Internet doesn't teach its users how to…
Having Connection Problems With Your Mac's FaceTime Camera? Here's a Fix
_________________________ Background. Occasionally for some reason, an app that uses the FaceTime camera may fail to properly close a system process that manages it. There has even been a report of this happening in OS X El Capitan for no apparent reason. There are several ways to do this, in increasing order of complexity. 1.…
How to Create Fast and Easy Checklists in OS X El Capitan's Notes App
First off, there is some context for writing this tip. In my experience, there are two different kinds of To Do lists. The first, I call it Type I, is more formal and has, for example, deadlines, catagories, alerts, supporting data, and needs to be kept as an archive. One very good app for doing…
What Would Happen if a Future Apple Autonomous Car Made a Very Bad Decision?
This week, Tim Bajarin, the President of Creative Strategies, Inc starts off the discussion with a very thoughtful essay. ” Autonomous Cars and Their Ethical Conundrum.” Mr. Bajarin starts off by noting: …we are years away from getting autonomous cars on the road and getting the right kind of government regulations passed to make this…
iOS 9: How to Use Slide Over on Your Modern iPad
Unlike Split View, in which apps run side by side (50-50 split) on only the latest iPads (including the iPad Pro), Slide Over runs on many more models. See the table below. Image credit: Apple System Requirements for Slide Over iOS 9.0 or later iPad mini 2,3,4 iPad Air, Air 2 iPad Pro 1. There…
Twelve South Forté Charging Stand for Apple Watch is Beautifully Imperfect
Despite the apparent simplicity of the Apple Watch charging docks, there are several factors to consider. Those include practicality, protection, stability, possible ways the charging cable can be damaged when installed and removed, adjustability of presentation angle, use for both Portrait mode and Nightstand mode, and so on. The Twelve South Forté is exceptionally beautiful,…
Griffin Survivor Journey for iPhone 6/6s Features Impact Dispersion System
The new Griffin Survivor Journey case cushions the iPhone 6/6s (or 6/6s Plus) protects against a 2 meter (6.6 ft) drop. The snap on two-layer shell is soft, shatterproof and handsome. I liked this case. _____________________ The Survivor Journey is made of multiple layers and is soft to the touch. Notable is the ease of…
Tesla's Elon Musk Rant at Apple Means He's on to Something Scary
________________________ The sensational, on the surface, news is what Elon Musk said about Apple hiring away his important engineers. Forbes told the story. Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.’ If you don’t make at Tesla, you go work at Apple. However, all that is just…
Native Union Apple Watch Charging Dock Goes Both Ways
With the introduction of watchOS 2 and Nightstand Mode, it's preferable for an Apple Watch charging dock to work in both horizontal and vertical modes. Many early docks don't afford that capability, but the new Native Union Dock for Apple Watch does. However, it's far from perfect. The design, in principle, is inventive. A heavy…
iOS 9: iPhone Battery Dying? Emergency? Low Power Mode to the Rescue
iOS 9 introduces a new feature to the iPhone called “Low Power Mode.” Like Apollo 13 on the way to the Moon, it shuts down non-essential services in an effort to maintain an emergency lifeline. That is, enough juice to make and hold an emergency phone call, be located or utilize Wi-Fi. Here's how to…
iOS 9: The Difference Between Wi-Fi Calling & Wi-Fi Assist Explained
iOS 8 Introduced Wi-Fi Calling and iOS 9 introduced what's called Wi-Fi Assist. They're two distinctly different features. The first has no downside, but the second could, and it's turned on by default in iOS 9. Let's look at the difference. 1. Wi-Fi Calling This is a feature that allows the iPhone user to use…
How to Prevent iOS 9 From Rummaging Through Your Email Looking for Events and Contacts
1. Contacts in Email. What happens here is that you may have, in the past, received an email from someone who is not in your Contacts list. That email may contain a phone number. Later, when you get a phone call from that number, instead of showing up as “Unknown,” iOS 9 will suggest that “maybe”…
What to Expect During Your In-Store Apple iPhone Upgrade Experience
Image credit: Apple Over the weekend, I spoke with an Apple retail store sales person about the Apple iPhone Upgrade Program. This was an informal conversation with a very knowledgeable person who generally filled me in on the process, but for all the legal details, you should read “iPhone Upgrade Program Terms & Conditions.” Apple's…
That Thing Apple Does That Some Hate and Few Understand
Image credit: Apple Writing for The Verge, Mr. Mossberg delights us with several crisp insights here: “What I learned this week about Tim Cook’s Apple.” For example: 3D Touch on the iPhone 6s is going to change the way we use our iPhones. Siri's voice control is maturing and can do a lot of things…
4 Ways to Upgrade to Apple's New iPhone 6s
Now that Apple has launched its own iPhone Upgrade Program, customers have several different options when it comes to upgrading to a new iPhone 6s or 6s Plus. __________________________ iPhone 6s and 6s Plus pre-orders start at 12:01 AM on September 12th (early Saturday morning). Experience has shown that customers who go online at that…
How to Size Up Apple's Strategy for Each Product on September 9
_______________________ iPhone 6s/Plus. While the list of enhancements for each new iPhone to the next may not seem spectacular, the thing to remember is that Apple's messaging is also directed towards all the owners of previous models. In that case, the quantum leap from, say, an iPhone 5 from 2012 will be compelling. That's especially…
Patriot Ready With a USB-C Flash Drive for Apple's MacBook
The new Apple MacBook comes with with a USB-C port precluding the use of any USB-A Flash drive without an adapter. Patriot Memory has solved that problem by launching a dual port USB-C, USB-A, combo Flash drive in 32 and 64 GB sizes at good price points. It's called the Stellar-C, and I liked it.…
Frozen: How to Force Quit an OS X App Showing a Spinning Beachball of Death
_____________________ One of the more common lock ups I've encountered lately is with Firefox and that spinning beachball of death. First, however, I must digress. if you can click outside the app and recover an active cursor, there are several common ways to terminate a misbehaving app. Go to the Apple Menu and select Force…
Vidity: A Potential UHD/4KTV Game Changer - Will Apple Play?
______________________ Vidity is the product of the Secure Content Storage Association (SCSA). This organization was founded by both movie studios, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Home Entertainment as well as storage companies SanDisk and Western Digital. It currently has over 50 member companies, most notably Intel, Qualcomm, Comcast, Samsung and Walmart. The goal of…