First, you will of course need to have a Comcast account with a username and password. Then, go to this URL. You'll see a page that looks like this. After you log in, the URL above will take you directly to the “My Current Data Usage Page.” My (surprisingly modest) page looks like this: It's…
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 Comcast is Now Handling Internet Data Usage and Caps
__________________ To bring myself up to date, I chatted with a Comcast Corporate Communications representative in Philadelphia. It turns out that for the last several years, Comcast has been taking a very pragmatic approach that involves monitoring rather than imposing hard data caps that would result in a specific customer losing service. The representative told…
How Apple Neglects Us. Let's Count the Ways
______________________ First, there is the Apple Thunderbolt Display, last updated in July 2011. This display is so obsolete and overpriced compared to the competition, I didn't even consider it when I was hunting for a new one. Apple should update it or discontinue it, but not let it linger. The most frequent Apple product that…
OS X: How to Optimize Your Privacy with Skype
This can be tricky because the developer may have taken great pains to provide features it thinks will be helpful, and you'll find that the setting that enables this feature is turned on by default at installation. For example, every time you upgrade to a new version of iOS, Apple turns Bluetooth on (if it…
How Long Will the Apple Watch Retain its Value?
Image credit: Apple Apple Watch Pricing There are two distinct concepts when it comes to the Apple Watch. First, is it priced right? In my discussions with some of the TMO staff who are watch aficionados, I must repeat what I've written before. “Apple Watch Pricing is Very, Very Reasonable.” The fact that one can buy…
How to Launch OS X Apps from the Command Line
[Note: A little bit of prior UNIX experience will be helpful here.] First off, I will admit this technique is fairly geeky. In my [Mac] OS X career, I've only used this trick a handful of times. However, it's so darn cool and charming that one just aches to use it at any opportunity. Actually,…
ExoLens is a Professional Photography Lens Kit for iPhone 6
The just released ExoLens kit for the iPhone 6 (iPhone 6 Plus in May, 2015) is a professional pair of lenses, 3x telephoto and wide angle that attach to the iPhone 6 with a sturdy lattice mount. The mount is threaded with a standard 1/4″-20 connection, ready for a tripod. The system is designed for…
The Digital Betrayal of the Consumer is Officially Out of Control
There is officially no such thing as computer security. At least from the most sophisticated attackers. Our only hope is that our profile is so low and are activities so mundane that we're off any entity's radar. If you disagree, I present several stories that came to the surface this week. 1. First, at least…
iPad + Bluetooth Keyboard + SwiftKey = Problem
_______________________ As all iOS users know, whenever an iOS application senses the need for keyboard input, a virtual, on-screen keyboard pops up. If, however, you need to manually dismiss/hide that keyboard, there is a key on the bottom right that will make it go away. (See the screen shot below.) So far, so good. Standard…
OS X Yosemite: Search Faster for Files by Name
For example, here's the conventional view when searching with CMD+F. There are two popups. In the first popup (left), you can search for contents, a created date, kind, and so on. The second popup (right) allows you to refine the search term. CMD+F However, and here's the trick, if you know you want to search…
OS X Yosemite: How to Block Favorites When Clicking on Safari URL/Search Bar
__________________ First, to explain what I'm talking about, here's how the default install of Safari 8 shows your favorites list when you click on the integrated URL/search bar. Image credit: Apple Considering that you were likely going to enter a URL or a search term, the abrupt display of favorites may not be visually desirable. For…
What the Apple Watch Purchase Experience Will be Like
____________________ What got me started on this was an article by Dave Smith at Business Insider. “The Biggest Concern With The Apple Watch Has Nothing To Do With The Actual Watch.” The issue was that this new purchase process was presented as an unknown, perhaps something that could trip Apple up. I really doubted that.…
The Two Big Tech Hits of 2015 Will be UHDTV and Apple Watch
To be sure, UHDTV is coming, and the industry is, from what I've seen, determined not to make the mistakes of the past. (Read that as 3D). Having been through this process before, the industry knows what it has to do to generate demand. I might have used the words “be successful,” but there's no…
Samsung's Ultrafast, Low Power SSD Possibly Headed for Next MacBooks
Image credit: Samsung On January 7, Samsung released information about this new SSD. The SM951 boasts outstanding performance, supporting both PCIe 3.0 and PCIe 2.0 interfaces. For use in the latest ultra-slim notebooks, it can read and write sequentially at 1,600 MB/s (megabytes per second) and 1,350 MB/s respectively based on PCIe 2.0… If PCIe…
How to Visually Distinguish the 3 iPad mini Models
___________________ 1. The Original iPad mini. (Released 2 November 2012) This model doesn't have the extra noise cancellation microphone on the back. And, of course, it doesn't have Touch ID. Just turn it over and look at the top of the back to see that there is no extra microphone. You're done. iPad mini. No noise…
Twitter Goes Over to Dark Side, Decides Who You'll Follow
_____________________ According to Danny Sullivan, “Take a look at your 'Following' list on Twitter. You might find some brands or people showing up there, even if you don’t follow them. If so, that seems due to a new change in how Twitter is doing placement for promoted accounts.” Mr. Sullivan goes into considerable detail about…
OS X: How to Capture an Amazing Amount of Mac Info From the Command Line
____________________ Of course, all this information is available via the GUI: Apple > About This Mac > System Report… But the fun part here is to do it on the command line and even save selected data to text files. (The OS X terminal app is in /Applications/Utilities.) The terminal command I'll discuss is: system_profiler …
When Apple Pay Requires a Signature and When it Doesn't
____________________ Have I mentioned before that I love Apple Pay? I've written a lot about it. Along the way, I ran across a story about Apple's Senior Vice President Eddy Cue showcasing Apple Pay with a shopping trip. “Apple exec Eddy Cue goes on 'holiday shopping spree' to showcase Apple Pay.” In that article, the…
Why Apple Really Has to Build its Own UHDTV
___________________ The first piece of evidence is the 5K iMac. In order to refresh 14.7 million pixels at 60 Hz, Apple needed to make its own timing controller, called the TCON with a bandwidth of 40 Gbps. It would make sense that Apple would think about that technology in any internal discussion of a next…
OS X Yosemite: How to Reset Your Administrator Password
In the early years of OS X, the Mac operating system was sold on a DVD. If a user forgot the administrator password, perhaps the simplest way (of several) would be to use that disc to set a new administrator password and regain control of the Mac. Nowadays, there is no install disc provided with…
BBEdit on Your Mac: Trick Text Files into HTML Syntax Coloring
_________________ Here's the problem. I and several other editors here at the Mac Observer compose our articles first in BBEdit. The file extension I use is “.txt,” but it could just as well be “.text” That's so when I double click one of my draft articles, it loads into BBEdit. Just as a reminder, the…
Create Holiday and NFL Calendar Subscriptions in OS X and iOS 8
______________________ 1. Built-in Calendars. Apple's OS X Calendar app (formerly iCal) has two built-in calendar subscriptions: Holidays and Birthdays. These are found in Calendar > Preferences > General. Figure 1. OS X Calendar Preferences If you deselect the checkbox for one of these calendar subscription, it will no longer appear in the sidebar of the…
olloclip's Lens Kit for iPhone 6: Familiar Optics, Mechanical Compromises
olloclip's new 4-in-1 Photo Lens kit for the iPhone 6/6P uses a new design that fits over both the FaceTime (front) and iSight (rear) cameras at the same time. A small adjustment is required for the iPhone 6 Plus. The system includes wide-angle, fisheye, 10x and 15x macro lenses. __________________ Followers of this company know…
Firefox Continues its Privacy Crusade, Adds Forget Button
___________________ Have you ever visited a site you wish you hadn't? Perhaps it was a typing mistake or a an accidental click on the wrong place. Then you wonder, what kind of nasty Cookies have been left behind? Of course you could figure out the site name (now that you've quickly closed the tab) by…