__________________ First, it's important to understand the terminology. A display is a physical monitor, typically a flat panel LCD device. This article focuses on a second external monitor connected to, say, an iMac or MacBook. An OS X desktop resides on a display and has a menu bar at the top and (generally) a dock…
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
A Touchscreen Remote With a Next Gen Apple TV Would be Amazing
There are many technical issues related to a next generation TV system, as conceived by Apple. It's mind boggling. But one small area where Apple could cash in on its expertise would be a touchscreen remote, a simpler, less expensive version of the iPod touch to accompany a 4th generation Apple TV. ________________ Over the…
iOS 7.1: Turn Parallax Off But Allow Other Motion
________________________ In iOS 7.1, think of Settings > General > Accessibility >Reduce Motion as a master control switch for visible motion in the user interface. Turning that ON will kill the zoom animation of apps upon launch as well as the parallax effect of icons and alerts. However, if you turn Reduce Motion OFF, new…
iOS 7.1 Quick Tips: a Quick Reference
________________________ 1. March 10. “iOS 7.1: Enabling In-app Button Shapes.” iOS 7 took away visual cues like borders and shapes to easily identify buttons in apps, but that feature is back with the release of iOS 7.1. Jeff Gamet shows how. 2. March 10. “iOS 7.1: Killing the Cartoon Button Colors.” Many Apple customers thought…
iOS 7.1: Calendar's New 'Show Events' View for iPhone
___________________ Previously, when you tapped on a day that had a dot below the date, indicating that it contained events, there would be a dramatic change from the month view to the daily hour-by-hour view. It looked like this: Tap on, say, 4 (March) and the display radically changes to hour-by-hour view. iOS 7.1…
Why We Love Apple and Why Microsoft Does Wacky Things That Make us Sigh
“Here's to the cracy ones…” (Author's archive) Often, constancy of purpose can come across as arrogance. It's all too easy to confuse the constant dedication to a sound principle by someone with the arrogance of believing that an opinion is more valid than the opinions of others. It's a shame that confusion like that occurs.…
6 Tools to Keep Your Mac Life Sane and Quiet
_________________________ 1. SpamSieve. I wouldn't even think about using Macintosh email app unless it's supported by C-Command's SpamSieve by Michael Tsai. This app has changed my computing life greatly for the better, and I love it. SpamSieve uses Bayesian filtering to build a corpus, and it learns as it goes. The longer you use it,…
2 Hidden Tricks Reveal Network Info in Apple's AirPort Utility 6
_______________________ First, the natural thing to do is to single-click the AirPort base station. If you do, you'll see something like this. Image #1. Single click on base station icon. You may, at first, think that the next thing to do is to click the Edit button. But not so fast. Some useful information can…
A User's Joyful Reaction to Apple's Late 2013 21.5-inch iMac
_________________ First, this is not a review. The best review I have seen of this iMac is by Anand Lal Shimpi: “21.5-inch iMac (Late 2013) Review: Iris Pro Driving an Accurate Display.” It's simply an awesome review, as are all those by AnandTech. If this Mac has been on your shopping list, read the review.…
Touch ID: How to Correctly Give Your iPhone 5s the Finger
_______________________ I haven't heard of many complaints about Touch ID on the iPhone 5s. However, if you're like me, you may have had some frustrations getting it to always work the first time. It's just plain annoying to have Touch ID fail to recognize your finger the first time, and if you fail three times,…
Chil's Notchbook Case for iPad Air Takes a Different Approach
Every case maker uses a specific approach or two. It might be low weight, a high level of protection, attractive, artistic design, or the ability to be used in multiple orientations to name a few. Chil has taken its own approach for the iPad Air which is novel and effective, but it may not suit…
LaCie's Fuel Adds a Terabyte of Storage to iPad/iPhone
The LaCie Fuel is a small, battery powered, good looking terabyte drive that augments the storage of iOS devices and is focused on the Apple customer. It acts as a Wi-Fi source, and can transmit HD video to up to three devices simultaneously. Its storage is easily accessed with the Seagate Media iOS app. Operational…
Did Apple Overcharge You For Sales Tax? Here's the Fix
_______________________ My investigation started with my trial run order of a new Mac. As far back as I can remember, when I placed an order with Apple's online store, there would be an accurate assessment of the sales tax for my location. At the point in the order process where the estimated sales tax is…
A Next Generation Stylus: TruGlide Apex Uses Electronic Magic
Introduction – Why a $60 Stylus? Apple's iOS devices are designed to work without a stylus. There's a reason for that: Steve Jobs didn't believe in them. “God gave us 10 styluses, let’s not invent another,” he told Walter Isaacson, his biographer. And yet. There are times when a stylus is useful. Indeed splendid. It…
Wacom Bamboo Pad Has The Touch of Class
The Wacom Bamboo Pad is a multi-use input device, touchpad and drawing tablet with stylus. It can be used with its stylus and/or your fingers for click-tapping and gestures for computer input to replace a mouse. Plus, the stylus can be used with any drawing app. ________________________ First shipped in October, 2013, the Wacom Bamboo…
A Sad Tale of a Microsoft Surface RT Customer
The discussion they were having was right next to us, so we couldn't help inquiring about what was going on. It turns out that the price was right for that Surface RT, but in the end, it wasn't able to run the X86 binaries, her classic Windows apps that the daughter had on her Windows…
Does Apple REALLY Care About You?
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.” — Physicist Richard P. Feynman A question has been raised by one of TMO's readers whether Apple genuinely cares about its customers. In addition, do Apple customers occasionally have to overcome hurdles that Apple places in the…
What's the ONE New Thing You Have Time For in Your Life?
______________________ When the original iPad came out in 2010, its was after there had been a lot of discussion about how a tablet would fit in between a notebook computer and an iPhone. Some thought there was no room, but then they were proved wrong. The tablet concept, as instantiated by Apple, was so brilliant,…
inMarket Announces iBeacon Rollout in Selected Grocery Stores
Image Credit: inMarket The launch of the the technology will be in about 150 grocery stores in Seattle, San Francisco and Cleveland — with additional retailers and markets coming soon. Todd Dipaola, CEO and co-founder of inMarket said, “We are thrilled to be making history by writing the first chapter of micro-location iBeacons helping shoppers'…
OWC Upgrades a New Mac Pro CPU, Measures 30% Boost
____________________ OWC's Jarrod and Ron wrote in their blog: “We got our hands on an Intel E5-2667 V2 8-core 3.30GHz with 25MB Cache processor, installed it in the new Mac Pro and have done some benchmarking to get an early look at the performance vs. the stock Apple / Intel E5-1650 V2 6-core 3.50GHz with…
12 Essential Mac Apps for Amateur Astronomers
_____________________ The goal here is to recommend some very good, respected apps for beginners that are in typical use on the Mac. It would be impractical to list every available app, and I recognize that many advanced amateurs will have their own favorites. I've defined six categories of apps: a sky chart that does telescope…
Just How Does Apple Make its OSes so Desirable?
______________________________ In the days of the PC wars, in the early 1990s, Apple struggled mightily against Windows with a superior OS. But then Microsoft made a giant leap forward with Windows NT in the early-mid 1990s, leaving the technically inferior Mac OS in the dust. To make a long story short, that we know well,…
Instagram 5 for iOS Adds Personal Photo and Video Sharing
The new Instagram Direct service, according to the company, is designed for those moments you may want to share with a smaller, select group of people. From the news release: Now you'll see a new icon in the top right corner of your home feed. Tap it to see photos and videos that people have…
Superb Macally Clear Case for iPad Air Won't Weigh it Down
The Macally Clear Case with Reversible Cover consists of a clear plastic back and a soft cover that's reversible and detachable. Each piece weighs just over 3.5 ounces, and even when using both, the iPad air is both fully protected and retains most of its featherweight feel. It earned a TMO 4.5/5 rating. _____________________ Previously,…