“Judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” — Mulla Nasrudin It'll be some time before Tim Cook is ready to step down as Apple's CEO, but I'm thinking ahead about the process for selecting the next Apple CEO. _____________________________ Back when there was some discussion about who would replace Steve Jobs at Apple,…
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
Found: Apple's Secret Support Page for Business & Government
Apple's support for business and government goes deeper than one might think. That's because Apple's business webpage is very hard to find. Scouring Apple's home page and site map won't reveal what you need. One might think of it as extraordinary stealth marketing. Once found, however, it's a gem. ____________________ The history here is that…
Where Has the Apple Passion Gone?
“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” — E.B. White There was a time, during the PC Wars, when Apple customers had a special passion for Macs. It was derived from the industrial design…
The Source of Craving for Apple's Next BIG Thing
“It is not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things. The monkey wears an expression of seriousness which would do credit to any college student, but the monkey is serious because he itches.” — Robert M. Hutchins ________________________________ It's our technical life and times. A surfeit of…
The Most Bizarre Steve Ballmerism Ever is a Doozy
Steve Ballmer A Ballmerism Gone Mad Every once in awhile, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer outdoes himself with a doozy of what I call a Ballmerism. That's when he makes a statement that departs so far from known facts that we just shake our head and wonder who buys the nonsense. Recently, as reported by CNET,…
ISO Bluetooth Stereo Headphones: Small, Light and High Quality
The ISO in-ear, active noise canceling Bluetooth stereo headphones from Antec Mobile Products weigh 24 grams, including the control unit. It includes a lapel clip, internal Lithium-ion battery and charging cable. While the sound is crisp, the noise cancellation is less than spectacular. The reasons to have a pair of headphones like this are many.…
OS X Mavericks, Performance Anxiety & Phoning Home
There are several ways an OS can telegraph the status of its health and well-being. However, how that's communicated to the user, the developer and Apple are all very different things. Providing information to the Mac user that they can really use is a better approach. No intelligent agent required. I've been thinking lately about…
Antec PowerUp: Vast Power on the Go for Your iOS Device
Many people really love what they consider their ultimate iPhone case. For those folks, a bulky battery pack inside a case just won't do. If that describes you, but you still need additional power for your iPhone, the best choice is a small, handy, external battery pack that can be used with any iOS device—just…
THE LIST: Every Developer TMO Has Interviewed at WWDC
Since 2009, The Mac Observer has been interviewing Apple developers at WWDC to take the pulse of the developer community and allow them to tell their stories to the readers. All of these interviews has been extraordinary, and we thought it was time to provide links to every interview for reference. The interviews are listed…
Kevin Hoctor at WWDC: People Need a Great Money App; I Made One
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our sixth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Kevin Hoctor, creator of MoneyWell for Mac and iOS. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: I’m…
Dave Peck at WWDC: Making VPN Fun and Easy (for a Change)
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our fifth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Dave Peck from Cloak. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: I’m here at WWDC with Dave…
Bruno Virlet at WWDC: Apple is Taking a Big Risk with iOS 7
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our fourth interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Bruno Virlet of The Grizzly Labs. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: I’m here with Bruno…
Brent Simmons at WWDC: Gruber & Wiskus are Trying to Kill Me!
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our third interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Brent Simmons, currently of Q Branch and Vesper fame. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: Brent,…
WWDC: Tell me What YOUR Brilliant Idea is! Joe Pezzillo
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our second interview, Dave Hamilton chats with Joe Pezzillo, co-founder of Push.io. _________________________________ Dave Hamilton: Joe, you’ve had varied career,…
WWDC: Peter Kelly Forsakes Android for Joys of iPad Coding
Each year at WWDC, TMO interviews a few Apple developers who want to tell their story. The result is usually a number of serious insights into the state of mind of the developer community. In our first interview this year, Dave Hamilton chats with Dr. Peter Kelly author of the UX Write word processor for…
Q Branch Triggers Release of Vesper, iOS App for Ideas
You have lots to do each day, and that's what lists and To Do apps are for. But when you get that brilliant bolt from the blue, or two, it needs a special place to hibernate while you fill in the details. Vesper does that with grace, focus, and simplicity. Vesper, named after the character…
The New Mac Pro Design Theme is Eerily Familiar. But How?
When I first saw the new Mac Pro, introduced by Phil Schiller at the WWDC Keynote, I had a vague feeling that I'd seen that design element before. The cylindrical tower of power. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but my brain was nagging me. What was it? At first, I thought of…
olloclip's Quick-Flip Case for iPhone: Ingenious Solution
olloclip lens kit You have one of the fabulous olloclip lens kits for the iPhone that provides add-on fisheye, wide angle and macro lenses. But you have to remove your current case to use the lenses. That's a real pain. olloclip has solved that problem by launching its own iPhone case with a top…
The State of Magazines on the iPad: a Giant Mess
About a year ago, I decided, perhaps like many others, to go all digital with my magazine subscriptions. All the paper magazines my wife and I subscribed to were cluttering up the house and becoming a pain to dispose of in plastic trash bags. It was a grand experiment, and eco-friendly, to convert almost all…
It's Okay Mr. Cook. Apple Customers Can Also Dream
One of the things that fascinated me about Tim Cook's AllThingsD interview with Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher was one of the questions after the interview. The question was posed by Dan Benton of Indoor Capital. The Q&A went roughly like this: Mr. Benton. Why won't you let us dream? The guys at Google are…
An Apple Developer Explains How iCloud is Broken
Frustrated with iCloud, Apple’s developer community speaks up en masseFrustrated with iCloud, Apple’s developer community speaks up en masse A decade ago, Max Seelemann was a youngster in school when he launched the Ulysses writer’s tool and The Soulmen. In a previous WWDC interview, he told TMO’s Dave Hamilton how the OS X app has…
How to Sink a Submarine, Apple, or the Tech Giant of Your Choice
Could Operations Research Grant Tech CEOs an Upper Hand? Over the holiday weekend, I was in the Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver, and I ran across a fabulous book called, “Blackett's War.” Here's the Amazon description: “The exciting history of a small group of British and American scientists who, during World War II, developed the…
An iPhone Veteran Evaluates a Samsung Galaxy Note II
Introduction If there's one thing that I have learned from the evaluation of different Android devices, like the Kindle Fire HD and the Google Nexus, it's that the Android 4.x OS is a technical, pleasantly geeky, often beautiful OS that will appeal to many different people. On the 5.5-inch display of the Samsung Galaxy Note…
Manage Your Movie Wish List on iPhone with ToDoMovies
Everyone who's into theatrical movies knows the drill: what do I want to see next? What have I already seen? What's available now in theaters? iTunes? What's coming out soon? Let's view the trailer. And so on. ToDoMovies is an iPhone app that manages all that beautifully, and it's a must for movie fans. The…