“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” — E.F. Schumacher The user interface of Apple’s OS X operating system and its default apps is getting simpler over time. That’s a natural thing…
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
TruGlide Duo Stylus: Microfiber, Megafabulous
LYNKtec recently released the TruGlide Duo Stylus Pen. It’s a well balanced, sufficiently long stylus with a microfiber tip on one end and a ballpoint pen on the other. While expensive, it exudes weight, class and quality. It’s a great way to pamper yourself or someone else with a gift. Think of it as a…
Mucoce: Low Cost, Convenient iTunes Control App
Mucoce is a Menu bar item that provides an always visible iTunes control center. You can do a lot in a small box: see the artwork, pause/play, select previous or next, rate the song, tweet it, and much more. And it only costs $0.99. The name “Mucoce” is derived from MUsic COntrol CEnter. This small…
Where’s That BIG Cash Opportunity Steve Jobs Promised us?
______________________ This week we learned that Apple is, once again, begging for the keys to the TV kingdom. Presumably, that’s so Apple can apply its fantastic understanding of customers wants and needs, develop a revolutionary TV viewing interface, dust off its patents and put some major competitors into bankruptcy. Of course, that isn’t going to…
Why We’ll All Rush to the iPhone 5, no Matter What
There are some rather mundane reasons to buy a new iPhone. We writers on the Mac Web have to have the latest and greatest iPhone if we’re going to write about it. Some customers who have an iPhone 3GS or 4 probably feel that it’s high time for a new phone. Their iPhone contract entitles…
Fix Your iPad’s RSS Reader When Using Google’s 2-Step Authentication
How 2-Step Authentication WorksWhen you set up 2-Step authentication, you gave Google a phone number that can accept text messages. When Google sees that there’s an attempted login with your account name from an unauthorized computer, it will send a verification code in a text message to your phone. Presumably only you have your phone,…
Living Earth: Beautiful Views of Global Weather on iPad
Living Earth for iOS shows the Earth at a glance, global climate parameters plus local time and weather. It’s a simple, focused, informative and beautiful app that will grace your home page._______________________ The app’s main focus is a view of the earth from space. You can use touch gestures to spin the globe or zoom…
Projectbook Organizer for iPad: Serious & Purposeful
Projectbook by Theory.io for the iPad is a fairly extensive and feature-rich app that organizes the notes and To-Dos in support of a serious project. That is, rather than focus on a few simple tasks in a simple way, as many iOS apps do, it ties together many functions that a real project might entail.…
GoSmart Stylus Duo: a Technical Leap Forward
GoSmart has introduced a pair of styluses that advance the stylus technology by using a Teflon impregnated stainless steel nib. It looks like a miniature radio antenna, but has very specific design elements that assist the stylus user. Plus, they look good and feel good in the hand. _________________ If you’ve been following this series…
All About Mountain Lion’s Power Nap Feature
The idea behind Power Nap is that there are all kinds of things that may be happening while your Mac is snoozing. You may have new email, iCloud may want to update your contacts, and so on. If the Mac waits until you wake it from sleep, there could well be a flurry of activity…
The Walgreens iOS App is Superb
The Walgreens iOS app is superbly conceived, easy to use, attractive, and very useful. Need to renew a prescription? Scan the bar code on the bottle, and wait for the text message that it’s ready for pickup. Want some photos printed? Pull them out of the camera roll, click, then pick up the prints at…
Mountain Lion Video Tips & Tricks App is Essential
It’s About Time Products (iATP) has released an OS X app “Hello Tips, Tricks & Secrets” that walks you, visually, through over a hundred OS X tips, trick and secrets of which about half are related to Mountain Lion. Each video snippet ranges from a few seconds to, at most, 120 seconds so they’re easy…
The Mac No Longer Competes Against the PC
This line of reasoning means that competitors who underestimate the ability of the iPad to supersede the PC are delusional. And it also means that if they spend their time designing PCs, namely Ultrabooks, to compete against the MacBooks, then they’re doubly delusional.I want bring your attention to the best article I’ve seen in a…
Infinite Flight Simulator for iOS: a Rough Ride
Infinite Flight for the iPad is a flight simulator/game for iOS that offers several different kinds of aircraft and airport locations. While seemingly impressive, it has some serious problems compared to its competition. _______________ 30,000 ft. View Flight simulators on the iPad create a difficult proposition for the developer. While a full-blown simulator on the…
The iPad, Magazines, SciFi & Our Preconceptions
____________________ I started thinking about this when I embarked on the journey to move all my paper magazine subscriptions to my iPad. That journey has been a bumpy ride because each publisher has its own ideas about how to 1) create digital content and 2) protect its intellectual property. The result of that has been…
UX Write: A First Class Word Processor for iPad
For those who’ve been aching for a classic word processor for the iPad, something familiar and Mac-intuitive, UX Write is a first class app.______________ One of my fundamental review routines when I encounter an app that’s a text editor or a word processor is: how long does it take me to create a new document,…
TV Stations: Get a Clue About Adobe Flash
_____________ The recent fires in Colorado Springs and near Ft. Collins, Colorado have made it very clear that some TV stations that have websites have dropped the ball when it comes to serving the public interest. That’s because residents, in any geographical area, for any kind of weather emergency, are likely to be on the…
OWC’s Mercury Accelsior SSD: Blistering Fast
The movement to Solid State Drives (SSD) in our Macs is now in full force. Other World Computing has introduced an SSD card designed for the PCIe slot of a Mac Pro or an Xserve that is plug-and-play and really fast. Riduculously fast. ________________________ Introduction The Apple Mac Pro and the Xserve have been used…
The Open Alternative to Apple’s Mac App Store: Bodega
_______________________ Bodega is an app store, itself an app, that has been easy to overlook amidst all the recent fuss about sandboxing and the Mac App Store (MAS). For example, apps that provide services that expire, install code or resources in shared locations, require license keys, or request an escalation to root privileges will all…
What Google’s New Tablet Tells Us, on The Surface
_________________________ When Apple introduced the iPad in 2010, it was clearly the byproduct of an inspiration that there have come to be two distinct activities associated with personal computing equipment. There is what we call the consumption activities (browsing, shopping, music, movies and games, for example) and the creation part (writing, graphics, web design, coding,…
Daedalus Text Editor for iPad Soars
The Daedalus text editor for the iPad is easy to use, full of features, and feels just right on the iPad. The metaphor is stacks of paper, just like in real life. This app is a joy to use and perfectly intuitive. Some ideas are brilliant, not because they’re original but because the tough work…
The Apps That Came in From the Cold
______________ One of the things we know about the Mac App Store, from interviewing developers, is that many new or inexperienced customers look at the MAS first for solutions to their problems. It’s a convenient and trustworthy watering hole, and it provides many developers with incremental revenue. Historically, many experienced customers know how to go…
iOS-ification is Coming. Why It’ll be Good For Us
__________________ Once upon a time, companies built computers because there was money to be made by putting computational power into the hands of skilled individuals. In the Apple II days, people who bought them likely were already working with computers at work, and they revelled in the idea of having some computational fun at home.…
iLuv’s MacBook Sleeve Case: Peanuts but no Pumpkins
iLuv Creative Technology now has a line of products featuring the Peanuts cartoon characters. This review looks at the MacBook 15-inch, Snoopy Sleeve. It’s a soft case with a deep pocket for your accessories. It’ll also hold an iPad nicely, even with many of the more slender iPad cases already attached. But not a pumpkin.…