For those who love snow globes, it’s sometimes fun to have one running on an iPhone or iPad. This iPad-only snow globe has some nice features, but also, for three bucks, leaves a lot to be desired and won’t make snow globe enthusiasts happy. Save your money. Awesome Snow Globe Isn’tIn my frame of reference,…
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
iOS 4.2 for iPad: What You Need to Know
You’ll know version 4.2 is ready when you connect your iPad to your Mac (or PC) and look at iTunes under the Summary tab. (Of course, we’ll also alert you here at TMO news. But sometimes there’s a lag from the time the earliest customers see their update in iTunes until others see it —…
Printopia: Painless Printing from iPad, iPhone
Printopia is a Preference Pane that’s basically a print server on your Mac. An iPad, iPhone or iPod touch (3G+) with iOS 4.2.x can then print to any printer you have connected to your Mac, independent of Mac OS Printer Sharing. It works with any printer. Printopia Install FolderPrintopia is useful because Apple removed the…
DataMan: Warm Fuzzies on Your iPhone Data Usage
DataMan 3 for the iPhone logs your 3G and Wi-Fi data transmissions. For 3G data you can set daily, weekly and monthly thresholds, and DataMan will provide an alert at various designated levels. This is a must-have app. In addition to setting quotas to make sure you don’t overrun your AT&T billing limit, you can…
Analyst Expects Record Mac Sales, Points to MBA
Mr. Munster told investors that he has analyzed recent NPD Mac sales data, which is up 20% year over year. “…it leads us to a Mac number of 4.1 M to 4.3 M [for the quarter ending in December]…. This early data, along with our assumptions for international Mac sales, which are growing faster than…
Will Apple Do the Unthinkable with Mac OS X Server?
Pragmatism Licensing Mac OS X Server in a data center, behind closed doors, on industry standard servers is not a bad idea. It’s not accessible to regular employees who might pirate the OS. Moreover, a sufficiently rigorous licensing should be achievable on an enterprise basis. This would be almost identical to what Steve Jobs did…
Microsoft Word 2011 is Worth the Journey
There has never been a Macintosh program that has been so loved, so reviled, so controversial, so often purchased, so written about, and so often taken as a signpost for the health and well being of the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit as MS Word. A program of this scope, almost like a public figure, has…
iPhoto ‘11 Gets Serious About Your Life
Apple’s first version of iPhoto was released in January, 2002. Since then, it has grown from a modest photo manager to a major, substantive app that’s essential for every Mac user. iPhoto ‘11 (technically, version 9.0) adds important refinements, but more importantly, gets really serious about your treasured photos. I started shooting and managing digital…
iPhone 4 Flip Case Offers Good Protection
The iPhone 4 Flip Case from iKit is designed to offer solid protection for the iPhone 4 and also provide a built-in stand for watching, say, videos in landscape mode. It delivers. This case is just a bit thicker and wraps around the iPhone a little more than the minimalist Incase Snap Case that I…
First Blush Review: FaceTime for Mac
FaceTime for Mac (Apple)The FaceTime public beta is available now from Apple. It’s a .dmg file that contains a .mpkg installer. When I see that, I get curious about the contents of the package, but if you take a look at the files (File -> Show Files) you’ll be blocked from seeing them. What is…
Apple is Boiling The Competition’s Frog
It only took ten years.Back in 2000, Apple was in the unenviable position of having quarterly revenues that were about the same as Microsoft’s profits. Today, both Apple’s revenues and profits are very much in line with what Microsoft produces – and poised to leave Microsoft well behind. In other words, as Steve Jobs has…
Apple Magic Trackpad Requires Patience
The Apple Magic Trackpad is a blessing, but in disguise. It’ll require new muscle memory for dedicated mouse users, is better than a conventional trackball, and has amazing new features. But it’ll require a period of acclimation. The Apple Magic Trackpad was released on July 27, 2010 without a lot of fanfare. It’s a five…
Apple Tunes Retail Experience with “Runner”
We know that Apple has moved from a single point of sale experience at a cash register to the mobile system. That’s when a salesperson scans your credit card with a modified iPhone and then sends you on your way. That avoids lines and makes the buying experience less annoying.Apple Retail Store, Lincoln Road, Miami…
Installing and Upgrading to Parallels Desktop 6
The Parallels Desktop virtual machine environment for Macs just keeps getting better and better. Incremental refinements make it easier to install, more intuitive and always a little faster. Here’s my report on upgrading to version 6. Parallels Desktop version 6 for Macintosh (PD6) was released on September 14. TMO covered the news, and the story…
Revert iTunes 10 Windows Controls, Remove Ping Pop-up
iTunes 10 Red, Yellow, Green Control buttons are reorientedHere’s the procedure: You don’t need to be an administrator. Quit iTunes. Launch the Terminal app in /Applications/Utilities Enter this command, then press return defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -bool TRUE Quit the Terminal app. Relaunch iTunes. To restore the default orientation, repeat steps 2 to 6 with…
iPad: Saying Good-bye to My Paper Magazines
Apple iPadSo I’ve started a pilot project to eliminate most of my paper magazine subscriptions and convert to digital format on the iPad. Of course, this has been possible previously on the Mac in some cases, but the size and portability of the iPad creates a critical psychological mass that allows one to take such…
iPod shuffle 4G: A Welcome Return to Classic Form
The iPod shuffle 4G marks Apple’s return to the classic form of the shuffle 2G. It’s even smaller* and has new features like playlists and VoiceOver that make it better and easier to use. The price is right at US$49, but the product also introduces some new problems that could have easily been avoided. The…
iTunes 10, at Last, Auto-repairs Broken Links
On March 3, 2010, I wrote “The iTunes Broken Promise: Broken Links.” In that analysis, I said, in part: “Apple’s first line of defense against this is an almost DOS-like, pathetic avoiding of responsibility by iTunes engineers. When you double click a song that has a broken link, iTunes invites you to go look for it,…
iAnnotate Features Markup of PDFs on iPad [UPDATED]
iAnnotate from Aji, LLC is an iPad app that downloads, reads and annotates PDF files. It works well as a PDF reader and storage app, but its strength is the ability to mark up a page with a colored pen, yellow highlighter, underlines and text notes. From the product page at Aji, here’s the full…
Timewinder for iPhone Improves on Clock app
The Clock app that come with the iPhone has an alarm and a timer function, but the functionality is simple. Timewinder extends the capability of the alarm and timer, but isn’t a full replacement because it lacks the world clock — or even a master clock (except for a special mode). Timewinder is a fairly…
New App Allows Windows Access from iPad
This, in part, solves the problem of limited capability of the iPad for content creation. “Tablets and other mobile devices are great for content consumption and work well as companions to the PC. However, as the popularity of these non-PC devices grows, computing experiences are becoming increasingly fragmented,” said Mark Lee, CEO and co-founder of…
Incase Snap Case for iPhone 4 is Clearly Cool
The Incase Snap Case for iPhone 4 is one of the options Apple presented as a free case to iPhone 4 purchasers. I picked it and was very pleasantly surprised by the design and features. This case is thin but durable and flexible plastic. There are two pieces included: the case itself and a small…
Particle Debris (wk. ending 8/13) Star Trek’s iPad & iPhone Hidden Features
Reader “WestCoastBob” sent me a reference to this very extensive article on all the apps that are installed on the iPad that is installed in the iCub light aircraft. If you’re into flying, you want to check it out.iCubFor those who may want to engage in a bit more speculation about the departure of Mark…
ZAGG InvisibleSHIELD for iPhone 4 has Problems
The ZAGG invisibleSHIELD for iPhone 4 is a set of thin, adhesive plastic strips designed to be stuck to the stainless steel edge of the iPhone 4. The claim is that it provides insulation sufficient to allow better signal reception. Out of Box ExperienceInside the large 4-1/2 x 8-inch cardboard packaging is a small plastic…