John Martellaro

On his Background Mode podcast, the Mac Observer’s John Martellaro interviews Indiana University Astronomer Dr. Catherine Pilachowski.

The new Apple Watch Series 4 has lots of options. John shows you how to select just the Apple Watch you want.

John delves into just what exactly AirPlay 2 is.

It wasn’t discussed in the WWDC keynote. But Apple’s has been developing a new file system for all its devices called Apple File System. It’s been a hot topic of discussion over the last week. Here are some of the notable things we’ve learned since the first day of WWDC along with some context.

Cash flow is king. Why wait a year for the next Amazon Prime renewal? That allows the customer to possibly fret about forking out the major expenditure of $99. Better to keep the money coming in regularly in digestible amounts. That was probably what Amazon was thinking when they introduced the new monthly pla

Sexploitation. It’s a word that we like to think is constrained to unsavory websites and isn’t approved of in polite society. And yet. Just as with many other technology developments that can be misused, 3-D printing and robot technology have enabled the construction of, if you will, android sex do

The very design of HTML uses both a hyperlink and link text. All you’re supposed to see is the link text, but that has led to various and sundry deceptive practices. Here’s how to see the actual URL in both OS X and iOS, in both mail and Safari.

The Siri remote on the Apple TV doesn’t have any LEDs that might give a hint as to the battery charge remaining. Instead, you’ll have to use it to go to the Apple TV Settings app to see the level. Unless, of course, the battery is dead...

Even before the Apple Watch first shipped, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced that Apple Watch quarterly sales would not be broken out for financial analysts. At first that seemed overly defensive by Apple and worrisome to observers, but in time, we’ve seen how clever a strategy it has been. John explai…

X-Doria has introduced the Revel line of four colorful Apple Watch cases. They simply snap on and leave all ports accessible. The case is flexible yet durable. John’s been using one with his Apple Watch for two weeks, and it has grown on him.

The Hewlett-Packard Z27s is a 27-inch, 4K Ultra High Definition display suitable for use with any modern PC or Macintosh. The IPS, anti-reflection display is flat, bright and the multiple mechanical adjustments as well as multiple inputs are superb. John Martellaro connected one to his Mac Pro and spent several mont

From time to time, with some older versions of Skype or even in some sporadic cases with apps in OS X El Capitan, the FaceTime (front facing) camera can fail to work with the message

From time to time, an app may lock up with a spinning beachball of death. Because you have no control of the cursor to activate a Force Quit or launch Activity Monitor, it’s necessary to invoke a keyboard command. John delves, lightly, into a handy trick.

When you install Google Chrome, you’re not just getting a browser. Google’s automatic update software gets installed behind the scenes on your Mac, without your consent. John Martellaro explains why it’s there, how to manage it and how to delete it if you don’t need it.

There’s nothing more boring than black text on a white background when listening to music. iTunes 12 allows you to turn on colored backgrounds for open albums, movies and playlists. Unfortunately, the color chosen isn’t up to you.

This handy trick, quietly introduced in iOS 8.3, can speed up your Apple Pay experience. Or help quite a bit when you know you’ll be one-handed at checkout. John Martellaro shows you how to do it.

Adobe’s Flash Internet Browser plug-in has had so many security issues over the years, especially recently, that many are calling for it to fade into the sunset. Here’s a concise FAQ on how check for what version you have installed, how to restrict how Flash is used, and how to delete it for good.

For some users, the elegance and convenience of an Apple Watch charging stand is essential. And soon, these stands will be even more useful when watchOS 2.0 introduces the