About the writers
Apptitude Test is written by a collection of Boston.com and Boston Globe mobile aficionados. We'll take turns reviewing our favorite apps for you - one review every day, Monday through Friday - from kids' apps to entertainment apps to sports apps. Lend your opinion in the comments, and also let us know if there are apps you want us to review. Here's more about each of us:
Joe Allen-Black is Boston.com’s senior business producer. He has five pages of apps on his iPhone (most of them he hasn’t used in months), and he worries it makes Siri mad. His favorite? Songify. Who doesn’t want to be able to auto-tune themselves to a dance beat at all times?
Zuri Berry is a sports writer and producer for Boston.com. He was formerly an award-winning writer for a community newspaper in California where he doubled as the web dude. Today, he flashes his iPhone at old and young fogies alike. His most-used app? MLB.com’s At Bat, of course.
Sophie Bodor, 11, is a fifth-grader at Grafton Elementary School. She has a younger brother and sister, and a little white dog named Gracie. Together (including the dog), they download dozens of apps for iPhone and iPad weekly. Her father is director of product development for Boston.com, and he insists that her opinions are her own.
"Hiawatha Bray" is the code name for an artificial intelligence program on loan to The Boston Globe from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This ambitious set of algorithms generates the Globe's Tech Lab and Tech Lab Plus columns, as well as surprisingly reliable reports on breaking technology news. During its downtime, "Bray" is writing a book on location technology. In a bid to increase readership, the Globe employs part-time actor Henry Shipman to portray "Hiawatha Bray" in twice-monthly appearances on the Fox 25 Morning News.
Elizabeth Comeau is the senior health & wellness producer for Boston.com. She’s a health-food nut, fitness freak, and has pages of “Pinterest ideas” to try out on her adorable but completely-unwilling-to-craft toddler. She hates fad diets and cares only about the apps that actually help her move the scale on her weight loss and fitness journey.
Teresa Hanafin is director of engagement and social media for Boston.com and BostonGlobe.com. She’s currently obsessed with The Creeps game app on her iPhone and enjoys looking up celebrity heights on her Kindle Fire while watching TV (Jon Stewart is only 5’6”!).
Damon Kiesow is a senior product manager for mobile at Boston.com. Though formerly a journalist, he now has comma-phobia. The odd capitalization patterns in Apple products also mildly concern him.
Angela Nelson is Boston.com’s news editor. She’s an iPhone newbie whose 4-year-old can operate the device better than she can … almost. As a busy working mom, she’s terrified of having committed herself to one more project (this blog), though she welcomes the opportunity to join the 21st century and explore the world of apps.
Kristi Palma is Boston.com’s community producer. Droid apps have saved her butt on more than one occasion when her young children were unruly at the doctor’s office/restaurant/insert-name-of-any-public-place-where-children-should-not-hoot-and-holler.
Matt Pepin is Boston.com’s sports editor. He enjoys bringing his iPad to meetings so it looks like he’s working, but he’s really checking sports scores.
Rachel Raczka is the lifestyle producer for Boston.com. Since 1995, she has fantasizing about the day that technology would put a “Clueless”-esque remote control closet in her future. Thanks to the iPhone, the dream has finally come true.
Chris Rattey is a director of product development at Boston.com. When he's not wiping tiny fingerprints off his tablet, he's fixated on Netflix and HBO Go. And he no longer needs an alarm clock, as he is consistently awoken at dawn by the same request: "Daddy, can I play with your iPad?"
Swati Sharma is a producer for Boston.com. She loves shopping, taking photos, and exploring the city. She has about 25 apps for each love. That’s a lot of apps.
Mike Warshaw is assistant business editor at The Boston Globe and editor of the annual Globe 100 and Top Places to Work surveys of Massachusetts’ businesses. Warshaw grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., Thailand, Virginia, and Puerto Rico. Despite an early career in radio, including stints at WBCN and WAAF, guess which accent was the one that stuck.
