Mel Martin

Now doing consulting and recently wrote a book on film producer Samuel Bronston who made El Cid and Fall of the Roman Empire. I also did the commentary on Fall of the Roman Empire with Bill Bronston, the son of the late producer. I'm an amateur astronomer, and take lots of high resolution photos of galaxies and nebula from my backyard observatory in Arizona.

Mel Martin's Latest Posts

Boost case for iPhone keeps the battery going

by Mel Martin (May 24th 2012 7:00PM)

I love my iPhone 4S, but I am one of many who doesn't get great battery life from the phone. Apple has done some firmware updates that 'addressed' the problem, but I think battery life on my phone is still sub-par. I've looked at a few battery cases, but many were pretty clunky and didn't seem ...

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Star Walk and Solar Walk apps now track the Space X Dragon

by Mel Martin (May 24th 2012 3:00PM)

The two bestselling astronomy apps, Star Walk and Solar Walk for iOS, can now find and track the Space X Dragon, the first commercial vehicle to visit the International Space Station. The Dragon was launched Tuesday. When you search for the spacecraft, you'll see it's current position. As I ...

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Seagate to acquire LaCie

by Mel Martin (May 23rd 2012 4:15PM)

Storage giant Seagate has announced intentions to buy controlling interest in LaCie, a boutique hard drive and storage company. Seagate has offered to purchase from Philippe Spruch, LaCie's chairman and CEO, and his affiliate, all of their shares, representing 64.5% of the outstanding shares of ...

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How the iPad helped Greece's debt restructuring

by Mel Martin (May 23rd 2012 6:30AM)

Got a failing economy? Do what one consultant did -- secure 100 iPads to get the Greek debt restructured. Greece was facing bankruptcy, and the debt needed to be restructured and reduced. It is always a complicated and slow moving process. The iPads helped. It's all described in an article by ...

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ITC rules against Kodak, in favor of RIM and Apple

by Mel Martin (May 21st 2012 5:30PM)

This is strike two against Kodak at the US International Trade Commission. CNET is reporting today that administrative Judge Thomas Pender reaffirmed a decision from last year which stated that neither Apple or RIM were infringing Kodak patents. "I hereby reaffirm on remand that no violation of ...

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Earthlapse is a window on the Earth from space

by Mel Martin (May 20th 2012 2:30PM)

Earthlapse is a beautiful US$0.99 app for iOS that gives you an International Space Station view of the earth moving below. There are 8 time lapse scenes of weather, docking spacecraft and aurora in high resolution that is almost lifelike. You can control the speed of the movie, superimpose ...

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iPhone could have a four-inch screen, says Wall Street Journal

by Mel Martin (May 16th 2012 12:30PM)

The Wall Street Journal claims that Apple is ordering screens from Asian suppliers that are bigger than the 3.5 inch screen that has become the one and only standard for the iPhone. The Journal says iPhone production will begin next month, with new screens that measure at least 4 inches ...

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JPEGmini puts your images on a diet

by Mel Martin (May 14th 2012 8:00PM)

If you're like me, you've got a hard drive filling up with images. I do a lot of landscape photography, and while I normally shoot in RAW format, they get output as jpegs for the web, email, and the printing service I use. Over the years I've seen a lot of applications that will shrink jpegs, and ...

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AutoDesk provides impressive 3D captures on an iPad with a free app

by Mel Martin (May 14th 2012 8:00AM)

I'm always looking for impressive free apps to show what the iPad can accomplish, and I've done that this week with 123D Catch from AutoDesk. This iPad app (iPad 2 and new iPad only) allows you to use the iPad camera to photograph any object from a number of angles and elevations. Then the app ...

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Adobe updates Photoshop Touch for iPad with better resolution

by Mel Martin (May 11th 2012 1:10PM)

When I reviewed Adobe Photoshop Touch in February, I found it generally capable, but the app would downsize any large images you loaded to 1600 X 1600, which was very skimpy. This latest version, 1.2, released today, lets you increase the resolution to 2028 X 2048. Note that you must allow that ...

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