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Marco Arment

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Marco Arment
Portrait of Marco Arment
Arment in 2011
Born (1982-06-11) June 11, 1982 (age 42)
Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materAllegheny College (BS)
Occupations
Known forTumblr, Instapaper, Overcast, Accidental Tech Podcast
SpouseTiffany Arment
WebsiteMarco.org

Marco Arment (born June 11, 1982) is an American iOS developer and web developer, podcaster, technology writer and former magazine editor.[1] As a developer, he is best known for being chief technology officer for Tumblr and creating Instapaper and Overcast.

Early life and education

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Arment was born in Columbus, Ohio. He attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science.[2][3][non-primary source needed]

Career

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Software Development

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Arment worked as lead developer and chief technology officer (CTO) of the Tumblr microblogging platform and social networking website from its inception in February 2007 until September 2010,[4][5][non-primary source needed][6][failed verification] when he left to concentrate fully on Instapaper,[7][8][9] a tool for saving web pages to read later. Arment announced on April 25, 2013, that he had sold the controlling interest in Instapaper to Betaworks.[10][11]

In October 2012, Arment released The Magazine, an electronic, biweekly publication. In May 2013, one month after the sale of Instapaper, Arment announced he was selling The Magazine to Glenn Fleishman, its editor.[12][11]

In July 2013,[13][non-primary source needed] Marco released Bugshot, an application to quickly mark up screenshots so that beta testers of Overcast could easily send him bug reports. Marco sold Bugshot to Lickability[14][15][non-primary source needed] and the app was renamed to Pinpoint.[16]

On September 16, 2015, Arment released Peace, a Safari content blocker for iOS 9 using the Ghostery database.[17] After Peace had held the top spot on the App Store's list of paid apps for 36 hours, Arment pulled it from the App Store, stating he didn't "feel good" with its resounding success.[18] He elaborated, "While [ad blockers] do benefit a ton of people in major ways, they also hurt some, including many who don't deserve the hit."[19][non-primary source needed]

Podcasts

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Between November 2010 and December 2012, Arment hosted a podcast, Build and Analyze, with Dan Benjamin on 5by5 Studios. More recently, he has hosted two podcasts: Neutral and the Accidental Tech Podcast, with John Siracusa and Casey Liss.[20] He also hosts Top Four with his wife Tiffany Arment and Under the Radar with David Smith, both on Relay FM.[21][22][non-primary source needed]

In July 2014, Arment released Overcast, a podcast application for iOS. He had been working on the application since fall 2012, and publicly announced it at the XOXO festival in September 2013.[23][24]

In 2014, Arment also invested $50,000 in Gimlet Media.[25]

Blogging

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In December 2006, he launched a blog at Marco.org.[26][non-primary source needed] As of July 2014, the blog received more than 500,000 page views per month.[27][non-primary source needed]

On January 4, 2015, Arment posted an article to Marco.org[28][non-primary source needed] about Apple's declining software quality that unexpectedly went viral.[29][non-primary source needed] It was picked up by Business Insider, The Huffington Post, CNN, Heise, and a televised CNBC discussion segment,[30] among others.[29][non-primary source needed] Arment expressed his regret in a follow-up post the next day: "You might think this is a dream come true for a blogger, but it’s horrible. Instead, I looked back at what I wrote with regret, guilt, and embarrassment."[29][non-primary source needed] Arment expressed remorse for adding to the fear of imminent doom that regularly surrounds Apple instead of the more gradual decline in quality and constructive criticism he intended.[29][31][non-primary source needed]

References

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  1. ^ Williams, Alex (February 15, 2013). "Creating Hipsturbia". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  2. ^ Arment, Marco (June 1, 2013). "Marco D. Arment" (PDF). Marco.org. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  3. ^ Arment, Marco. "Don't Go To College – Marco.org". Marco.org. Retrieved December 26, 2016.
  4. ^ Frommer, Dan. "Tumblr CTO Steps Down To Focus On Instapaper, Independent Career". Business Insider. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  5. ^ Arment, Marco. "About". Marco.org. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  6. ^ "About". Tumblr. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 26, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ Bilton, Nick (September 23, 2010). "Instapaper Goes From Hobby to Start-Up". The New York Times. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  8. ^ Dishman, Lydia. "Instapaper Founder Marco Arment's Journey From Bagel Jockey to Publishing Pioneer". Fast Company. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  9. ^ Tsotsis, Alexia. "Marco Arment Leaves Tumblr To Devote Himself To Instapaper". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  10. ^ Arment, Marco. "The next generation of Instapaper". Marco.org. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  11. ^ a b Wilhelm, Alex (May 29, 2013). "Marco Arment sells The Magazine to editor Glenn Fleishman, 1 month after offloading Instapaper to Betaworks". TNW | Media. Retrieved May 16, 2024.
  12. ^ Arment, Marco (May 29, 2013). "I Sold The Magazine, Too". Marco.org. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  13. ^ Arment, Marco (July 17, 2013). "Bugshot". Marco.org. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  14. ^ Arment, Marco (May 28, 2015). "Bugshot becomes Pinpoint, gets big upgrade". Marco.org. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  15. ^ "Pinpoint • An iOS app to mark up screenshots". Lickability.com. June 9, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  16. ^ Viticci, Federico (May 28, 2015). "Bugshot Relaunches as Pinpoint". MacStories. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  17. ^ Toor, Amar (September 17, 2015). "Peace is a $2.99 ad-blocking app for iOS 9 from the maker of Instapaper". The Verge. Vox Media. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  18. ^ Greenberg, Julia (September 18, 2015). "Developer Pulls Most Popular Ad Blocker From iOS App Store". Wired. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on September 18, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  19. ^ Arment, Marco. "Just doesn't feel good". Marco.org. Retrieved September 18, 2015.
  20. ^ Wells, Peter (June 26, 2019). "Accidental hero: John Siracusa is a celebrity among tech nerds". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved July 20, 2019.
  21. ^ "Under the Radar - Relay FM". Relay FM. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  22. ^ "Top Four - Relay FM". Relay FM. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  23. ^ Arment, Marco (July 16, 2014). "Overcast". Marco.org. Retrieved July 20, 2014.
  24. ^ Panzarino, Matthew (July 20, 2014). "Why Marco Arment Built a Podcast App". TechCrunch. AOL. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  25. ^ "Alex Blumberg on StartUp podcast, Gimlet Media and the future of podcasting". Medill Knight Lab. Northwestern University. November 19, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  26. ^ Marco.org
  27. ^ Arment, Marco. "Sponsorship". Marco.org. Archived from the original on October 12, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  28. ^ Arment, Marco (January 4, 2015). "Apple has lost the functional high ground". Marco.org. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  29. ^ a b c d Arment, Marco (January 5, 2015). "What it's like to be way too popular for a day". Marco.org. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  30. ^ "Apple hardware great, software not: Developer". Squawk Alley. CNBC. January 5, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2019.
  31. ^ "Accidental Tech Podcast: 99: Pop-Up Headlights" (Podcast). Accidental Tech Podcast. ATP.fm. January 9, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
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