Essential apps for today's mobile journalist

Thirty years ago a journalist would be equipped with not much more than a pen and notepad and would travel with a full camera crew to capture news footage. Today this capability has literally shrunk into our pockets with the potential to make any of us a reporter.

So in no particular order I have complied a list of some of my favourite iPhone apps that I believe any mobile journalist cannot live without.

Blogging Apps

In the age of the internet news can be as much about getting the story out as quickly as possible as creating finely crafted prose and blog can offer a great platform for doing this. Both WordPress and Tumblr offer fantastic apps that make it simple to bang a story out on the spot, upload and edit as required.

iMove/ReelDirector

With the release of iPhone 4 and its HD video capability Apple also created a mobile version of its successful iMove editing suite which although very basic does allow quick edits to be made to video footage directly on the phone. ReelDirectorhas been in this space for slightly longer and also has a capable app that has offers all the features of iMove plus a few more to boot.

uStream

Even low quality reel time footage can send a powerful message and the uStreamapp makes it a simple process to broadcast live through a wifi or 3g connection.

Evernote

If I am going to be away from the office for more than a day then I'll drag my MacBook but I don't carry it around everywhere. The same cannot be said about my iPhone which I literally do have everywhere I go. Evernote comes with a simple interface for quick story (or even a finished piece if needs must) attach some images and maybe a voice recording - all within the same app, which then stores the content online so it can be accessed from anywhere using any device on any platform. Neat, and essential.

AudioBoo

It’s not enough to just write the news anymore, apparently you’ve also got to talk it now and a couple of questions on AudioBoo can really help lift a boring article.. AudioBoo allows you to simply record a five minute clip which you can then upload, share or embed.

Wolfram Alpha

Facts, facts and more facts is what Wolfram is about. This computational knowledge engine draws on some 50,000 built-in algorithms and an amazing 10 trillion pieces of updated and curated data to provide expert answers to free-form questions. If you want to find out what the fourth biggest female population centre is in the world then Wolfram can provide the answer.

Twitter

Twitter is a great communications tool and is a great way to discover stories and connect and discuss with experts. It is also invaluable in getting your work discovered.

Dropbox

Need to store files and text that you can access on the move then DropBox is a great app to have. It automatically synchs your cloud data to your phone.

Skype

With Skype on your iPhone or iPod touch you can call and instant message anyone else on Skype for free. You also can call landlines and mobiles and send SMS anywhere in the world at great rates. Now works both on wifi and 3g connections.

Facebook

Facebook for iPhone makes it easy to stay connected and share information. You can view news feed groups, view events, and upload photos and videos, but you cannot view videos that have been uploaded to FB. App includes built-in web browser

Instapaper

The Instapaper app is one of the easiest ways to store web pages for later offline reading. A fantastic way to make sure you never miss out on an article even when you are in a rush

Conclusion

This is a far from exhaustive list of apps that is available to the mobile journalists and if you have any other suggestions do tell. But it does show that from London to Kabul the power of the media is literally being put into our pockets.

Posted via email from fakingIt

The future of travel publishing is the app

Travel guide publishing is the canary in the coal
mine for the printed book with sales down 38% in five years. If this rate of decline continues then the last LP or Rough Guide will be published in 7 years.

Spurred on by the recession and with people to choosing to use the internet to do their own research sales of printed travel guides can only continue to fall.

Let's face it lugging a travel guide book around with you is inconvenient.

The future of the travel guide is the app.

It has convenience combined with features impossible to do with the printed book:

• Point your phone at an interesting building and get its full history;
• automatically build an itinerary based on your preferences;
• get restaurant and hotel recommendations combined with discounts streamed to your phone for the area that you are standing;
• speak into your phone for automatic translation into the local language;
• and a whole host of social features that could make discovering new people as easy as finding new places.

Although the future of the printed travel guide book is bleak, the information that it contains is soon to liberated in a much more exciting way.

Posted via email from fakingIt

A quiet revolution is underway in Africa

Many of us take the Internet for granted, but what about locations that are too remote or economically impoverished to enjoy the hi-tech benefits of the developed world?

The Shadow Chancellor in the UK, George Osborne, illustrated in a recent speech that people in the developing world - even in the poorest of circumstances - do care about having access to technology.

In a visit to a remote village in Rwanda in 2007 he and 40 other Conservative Party volunteers were working on transforming a once derelict orphanage into a school.

When it was announced that they were going to fix up the buildings and improve the water supply there were cheers from the villagers, but the loudest shouts were received when it was announced that the school was to be equipped with a computer.

Osborne was at first surprised with the reaction - access to a computer is not a fundamental of life. But even villagers in the remotest part of Rwanda knew about computers and the Internet and didn’t want their children to be excluded - as they had been - from something that could help lift them out of poverty.

While computer penetration is still low, Africans are buying mobile phones at a world record rate with take-up soaring 550% in five years. Now one third of the population in Africa owns a mobile phone.

These devices are being used in Africa to do all sorts of things never dreamt about by their creators. Transferring money via SMS between people who don’t have a bank account is now a huge business.

They are also acting as a link to get information out from rural areas and onto the Internet.

In Kenya, soon after violence erupted in 2007/8 elections, Mashada- a prominent online forum - launched an SMS hotline to help share information. Several prominent Kenyan blogs also accepted comments via SMS. Perhaps most prominently, BBC Africa’s ‘Have Your Say’ received over 3800 and published over 1300 comments after requesting updates from Kenyans.

While these innovative SMS tools are allowing more people to contribute opinions and information, none of them can yet directly reach the majority of the population, who need Internet access to see the posted messages.

Twitter is perhaps the most promising tool because of its ability to deliver messages to mobile phones. In the Kenyan elections twitter was used by journalists in trouble spots to warn people in real time to avoid these locations as well as to inform the world of what was happening.

Now, finally, Africa is getting the new high-speed Internet connections developed countries have had for years. In September 2009, a new cable linked up East Africa and this, combined with widespread mobile access, is promising to revolutionise business and communications, acting as a check on corrupt regimes by exposing malpractice and lifting areas of the continent out of poverty.

The Internet won't create success for Africa but perhaps the freedoms it brings will.