My Top 10 List Of Must-Have iPhone Apps For Journalists

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF chair & freelance aviation/travel journalist and blogger

As chair of NABJ’s Digital Journalism Task Force and certified digital media geek, I get asked all the time what are the best apps journalists should have on their iPhones. There’s a lot of great stuff out there, and 10 different journalists would give you 10 different apps.  Below are my picks, but I have many more apps I love to use.

1. AP Stylebook: OK, this puppy costs $24.99, but I shelled out the bucks for this journalists’ bible.  The app offers searchable listings for the main, sports, business, punctuation and social media sections, and it allows users to make custom entries and notes. It also lets you bookmark things — like datelines — that you tend to seek over and over.
   
2. Camera +: I thought the iPhone camera app was perfectly fine. Wrong!! I hate to pay for apps, but this has been worth every penny of the $1.99 cost.  I can use the camera flash as a continuous light.  I can better control and focus my pictures. I can shoot in different modes.  And I can automatically post to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Cool!
3. TIE Photoshop Express and iMovie: You have a cool camera app. Now you need an app to edit and organize your pictures. Photoshop Express is it.  You can crop, change the exposure, add colors and tints and upload to your favorite social media outlets. The MovieCamera app just rocks! You can use your flash to light a scene, it has auto focus, exposure and white balance, you can go hi res and HD AND you can see the sound recording levels.
4. iTalk: The iPhone comes with a perfectly good audio recorder.  But iTalk (the free version) is SO much more!! You get three levels of recording (good, better and best), a huge red record button and it puts your files in alphabetical order.  You can email smaller files, but need to download iTalk Sync to transfer larger files to your computer.  But if you buy iTalk Pro for $1.99, youcan use Dropbox to transfer your files.
5. Audioboo:  this app that lets you record up to five minutes of audio and attach a phot, that is easily posted to Twitter, Facebook, Posterous or Tumblr. Some folks even use it for quick podcasts and radio broadcasts.
6. Evernote: I’m one of those people who is addicted to the Notes function on my iPhone.  But the problem is, Notes is very static and I can’t access it when my phone isn’t around. In comes Evernote.  This app is Notes on steroids.  I can yype a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot. I can snap a pic of a business card.  I can store web pages. I can copy notes from Twitter.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The bonus is that I can access my Evernotes from any device — iPhone, iPad or laptop computer!
7. Dragon Go/Dragon Diction: The Dragon Go app lets you speak to find the things you need.  This app links you to everything from local businesses to books to maps to weather — all by voice. Keeping it in the family, I also like Dragon Dictation, which records you speaking and allows you to send an email, a tweet or a status update on Facebook.
8. Ustream: this app allows me to shoot live video from my iPhone. I can also upload the video to my YouTube channel.
9. Town Hall:  For 99 cents, you can track current and past members of Congress, including links to official sites, news, Wikipedia, OpenSecrets, VoteSmart and GovTrack.
10. Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  this app is powered by Dragon Diction, allowing you to do voice searches of words. It will even pronounce the words you look up.

Communication: There Is An App For That…Or Is There?

By Meta J. Mereday, writer/editor and diversity, media and community development expert

Living in this high technology and increasing digitized existence makes me wonder a great deal about the future.  In a world that has become the “change your app to control your life” existence, I continue to ask myself are we really better off or not.

There are apps to give you directions, make dinner reservations, correct spelling errors and set up your wardrobe.  All we need now is the app to drive the car itself versus that persistent voice telling you how lost — and actually  how dependent – you are to technology versus instincts.

Some people are so attached to their phones and the multitude of applications, they can no longer write with a pen, count change in their heads or speak in full sentences — there are apps for all of that! Just the notion that the words in the English language, which is so many cases is abridged, altered and adulterated, just becomes further assaulted when you have highly educated human beings who now have to learn what letter combinations such BFF and IDK mean to communicate with the younger generation.

 By improving our way of life and accessibility to information, we have diminished our way of communicating with each other and utilizing the portions of the brain that were designed for creative process and human exchange. There are apps that pick art work, apps that design our homes, apps that explain apps.

Even the phrase “apps” is an abbreviation on the word “applications.”  A word that used to have other meanings, but has now become a part of the modern culture, short-cut mindset.

Unfortunately, there is no going back, but I am sure there is an “app” that will provide you with a time travel experience — or there will be.  It is bad enough that you can hardly get two words out of teenagers who will suffer from what I call  ATCNS – advanced texting crooked neck syndrome- before they reach 30 and will have major neck and back pains, if not a perpetual slump by 40 years old.

What are we really saying as we streamline the communication process and minimize the power of the written and spoken word?  In the media industry, many are bemoaning the fact that people are not reading, thus the demise of newspapers, magazines and the many jobs therein.

In the education field, the experts are embarrassed by the low reading and writing scores of our young people who represent the booming clientele for all things digital.  Reading the blurbs on the iPad or getting an abbreviated tweet has taken the place of knowledge based fact finding, reading comprehension and writing proficiency.

It is the modern day “cheat sheet” to awareness and understand. Do we not see the connection to the problem being the bridge to ignorance built by the digital era?  I am guessing that we do not see it because it takes too long to grasp the concept and we do not talk about these issues in depth anymore.

We have gotten away from the interpersonal exchange of information - for example, sitting at the knees or our elders. It is not just about lack of diversity and inclusion, which is still a problem, but the even bigger problem is our own digital diversion from social infrastructure and common bonds – conversation, communication and compassion. We don’t talk to each other, we don’t share our stories and we don’t involve ourselves in preserving our own history.

So, do we really think that next generation – “bought everything for to make them better because they got what you didn’t get group – is going to understand the underlying meaning of your actions without words?  Think again — but maybe there might be an app out there to help with that too.

Top 10 Apps I Picked Up At NABJ 2011

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

At last week’s NABJ Convention, Val Hoeppner of the Freedom Forum taught MOBILE STORYTELLING 101 as a half-day Learning Lab. As part of the lab. Hoeppner showed us a bunch of iPhone apps that journalists can use in mobile storytelling, Here are my 10 favorites. All are free unless otherwise noted.

Val Hoeppner – Google+ If you need to take your multimedia skills to the next level check out our Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp in Nashville, Tenn. Oct. 12-16, 2011. Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp Offered Oct. 2011. Workshops and Conferences. Advanced Multimedia Boot Camp is for professional journalists, journalism educators, students and others with some multimedi…

2011 Convention – Tuesday and Wednesday – National Association of Black Journalists NABJ BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING Location: 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m. REGISTRATION & WELCOME CENTER Location: Broad Street Foyer Make sure to visit the registration & welcome center for all of your convention materials. Sign up for the special events, including the golf tournament, the 5K Walk/Run, and purchase tickets to the Salute to Excellence Awards Gala and Saturday Gospel Brunch.

“	I have so many #nabj11takeaway moments, it’s hard to choose. I’ll pick @vhoeppner Visual Storytelling & @webbmedia top 10 #techtrends. #NABJ
	NABJDigital August 8, 2011

Let’s face it — even though we are all news gatherers, we are also voracious news consumers.  I’m shocked that I didn’t have the AP Mobile app on my iPhone, considering all the great content available on it.

AP Mobile AP Mobile is an award-winning multimedia news portal developed by The Associated Press that provides anytime access to international, national and local news. In addition to AP’s own worldwide coverage of breaking news, sports, entertainment, politics and business, more than 1,000 AP members and third-party sources provide content for AP Mobile.

I’m one of those people who is addicted to the Notes function on my iPhone.  But the problem is, Notes is very static and I can’t access it when my phone isn’t around. In comes Evernote.  This app is Notes on steroids.  I can “Type a text note. Clip a web page. Snap a photo. Grab a screenshot.” I can snap a pic of a business card.  I can store web pages. I can copy notes from Twitter.  I could go on, but you get the point.  The bonus is that I can access my Evernotes from any device — iPhone, iPad or laptop computer!

Remember Everything | Evernote Corporation Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. Search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images. Get Evernote Download Now It’s free.

And here I thought my installed iPhone camera app was perfectly fine. Wrong!! I hate to pay for apps, but this has been worth every penny of the $1.99 cost.  I can use the camera flash as a continuous light.  I can better control and focus my pictures. I can shoot in different modes.  And I can automatically post to Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Cool!

Camera+ …the ultimate photo app Use the iPhone 4 LED flash as a continuous fill light to improve photo quality, especially for portrait and macro shots. Use the grid to line up your shots and eliminate tilted shots. Up to 6× zoom with advanced digital processing provides you with quality that simply blows away the competition.

You have a cool camera app. Now you need an app to edit and organize your pictures. Photoshop Express is it.  You can crop, change the exposure, add colors and tints and upload to your favorite social media outlets.

Photo Editor, Online Photo Editor, Photoshop Express | Photoshop.com First things first… create an account Create a free Photoshop.com account so you can use Photoshop Express apps to upload photos, store and organize them, and create interactive slideshows-and to quickly post your edited photos to sites like Facebook. Does your photo need a quick fix? Crop, straighten, adjust color, and touch up imperfections.

Staying with the photo theme, Hoeppner told us about the Pano app, which allows you to easily take fantastic panoramic pictures.  I love that this app tells you just where to move the camera to use up to 16 photos for a 360 degree shot.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareSocialPreview?id=293709029&mt=8&s=143441&wdId=32800

I’ve used the iPhone video camera, but the MovieCamera app just rocks! You can use your flash to light a scene, it has auto focus, exposure and white balance, you can go hi res and HD AND you can see the sound recording levels. Sweet!

iPhone – iPod Touch – iPad Apps Finally! A motion picture camera app for the iPod touch, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 that allows your professional skills to shine. Movie Camera is designed for professional cinematographers who want to leverage the small size and portability of the iPod touch or iPhone but still want complete control over the picture settings.

The iPhone comes with a perfectly good audio recorder.  But iTalk (the free version) is SO much more!! You get three levels of recording (good, better and best), a huge red record button and it puts your files in alphabetical order.  You can email smaller files, but need to download iTalk Sync to transfer larger files to your computer.  But if you buy iTalk Pro for $1.99, youcan use Dropbox to transfer your files.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftwareSocialPreview?id=293673304&mt=8&s=143441&wdId=32800

iTalk Sync Free Download for Mac and Windows | One More Tap Griffin Technology has just released a public beta version of iTalk Sync for Windows computers. iTalk Sync is a companion program to iTalk. iTalk Sync for the Mac is also available and requires Mac OS X v10.4 or greater. iTalk turns your iPhone, iPhone 3G or 2nd generation iPod touch into a high-quality recording device.

Hoeppner had nothing but high praise for Tumblr,a microblogging site that can be used via browser, phone, desktop or email.  Tumblr allows you to post content including ext, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos.  Check out how NPR is using Tumblr, below.

Sign up | Tumblr

When analyzing the black women who are 35 and older, the percent who have never been married drops to 25 percent, indicating that a solid majority of black women get married before they turn 35.

The Dragon Go app lets you speak to find the things you need.I used it in Philadelphia to find a restaurant that had late-night delivery because I was still starving after an evening reception.  I highly recommend the soup dumplings!  This app links you to everything from local businesses to books to maps to weather — all by voice. Keeping it in the family, I also like Dragon Dictation, which records you speaking and allows you to send an email, a tweet or a status update on Facebook.

Dragon Go! Say What You Want and Dragon Go! Delivers Across the Mobile Web Imagine – one app access to everything you want on the mobile web! That’s Dragon Go! You just say what you want and Dragon Go! not only hears what you say – it also understands what you want and gives you direct access to the best sites on the Mobile Web delivering what you want.

Compose message and update Social Networking status – by voice on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch Dragon Dictation, powered by Nuance’s world-renowned Dragon NaturallySpeaking software, allows you to stay connected all the time, even when your hands are busy.

We ended the session with Hoeppner sending us out into the halls to use one of our tools to do a small mobile storytelling project.  I chose to use Audioboo, an app that lets you record up to five minutes of audio and attach a photo, that is easily posted to Twitter, Facebook, Posterous, Tumblr or Friendfeed.  Below is one I did with one of my fellow attendees. Enjoy!

Audioboo

http://boos.audioboo.fm/swf/fullsize_player.swf

Did You Love The NABJ 2011 Convention App? Here’s The Back Story

Michelle Johnson

Editor’s note: Michelle Johnson is the Associate Professor of the Practice, Multimedia Journalism at Boston University’s Department of Journalism.  She’s also the co-chair of the Online News Association’s (ONA) 2011 convention in Boston Sept. 22-25.  Below, she writes about the ubercool app that was created in conjunction with Guidebook to keep NABJ members in the know about all the events at last week’s convention in Philadelphia.  Not a bad word was said about the final project.

This all started at the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. I heard that NAHJ didn’t have a conference app and wondered if we could whip one up. I knew about a company called Guidebook because we’re using them to do the ONA conference app.

Their prices are pretty reasonable, but we had zero budget, so I contacted them to ask if they might be willing to comp us an account in exchange for a sponsor logo. They said yes, and I had some students painstakingly enter the schedule into a spreadsheet which we uploaded to get the app up and running.

A week later, I heard that NABJ wouldn’t have a convention app this year because it was cost-prohibitive. So, once again I got on the phone with the CEO of Guidebook and we agreed on a reduced fee and sponsorship link. We didn’t have much time to turn this around, just a couple of days.  And NABJ, unlike NAHJ, didn’t have the schedule in a spreadsheet already. In fact, it was worse this time because it was in a pdf and there were sooo many sessions.

So me and the other student mentors — Ingrid Sturgis, Allison Davis and Jennifer Dronkers — did a cut-and-paste relay. I started by cutting and pasting from the pdf into the spreadsheet. Then I send it to Jen Dronkers at the Poynter Institute. She did a couple of hours then passed it on to Ingrid Sturgis in Washington, D.C. Ingrid worked on it and passed to Allison Davis in New York. Allison then sent the completed spreadsheet back to me in Boston around 11 p.m. We had started in the morning!  I’m not sure how many sessions it was in total, but we got the entire schedule copied over in a day, uploaded it and, bam — instant app.

I’m very impressed with Guidebook. It’s economical and offers lots of bells and whistles in the premium version. One chief advantage is that you download it to your phone. No need to be online to access it. Whenever we update it on the back end, it pushed out a notice to users that there’s a new version and offers them a download. So, that’s the story of the very first NABJ convention app.

Friday Fast Five + Five: The NABJ Convention Edition

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

The National Association of Black Journalists Annual Convention and Career Fair is only 12 days away, and I’m in full preparation mode.  First, I hope you’ll attend my workshop — BRAND YOU: CREATING YOUR ONLINE IDENTITY — on Thursday, Aug. 4 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in Room 119B.  My goal is that by the end of this interactive workshop, you will be well on your way to creating your own brand.

Today’s Fast Five + Five is all about the iPhone apps I’ll be using to help me keep up and document everything going on at the show.  For you Android users, I’m sure you can find similar apps. And for Blackberry users? I’m really sorry (don’t hate – my work phone is a Blackberry).

1. Concur: My company uses this program to track travel and work expenses.  I’m blessed that my company pays for me to attend NABJ, and this app will allow me to keep track of expenses on the run.  And after the convention, there’s no huge pile of receipts to track. Nice!
   
2. WordPress: I write two blogs — AviationQueen.com and this one — on this blogging platform. The app allows me to review, approve and write comments and even churn out a quick post on the run.
3. CamCard ($6.99): every year I collect a huge stack of business cards and 0nly input a fraction of them on Microsoft Outlook. I hate paying for apps, but this one was worth the money.  I can take a picture of a card and the information is automatically updated in my NABJ contacts group. Plus it’s environmentally friendly.
4. Ustream: this app allows me to shoot live video from my iPhone. I can also upload the video to my YouTube channel.
5. Instagram: anyone who knows me knows I’m always carrying my camera.  I love the pictures I can take with my iPhone, which makes this app a joy. I can do all kinds of photo tricks and upload directly to Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
6. Tweet Deck: not only can I keep track of my five Twitter accounts, I can also create columns to follow the #NABJ11 and #NABJ hashtags.
7. Dragon Dictation: Let’s say I’m in a workshop or plenary and I want to dash off a quick message about what I’m hearing.  I can use this voice recognition app to record and upload the message to Twitter, Facebook, email or a text message.  The translation isn’t perfect, but it’s still quicker than typing.
8. BlueFiRe: the audio recorder that comes with the iPhone is adequate. The FREE Blue FiRe audio recorder app ROCKS!!  It has markers, different sound recording levels and an FTP site that automatically allows you to upload up to 2 GB of recordings.
9. QR Reader: more and more convention exhibitors and attendees are using QR codes to provide information on goods, services and data.  This reader allows me to snap a picture with my iPhone and download information.
10. Around Me: when you’re in an unfamiliar city, you need to know where certain things are, like banks/ATMs, parking, pharmacies, restaurants, stores and even hospitals.  This app will use the GPS function on your iPhone to tell you where the nearest outposts are.

So did I miss any? What are your must-have iPhone apps for the convention?

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

1. 10000 Words — Five ways to visualize your personal data
2. Journalists’ Toolkit — Flash Journalism Updates
3. Mashable — 11 Excellent iPad Apps for Meetings & Presentations
4. Ragan’s PR Daily — 5 writing tips from newspaper editors
5. MakeUseOf — The Top 5 Best Search Engines To Search Photos On Flickr
6. Innovative Interactivity II — Five tips for emerging video journalists
7. Web Design Ledger — 10 Blogs to Help You Become a Photography Expert
8. Gizmo’s Freeware — 9 Superb Free Apps that you Simply Must Install on Your Android Phone
9. Social Media Examiner — 17 Ways to Grow Your Blog From Top Bloggers
10. Dumb Little Man — Top 12 iPhone Apps That’ll Increase Your Productivity

Friday Fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

1. 10000 Words — 3 iPad apps to help you give better presentations
2. Reynolds Center — Steve Doig’s best of CAR Conference: 13 free tools to analyze, display data
3. Media Shift Idea Lab — How to Design Fast, Interactive Maps Without Flash
4. Journalists’ Toolkit – Web hosting and domain names
5. Mashable — 8 Ways to Improve Your Live Event With Social Media
6. MakeUseOf — The Top 5 Best Search Engines To Search Photos On Flickr
7. SmartBlog on Social Media — 6 tools to measure your personal branding efforts
8. Innovative Interactivity — Five mobile apps to deliver multimedia news in real time
9. Social Media Examiner — 17 Ways to Grow Your Blog From Top Bloggers
10. Journalism.co.uk — Five great examples of data journalism using Google Fusion Tables

Friday Fast Five + Five – The Mashable Edition

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

Editor’s note: please join the NABJ Reinvention Committee and Digital Journalism Task Force for a BlogTalkRadio show, “In the Thick of My Career: Searching for the ‘New Me,’” April 29 at noon EDT. Neil Foote of Foote Communications and the University of North Texas, will show mid-career professionals how to revamp their skills and become more tech savvy.   And click here for the replay of our first show in this series — “The Young & the Restless: Keeping Hope & Journalism Alive,” which aired on April 15.  Our third and final show in the series will be “Laid Off, Bought Out & Scared: Managing My Life and Finances.”  This session with Past NABJ President Sidmel Estes of BreakThrough Inc., targets journalists who may have recently lost their jobs or fear they may lose them. We’ll discuss what you can do now to prepare for the worst, how you adjust to life without the office and offer Budgeting 101 tips.

As you know, I keep a Mashable bookmark folder on my laptop for these Fast Five tips.  This particular folder is bursting at the seams, so I deleted some items and decided to throw out the rest as a five plus five bonus edition.  Enjoy!

1. HOW TO: Turn Your Facebook Profile Photo Into a Video
2. 10 Online Tools and Tips for the Budding Entrepreneur
3. HOW TO: Jump-Start Your Career by Becoming an Online Influencer
4. Lanyrd Keeps Your Conference Life On Track, Via Twitter
5. Bring Your Tumblr Content to WordPress With Ease
6. Is Developing a Mobile App Worth the Cost?
7. 44 Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed
8. 8 Simple Ways to Improve Your YouTube Channel
9. HOW TO: Add Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website
10. HOW TO: Hire a Great Web Designer, With Y Combinator’s Garry Tan

Friday Fast Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

1. 10000 Words – Tools of the Day: definr & Thsrs
2. Journalists’ Toolkit - iMovie 09 tutorials for journalism students
3. Mashable – ShoutEm Makes It Easy to Create Your Own Mobile App
4. New Media Photographer – 33 ways photographers can use QR codes
5. BatchGeo – Create Maps

Friday fast Five + Five

By Benét J. Wilson, DJTF co-chair, Online Managing Editor-Business Aviation, Aviation Week Group

It’s the end of the month, so I need to clean out my Fast Five bookmark folder.  So today, you get five plus five! And my 10000 Words streak continues, unabated. Enjoy!!

1. 10000 Words – Six must-have WordPress plugins for newsrooms
2. Networked – Using Windows Movie Maker to edit audio clips — yes, audio clips
3. Journalists’ Toolkit – Use Kuler, Photoshop to make a quick palette
4. Read Write Web – Why You Should Use Gmail’s Mobile Web App Over iPhone Mail
5. Mashable – Another 10 Creative Uses of the New Facebook Profile [PICS]
6. Blogging Tips - A Second Look: 6 Types of Twitter Tools That Come in Handy
7. The Gadget Guy – Make a snazzy Facebook profile page with these apps
8. Make Use Of – 7 Apps That Will Help You Use Your iPad For Writing Projects
9. AppStorm – 18 Awesome Survey & Poll Apps
10. Poynter – Storify’s best uses turn news into conversations