Apps For The Mobile Journalist

Capturing photography is a necessity for most journalists. To do this, you’ll want to have the latest and greatest iPhone. You’ll find that iPod touches and iPads have much lower quality cameras. The Pro HDR app will help you create some very distinctive looking shots. The HDR effect is a bit more pronounced in this app than the built-in camera app. Whether you use this app or the built-in camera, you’ll be glad you had your iPhone handy to capture some stellar photos.

Now that you’ve captured some great photos, you may want to enhance them. You can grab the iPhone version or the iPad version of this app. What kind of enhancements can you do with this app? Photogene offers the ability to do color adjustments, crop photos, straighten photos, add text balloons and frames, and even apply filters. Get your photos ready to publish with Photogene.

Now that you’ve gotten your photos ready to publish, you’ll want to send them to your publisher. A great way to share files is through Dropbox. The iOS app allows you to upload photos and videos to any folder found in your Dropbox account.

Before doing your writing you may want to record some audio. You can do interviews, record your own thoughts, and much more. SoundCloud allows you to record audio and get it out to the public. The app uploads audio to a website, which allows you to share it easily. This can be a valuable tool for those wanting to do impromptu interviews and share them with Twitter followers. If you want to simply record audio for your own use, the iPhone comes with a built in audio recorder app.

TwistedWave allows you to take audio recording to the next step. Not only can you record audio, but you can also edit that audio. You can do this on the iPhone or iPad since the app is universal. You can share that audio in a variety of formats and methods. You can even upload audio to an FTP server, which could come in handy if your news organization has a server they provide to reporters.

It’s time to start writing. You’ve gathered your photos and audio and have all of the info you need to begin your piece. Many writers find it easier to speak rather than type. The Dragon Dictation app allows you to turn your voice into typed text. You’ll want to double check the transcription, but for most people the accuracy is dead on.

WriteRoom provides a distraction free writing environment, which most journalists will appreciate. While Dragon Dictation is great, some still probably want to use the keyboard. WriteRoom is the best app to do your writing. It runs great on both the iPad and the iPhone. Dropbox sync helps you effortlessly get your text to your editors or onto your other computers.

A mobile journalist may not want to have all of these apps doing all of these different single function tasks. Evernote is the one app to replace many others. Evernote is your app to go to if you want to write, capture photos, record audio and even remember your location. The writing goes beyond WriteRoom with the ability to have formatted text. Evernote syncs with multiple platforms ensuring you can use it on practically any device or computer you have. Evernote is the ultimate app for any mobile journalist.

Publishing is an important thing for any journalist. Many websites are built entirely off Wordpress. The official app allows you to publish your posts with both photos and text. You can do your publishing with either your iPad or iPhone. The app is far from perfect, but provides a nice option for getting your work published when you are away from your laptop.

Use iTeleport when you need to access your home computer to grab a file or publish a story. You’ll be able to control your Mac or Windows computer over any Internet connection including 3G. You may not need to do this often, but you’ll be glad you had it set up for when you need it.