There are thousands of APPs that you can download now that can help you with your work as a journalist. Some of them are intended for journalists and others not but can make a huge difference to your work. The Google Maps APP alone has made a huge difference to my work, as I no longer spend hours wandering around strange cities looking for addresses of people I need to interview.
Broadly speaking there are three kinds of APPs that will be useful to you. Firstly the tools, like the camera APPs, video editing APPs, sound recording APPs and a word processor. If you have to write a lot on the phone I strongly recommend a bluetooth keyboard that will take out much of the frustration in using the small screen keys.
In the final video D J Clark looks at other APPs that are useful to journalists going about everyday assignments.
A few of my favorites are ‘Trails’ for creating a GPS log of where I have been. I can later attach that log to the files so they all have locations written into the metadata. ‘Hindenburg’ is a great audio recorder and ‘TPE” is very useful for working out where the sun will rise or set in any location for the perfect sunrise/sunset image. Oh and make sure you have one of the many timelapse APPs for a dramatic intro or finale to your video.
The second type of APPs are those that can store information you might need. I have PDFs of my camera and audio equipment manuals in case i need to know how to solve a problem. I also have the style guide for the publications i work for and notes on the subject I am working on to remind me before I start an interview.
The final type of APPs are those to help you get around, like the maps, address book, weather etc. All help to make sure you can deliver the best possible assignment on time.
Conclusion
That concludes the ‘Going Mobile’ chapter. I hope you feel inspired to go experiment with the phone that is probably in your pocket already. It has tremendous potential as a camera for video and still images, as an editing machine and to send your final packages. But never forget it will never be as good as a professional kit such as those described in earlier chapters.
Learn how to use it, put together an emergency accessories kit and then keep it with you at all times should you need to use it. Since I learnt to use my phone, I rarely carry my professional equipment when I am not working, confident now that should I stumble across a breaking news story I have everything with me to get the story out quickly.