Ideas

Will Sullivan, 2010-2011 Fellow

A study released this week from Harris Interactive found that nearly 40 percent of users were unhappy with branded apps and that users highly value the interactive experience and usability of an app.

 Will Sullivan, 2010-2011 Fellow

The Unofficial Apple Weblog posted some interesting insights from a News Corp exec speaking at the Monaco Media Forum

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

Few things in life are as certain as death and taxes. One thing that is also guaranteed, there will be errors in journalism. Nobody is perfect. The future of journalism won't be error free, but it will have a different attitude to how corrections are caught, fixed and dealt with. Some of those changes we have already observed, newspapers popularized the strikethrough, blogs popularized the strikethrough, but the changes are ongoing.

There are two different UStream applications. One is UStream Recorder and the other is UStream Broadcaster. The differences between the two are pretty self-explanatory. Both have their own uses that would benefit you in different situations.

Brian Steffens, Director of Communications

The process of capturing the local news agenda is simple: Pick stories of sweeping significance to your community, report them completely, tell them compellingly, pursue them relentlessly and play them effectively. Repeat as necessary. ... read more

Confessions of a print junkie

Twitter partners with newsrooms

Hearst, Gannett unfazed by AOL's Patch?

Will Sullivan, 2010-2011 Fellow

This would be a great idea if all the features worked how they are supposed to.You are able to broadcast your written messages and photos easily. Essentially what you’re doing is live blogging an event of some sort. It is very simple and has great potential. You can use video captured on your phone or you can capture video through the application. It works the same with photos. Audio is captured through the app.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

I was in the "New Media" track at Columbia's J-school. As a student I was immersed in and became accustomed to the "new media skill set." I learned video, photography/photoshop, flash, html, etc.

The first keyboard, 8pen, is an alternative to the QWERTY keyboard. The letters are placed on four axes and are arranged in a way so the most common letters used are closer to the middle. 

This wireless keyboard is easy to set up and doesn’t require a lot of stress to get it working. Just follow the instructions and you'll have it up and running. The Freedom Pro works with the Android and iPhone.

Along with the Monster Pod, this is another very strange invention for mobile journalists. You take a bottle of water or pop, and place this tripod over the cap. There’s a cold foot on top, so be sure you have a way to screw your device into it. It’s a cheap way to keep your video steady.

Joy Mayer, 2010-2011 Fellow

John Temple, editor of the Civil Beat (and formerly of the Rocky Mountain News), poses this question: How do you behave when you're a trusted friend? On John's staff, the people known as "reporter/hosts" are working to build relationships with readers, and a relationships involves sharing information about themselves and being present in their coverage.

The Monster Pod is the strangest piece of equipment I’ve ever used or seen. It’s a tripod that sticks pretty much wherever you need it to. It stays on branches, rocks, brick, glass, you name it, and it sticks there. Just be careful.

I think this is the best battery to use when you’re on the go. All of the external charges need to be plugged in so they can charge, so that’s something you need to do before taking it to report.

I love this tool from Zacuto because it’s hand held. I tend to have an issue with setting up tripods; they’re ungainly and take time to stabilize and balance.

David Cohn, 2010-2011 Fellow

Publish Insight Network, from American Public Media, will be eight years old this January. In web terminology - that makes it ancient. Before Twitter, before "crowdsourcing" was a word, before "the year of the blog" and more.

So what is it, how is it still relevant and where will it go?

I love this application. It’s not a fancy app, but it really does good work. All you do is take a picture and the application allows you to make it black and white or crop it. The cropping is probably the best part about this tool.

Hipstamatic is my personal least favorite application, which is odd because as far as features for photography (NOT editing) go, versatile barely describes it.

Dragon Dictation is an extremely simple, fairly interesting little transcription application for the iPhone. Right here in the beginning, I should say that the best thing about it is that it’s free.

Photoshop Express is a very simple photo editing application for the iPhone. The best thing about this application is that it is free, unlike many of the other photo applications we tested.

Photogene is easily my favorite photo editing application on the iPhone. It is very simple, yet effective. It does everything that you would want to do to edit your photos in a journalistic function and then some.