A packed room of professional and student journalists heard about and experienced some of the latest mobile tools available during Sunday morning’s Breakout Session at the Excellence in Journalism conference at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel.
Mike Reilley, founder of the Society of Professional Journalists’ resource site, The Journalist’s Toolbox, introduced mobile tools other than Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook, focusing on those that go beyond the “basics that we have in place that we should probably already be using.”
Since these are newer or more “obscure” apps, Reilley encourages giving reporters and new users the time to experience, experiment and play around with the apps “in a practical sense.” Once they’ve been introduced, he recommends encouraging an “experimentation time” with the apps during which even personal family outing can provide useful experience.
“You don’t want learn to use these tools on deadline at 11 p.m. on an election night,” warned Reilley.
Tools highlighted by Reilley include:
- Storyline: Use to create audio slideshows on your iPhone.
- JamSnap: Use to layer audio over photos. App is currently out of the App Store but is expected to return mid-October.
- Adobe Post: Use to create graphics over images.
- Adobe Spark Page: Use to create web pages from words and images.
- Over: Use to layer text over photos, tweeting as attachments. (for Android)
- Periscope: Use to stream live video from events. (for Android)
- Bubbli: Use to create “photo bubbles” on a phone for sharing and embedding.
- Tip: Be mindful of your shadow and of moving people. Moving people can give you unusual results like missing limbs or floating torsos.
- Example/demonstration:
- Ripl: Use to layer animated text over images.
- Hyperlapse: Use to create time-lapse videos. App is from Instagram and iOS only. For Android, try Lapse It, Timelapse or FrameLapse.
- Google Cardboard: Use for creating 360-degree VR panoramas for use with Google Cardboard viewer. (for Android)
- Fuse 3-D: Use to create 3D photos of stable objects. (for Android)
- Google Translate: Use mobile or desktop app to translate 104 languages with camera or audio. (for Android)
- Google Test My Site website: Use to evaluate a site’s performance on a mobile or desktop browser.
- Google Streetview: Use to create 360-degree photos and map them. (for Android)
- TapeACall: Use to record phone calls. (for Android)
- Recorder: Use to record phone calls.
Tips highlighted by Reilley include:
- Text cards on Tweets: Use when you have too much info for one tweet. Layer the text on an image or graphic and tweet.
- Hashtags and handles: Use appropriate hashtags, include handles of reporters and double-check URLs.
A PDF of Reilley’s Mobile Tools presentation can be downloaded by clicking here.