Val Hoeppner prepared this handout to accompany a presentation on mobile newsgathering for Muncie NewsTrain on March 24, 2018. Hoeppner is the director of the Center for Innovation in Media at Middle Tennessee State University. The handout describes mobile apps of use to journalists in the categories of note taking, audio and video recording, photo and video editing, social-media posting and graphics creation. NewsTrain is a training initiative of Associated Press Media Editors (APME). More info: http://bit.ly/NewsTrain

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Apps for journalists, spring 2018
Val Hoeppner | @vhoeppner | valhoeppner@gmail.com
Your phone is a powerful reporting tool, offering much more than calls, emails
and text messages. Your smartphone is a computer, camera, recorder and
publishing tool that is always in your pocket. My Apps for Journalists
list contains only apps that are practical and useful for journalists.
Notes, documents and file transfers
EVERNOTE – A note-taking app that syncs text, photos and audio to Internet-
connected devices. Journalists can use it to take notes, dictate short stories (and
photo captions) with audio option, write stories and captions and submit them
for editing. Evernote can be connected to many mobile apps such as Abbyy
Textgrabber, iTalk audio recorder and Genius Scan. Use Evernote to store
research, studies and PDFs via the Web Clipper on mobile and on desktop
browsers. Evernote is more than an app, available as a Mac OS download, via
Google Chrome, Windows and other browsers. FREE to sign up, but more

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services available with paid plans – available on iPhone, Android and other
mobile platforms.
GOOGLE DRIVE – Create and edit documents and spreadsheets using Google
Docs and Google Sheets. Store and share photos, videos and audio files. Google
Drive is connected to many multimedia apps, which helps you import files into
apps (like iMovie) or transfer and store large files. FREE 15 GB of space –
available on iPhone and Android.
GENIUS SCAN - A PDF app that allows you to scan a document, create a PDF
and email it as a JPEG or PDF. The Genius Scan+ version costs $2.99 and allows
you to send scans to Dropbox, Evernote and Google Docs. FREE and paid
versions – available on iPhone and Android.
ABBYY TEXT GRABBER – Capture printed text from documents, magazines,
books, etc. Text can be copied, pasted and edited. Text Grabber recognizes 60
different languages. A similar software is used by law firms to copy documents.
$7.99 – available on iPhone and Android.
Audio and call recording
TAPE A CALL – Record incoming and outgoing cell-phone calls. Pay for the app
once, no extra charges. No time limit on recordings, upload to Dropbox, Evernote
or Google Drive. $5.99 – available on iPhone and Android.
ITALK – iTalk is a full-featured audio-recording app and a great solution for
journalists in need of an audio-recording app. Record high-quality audio, and
choose from three levels of recording quality (11.025, 22.05, or 44.10 kHz sample
rates). Free version supports emailing files. iTalk Premium is $1.99 and supports
a variety of audio-editing, video and storage apps.
AUDIONOTE – Record audio while typing notes. Syncs audio to text notes.
Great tool for recording meetings, conferences, speeches while taking notes.
$14.99 on iOS and $5.99 on Android.

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VOICEBASE – Get machine or human transcriptions of your audio files from
your phone, a recorder or laptop. Try it for free with up to an hour of
transcriptions.
REV VOICE RECORDING – Record audio interviews and get instant
transcriptions (paid). Connects with Dropbox and Evernote for distributing and
storing files. Transcriptions are done by humans with high accuracy at $1 per
minute – available on iOS and Android.
Photography, photo editing
VSCO CAMERA – Simple camera app that allows you to lock focus and
exposure points. The app includes some basic photo-editing tools. Publish images
directly from the app to social-media networks with captions. FREE – available
on iOS and Android.
CAMERA+ – A camera app that allows you to shoot in automatic mode or
manual mode. Use manual exposure, focus and white balance to get the best
image. Basic photo editing tools. $2.99 – available on iOS.
FILTERSTORM – A photo-editing app for the iPhone and iPad. Filterstorm
contains editing tools similar to Adobe Photoshop on your computer. You can
edit using layers, curves for adjusting tone, color correction, sharpness, noise
reduction and a history brush. Filterstorm has two important features for
journalists: 1 – the ability to add IPTC or caption information to images and 2 –
the ability to send images directly from the app to an FTP server, email, Dropbox
and more. $3.99 – available on iPhone and iPad.
TERIPIX – Developed by photojournalists, this app allows journalists to quickly
add images and video to their digital platforms and archives. "Take pictures or
video in the field, upload via smartphone, post to the media organization’s
website – all within minutes". One of the best features of this app is the ability to
add caption information to the image before uploading. There is a free version of
this app for still images only. Teripix is an enterprise app and can be licensed for
newsrooms.

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Video and video editing
MOVIE PRO – A filmmaking app with full auto and manual controls for focus,
exposure and white balance. What sets this app apart from others is the ability to
listen to the sound you are recording with your video. Using a TRRS adapter you
can record sound and listen live. Movie Pro also features a single-track video
editor so you can create simple videos and quickly publish them. $5.99 for iOS.
FILMIC PRO – Shoot video with manual controls such as focus, exposure and
white balance. Shoot various frame rates and monitor your audio levels through
headphones. This is the app being used by filmmakers to create feature-length
films. $14.99 for iOS.
VERIFEYE – Shoot video with manual controls such as focus, exposure and
white balance. This app is very similar to FiLMiC PRO but was built as part of a
media-sales system. Use the app for free, and download video to your Camera
Roll. FREE on iPhone.
IMOVIE – The updated version of iMovie for iOS is one of the few video-editing
apps that has two tracks of video and two tracks of audio. Trim clips, bring them
to the timeline, split clips, detach audio and much more. iMovie is my go-to
video-editing app on my iPad and iPhone. FREE on iOS. Here’s my tutorial on
how to edit on iMovie.
VIDEOSHOP – Simple video-editing app that allows you to trim, add text and
other effects. Best part of this app is that you can create social videos timed

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specifically to Snapchat and Instagram. The timeline tool guides your editing for
each social video platform. You can also upload video directly to Snapchat, which
means you can add more polished video stories in both horizontal and vertical
formats. $1.99 for iPhone, iPad and Android.
FILMR – Extremely simple video-editing tool. Made for short, visual-first
mobile videos. The vertical-editing format allows you to quickly add clips, trim
them and export your finished video. FREE – available on iPhone and Android.
VIDEOLICIOUS – Quickly add your voice to still or video images. Videolicious
will automatically add transitions. Journalists can make quick and easy videos
with voiceover. Free personal account; business account is $60 per year – only
available on the iOS.
CINAMAKER – A multi-camera mobile solution for streaming live video. You
will need an iPad with the Cinamaker Director Pad app and up to four iPhones,
Androids or other WiFi-enabled video devices. You can use a mix of iPhones,
GoPros and DSLR cameras. The Director Pad will sync the video automatically.
There is a learning curve for this app, but if you want high-quality live video that
you can switch from mobile devices, it’s worth the work. FREE and paid versions
– available for iOS and Android.
HYPE TYPE – Add animated type to your photos or videos to create social
media videos. You can create horizontal, square or vertical videos in the app, and
you can easily add music. I use the Hype Type app to add text to a series of
photos or video clips and then take those clips into iMovie or Videoleap or
Videoshop, arrange them and export the video for posting. There is a free version
of the app that puts a watermark on your video. Unlock all features for $2.99:
remove the watermark for $1.99 – available for iOS.
Social media tools
BUFFER – Share to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ from one
place and at optimal times. Add up to five tweets/posts to your “buffer” for
automatic posting at the best times throughout the day. You can also schedule the
buffered posts. Post from the app, the web version or from Feedly, Nuzzel and
other RSS-feed apps. FREE – available on iPhone.

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HOOTSUITE – Allows you to manage multiple social accounts from one app.
Manage multiple Twitter accounts, Facebook. FREE – available on all platforms.
IFTTT – If This Then That allows you to use and/or create “recipes” that tell
your apps what to do. One example is a recipe I use that takes my Instagram
images and makes them native Twitter images then tweets them automatically. IF
recipes run in the background once they are set up. DO recipes create a custom
button with a function. FREE – available on iOS and Android.
Graphics and charts
CANVA – The Canva app and Canva.com allow you to create high-quality social
media graphics including Instagram posts, Facebook posts and headers, Twitter
posts, Snapchat My Story graphics and Snapchat Geofilter graphics. Canva is
FREE, but there is an upgraded version that is paid.
CHART MAKER PRO – Chart Maker Pro allows you to quickly plug numbers
into templates and get simple but effective charts for both digital and print.
Digital charts have rollover interactivity built in. Download or share your chart as
a PDF for print. $2.99 – on iOS. $1.99 – on Android.
Extras
REPORTERS COMMITTEE FIRST AID APP – This app created by the non-
profit Reporters Committee is designed to give on-the-spot resources to reporters
who may have legal questions or encounter roadblocks while on assignment. See
more at: https://www.rcfp.org/app Free on Android, iOS and Kindle.
MOBILE PATROL – Information from local law enforcement including arrests,
sex offenders, emergency information.