Top Ten Android Apps for Mobile Journalists

The Best Tools for Your Mojo Bag

Moblogger, mojo, backpack/gonzo/mobile journalist, or just a nut with a smartphone—you can call ‘em what you want. But here’s the truth: mobile journalists are taking the reigns of 21st century media.

Personally, I dig the moniker MoJo. Why? Well, first of all, Mojo is the a name of my favorite evil villain ape:

But I also prefer the term because “mojo” refers to a bag of charms, magical spells or amulets that help you get the job done, or good old-fashioned charisma. And that’s exactly what a good mobile journalist needs to succeed: good tools and a hearty helping of character.

In the early days of mobile journalism, Mojos used to sling amulets around their neck—a heavy camera and tape recorder—with a spiral pad in their back pocket.  More recently, the mojo bag was lugged on the journalist’s back—a padded rucksack stuffed with a laptop, camcorder, camera, microphone and recorder.

Today, however, a savvy mobile journalist can turn their front jeans pocket into a mojo bag—and only one charm is needed:

Wait, you ask, why isn’t that a picture of an iPhone, you ask?

Yes, the whole world is abuzz about the new iPhone 4.

Yes, minutes before Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage to announce it’s release, I was planning to create a photoshopped  image of him jumping a shark on a surfboard shaped like an iPhone.

And yes, after only a few minutes learning about the new features of the Apple device, I found myself feeling, ahem, a little lusty.

But here’s the truth: Smartphones using the Android platform are outselling the Apple iPhone in 2010.*  And, because Android is a software platform that plays nice with all networks, carriers, and most device manufacturers, it’s almost certain to dominate the market of the near future.

*NOTE: Blackberries outsold both the iPhone and Android phones, so Research in Motion’s golden child is still running a strong game, too—don’t count them out of the race just yet.

Smartphones like the Google Nexus One, HTC Incredible, Motorola Droid, HTC Droid Eris and the forthcoming monster-in-your-pocket Droid X—while lacking the slick, seamless look of an iPhone—are powerful mobile devices capable of feats like true magnetic wayfinding and live streaming video, both of which are still impossible on current iPhones.  And, perhaps more importantly, these Android devices operate with Verizon wireless, the only carrier in North America capable of handling the needs of a professional mobile journalist.

So, without further ado, here are the best ten Android apps for mobile journalists:

Video

Five years ago, broadcasting live video cost thousands of dollars. Today, it’s free.

Ustream Broadcaster. With Ustream’s app, users can stream live video from their phone’s camcorder, notify viewers of their location, and watch a live commentary feed coming from Twitter and Ustream’s website. Works very well for stationary broadcasts; moving subjects can be a pixelated blur, depending on the resolution of your camcorder.

Photo

Most smartphone cameras lag far behind their bigger DSLR cousins—but these apps help put them back in the game.

PicSay. Tweak contrast, exposure, tint, saturation, temperature and brightness. Colorize photos, add sepia tones, invert colors.  Add motion blurs, distortions, and spotlights.  Add text, hand-drawn markings, and if you’re feeling a little silly, word balloons and stickers.  And that’s just the free version, folks!

FXCamera. While some of this app’s features, like the “Polandroid” or “Andy Warhol,” are mostly for entertainment, the Toy Camera Emulator is an extraordinarily powerful image rendering tool. It’s like having a bag full of special lenses for your DSLR—color tints, vignetting, and pinhole effects at the touch of your screen. And I’ll be darned if I’m not convinced that the auto-focus and image quality is somehow better than the default on my Droid Eris.

Audio

Ipadio. Ready for a new term?  It’s phlogging, and it’s not what you think, you naughty dog. This app allows you to store audio recordings up to 60 minutes long on ipadio’s servers, broadcast live “radio” shows, and start your own phone blog.

vRecorder. I’ve had success using the native Voice Recorder on my Droid Eris, but no luck recording phone calls during interviews. vRecorder boasts this ability—and is currently the only free app worth trying—but I think the audio quality while recording conversations needs improvement.

Blogging/Social

WordPress. Okay, unless you’re going to buy a snazzy folding Bluetooth keyboard, your Android phone probably won’t be the best place to crank out a blog post.  But starting a draft post, uploading images directly from your phone to posts, and responding to comments on the fly has never been faster or easier.  Bonus: It supports multiple blogs, so you can update all of your blogging endeavors in one app.

Seesmic for Twitter. Until Hootsuite gets its act together on Android, Seesmic is my mobile Twitter app of choice. It’s simple, clean, and accurate.

GPS

I suspect I’ll do an entire post on integrating location-based information into your blog and mojo bag in the future, but for now, I’ll keep it simple.

My Tracks. Sometimes when you’re a mojo, you get, well, mobile. Next thing you know, you’re chasing a story across town withou really knowing where you are or where you’re going. This app, built entirely with the Google App Engine, uses Google maps to track your every move—your path, your moving speed, altitude changes, etc.—so you’ll be able to recap the whole thing in stunning detail for the judge.

Tools

PDANet. I still get all sweaty and excited talking about PDANet, an app that lets you tether a laptop/netbook to your phone and get 3G internet access in locations where wifi is not an option.  I’ve tested this in a trailer on a cattle ranch outside Austin, TX and my brother, a pharmacist in New Mexico, has used this app to get his entire pharmacy’s network back online during a wifi outage.  What beach will you be blogging from now that you know about this?

PixelPipe. Like Posterous, this app gathers all of your social media, blogging, email and update services into one place. Drop a photo into Pixelpipe, and it diverts the photo into countless other “pipes”—Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Picasa, WordPress, and dozens more—all at once. No more spending hours every day sharing on your favorite places. Your pipe dreams of internet ubiquity just became very, very possible.