App of the week for journalists: TweetCaster, a Twitter app with souped-up search

App of the week: TweetCaster

Devices: Android, iPhone/iPad, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Bada

Cost: Free (or £2.99 to go ad free)

What is it? TweetCaster has several features not available in Twitter’s own app.

How is it of use to journalists? The Android version of TweetCaster was nominated for app of the week by Richard Kendall, web editor at PeterboroughToday.co.uk, who said:

I have found it faster than Twitter native app and smoother than Tweetdeck with plenty of options for sharing/managing found links and information.

TweetCaster has several functions you won’t find in Twitter’s own app, including a much more powerful search and filter that allows you to search your own timeline, all friends’ tweets or one person’s tweets.

You can also search for a keyword in nearby (geo-located) tweets, something that has obvious possibilities for journalists out on a breaking news story.

It also comes with Facebook integration, allows you to see who has re-tweeted a tweet and has a “zip it” function to allow you to mute a keyword, Twitter user or a trending hashtag.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• Tool of the week for journalists – TimeKiwi, to create social media timelines
• Ten technical Twitter tips for journalists
• App of the week for journalists: Social Searcher, for searching Facebook
• Tool of the week for journalists – Formulists (use it before it disappears)
• Tool of the week for journalists – Topsy, real-time search for the social web

App of the week for journalists: Topwrite

App of the week: Topwrite

Phones: iPhone

Cost: £0.69

What is it? Topwrite allows you to write your message first and then decide whether to send it in an email, as SMS, post to Facebook or Twitter

How is it of use to journalists? Topwrite was created by a former journalist Jon Silk to create a “fast, no nonsense tool”.

I was walking down the street and thought of something I wanted to text my wife, so I hit the ‘messages’ app and started typing. Then I realised I wanted to share it more widely on Twitter and Facebook. By the time I’d copied and pasted and found the apps and logged in I’d a) got to where I was going and b) nearly walked into two lamposts in the process.

I wanted something easy to find (like a bright orange app icon in the top right of my home screen) that I could just hit and start typing. I wanted to worry about where to send my message after I’d typed it.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• Tool of the week for journalists – Facebook Search
• App of the week for journalists: TweetCaster, a Twitter app with souped-up search
• App of the week for journalists – Glympse, for sharing your location
• App of the week for journalists: Evernote – A must-have app ‘like having a second brain’
• Valleywag: Security hole in Twitter, others can send your direct messages

App of the week for journalists: Givit, for private video sharing

App of the week: Givit

Devices: iPhone, iPad, Android

Cost: Free

What is it? An app for privately sharing video, including large files that cannot be sent by email

How is it of use to journalists? Givit allows you to record or upload a video and send an email to a contact who can then follow the link, watch and download it and comment on it.

You could use the app to record footage showing a news story and send it privately to the newsdesk.

Videos are stored to your Givit account so you can login and retrieve later.

You can also add footage from other cameras and devices by using the Givit desktop app.

Similar posts:

• App of the week for Journalists – Klip, a great new iPhone app for video sharing
• News channel’s cit-j footage of Oakland shooting goes viral
• AP pushing 250 stories a week through its newly launched YouTube channel
• Asian News International signs deal with ITN Source
• How to record audio interviews using Facebook’s new video option

App of the week for journalists: Storyful, for curated social media stories

App of the week: Storyful

Phones: iPhone

Cost: Free

What is it? An iPhone app from social newswire Storyful to deliver the top stories from social media.

How is it of use to journalists? Want an easy way to track the top news stories on social media? Storyful’s new iPhone apps helps you search by top keywords (currently Cairo, Egypt and Obama), regions and date.

You are then presented with the stories as curated by the Storyful editorial team.

It can also link to StoryfulPro, the social newswire’s premium product which allows journalists to “find the most authentic voices and valuable content on the social web”.

Hat tip: Natasha Tynes, International Journalists’ Network

Similar posts:

• Storify stories now on news reader app Pulse
• Memeburn: Could Intel’s tech news site start a corporate media trend?
• Media release: PR Newswire launches tailored site for bloggers
• Flipboard goes French with latest update
• Social Media Journalist: ‘USG is the most overrated social media ‘news’ craze’ Jack Lail, Knoxville News Sentinel

App of the week for journalists: AnalyticsPro

App of the week: AnalyticsPro

Devices: iPhone / iPad / iPod Touch

Cost: £3.99

What is it? An app to track Google Analytics.

How is it of use to journalists? If you have an iOS device and regularly use Google Analytics to track visitors to your news site or blog you should get this app.

It is well worth the £3.99 fee as once you are logged into your Google account you can check stats and dig deep into the visitors, traffic sources, and content of your site.

Do you have a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• Analytics to help news sites understand the mobile audience
• App of the week for journalists – Flud, an RSS and news reader
• Tool of the week for journalists – TwentyFeet, analytics for your site and social networks
• App of the week for journalists – Astrid Tasks, a task manager for Android
• App of the week for journalists: Viddy, like Instagram for video

App of the week for journalists: Signal

App of the week: Signal

Operating systems: Apple (iPhone 3GS+, iPod touch, iPad2+). An Android version is in the pipeline.

Cost: Free

Release: The app will launch in Lebanon this month, and will be available in the UK within two months.

What is it and how is it of use to journalists? Inspired by the Arab Spring, Signal is an app that assists and encourages citizen journalism by allowing users to create “mini stories” by capturing real-world events using cameras and geolocation.

The user community vote for these mini-stories to derive the top ones. The final result is an app that shows you the top stories of any country of the world, created and voted by the users in a decentralised, crowdsourced manner.

At the moment, content creation is limited to photographs, but creator Mark Malkoun will be adding video in a future release. An Android version of the app is also in the pipeline.

Malkoun, a Lebanese entrepreneur, told Journalism.co.uk:

Signal will provide journalists with an image-rich, organised platform that will give them new ideas and stories.

Because the mini stories are filtered by importance using votes, it will help journalists understand which stories are interesting to readers prior to writing an article.

Communication tools will be available in order to verify the story.

Follow @Signal_app on Twitter for updates.

Similar posts:

• Channel 4 News to launch iPhone and iPad app
• Leading African news agency continues its expansion
• Economist launches app into Android Market
• Mashable: CoverItLive to integrate Twitter
• Android app update allows users to purchase Kindle newspapers

App of the week for journalists: Byword, a great text editor for iPhone/iPad

App of the week: Byword

Devices: iPhone, iPad

Cost: £1.99

What is it? A text editor that allows HTML and syncs with Dropbox and iCloud.

How is it of use to journalists? It allows journalists to write text articles on an iPad or iPhone and easily export.

There is no shortage of text editors out there but this one stands out as it allows you to easily sync documents with a Dropbox or iCloud (both are ways of storing documents in the cloud). You can also export via email.

Byword also allows Markdown, enabling those who know a few commands to write, preview and export as HTML.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• App of the week for Journalists: DropSync for Android – syncs with DropBox
• App of the week for journalists – DropVox, for saving audio to Dropbox
• Tool of the week for journalists – Spool, an Instapaper for video
• App of the week for journalists – VC Audio Pro, a must-have for radio journalists
• App of the week for journalists – Pro HDR, for better photos (without an iPhone 4S)

App of the week for journalists: SkyRecorder, for recording Skype calls on iPhone/iPad

App of the week: SkyRecorder

Devices: iPhone, iPad

Cost: £1.49

What is it? SkyRecorder allows you to record Skype voice calls to your iPhone or iPad

How is it of use to journalists? Telephony is a key tool for journalists, whether to record audio for broadcast or to be referred to later or transcribed.

At Journalism.co.uk we record all of our podcast interviews via Skype to Skype or Skype to phone (using Call Recorder).

I wanted to find a way of recording broadcast quality interviews to iPhone or iPad, in case I need to make a call when I am not near a computer.

After testing a couple of options (including QuickVoice), I found SkyRecorder by far the best app for the job.

QuickVoice allows you to email but you are limited to a 5MB file with the free app or a 20MB file with the paid-for and the audio is saved it as a caf file type.

With SkyRecorder, my preferred option, you are required to share the recording via USB and cannot share the recording via email or by any other method such as over a WiFi network.

Plug your device into a computer, connect it to iTunes, go to “apps”, scroll to the bottom, and then save the .wav audio file.

You need to start recording in SkyRecorder before you start the Skype call. And remember, you must ask permission before you record a conversation.

You won’t be able to use headphones and you will need a good WiFi connection in order to make a Skype call.

You can also use SkyRecorder as a simple voice recorder.

Useful posts:

• How to: record phone interviews
• Ten fantastic apps, tips and tools for recording audio

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• #Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – advice for using Skype and recording calls
• App of the week for journalists – DropVox, for saving audio to Dropbox
• App of the week for journalists – VC Audio Pro, a must-have for radio journalists
• App of the week for journalists – Hindenburg field recorder
• Ten fantastic apps, tips and tools for recording audio

App of the week for journalists: Viddy, like Instagram for video

App of the week: Viddy

Phones: iPhone

Cost: Free

What is it? Viddy is like Instagram but for video instead of photos. It allows you to share 15 second clips instantly via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, email or SMS.

How is it of use to journalists? Journalists frequently share pictures and videos via Twitter and other social media. Viddy offers one way of doing this from an iPhone.

Have you got a favourite app that you use as a journalist? Fill in this form to nominate an app for Journalism.co.uk’s app of the week for journalists.

Similar posts:

• App of the week for journalists – Flipboard
• App of the week for journalists – Teleportd, location-based Twitter and Facebook image search
• App of the week for journalists – TinyVox, for recording and sharing audio notes
• App of the week for journalists: Zite
• App of the week for journalists – Pro HDR, for better photos (without an iPhone 4S)

App of the week for journalists: Social Searcher, for searching Facebook

App of the week: Social Searcher

Phones: Android

Cost: Free

What is it? Enables you to search Facebook without logging in

How is it of use to journalists? This Android app by Social Searcher allows you to search Facebook posts, groups and pages without logging in to Facebook.

The app allows you to open links from search results in your Android web browser, sort search results by date/time, sort search results by number of “likes” and filter by country.

Similar posts:

• Tool of the week for journalists – Facebook Search
• App of the week for journalists: TweetCaster, a Twitter app with souped-up search
• App of the week for journalists: News360
• App of the week for journalists: Storyful, for curated social media stories
• NPR publishes results of extensive survey on Facebook