App of the week for journalists - Sonar, for finding contacts near you
An iPhone and iPad app for finding out if any of your contacts are nearby
– 1 min read
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App of the week:
Operating systems:
Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.2 or later.
Cost:
Free
What is it and how is it of use to journalists?
Sonar allows you to see which of your contacts are nearby. It could be a particularly handy way for journalists attending press conferences, events and meet-ups to find out if there are key people in the vicinity.
The iPhone app first asks you to connect your Foursquare account, which provides the list of possible venues in the area. You can then connect your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts
.
What could be potentially really useful is the ability to see second degree contacts, such as someone who is not connected to you directly but with whom you share Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook contacts. <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40920" height="390" src="?cmd=ShowAsset&assetID=43085&nosurround=true&fakeExtension=.jpg" title="Sonar" width="260"> <img alt="" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40934" height="390" src="?cmd=ShowAsset&assetID=43086&nosurround=true&fakeExtension=.jpg" title="Sonar" width="260">
Reviews:
It gets 3.5 stars in iTunes App Store.
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Written by
Sarah Marshall is VP Audience Strategy at Condé Nast. She leads distribution and channel strategy globally. She is also the former technology editor for Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)
