App Store at 5 years old: 12 must-have apps for journalists

While Apple boss Tim Cook claims the iTunes App Store has "fundamentally changed the face of the world" and the BBC reports that more than two-thirds of the apps are "zombies" with "next-to-no downloads", there is no respite in the inventive ways software developers are changing how we use our mobile devices. With nearly 900,000 apps in the store to choose from, here are 12 of the best that are of use to journalists.

Reporting

SkyRecorder

Skype has become a near ubiquitous tool for making calls over the internet but with SkyRecorder those calls can now be recorded directly when being made from a mobile device.

DropVox

With DropVox you can record audio in the field and save it straight to a Dropbox account, to be accessed later or sent back to the newsroom immediately.

Practical

CamScanner

Scanners are expensive and cumbersome; photographs are not always reliable. Finding a happy medium between the two is CamScanner, an app which allows you to take photos of a document and convert it into a PDF for review later.

Evernote

The premise of Evernote is simple – it's basically just a notebook – but it becomes essential within a few days of first use. Photos, audio files, weblinks and notes can all be saved and stored in the cloud and then accessed across any and all devices: at work, at home, on mobile, on tablet.

Expense Magic

The mythical age of long lunches and longer expense accounts may haunt modern journalism but with Expense Magic at least there's no more losing receipts. This app can help you document your expenses and send PDFs via email every month with the totals.

Video

Tout

This social video platform precedes both Vine and Instagram, letting users make 15 second videos, or 45 for professionals, and share them with the world. It has been picked up by Digital First Media and the BBC, among others, to host their microvideo reports.

Videolicious

Our recent app of the week but with good reason. Videolicious is a quick and easy video editing app that has been picked up by reporters at the Washington Post to make narrated videos and audio slideshows on the move.

Readers

Push Reader

A simple reader app that sends push notifications to your phone for RSS feeds you can set it up to follow. And, thankfully, you can set it to "do not disturb" at night.

Zite

An "intelligent" magazine that lets you choose specific topics of interest, or gathers them from social and reader accounts, and delivers them in a presentable format. Furthermore, it can learn your preferences through a thumbs-up or thumbs-down feature and, although it won't include everything, it is a great way to scan the news in the morning.

Social

Neatly

Neatly holds similarities with Tweetdeck but will automatically organise your timeline into topics based on what is trending among people you are following.

Tweetcaster

With better search and filtering options than the basic Twitter app, the key advantage Tweetcaster offers is the ability to search for nearby keywords based on your location. Great for reporters out on a story.

Banjo

Taking the search function a step further, Banjo shows where Facebook or Twitter users have checked in or posted from. Not only will this help you spot stories, but you can quickly link up with witnesses or people on the ground or get in touch with people at the scene before you arrive.

If you have any more suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments below or tweet to @journalismnews. There are many more apps for journalists available through Journalism.co.uk and our blog.

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