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Top MLB teams on Google+

10 May

Baseball season has been in full swing for more than a month, so this seemed like a good time to check in and see which teams have been doing the best job growing a following of fans on Google+.

Gadget: Brinno time-lapse camera

7 Sep

I’m a sucker for a good gadget, and my latest find is the Brinno GardenWatchCam. This camera takes individual jpg images at set intervals and puts them together into time-lapse videos.

Track your Facebook and Twitter followers together

20 Dec

If your job includes tracking Facebook and Twitter followers – your own or your competition – then you should try out a new service from Wildfire. Wildfire’s Monitor lets you track up to 10 Facebook pages and 10 Twitter accounts on one page.

39 ways newspapers can use QR codes

13 Dec

QR codes were big in 2010. And with the number of smartphone users continuing to grow, there’s every reason to believe they will be even bigger in 2011. A QR code looks a lot like a barcode. Users scan the code using their smartphone camera, and it in turn redirects them to a web page [...]

8 gift ideas for the online editor on your list

1 Dec

Wondering what to get your favorite online editor or multimedia journalist for Christmas this year? Here are some techie tools they can’t refuse. Flip UltraHD $199 | More info The latest Flip camera features image stabilization and can hold up to two hours of high definition video. But the coolest thing? You can make sure [...]

Five reasons your news org should start a Tumblr blog

8 Nov

You’ve mastered Facebook and Twitter. You’re blogging like you’ve never blogged before. You’re posting live video and hosting live chats. You’re sending text alerts and updating your mobile site. So what is the next big technology media sites should be using? My vote goes to Tumblr, which is something between Twitter and a blog. Here’s [...]

Storify embeds reader content onto your site or blog

26 Oct

Storify is a great new tool that lets you easily embed posts from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube to your blog. Here’s what they say in their FAQ: Storify is a way to tell stories using social media such as Tweets, photos and videos. You search multiple social networks from one place, and then drag [...]

Testing the iPhone as a multimedia tool

11 Oct

I have a lot of interest in the iPhone (and the new iPod) as an all-in-on multimedia journalism tool. So I decided to put my iPhone to the test at Drake men’s basketball media day today. First, the bad news: Lesson one was to make sure you are perfectly comfortable with the tools you will [...]

The dark side of free online tools

29 Sep

I’m a big proponent of using free, readily available tools to enhance coverage on your news website. Today, the Des Moines Register showed us that sometimes you get what you pay for when using free tools. Their use of a pop-up ad, side-of-the-page ads, live video and a live chat on the home page created [...]

Why every journalist should own the new iPod Touch

8 Sep

Apple’s announcement last week of a new iPod touch was a big one. The three biggest new features were the Retina display, Facetime video calling and HD video. That third one, for the journalism world, is a winner. With the addition of a camera, the iPod touch now becomes the do-it-all device no journalist should [...]