App Wrap: "NewsiT," "WeVideo"
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
NY1 highlights the coolest and newest apps for your cell phone or mobile device in the twice-weekly segment “App Wrap.” NY1’s Adam Balkin filed the following report.NewsiT
At the big SXSW Festival in Austin we're seeing lots and lots of apps for socially sharing your experiences, whether it be through videos or photos or words. Well NewsiT wants you to do all the same sharing only as a journalist. You use your smartphone and either take on an assignment - some in there are local happenings, some national, or create your own assignment - then use your phone as your tool for either fully or partially reporting a story: No experience necessary.
"They might take a picture, they might do some notes, they might make a video they don't have to finish the piece. They work with others and with our journalists to put together that piece, put it in context, and deliver it out to NewsiT sites as well as media partner sites," said Mark Irwin of NewsiT.net.
Developers say if you get good enough and do lots of new gathering you may actually become eligible for a bit of revenue sharing in the company in order to make some money. NewsiT is right now an iPhone only app and it's free.
WeVideo
WeVideo has a similar premise only with video and photos. It's one place online for a whole bunch of people to share and edit videos they've taken. And while this could be used by news organizations to help get citizen perspective, there are also plenty of more personal uses.
"How many times have you been to a wedding where it's maybe 30, 40 people shooting pictures and taking video there and you never see that stuff again. Now with our platform the bride or groom or someone else can just send out an email invite, - come upload all your content to the shared worker area in the cloud - and then anyone who participates can go into that work area and create videos from the shared content," said Joseein Scendsen of WeVideo.
The service itself is not entirely new but the ability to do it all now from a smartphone is. WeVideo ranges from free to as much as $80 a month, depending on things like how high quality you want the video to how much online storage you want.