Top 10 Citizen Media iPhone Apps (AppStore and Jailbreaked)

There are many apps for iPhone owners that can help them to be ready for anything newsworthy.  In order to use some of the more noteworthy apps you need to be sure your phone is “jailbreaked”.  This means unlocking the phone with one of a few tools to accomplish this depending on your computers operating system.  For Mac users check out the great step by step howto on the iClarified site.  For Windows users I have just found the QuickPWN site.  If you happen to be like me and use Linux, you need to use Mac/Windows to jailbreak your phone.  I would not recommend using a virtual machine to try to jailbreak a phone as well.  When I tried such a move it caused hours of misery.  Hopefully soon there will be a means to jailbreak an iPhone easily on Linux.

Let’s get down to the list.  There will be a notation of which is required for the app (AppStore or Jailbreaked).

1. Snapture (Jailbreaked) - an app that lets you put your iPhone camera on steroids.  It allows multiple frame shooting and other tools for easily reviewing pictures and selecting the best ones.
2. Cycorder (Jailbreaked) - allows you to record video at 6-15 frames per second depending on lighting.  Great tool to have to catch news as it happens.
3. Qik (Jailbreaked) - allows you to stream video live to the Internet from your iPhone.  You only need install the app and create a Qik account.  Allows allows you to stream video live to your Mogulus channel or to numerous other services.  Another good alternative to Qik is Flixwagon which is a similar service and can be installed on a jailbreaked iPhone via Cydia.
4. iDicto (AppStore) - an easy to use voice recorder.  You can easily record an interview or give firsthand account of an event.  There are many other voice recorders available.  I tend to like this one since you can easily get the files off your phone and edit them.  Also an invaluable tool for making audio notes on anything you have shot using still or video etc.
5. Wordpress (AppStore) - an iPhone client for a Wordpress blog installation.  In order to use it you need to turn on XML-RPC in your admin section.  Allows you to write a post from your iPhone.
6. Twittelator (AppStore) - is a great Twitter client that allows you to post to your Twitter effortlessly.  You can also post an image or let others know your GPS coordinates via the client.
7. Evernote (AppStore) - is a client app to the Evernote service.  It allows you to take notes (written, image, and audio) and access them from any Internet connection.  This is a very handy tool to take notes of names or places you are interviewing people.
8. PDANet (Jailbreaked) - is a app to allow you to use your iPhone Internet connection from your computer.  This is great to have handy when you have your laptop with you.  Then you can use the full power of your laptop to type up an article or blog post etc.
9. Pixelpipe (AppStore) - is a client to the Pixelpipe service.  It allows you to upload your pictures to numerous services at once.
10. CBS EyeMobile (AppStore) - is CBS’s attempt at a citizen journalism app.  It has potential but still needs a bit of work.  But I did want to mention it since it applies directly to the subject at hand.  The app allows you to post pictures and news from your phone.  As well as browse posts by other citizen journalists.  The app will have much more potential once Apple officially unlocks the abilty to shoot video on a non-jailbreaked phone.

Please feel free to comment on other apps you find useful or to have potential for citizen media.