You know, when the iPhone came out - many people were jealous and quickly showed that their mobile phones also had Google maps, push e-mail and maybe even a touchscreen. OK. Now you can ask them - can you convincingly play the melody to “Chopsticks” on your phone? Or are you in an iPhone band?
Bear with me - this blog is really about the future of mobile journalism
This video above is of a digital piano program, or application, that runs on the iPhone. And it it runs on any iPhone that has been hacked to allow users to install new programs on it. The news is that today may be the last day that you would need to “jailbreak” your iPhone to get new functions like this.
At 10 a.m PST time today Apple is set to allow developers (The people who write software applications) to finally release their wares to all iPhone users. Most of the global digerati press corps I know is on a plane right now to Texas right now to cover the SXSW festival. It’s a shame some of them were not invited to Cupertino to talk with the developers who have been invited to Apple’s famous Building No. 4 to get the lowdown on the new capabilities that will soon be coming to iPhone owners.
Yeah some of the news out of there may sound boring, and it is. Boring can be powerful - like access to your corporate e-mail and private networks. That’s a good move on Apple’s part because it will allow more IT departments to bless the iPhone as legit work tool and powerful mobile platform - which it clearly is.
But the real blessing and low-hanging fruit for Apple and all us iPhone power users will be the ability to legitimately install new programs that tap into all of the devices gadgetry.
Robb’s modded iphone has advanced instant messaging, a direct to Flickr camera and many other tweaks and apps designed for filing media rich field reports on the fly.
You may recall that back in November I blogged about using a jailbroken iPhone in a Medill classroom lecture to produce live journalism reports using third-party apps.
More than ringtones, wallpaper and hacks . . . modding an iPhone can put new superpowers in the hands of your reporting staff. I believe that a properly configured iPhone will allow reporters to do more reporting from the field - closer to their community, closer to sources, closer to where they should be doing their best work.
So, e-piano’s and motion-sensing games may sound silly and useless to a reporter but I promise you there are already some amazing new programs in the works that aren’t.
In the meantime - enjoy the video from the first iPhone band.
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