Without waiting for the argument on whether or not the web is dead to be concluded, Nieman Journalism Lab has launched its Apple app. It works with the iPhone, the iPod touch, and though not at optimum performance, the iPad.

"Every day, there are 16 gazillion news articles about the future of journalism, 27.5 flabillion blog posts, and 294 quinzillion tweets," Joshua Benton wrote on niemanlab.org. "In response, we've built the Nieman Journalism Lab iPhone app," he continued. "You can use it as you like, of course, but the use case I'm imagining for it is when you're standing in line at the grocery store, sitting on a train, or otherwise in a situation where you could squeeze in two minutes to catch up on what's going on."

Some of the features of the app are 'In the Lab', which provides options for reading and sharing articles from Nieman Lab; 'on Twitter', "an essential guide to the most interesting links on the traditional journalism world;" and 'Friends of the Lab', where updates from Nieman Lab sister sites can be found. RSS feeds of Journalism sources will be available on the app, as well as the possibility of searching Nieman archives. "If you've got an iPhone, we think you'll like our new Nieman Journalism Lab app," niemanlab.org claims. The app is free and already available for download.

The number of Apple apps being launched in the market serves to emphasise the popularity of Apple devices, but figures show that use of Google's Android operating system is climbing very fast. New statistics from Bango reveal that the volume of browsing from Android phones increased 400% between quarter one and quarter two of this year, while Apple clocked only 13% growth. Which means that app developers should start considering building apps for both the Apple and Android platforms.

While apps and technology in general are extremely helpful to the journalistic cause, newspaper editors and journalists must not forget that they are just a means: good content should always be the main goal. Creativity and innovation are the future of profitable reporting, and technology must remain only a way to reach the reader.

Source: Nieman Journalism Lab, bango.com