Top Online Journalism Tools ‘08

Apple’s iPhone again tops the Online Journalism Review’s list of the best gifts for online reporters from 2008.

Topping this year’s chart is the new 3G version of the iPhone, a more affordable option in keeping with the list’s maximum price tag of $200 (£130) per item.



OJR writer Robert Niles explains his choice: “The iPhone comes closer than any other device to date to being the online journalism Holy Grail that many of us have envisioned.

“A single hand-held unit that surfs the entire Web, including audio and video, that allows you to update websites, to shoot photos and send them to the Web, to record and post audio, that supports e-mail and includes a phone, and that offers a GPS with maps and directions to help you find your way to wherever your reporting takes you.”

Niles’s list also includes the iPhone’s iTalk voice recorder, the Flip Ultra video camera (“for decent-quality video at a low price”), and the Voltaic converter backpack with solar panels to power hand-held devices.

And sneaking in among these digital tools is a more traditional gift for the online journalist – a subscription to The New Yorker.

View the full list on the OJR site and take a look at a round-up of last year’s chart here.