RockeTalk Blog

Let us face it, news happens anywhere, at any time- without warning.  As a reporter, it is hard to stay prepared with a cameraman, recording equipment and a laptop with you at all times. For those times when you are caught off guard and almost kick yourself for not having the right tools to capture the moment, may we suggest  the ‘always-with-you’ tool- your mobile phone? Make things even easier….. with RockeTalk on it.

On his recent trip to India, RockeTalk’s Rajiv Kumar met the Press and talked about how the common person uses RockeTalk. Explaining how being able to use voice brought down the barriers and encouraged more ‘real’ meetings, Rajiv also pointed out that going beyond ‘chat’ and ‘messaging’ and entertainment, there were other uses for RockeTalk. It is, for example, a quick, easy for reporters to use RockeTalk for most situations when a cameraman, and a computer were not handy.

be called the hero

Note: I really did not need to add what follows but I had beautiful screens….  and a free afternoon… so why not?

The ease of use for taking pictures, video, audio, text and sending them off to the newsroom captivated the room full of regional reporters. The reporters were surprised that such technology existed and was already being used by lakhs of people in India! So easy to capture, add unlimited text, photos, videos and send to CNN, BBC, Times of India, The Hindu, The Telegraph- anywhere as an oficial reporter or as a citizen journalist.

 ”This is a reporter’s dream come true,’ said several reporters. The fact that they could actually take videos, picture, audio add text - yes unlimited text- not the restricted to 140 characters long, thank you very much – and send it to multiple email addresses in one click made it a very utilitarian tool for them- something that they would use for work as well as to capture the day-to-day happenings and send to friends and family.

Official Press cannot be everywhere and at all times and for this reason, most news channels and networks have started encouraging Citizen Journalism. Having RockeTalk on the phone actually turns everyone in to a reporter. People report local and very relevant news about things happening around them- like the flood waters rising, accidents, traffic reports, celebrity spotting etc. Hey, you were there when that bridge started collapsing- by the time the ‘real’ Press gets there, chances are they will have little more than stories from others. Be the true eye witness reporter.

One of the reporters asked a very relevant question, ‘What if there is no GPRS/Data coverage when you capture the event?’  I’m happy to report that RockeTalk takes care of this. It lets you compose and ’send’ in the offline mode and will actually send out the message when there is data coverage.

 Other uses of this feature:

1. Take notes about the event- in audio or text. Yes, we all know you like to take your time to make that perfect write up- but notes help. Better if you can do it in voice- that way you can see what is happening and document it at the same time! We recommend- full, qwerty, keypad devices for any text you got to put in.

2. Take pictures and email to yourself – as they say, picture is worth a thousand words and it helps jog your memory.

3. Gives reporters a chance to get instant reaction from others online and can make use of the feedback.

4. Conducting polls and getting general feedback about events and issues.

Of course, once you know you can send things to email addresses from your phone for free and painlessly, sky is the limit. Expand your list- family, friends, what the heck- add that guy you used to date- the one who … never mind- just send him pictures of your new boyfriend- right now! Never pay MMS charges. All you need is a data (Internet) connection on your phone. May we recommend you sign up for a good unlimited usage plan? Emailing videos and photos can become a habit…. Did we mention audio emails? Why text when you can speak?