Professionals Playing with Amateur’s Toys

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the iPhone 3G S.

I have to admit, I’ve been contributing to the hype. This past weekend, Shea and I spent two hours camped out in front of the Apple store at Lenox Mall. Shea purchased a shiny new iPhone 3G S.  I’m still under contract with the evil cell phone company, so I’ll have to wait for mine.

In local TV news land, the addition of video capabilities to the iPhone 3G S has staffers chomping at the bit.

In Miami, a local TV producer was assigned to cover the hype surrounding the release of the new Apple phone.  He shot the entire story using his own newly obtained iPhone 3G S. A black hole opened in the universe.

Meanwhile, a professional photographer has totally geeked-out and photog’ed up the iPhone 3G S by creating a shoulder mount.  The apparatus is apparently designed to mimic the features of those big ‘ol fancy cams you see TV news photographers carry around.

You can read about how he made the rig, here.  Then, read the hilarious commentary, here.

There’s no doubt the video capabilities of the iPhone 3G S will help bring about major changes to the ways professional journalists obtain and distribute media to viewers/readers/users.

But, as journalists, we should remember that the iPhone and other similar devices are just tools in our arsenal.  We should not shoot packages on the iPhone, just to say we did.  We should learn the capabilities of the tool and use it when appropriate.  Afterall, you would use your best new power drill to hammer nails, would you?

The rapid pace of technological development has brought us a lot of new gizmos to play with.  Many of them are REALLY cool.  It is up to us to learn about these gadgets,  master their capabilities, and add the tool to our belt. Then, when the time is appropriate, pull out the right tool for the job.