Washington DC reporter Neal Augenstein discusses how and why he has abandoned his collection of bulky production equipment to report via his Apple iPhone 4. Augenstein is an award-winning reporter with WTOP-FM and a frequent contributor to CBS News Radio. Thanks to new apps and progress in digital recording tools, he’s been able to ditch much of his older equipment for professional broadcasting via his smartphone. According to Augenstein: “Now, with the Apple iPhone 4 and several apps, I can produce intricate audio and video reports, broadcast live, take and edit photos, write web content and distribute it through social media from a single device.”

For those interested, the write-up provides a simple step-by-step overview of the tools Augenstein is using with his iPhone and iPad for audio capture, video capture, photography, mobile VoIP, and Twitter integration.

Augenstein addresses whether his new approach is working: “A year in, iPhone-only reporting isn’t perfect. While audio editing works great, with the phone’s built-in microphone I’d estimate the sound quality of my field reports is 92 percent as good as when I use bulky broadcast equipment. Getting better audio for my video is a real challenge. And if I ever have to cover a story from a subway tunnel or location where there’s no WiFi or cell coverage, I won’t be able to file until I resurface.”

The PBS MediaShift post features several iPhone-generated audio reports from Augenstein in addition to a very helpful video tutorial regarding how he performs audio editing on his iPhone 4.

Most of our readers have probably been following the recent news regarding consumer fears that iPhones and other smartphones are tracking users’ location information. It was recently discovered that phones operating on iOS and Google’s Android platform transmit the devices’ locations back to the respective companies.

Apple has defended the need for location data to provide optimum service and provided clarification by explaining an individual cannot be located using the data. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple defends its process, but nonetheless announced a planned software update that will reduce the size of the database cached on the phone and hopefully alleviate user concern.

According to WSJ: “Apple said it maintains a database of Wi-Fi hot spots and cell towers around users’ locations, a process that helps the phone calculate its location. The information is used to quickly find global-positioning-system satellites, a process that otherwise could take several minutes, the company said.”

Related CNNMoney article: “LocationGate was a ‘bug,’ says Apple” (4/27/11)

Related Wall Street Journal article: “Q&A: Jobs and Apple Execs on Tracking Down the Facts About iPhones and Location” (4/27/11)

Related Macworld article: “How the iPhone knows where you are” (4/28/11)

According to Flickr’s “camera finder” feature, the iPhone 4 is heading towards becoming the most popular “camera” used to submit images to the photo-sharing site. Is the iPhone (and other smartphones with improved camera features) disrupting the point-and-shoot market?

Flickr’s camera finder provides a graph detailing the most popular cameras in the Flickr community, with the Nikon D90 currently at the top. However, the iPhone 4 is on the rise, while traditional point-and-shoot cameras are steadily declining. If the trend continues, the iPhone is poised to take the lead in the near future.

This isn’t the first time a phone may prove more popular than a traditional camera on Flickr. PC World reports that in August 2009, the iPhone edged by the Canon Digital Rebel XTi as the most popular (back when the best iPhone camera only featured 3.2-megapixel resolution).

We recently reported that Cisco had shut down production on the popular Flip camera line, possibly in response to smartphones’ ability to shoot HD video. Is the iPhone still proving disruptive, four years after its initial release? According to GigaOM: “The takeaway is that smartphones are nearing the tipping point in terms of camera quality when it comes to the needs of most average users (professional and prosumer DSLRs continue to do well), and the iPhone 4 is leading that charge. Phones provide a much more convenient on-hand camera experience than do dedicated devices, and the trade-offs in terms of quality and feature are becoming less significant all the time.”

Related PC World story: “iPhone 4 About to Be Most Popular Camera on Flickr” (4/18/11)

Netherlands-based Technica del Arte, maker of the LUCI series of broadcast software apps, recently announced that its popular Luci Live software is now available for Mac OSX Snow Leopard or higher (MSRP $450).

Luci Live turns mobile devices into portable recording studios, ideal for journalists who want to quickly record and edit video and audio content for HD streaming and live broadcasts. Macworld reports that TV and radio field reporters are using phones and laptops to cover events in locations such as Egypt, Japan, and Libya where traditional broadcasting techniques have recently been impacted by technical limitations.

As long as reporters have an Internet connection, Luci Live (also available in iPhone and Windows versions) is a viable solution.

Click here for more details regarding the $400 iPhone/iPad app.

NPR interviewed David Hockney who has been using his iPhone and iPad to create drawings with the help of a painting app called Brushes. The 73-year-old artist recently held an exhibit of his new artwork in the Pierre Berge-Yves St. Laurent Foundation in Paris. Hundreds of digital works were displayed on 40 screens (20 iPhones and 20 iPads) during the “Fresh Flowers” exhibition that ran through January 30.

Hockney initially became intrigued by the process while observing the morning sun enter his bedroom in Yorkshire, England. He would dip his fingers into the virtual paintbox on the phone’s screen, “paint” some flowers digitally in the morning light, and email to friends. “Incredible little thing, really, because it was like a sketchbook and a paintbox all in one,” the artist says. “No cleaning up. No mess.”

When he made the switch from the iPhone to the larger iPad, Hockney was able to expand upon his work and found he could use more fingers to create his art. Now he travels with the iPad as a substitute for the sketchbooks he always had with him. Old habits die hard, though. “He says he sometimes gets so obsessed that when he’s going, he rubs his finger on his clothes to, like, clean his finger — as if he was using real paint.”

The Nintendo 3DS has launched in Japan with plans to hit the U.S. and European markets next month. The portable device is the first of its kind to offer glasses-free 3D gaming.

Despite the sellout of pre-order stocks, gaming enthusiasts showed up in droves for the Japanese release.  However, it remains to be seen how the 3DS will compete worldwide with the new casual gaming capabilities of tablet PCs, the Apple iPhone, Android-powered smartphones, and the next generation portable from Sony (expected to launch in 10 months).

According to Reuters, Nintendo will initially run with the formula that has traditionally worked with its DS: “a dedicated portable games device with software available on cartridges that cost $30 or more.”