The best tools for getting things done

As a tech journalist with no training in technology or journalism, technology has played a big role in my journey from art student to senior reporter at Technical.ly.

I got into community journalism through arts and entertainment: I wrote for blogs, competed for jobs on Elance (now UpWork), and landed regular work at AOL in the early 2010s when the company was experimenting with new content models. Technology has made remote work possible since 2000; I taught myself HTML, GIMP, and Windows Moviemaker. Still, it took me a while to consider myself keen to embrace new technology.

Some tech journalists get drowning in gadgets sent to them by tech companies to test for reviews. At Technical.ly, we don't do reviews, nor do we receive gadgets for free. We cover local startups, ecosystems, and people first and foremost, so it's not our niche.

That means any technology we adopt that isn't specifically a tool of the job is paid for by us. In a newsroom like ours, technology adoption can vary widely.

Personally, I love new and emerging technologies. I am an active Android/PC user and am not averse to trying new technologies. Here are some of the technologies that I use regularly in my professional and personal life and I encourage you to try them too:

Otter.ai is evolving, but so are smartphone built-in recorders.

Although it is an essential tool for reporters, I was initially hesitant to use audio-to-text transcription tools, preferring to record interviews and listen to them again in their entirety, extracting the exact quotes each time. I started using Otter around 2021, when it was a relatively simple AI transcription tool. It didn't take long for me to realize how much time I could save on sometimes shaky transcribed quotes that were hard to understand just by listening.

After the release of ChatGPT, Otter has become even more powerful. It automatically generates a summary of the conversation and also generates a bulleted list if action items are detected. You can also ask Otter's generative AI chatbot questions like “What year was xyz startup founded?” and it will provide you with the information if it's available in the interview.

Otter is definitely a work in progress, the text output is imperfect, and as with most AI tools that store data, privacy is an ongoing concern. I have an alternative to store transcriptions on my phone: the Advanced Intelligence feature in Samsung's Voice Recorder app, which, unlike Otter, can also translate recordings (Apple is rolling out something similar, minus the translation feature).

Samsung's Live Translation and Circle Search are top-notch AI

Mobile AI has been a hot topic recently ever since Apple announced Chat-GPT based AI features for its products, including two iPhone models.

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra in January, in part because I wanted to try out the unique AI features that were later released to previous Galaxy devices as well.

The coolest feature, which I don't use much but is nice to have, is “live translation,” which allows you to converse in different languages ​​in real time using text or automatic voice translation.

A feature I use a lot is “Circle to Search” – you can circle something on the screen with your finger or the S Pen on your phone and Google will search for it – it's basically like Google Lens, but actually a lot more accurate.

For example, I recently took a photo of a bird in my yard, cropped it, and used both Lens and Circle to Search to identify the bird. In Lens, the bird looked like it was throwing spaghetti at the wall (a crow?), but in Circle I confidently identified it as a gray kittiwake.

According to Circle to Search (Quinn), it is a gray cat viper.

AI is built into my phone's camera and photo editing software, but I rarely use it, although AI editing software can erase objects with a single click.

CoPilot can do virtually everything, but I haven't used it much

With Microsoft's CoPilot, you rarely have to go to a different platform to perform a variety of operations, such as linking to a data source, creating a table, creating an image, etc. It can do it all.

The worst thing about CoPilot is that it's part of Microsoft Edge/Bing, which is generally not my favorite search engine, and I don't use it often, but when I do, it does what I need it to do.

XR is in its GeoCities phase (and I love it)

If you're nostalgic for the early, chaotic days of the internet, the XR space (virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality/spatial computing, the “metaverse”) is right up your alley: experimental and sometimes nonsensical things like the GeoCities WebRing from 2002.

I use XR almost daily. My primary headset is the Meta Quest 3, which I bought on launch day last October as an upgrade to my Oculus Quest 2. I use it for fitness like VXFit with the exercise bike, Beat Saber, entertainment, gaming (mostly pinball and mini golf), social/collaboration, creative, work, etc.

A few years ago I wrote about working with virtual reality on the Quest 2. It was clunky and pretty unproductive, so I didn't see myself working with XR anytime soon. I'm not doing a ton of work with the Quest 3, but when I do, it feels a lot more seamless with each update. Plus, the Quest 3 is getting some major updates in 2024.

Apps like Immersed and vSpatial, which I used in my 2022 article, have evolved, but when I work in XR I use a Meta Remote Display linked to my PC laptop, with Slack in one browser window and another browser in the other – perfect for when I want to work without distractions for a while, or when I want to see two or three screens at once.

A simple XR workspace for Quest 3 (Quinn)

My favorite way to use XR is to create, and mixed reality headsets like the Quest, Playstation VR, HTC VIVE, Valve Index, Apple Vision Pro, etc. are mostly seen as purely consumption devices, and in some cases, the devices are designed to consume and create.

I'm learning about XR production in two areas: worldbuilding with Horizon Worlds (YouTube is better than Netflix in the immersive interactive space – you can make whatever you want within their terms of service and upload it for free) and immersive video creation.

Me (Quinn) building something at Horizon Worlds

360-degree videos are fun, but I wish 180-degree videos were easier to watch.

Next to gaming, immersive video experiences are perhaps the most popular way to interact with XR, and with recent advancements like 8K video and the arrival of affordable 360-degree cameras, creating VR videos is no longer just for experts, for better or worse.

Inspired by some of my favorite creators, I bought an Insta360 x4 and have been using it so far for creating quick videos and images.

A few years ago, Google and other companies started to focus on 180-degree 3D video, but as the industry moved towards 360-degree video, much of it fell out of support.

To be honest, I would much rather have the newer, more affordable, and still supported 180 degree cameras than a 360. Sure, being able to see all around in 360 is great, and the limited 180 degree field of view is a bit annoying, but the 180/3D looks a lot better.