Update: The link to Parade is no longer available.
It’s been a weirdly slow month for interesting new tools. One of things I’ve discovered — and this is TFR edition no. 64 — is that more and more, I’m looking for really big, really groundbreaking stuff to share with you. But sometimes, the stuff I’m playing with just isn’t all that awesome. (Or is too beta to share.)
Anyway, I hate disappearing entirely from your inboxes, so a few quick things to share:
I hate having to open iTunes to search for interesting apps, but http://fnd.io will search the App store in your browser. Useful!
The NPR social media team put together a guide to using Reddit to find story ideas, and it’s a good introduction to that site.
An excellent new addition to Twitter’s advanced search feature: You can now search by a range of dates!
Google Drive now allows you to use add-ons. I’ll be honest: The service is so new that I’m not fully seeing the value here for reporters. But there is one cool add-on I like: If you’re sending documents that have to be signed, you can add on HelloFax, and sign/send documents right from Google Drive. Lifehacker has a few other tips for add-ons that might be of interest to you.
A tool big publishers might be interested in: Shorthand, which lets you create those cool, parallax scrolling experiences for big stories. (Like the Snowfall story the NYT made famous last year.) This one’s still in beta, but check out the site and see if your newsroom might be interested.
And if you’re interesting in Snowfalling something smaller, there’s another interesting tool out there, called Parade.
As always, if you see something interesting, do pass it along!