“Do you own or have access to an iPhone, iPad, or iPodTouch?”

That’s one of the first questions I now ask in setting-up a phone interview. In almost all cases, the answer is yes.

Most public information and public relations professionals are surprised to hear there are several ways the Apple products can make a newsmaker’s answers sound studio-quality, rather than inferior phone-quality.

I explain the iPhone, iPad, or iTouch essentially replaces a tape recorder.

While the newsmaker hears and answers my questions on a landline or other cellphone, they simultaneously record their answers on the iOs device.

At the end, they email or otherwise share the raw interview, which I edit for air or online posting.

I instruct them to hold the device 6-8 inches from their mouth.

On an iPhone, the microphone is directly to the left of the charging port on the bottom of the phone.

On an iPad, the microphone is a small hole along the top edge of the device.

An iPodTouch requires a plug-in microphone.

With an iPhone, the simplest way to accomplish this is with the built-in VoiceMemo app.

iPad and iTouch don’t have VoiceMemo, so I walk them through setting up a free SoundCloud account, and how to download the free app. UPDATE: For a short interview, the Voice Recorder HDapp ($1.99) is even easier and more intuitive, for iPad and iTouch.

If the public relations pro balks at the “inconvenience,” I remind this will help their client communicate as clearly as possible. If it’s still too much of a bother, I pass on the interview.

Every newsmaker I’ve ever talked through the process has been delighted with the results, and is now equipped to use the technique in future interviews.

Simple, easy, effective.

For mobile journalists producing content on smartphones, part of the challenge is knowing the limitations of your hardware and software, and working around them.

In news gathering and digital reporting, there are times when a full web story is needed, but there are also other ways of sharing stories with your mobile audience.

The goal: A tweet of on-scene audio, supplemented by a photo can transport your audience to where the news is happening.

SoundCloud’s mobile app has a nice feature that lets your audience click on a Twitter or Facebook link, and simultaneously hear the audio and see the photo in the background. 

The problem: One drawback with the current SoundCloud app — it only allows you to add a photo to a new, unedited sound, recorded within the app.

In other words, you can’t fully produce an audio package (in VeriCorder 1stVideo for instance) and upload it to SoundCloud, which is my standard method for tweeting audio.

The workaround: Here’s a clumsy, and time-consuming solution for now (hint, hint, SoundCloud) to include a photo with a fully-produced audio report:

Before uploading your audio report to SoundCloud, temporarily change your profile photo to the news photo you want to incorporate.

Granted, the end user won’t see your smiling puss, in a thumbnail, but will see a full-screen news photo in the background while hearing the audio.

Other applications, including Twitter’s iPhone app, allow you to tweet an audio link and a photo link, but that requires two clicks, and doesn’t allow for simultaneous viewing/listening.

Does anyone know of an app other than SoundCloud that lets the viewer look at the picture and hear the audio with a single click?

I never met Steve Jobs. But I owe him. And so does the rest of the news business.

His tools have already, and will continue to change the way journalists gather and disseminate news.

You may or may not know it, but since Feb. 2010 I have done all my field production on an iPhone and iPad. Applications running on those Apple products let me record and edit audio and video, shoot and edit photos, write stories for wtop.com, and use social media — all from the same device.

That means the laptop, digital recorders, microphones, cables, video and still camera I used to schlep have been retired. No more carrying heavy equipment, waiting for a laptop to boot-up, or transferring files from a recorder to an editing device.

Now when I leave the relative peace and convenience of the newsroom, my tools to cover news in the nation’s capital are an iPhone, iPad, and charger.

A strange thing happened after I started using the iPhone and iPad, besides my back not hurting — I realized my entire newsgathering process and strategies were changing.

In the “old days” I would concentrate on gathering audio. Now, depending on the situation I might shoot video. Or snap some pictures and tweet them immediately. Or write a story for wtop.com.

Having a tool that facilitates multi-platform reporting frees a reporter from the challenges of technology to concentrate on storytelling.

We (and you) now have the capability of livestreaming video of a breaking news event using the iPhone’s camera. Imagine the possibilities.

We (and you) can produce a video project on an iPhone within minutes and transmit it to the world instantly.

We (and you) constantly have the ability to document history, whenever an iPhone is handy.

Thanks, Steve, for creating the right tool for the job.