Last year, after the Boston Marathon Bombing, I wrote about my experience reading Twitter and listening to Ustream to get news on the manhunt which was coming in 10-30 minutes faster than it reached CNN.  A year later, the article is still solid and gives some good resources to say ahead of breaking news (here).

But let’s turn, momentarily, to a fun diversion.

Mardi Gras has arrived and, if you are going to the parades, you need this GPS-enhanced parade tracker.  Local News 4 WWL has improved this app over the years and the current version looks solid.  Turn on your iPhone auto update to make sure the app has the latest info as it gets updated quite a bit during the parade season.  App is free and here.

Back to business.  Maybe your practice involves law enforcement and developments in your area.  Or you heard about an event in another city and want to get the police scanner stream.  Ustream is an option but Scanner Radio Deluxe seems to have the edge.  Select scanner feeds nearby or by city name (e.g., I can follow local Palm Beach as a favorite and search for NOPD when I get there).  Creates a favorites list for easy access and even have the app notify you if a particular stream gets a lot of listeners (suggesting there’s breaking news).  Hopefully we won’t need it at Mardi Gras.  App is here and free.