Posts Tagged Apps

The One App I have been waiting for is out this morning in the App Store, WordPress for iPhone!! Whoohoo!! :-) thanks guys!

Edited 5:00 pm – I posted that message early this morning via the app the minute I got the setup done. It works beautifully. Now that I’m off work for today I will play a bit more, including this edit being done right from the phone. Sweet!! I’ve already tested out posting photos as you see in the entry above. Works great and allows multiple photos as well. I could only post one pic at a time to blogger and I had to email that, then import the post to WordPress! :o) so this will save a lot of time and steps! Great app guys, awesome release! My FAVOURITE APP!!

Edit 2 6:14 pm from the PC -  OK I’ve played a bit with this wonderful app and give it rave reviews right out of the box all around. The one feature I have been looking for is being able to post a photo from my phone right straight to a blog post. I would have settled for posting even just one pic at a time, but the wonderful developers at Automattic have given us the ability to post several, either taken right from the camera or added from the photo library of the cell! Amazing, I have waited so long for this. Previously, in order to post a pic form the cell I would have to wait until I got home and then copied the image to my PC and posted it, or another way was to email the photo to a blogger email address that I previously set up to use with my blogger mobile site, it automatically made a post with it. then arriving home at some point I would import the post into my blog and go and delete the one on blogger. a lot of work and steps! :( but it worked ;)

I was/am using a nice little plug-in called Wphone that lets me access the admin section of my blog through a nice interface, but the one thing is was lacking was being able to post photos. There was another plug-in I used, cant remember the name of it now, but I could write a post by email and I set up a special email account just for that. one the mail was sent I could access a certain page on my site and it would import the email as a post, but I never had a lot of use for it, it was just a bit cumbersome in a way, sometimes it would import, sometimes not.. gone…

So anyway I was tickled to death to see WordPress developing this App, and I’m sure a lot of others are as well judging from the comments there at the WordPress for iPhone blog.

As I said this is the first release of it and I am sure there will be a lot of updates and maybe some slick features added in the future as its an open source program and some of the best contributors working on it. But its still fantastic just like it is and as long as I can put a pic from my phone to my blog in just a couple of clicks I am set :)  not that I don’t have my wish list already for it though! ;)

here’s what I would like to see at some point

WordPress iPhone App wishlist

• Comments support – managing, viewing, approval/deletion
• more image display options – thumbnail size, alignment
• Tags-  displaying click tags, adding a default tag to any post from the phone (ie. mobile post, iPhone post, etc)
• Something else I’m sure will come to mind ;)

I see this as a really big step to mobile blogging, not only with WordPress, but any of the other blogging apps available or in the works. The iPhone is an ideal mobile blogging computer and I think that apps like this are going to open up a whole new world of blogging, for better or for worse in a lot of cases, but definitely a welcome change :) Thanks again to the development team for a great application! Cheers!

Here’s what all the fuss was about last week for the mad rush to download the new iPhone 2.0 software, its that little blue icon on the lower left of the screen, the iTunes App Store. the software allows you to download all these apps right to the phone now and they run from there, instead of the old way of using web applications, which really were useless with an EDGE connection, well not useless but definitely slower than if you were near a WiFi spot. 

With the limitation of the EDGE network’s download speed, there weren’t many fancy apps available, and games were often prone to just freezing or stopping or just not working right. I think Apple realised the limitations of web apps and saw their future limited even though I think they would have preferred to stay with them and keep the iPhone’s proprietary programs all bundled in the phone. I believe  personally that it was the success that people were having hacking the software and using the phone as you would a regular computer and downloading apps straight to the cell and running them from there, jailbreaking is what it came to be called and it was becoming a very easy thing to do, sure Apple would come out with a new update and in essence lock up those jailbroken ones, but guess what? In just a couple of days time the sly hackers found a way to jail break the new software. Apple must have seen an endless task ahead in trying to counter each of these new methods as they came up, so it was in their best interest I think to do just what they did , give the people what they want, a real mobile computer with the ability to run their own programs.. well there’s the catch.you are still limited to only the ones available in the App Store. Well its not going to get rid of those using jailbroken phones by a long shot, but it is giving those who just prefer to do things the ‘right’ way a chance to have these apps available in what is a very controlled way (meaning the apps are safe to use and have gone through plenty of checks). I see it as its a start to what I am sure will be an even greater version of the iPhone in years to come, something even more powerful and faster than anything we have imagined… OK maybe I’m dreaming but there is just something about an iPhone that’s different from any other web enable mobile device, it works well. :) I had a Windows Mobile phone before this and it was nice I admit but it was a pain to get things done and buggy too.. the iPhone is the simplest thing I have ever used and a very unique design.

Anyway all of this aside, after I finally managed to get that much anticipated update  I was off to the App Store  to see what goodies were there.. As I said in the post that first day I was a bit disappointed actually as I saw a good number of things that really were not worth any amount of money, not to belittle the efforts of those developing them. but they are just crappy, bottom line. There were of course a few jewels there and I am very sure some of the best are yet to come as its a whole new world here with these things and I’m sure some of the major players are waiting to see how things pan out before submitting their final efforts.  I know a few are in the works and I am checking every day now to see if the WordPress app has been released yet. hint hint

I’ve already given my wish list of apps I’d like see developed, so now i will list the ones I have found to be my favourites… so far… WordPress are you there yet? ;) .

1. AOL Radio  (entertainment) (free) Amazing app and I was surprised to see another music service on the iTunes App store but I have no doubt its going to be good business for both companies. amazing streaming Internet radio, Even on the limited stations available on the EDGE network. a must have app! YT video
2. Google Apps (Utility) (free) I already have many of the Google mobile apps built in through the web but this accesses them all from one screen and remembers my info
3. Pandora  (entertainment) (free) Another very good streaming music App.. YouTube  video
4. Aurora Feint (game) (free) Now you have to see this amazing game to appreciate the awesome graphics and the game play, I cant believe its a free game and I have already spent too much time on it, very addictive and fun. they even have a YT channel! you have to see this to appreciate it. Only thing is make sure you are having your charger near as its intense graphics and sounds suck that thing down quick! ;)
5. Spinblox (game)(NOT free) this is the only one I have purchased as I loved this game to pass some time and was one of the web apps I had. Had to get it. and this native application is having a better graphic system and more options than the web based one. just a personal favourite and of course there is a Youtube video demonstration
6. Facebook  (Utility) (free) Simple interface to access your Facebook account YT video
7. MySpace (Utility) (free) Simple interface to access your MySpace account YT Video
8. WeatherBug (Utility) (free) its a weather report and forecast thing.. duh.. but its cool. I like these weather things
9. Light (utility) (free) – Probably the simplest app there is, just  a blank white screen that gives off a very good light in the middle of the night! There are probably half a dozen flashlight apps available but I think this is the only free one and it works perfectly. Why would anyone pay for something like this?? and a YT video demonstration!
10. Evernote – (Utility) (free)  Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment (text, voice recording, photo) and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.
11. PhoneSaber… (entertainment) (free) ok that’s more than 10 but I love this little gizmo! its a screen with a Star Wars light saber on it and using the accelerometers built into the iPhone, it makes different realistic sounds of the light sabers in the movie when you swing the phone around. Ok I am easily amused sometimes… hey there’s even a demonstration vid on YT of it! cool!

I’ll be watching in the coming days and weeks for anything else that comes along that seems interesting to me.