Wordpress App for iPhone finally arrives

Today I was pleased to discover the Wordpress App on the App Store. With six apart having a Typepad App available from App Store launch day Wordpress users had been feeling a little left out. This was especially frustrating as using Wordpress from the iPhone Safari browser was near impossible with unedutable forms and crashes.

Summary
Liked:
+ Easy to use
+ includes all important fields (even tags & categories)
+ Saves a draft of your work if you get interrupted by a phone call
+ all work done locally so don’t have to worry about losing signal/connection when writing
+ Can insert photos from camera or photo library
+ has a preview mode that even downloads you wp theme where possible
+ Accepts HTML tags

Didn’t like:
- Crashes if you switch connection type in the middle of submission (e.g. Switch from GPRS to 3G or wifi to edge)
- no control over image placement
- HTML is hard to write on iPhone and no shortcuts are provided in the app. Would liked to have seen buttons for open/closing common tags like strong tags
- impossible to demonstrate code as even & amp and & gt gets converted to & and > when you save.
EDIT:- images get resized to 300px wide regardless of whether image was larger/smaller before

More
Setting up was easy enough. Just provide the URL of your blog and login details. The App doesn’t seem to handle http or www prefix so make sure you start with the domain/subdomain. Seems to support both wordpress.com and self hosted wordpress blogs. You can add multiple blogs and switch between them in the main menu. I don’t think you can post a single entry to multiple blogs though.

Once you enter your chosen blog you see your last 10 posts which can be editted or deleted. You can if course create a new post. The interface is simple to use with fields for title tags and you main text. You can also choose which category to post in and add new categories. Be warned view categories or adding new ones requires Internet access and if you witch from 3G to edge/wifi or vica versa while connecting the app locks up. It appears to be continually trying to submit/retrieve data but never finishes. This is more of an iPhone bug than a problem with the App. A timeout fail would be good though so you can save your work and try again.

The app doesn’t try and be too flash with graphics or effects. This is good as stability of the app is very important as a lock up or drop out can loose your hard work. Apart from when connecting to the blog and having the crash I described above the app has been stable. So although I still recommend saving often you should have problems with losing your work. Just don’t submit you post until you have a solid connection and are not moving.

At first I thought the app only supported plain text posts. However, after hitting done the virtual keyboard is replaced by a new menu which give the options of Write, Pictures, Preview and settings. Pictures allows you to insert images from you camera or photo library. Seeing as you can save images from the web into your photo library and this really gives you a lot of freedom to add imagery to your posts. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to control image place lment though. All images get inserted at the end of your post.

The Preview mode is very useful it downloads your current Wordpress theme from your site and renders your new post in context. Unfortunately it didn’t manage to retrieve my theme and so a simple preview was used. This was still helpful as I was then able to test if the HTML I used would render correctly or show up in the post. The HTML I tested worked fine. Unfortunately, the app is a little too enthusiastic with rendering HTML as even code you want to display is converted. For example & amp becomes & if you put the symbol with text, even if you do not finish with a semi-colon.

The settings option let’s you modify the time stamp and password protect entries, so even less commonly used settings are available.

Actually posting your blog when finished isn’t immediately obvious. There is no SUBMIT/make it go button. Just a status you can change from local draft to Published. It also allows you set status to online draft so you can finish off at a Desktop computer before making it live. For the purpose of testing I am posting this direct from my iPhone.

Overall a great App that every Wordpress blogger with an iPhone should have. A few minor quirks than hopefully can get worked out by future updates. Most importantly it is stable and works. This App recieves a FFE gold award.

BBC Music Beta Launches

The BBC have launched their new Music site. It is still in beta but already looks pretty polished. You can find out more about artists that have been played on any of the BBC radio stations. You can see how many times they’ve been played this week, which radio stations have played them and how many times since records began for that artist. You can even see which DJs plays them the most. Apart from a stat fest you can get links to other useful information such as the artists website and wikipedia page and find similar artists that you may like. Artist details also include a discography, photos and more. Much of the content is powered by Music Brainz which the BBC link to for further info or to add your own input.

The styling of the site matches well with the excellent 2008 look BBC homepage but doesn’t have any snazzy, technical wizardy just great content.

There are a lot of music sites out there - many with a lot more artist info and the ability to sample tracks or music videos. In fact the only content BBC is providing is the artists play stats on it’s Radio stations the rest is from wikipedia or music brainz but it is presented really nicely and the unique BBC stats can help you pick a radio station that suits your music tastes or it can help you discover similar artists you may like.

If you are keen to find more artists you may like and suggested artists on BCC music beta aren’t enough check out last.fm
Technorati Tags: BBC, Music, Beta, Feeds

iPhone disappointment continues - Delivery Fail

Looks like between O2 and DHL they have mis-routed my parcel. It’s in Dartford instead of Vauxhall and so I have been told I have to wait until Monday for it. Not impressed.

I will be trying to collect from the depo but I won’t hold my breath.

Apple Store Activation FAIL

It appears that UK iPhones require a PC to activate so the Apple store ran into trouble on today’s launch as all their systems were running on Mac and couldn’t activate the phones.
LMAO.

Full story here

iPhone 3G hands on

I got a very welcome email from O2 advising the status of my iPhone order:
We’re pleased to inform you that your O2 upgrade order has now been dispatched.

Your delivery details are:
Option: STANDARD DELIVERY
Cost: £0.00
Date of Delivery: Next working day

I then got hands-on an actual iPhone 3G. It feels completely different in the hand - partly because it’s shape is different and also because the back is plastic and not metal. I can’t say whether it feels better or worse- just different. I’m definitely less likely to drop it as it fits in the curve of the hand better.

First port of call was to check out the GPS on google maps. I didn’t manage to get a blue GPS dot but it was quick to locate me based on my wifi connection. Found maps to be overall more responsive.

I next checked out the app store. This works like a combination of the jailbreak appTapp and the iPhone iTunes store. It was quick and had quite a few apps already available to download. Most were chargeable.

The camera was not mentioned during the iPhone 3G announcements and tour and for good reason. It is just as bad as before - no noticeable improvement except again response time is slightly better.

I only had a few minutes with it so didn’t get to test out 3G speeds but I’ve had 3G phones before so know what to expect there.

Not sure if improved responsiveness was because there is better hardware or because I’m comparing to my iPhone which I’ve jammed up with about 30 jailbreak apps.

Will write more when I have my own one tomorrow, then I can download Apps.

App store released? - iPhone 3G frenzy escalates

Today saw the latest version of iTunes which I am hoping will include the app store and a fireware update for iPhones enabling 3rd party apps to finally be installed without jailbreaking your phone. I might keep my iPhone 1 jailbroken and just use the app store on my iPhone 3G.

All my friends that managed to see the “Thank you” message on the O2 upgrade store have now received their confirmation emails so it looks like it’s a happy ending for some.

Now we can laugh again it might be time to see some iPhone comedy videos like this one from CNET:

I even make a cameo in this one:

O2 back track on iPhone 3G instore upgrades, ebay sets value at £380

Not all of my friends were as lucky to get their iPhone 3G confirmation yet and are considering their options. O2 support say that they WILL be allowing upgraders to get their phones instore on release day along with new subscribers. This information will be released on the 10th of July (the day before launch). This will mean upgrades will be possible at O2, Carphone Warehouse and Apple stores.

If you fail to get hold of one instore on the day the street price set by ebay auctions is around £380. Finiding listings can be a bit tricky with everyone putting iPhone somewhere in their item descriptions whether it is an iPhone or not to get noticed in search results. Here is a link with a filter for the most common erroneous listings.

Users still under contract with their old network providers hoping to switch to O2 for an iPhone are unlikely to have get a hold of a phone in this first batch. More are expected later in the year though.

O2 still pay for iPhone ads despite selling out

Despite selling out of iPhones on the O2 website and rumoured to have run out of 16gb iPhones in all but a few stores O2 are still paying for iPhone ads via Google ad words. Save some money - stop advertising - I think enough people know and I doubt you have enough stock to please them.

O2 iPhone 3G upgrade orders Confirmation emails are in!

I checked my email today and was delighted to find my last minute order did go through successfully and O2 have emailed me confirmation. Many are still wondering whether or not their many attempts to place an order on the O2 site were successful or not - I guess today they will find out.

iPhone 3G out of stock in UK

First Carphone Warehouse Pre-orders went out of stock. Then there were rumours that O2 had gone out of stock. Now 2 mins after I got my order in the O2 site is confirming that they have sold out of online stock. This means that any remaining stock is reserved for launch day and is likely to be in high demand. Looks like those out camping aren’t so crazy after all.

There are also rumours that some stock intended for Canada may find it’s way over to Europe. Whether this is true, or if it has anything to do with the backlash against Canadian phone operators excessive rates or just because of higher demand in Europe no one knows.

As my pervious post indicates - as to whether my order or others went through successfully remains to be seen.

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