Archive for iphone
iPhone: BlogPress Embraces Facebook (Maintains Its Lead Against Rivals)
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Perhaps one of the few multi-blogging iPhone apps still alive, BlogPress has recently added the ability to share posts immediately to Facebook, giving bloggers yet another way to easily reach the masses (or at least 400 million of them).
Even though bloggers could originally do this via the Facebook Note importer, Facebook unfortunately limits users to only importing one single blog.
Since BlogPress supports multiple blogs (across multiple platforms including WordPress, Movable Type and Blogger), bloggers can easily share their recent posts upon their Facebook wall from more than one blog, without having to use “work arounds” like Friendfeed.
Despite increased competition from companies releasing their own official apps (like WordPress and Squarespace), BlogPress continues to innovate itself by heavily embracing social networks such as Flickr, Twitter, YouTube–and now Facebook.
Stat Geeks Take Note: 4 iPhone Apps To Analyze Blog Health
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Have you ever tried to cook a steak without checking the time, temperature and (most importantly) the steak itself?
As silly as that sounds, the same is true when it comes to analyzing your blogs traffic and stats, which can provide invaluable feedback on the health of your blog.
For those fortunate enough to have an iPhone, here are four apps you should consider owning.
Analytics App (price: $5.99)
If you are a Google Analytics freak (note: I say that in love) then you will enjoy this app.
Although Analytics App does not have the greatest user interface (when compared to rivals like BAM Analytics), it does offer one feature that you will not find elsewhere on the app store–the famous “Today” stats, allowing me to view stats that happened today, rather than glimpsing at yesterday’s traffic.
Analytics App supports multiple accounts and despite the steep price, is worth every penny.
iEarn ($1.99)
Believe or not this is NOT my favorite AdSense App (truth be told SenseEarn is).
However, with iPhone password cracking slowly gaining popularity, I have made it a general rule that all financial apps require an “in app” password for security reasons, a feature iEarn has (that it’s rivals do not).
Security aside, iEarn does contain a few interesting features, the main one being the ability to see your earnings in different currencies.
While basic compared to other apps, the developer is promising to add extra features (RSS, search and mobile earnings) which should make it more appealing for stat geeks (like me).
Stat Fever ($0.99)
Created by Paranoid Ferret Productions, Stat Fever is in my opinion one of the best apps for FeedBurner addicts.
Stat Fever allows you to analyze your subscribers via graphs and numbers (the former which I’m a huge fan of).
While not much has changed since I last reviewed this app (which is unfortunate), Stat Fever still retains its crown as one of the most elegant and powerful FeedBurner apps thus far.
Statistics for WordPress ($2.99)
For those of you sporting the WP brand (and fear Google “knowing” everything about your blog), Statistics for WordPress is a perfect alternative to Google Analytics, and perhaps has the best user interface as far as analytics apps go.
What I like about this app is that it supports multi-touch, allowing you to compare different data points (which is useful if you’re trying to spot a trend).
Any others?
To my sorrow I was unable to find apps supporting a few other analytical apps or ad networks (i.e. for Yahoo! Publisher, Pheedo, Sitemeter, Quantcast, etc.), although hopefully more will appear (unless they are all holding out for the upcoming iPad).
Joomla Lovers May Have The Greatest iPhone App Ever
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For the first time in my geek life, I am seriously tempted to switch away from WordPress, all because of one iPhone app.
Joomla Admin Mobile, an iPhone application created by Covert Apps empowers users belonging to the Joomla faith to not only edit pages and articles, but also add multiple images to them without throwing all of the images at the bottom of the post (like WordPress 2) or near the top (like Squarespace).
Priced at $9.99, Joomla Admin Mobile (or JAM for short) sells at a much higher premium than other Joomla apps, although JAM does offer a few features lacking from its rivals.
What I Loved
Just like most of the other iPhone blogging apps, JAM allows Joomla users to upload images to their server.
However what separates JAM from rivals is not only can edit the image from within the app, without having to launch a photo editing program (like iRetouch) in order to touch up a picture.
Users can easily crop, adjust the image size or rotate pictures (in many fun and various forms) from within the app, saving times and energy when composing an article or section.
Another awesome feature that I love about JAM is the ability to edit user accounts directly from the app itself without having to power up the laptop.
Site admins can grant (or take away) access levels of registered users, change their passwords, email accounts or even screen names on a whim, and last (but not least) block users from logging in if they suspect an account has been compromised.
Admins can also email users registered upon the site from within the app, which is helpful if they suspect an account has been hacked (in which you can alert them of a new password).
Last but not least, JAM does support expandable post summaries, without having to hard code it in (which I have to do with my WordPress app).
What I disliked
Most of what I did not like about JAM had to do with the user interface which is quite ugly when compared to both the WordPress 2 and Squarespace iPhone apps.
When it comes to composing an article, I felt that there was too many “taps” compared to its rivals, which allow you to edit an article immediately instead of showing you a preview first.
Although I did love the basic photo editing features, I did wish the app came with a formating bar for HTML links, similar to what the LiveJournal.app has.
Also adding video support (perhaps via YouTube?) would be nice as well, as it could help JAM stand out from the crowd (as not many blogging apps have embraced video, despite the launch of the iPhone 3GS).
Conclusion
JAM is a powerful app for Joomla lovers, and perhaps one of the most powerful CMS/blogging apps that I have come across ever since WordPress and BlogPress entered Steve Jobs backyard.
JAM’s closest rival is BlogPress, although the latter does not upload images to your server but via third parties (Flickr and Picasa).
Despite being the only app to fully support Joomla, Covert Apps may want to adjust their pricing of JAM, as many users whine about apps being priced at $5, let alone $10 (mainly due to the global recession).
Overall Covert Apps is a “must have app” for Joomla lovers, and may help the Joomla community enter the blogging mainstream alongside of both Blogger and Wordpress.
Six Apart To iPhone: iGive Up? (Typepad)
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I seriously hope I am wrong about this, but it looks as if Six Apart, which was one of the first major companies to launch an iPhone blog app (for Typepad nonetheless) may have abandoned their app.
Users have been complaining about errors logging into their Typepad blogs via iPhone for quite some time (which I confirmed after trying to log into my blog and receiving the error to the right).
While users can still access their Typepad blogs via BlogPress, CellSpin and Shozu, it’s sad to see Six Apart (seemingly) abandon their native iPhone app (although to their credit they still support the web interface over at i.typepad.com).
Hopefully Six Apart will reconsider continuing support for the native app (or committing serious resources towards it), as their absence leaves the field wide open for WordPress and Squarespace (not to mention a host of third party apps).