Blog On The Move With WordPress On Your iPhone

by Karan Goel

Publish or perish – This is what the irony of blogging 2.0 states. If you provide content on a regular basis, you have a “right” to blog. Or else, don’t do it!

If you are blogger, you need to follow this. The “rule” brings us to the new phenomenon called Live-Blogging. You can blog while walking, at a seminar, in a school – practically anywhere and everywhere.

For bloggers who use WordPress, either with WordPress.com or on self-hosted sites (version 2.7 or higher only), the newly updated WordPress for iPhone 2.0 App will prove to be a tool of them – an easy and quick way of blogging from their iPhone. The app is compatible with bot iPhone and iPod Touch. Also, being an Open Source project, developers may join in on the project.

Comments, for example, often need to be moderated and answered quickly and thoughtfully, and the writing is often on-the-fly. WordPress for iPhone 2.0 shows up Comments tab when started. A mobile app like this is really good for this, since you can do your comment-moderating at those times that might otherwise be empty: traveling, waiting time at the dentist’s office, or sitting in a traffic jam.

WordPress for iPhone 2.0 is very simple to set up and use. Download the free application, fire it up and enter the blog address, user name and password. The app validates the blog that’s entered and it’s all set to go. Multiple blogs can be edited.

The Comments tab can show all or only pending comments. Comments can be approved, unapproved, set as spam, or deleted.

The Posts tab lists all existing posts (including drafts), and allows creating new and editing existing posts, adding tags, categorizing, and setting publication status. Its modes are Write, for creating new content; Comments, which shows a comment list filtered by the Post; Photos, for adding photos to the post, either from the iPhone’s photo library, or directly from the camera; Preview, letting the blogger have a look at her new post; and Settings, which include Publish date, optional Password, and Resize Photos, which is off by default (resized photos will publish faster but show smaller).

The Pages tab lists all the blog’s pages. New pages can be written, photos added to pages, and publication status set.

They’ve added some nice new features which make using WordPress for iPhone more pleasant, secure and convenient. Gravatars (globally recognized avatars) and authors’  URLs now show in the comment list. WordPress for iPhone now stores passwords in the iPhone’s Keychain for secure, hands-free backup. It also automatically now saves posts if the network connection gets interrupted while publishing, and restores them when it reconnects, which is a lifesaver for mobile bloggers. And if you’re dealing with multiple blogs, opening in the blog last used is handy behavior, too.

We’d all like to have the ability to do mobile audio or video blogging.  They have plans to add these features in a future release. (Remember, this is Open Source, so interested parties can join in the fun.)

Now I’m looking for any excuse to go on the road and do some blogging!

Do you use WordPress for the iPhone? If so, what do you like / dislike about it?   What new features would you like to see in a future release?