Despite providing powerful platforms for their users, both Blogger.com (owned by Google) and Six Apart seem to be rather slow when it comes to creating apps for the iPhone. 

While SixApart has provided an iPhone app for Typepad, they have yet to develop anything for MovableType, leaving the field wide open for third parties.

One company from China however is taking advantage of this opening, by creating a powerful iPhone app for not only the “big three” (Blogger, MovableType/Typepad, WordPress) but for MSN Live Spaces as well.

Called BlogPress (which was previously highlighted by Andy), this app was developed by CoolLittle Things, who ironically encountered some resistance (note: english translation over here) submitting their app to the iTunes store.

But with BlogPress costing a whopping 999 pennies (or about $10 USD), BlogSpot and MovableType fans may wonder whether purchasing this app is worth it.

So instead of spending potential gas money (or even lunch), you might want to check out the review below to see if this iPhone app is worth spending money on. read more

Coollittlethings Studio has added its own software to the mix of blogging applications for the iPhone in the shape of Blog Press (iTunes Store link).

Unlike some other general blogging tools for the iPhone which have missed out one or more key blog platforms, the developers claim it works happily with all the major players — that’s Blogger, Windows Live Spaces, WordPress, Movable Type, and TypePad.

It supports photo uploading from a Picasa Web Album or Blog Press Public Album (both of which would need to be set up first, naturally). It’s not clear whether you can also grab photos from the iPhone’s albums, as you would with most other applications. read more

According to statistics, if you are reading this, you are probably on a broadband connection. Whether you are surfing at work on a LAN or at home on a DSL or cable modem, you are probably not on dial up at this moment.

However, there was a time not that long ago in which Webmasters were optimizing every element of their page feverishly to squeeze every ounce of speed from it. Broadband simply was not that common and, even over dial up connections, visitors had twitchy fingers on the “back” button at all times.

But in the age of YouTube, Flash ads and embeddable content, those lessons have been all but forgotten, However, not everyone has access to high-speed connection, especially in rural locations, and after spending just a few days limited to dial up, the lessons come flooding back.

So what lessons did I learn while surfing the slow Web while evacuated? Here is just a sample of what I saw. read more

Google has been ordered to unamsk the identity of an anonymous blogger in Indian that has been accused in a defamation case against a construction company, according to Wired News and the Wall Street Journal this morning.

Wired writes:

The blogger known only as “Toxic Writer,” is accused of attacking the Mumbai-based Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects Ltd. in what they are calling a “hate campaign.”

The blog was taken down, and Google’s Indian subsidiary is claiming they are not responsible for the Blogger.com service.

India, as a former British Commonwealth nation, has a legal system that does not have an equivalent to the US’s First Amendment, protecting free speech.

Blogger: Beyond the Basics provides a difficult challenge to me as a reviewer. As a die hard user of WordPress reviewing a book about Blogger, I have to do two things.

1. Not allow any prejudice or personal feelings about Google’s blogging service to enter my review.
2. Read this book from the perspective of the target audience and decide how much it might help them.

The first turned out to be surprisingly easy. I’ve dabbled with Blogspot blogs before during tests and was curious what advanced capabilities the service had.

The second, however, turned out to be much more difficult, not because I found it hard to put myself in the shoes of the target audience, but because I couldn’t figure out exactly who the target audience was. read more

It appears as if Google’s Blogger service have had some issues over the weekend. On Friday, they marked bunch of blogs as spam, which was quickly identified and written about. The issue was resolved on Saturday, with explanations:

We want to offer our sincerest apologies to affected bloggers and their readers. We’ve tracked down the problem to a bug in our data processing code that locked blogs even when our algorithms concluded they were not spam. We are adding additional monitoring and process checks to ensure that bugs of this magnitude are caught before they can affect your data.

This isn’t a good thing for Blogger of course, and certainly hurts the brand.

The 2008 first half Security Threat Report, published by computer security company Sophos, has identified Google’s Blogger as being responsible for 2-percent of the world’s malware.

Apparently, hackers are setting up free blogs that host malicious code. You’ll also find evil links lurking in the comments section.

According to Google:

“Using Blogger, or any Google product, to serve or host malware is a violation of our product policies. We actively work to detect and remove sites that serve malware from our network.”

The United States received the distinct honor of being the home of the most infected Web pages (accounting for two out of every five). Following behind are China, Russia, Germany and the Ukraine. Let’s hope we carry this winning streak into the Olympics!

Up next, the infiltration of your mobile device. I can hardly wait.

I’m back after a three-week bout of NoBloggingitis (be careful, it might be contagious). I never intended not to blog. Simply put, life just got in the way. The big event in my life was selling my place and moving into a new one. While I expected it to be stressful, I figured I’d be able to find the time to blog. It never happened.

Blogs where I merely contribute, I didn’t expect to be ‘missed.’ However I was pleasantly surprised by the number of e-mails I received from regular readers over at Jobacle. From wondering if something was wrong to asking if I’d been ‘blinded by Kabbalah and dating Madonna,’ it felt very good to be missed.

But it also taught me a valuable lesson. One that all bloggers know but occasionally need to be reminded of:

Communicate with your readers.

I should have tipped off my loyal visitors that things might be slow for awhile. Sure, that’s what RSS readers are for. But I truly felt that there were folks who missed daily content. As a blogger, you have the ability to become part of a person’s daily routine. That’s pretty special, and it’s something I’ll never take for granted again!

Seventeen years in the making, there’s no way that Guns n’ Roses’ perpetually forthcoming album Chinese Democracy will live up to the hype. Frustrated by the wait, blogger Kevin Skwerl who runs Antiquiet, decided to leak nine tracks that he received from an “anonymous source.”

Bad move.

Upon returning to work from lunch, a team of FBI agents “ambushed” the Web scribe and forced him to pull the unauthorized music.

Without a hit since the early 90’s, G n’ R clearly aren’t up to speed on using blogs and the Internet as a vehicle to promote their music.

Axl: Can you just release the darn album already?

As it turns out, Antiquiet is a pretty neat blog. They turned me onto a story I hadn’t heard about. Read more about the rock musician who recently told a fan, “Go back to your mom’s house, you 12-year-old dickless fuc*ing turd!”

Wow. He’s angrier than Axl.

If you come across a product, service or establishment that pisses you off, and you’re a blogger, there’s a good chance that you’ll use your blog as a venue to share your feelings with the world. Before you refocus your anger to the keyboard, think twice before typing and posting.

There are two adages that come into play here:

“If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.”

“There’s no such thing as bad press.”

If you still can’t resist the urge, and have a compulsion to post (many bloggers are obsessive personality types), ask yourself the following:

- Does the entry match my blog’s content?
- Will readers care
- Would I be satisfied if this blog post comes to represent my entire blog?

What do YOU think? Does this sound advice apply to the blogosphere?