Posterous For iPhone: The Good, The Bad And The Awesome
Known mostly for challenging the status quo as well as rescuing users from less than trustworthy platforms, Posterous has decided to re-enter the iWars by launching a new iPhone app sporting their corporate name.
Effortless sharing from your iPhone has arrived with the new Posterous iPhone app. If you are looking for a fun and simple way to update friends and family while you’re on-the-go, the Posterous iPhone app is for you.
Just touch post, add any combination of text, photos or videos and you’re ready to post. You can add tags, share your geotag location or even mark a post as private straight from the app. (Official Posterous Blog)
Unlike their first iPhone app (entitled PicPosterous which oddly is still listed upon the app store), Posterous for iPhone allows users to sign up to the service right from the app, as well as create new blogs directly from the iPhone without the need of a notebook or PC.
What I Loved
Posterous has done an excellent job of presenting the world with a polished app that not only rivals WordPress for iPhone as well as Tumblr for iPhone, but in some ways exceeds their competition, as one can see in the video below.
The ability to post image and video files together probably separates Posterous from their Tumblr rival (note: yes, I know its an apple to oranges comparison), as well as gives Squarespace fans another iReason to be envious (as the company has yet to include video uploading within their app).
I also loved the ability that they included Posterous site stats (aka site views) from within the app, as well as the number of comments received on each post.
You can also configure the media quality of both images and videos (the latter which I wish I could do from within my WordPress app).
What’s Missing
Although I loved the new app, there were a few “must have” features missing from Posterous for iPhone that the company needs to include upon the next update (that is if they want to thwart WordPress’s attempt to retake the iPhone).
The first was the inability to post text in between images and video, as Posterous simply throws all of the media content up towards the top of the blog.
Although most official blogging apps do this, its something that usually annoys most users (which explains the popularity of third party apps like BlogPress who allow users to post text under and above images, not to mention video as well).
Second was the lack of comment moderation, which can help users combat nefarious spam while on the go, as well as help match Posterous against their WordPress rival.
Last but not least is the inability to edit previous posts. Although Posterous gives users the ability to view and delete posts, editing a post straight from the iPhone would give iBloggers sitting on the fence another reason to switch to Posterous.
Conclusion: Awesome Or Okay?
Although Posterous image uploading is not as good as WordPress for iPhone, truth be told their video uploading feature is a lot smoother than WP (or even Tumblr’s), which makes the app a must have for video bloggers on the go.
Praises and criticisms aside, the startups latest app did finally convince me to resurrect my Posterous site (which has been seeking attention for quite some time).
If the company is able to replicate their iPhone app upon Android and Blackberry phones, they could seriously challenge both WordPress and Tumblr for the heavy weight mobile blogging crown.
