Posterous For iPhone: The Good, The Bad And The Awesome

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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. [Read more…]

Disqus Embraces 3 Smartphones. Guess Who Got Left Out?

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After declaring their intentions to release official apps upon the iPhone and Android devices, Disqus has announced that the apps are ready for prime time (provided they survive the tribunal processes save one OS).

About month ago, we announced “Disqus Mobile”. Since then, we’ve had a tremendous amount of traffic on with mobile theme, and received several of requests for a way to moderate and keep up with your communities whilst on the go. Being very keen to listen to our community, we’ve been secretly working on something deep within the Disqus laboratories.

Today we’re announcing a set of mobile apps on Android, iPhone (iOS), and webOS to help you achieve this. These apps are simple to use, lightweight, and battery efficient. We wanted to be sure you had enough battery life to call Grandma. (Official Disqus Blog) [Read more…]

Textpattern Announces 4.3 RC, Still Silent On The iPhone Front

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Textpattern (considered by some to be WordPress’s true rival) is launching their release candidate (aka RC) in order to purge the CMS of any bugs before the official launch.

The first release candidate of Textpattern CMS 4.3.0 is ready for boarding. Please make your way to the departure lounge and download a copy. Report any unexpected baggage on the Issue tracker or forum to help us build a high-quality final release. (Official Textpattern Blog) [Read more…]

WordPress For iPhone: Video Uploading Now Included!

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After many weeks of anticipation, it looks like Automattic has finally submitted their latest update for WordPress for iPhone, which now officially supports video uploading.

The new WordPress for iPhone app also comes with a slightly new UI, which easily allows users to sign up for a WordPress.com account directly from the app without having to use a notebook or PC.

I have been testing out the app (via Ad hoc) for the past week across multiple servers (as well as WordPress.com) and thus far the updated app is (for the most part) an improvement over the last version.

For those of you wondering how WordPress for iPhone compares against its WP siblings (I’m looking at you Android and Blackberry!), here is an in depth review below. [Read more…]

Is A Textpattern iPhone App In The Works?

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After being envious of their WordPress friends, it looks like we might be witnessing the making of a Textpattern iPhone app in the (hopefully) near future.

I’ve got to commission an iOS developer in late 2010, early 2011 to make an app for a client’s website. Since they will be tapping into the site’s txp database anyway I wonder if I could get them to also adapt the current WordPress app for use on TXP as an extra project – depends on how much work was actually needed to do that. Also, as mentioned, the image uploading would have to be enabled by the txp devs or it is probably not worth doing. (Phil Wareham)

The biggest hurdle to the creation of a Textpattern app seems to be the lack of a way to seamlessly upload media files (images, video, etc.) to a Textpattern blog via XML-RPC (at least according to many geeks in the Textpattern community). [Read more…]

iPhone: BlogPress Makes WordPress Blogging Fun Again

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The creator of BlogPress has just rolled out an update to their universal iPhone/iPad blogging app which now includes support for Squarespace and Tumblr.

However the greatest feature thus far is BlogPress’s inclusion of HTML support, which makes BlogPress the perfect tool for bloggers seeking to create content from their iDevices without firing up the laptop.

For those wondering whether they should consider purchasing BlogPress for $2.99 (especially in the age of free official apps) here is an in depth overview highlight key features (both old and new). [Read more…]

Facebook iPhone App Upgrade Fixes Jailbroken Device Login

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Facebook iPhone AppThe Facebook for iPhone App has just been released with a new version (3.2.2). The new upgrade option fixes a login issue that has been plaguing jailbroken iPhone users.

The fix comes just several days after the apps developers posted about the issue on their official Facebook app page. Users can download the new version of the program by visiting the “Updates” tab in the iPhone App Store.

The update description also states that Facebook Places is currently only available to users in the U.S. and “We’re working on making this available in other countries soon.” [Read more…]

Disqus Goes Mobile, Launching iPhone And Android Apps

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Disqus, a company who is known by some for perfecting the art of blog comments has updated their commenting interface in order to make it friendlier for mobile devices.

While the new interface makes commenting through a smartphone almost as easy as through a notebook, Disqus has announced grander plans for users with iPhone or Android OS devices.

The new improved Disqus neocortex has the ability to identify whether you’re browsing on a desktop or mobile device. For our publishers with mobile sites, this activates a new attractive, clutter free, optimized theme for mobility.

This new theme is made possible with a new theming architecture behind the scenes. It’s a hint to some of the very cool things we’re going to be doing with new themes on Disqus. […]

For you website-runners, we’re getting ready to roll out mobile tools to help maintain your community on the go. Think iPhone and Android apps. More on that soon! (Official Disqus Blog)

While the company has not hinted on whether they will create an iPad app (or even an app for Blackberry and Palm Pre fans), this news probably means the end of DisqusPro, who offered users a way to moderate their threads via iPhone.

Previously Disqus has been heavily courting Blogspot users, as well as challenging WordPress’s Intense Debate by launching a Gravatar like button (which mimics WP.com’s version).

Twitter For iPhone: We’re Looking For A Few Good Ideas

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The boys and girls at Twitter HQ tweeted out a request to the twittersphere asking for suggestions on ways to improve the official iPhone app.

If you have any problems/feature requests related to the new Twitter for iPhone app please let us know at @mobilesupport. Thx! (via @Tweetie)

While a few extra features like push notifications and filters would do wonders to improve the service, Twitter might want to consider adding these 5 critical features to the next update (some which are already being implemented by third party tweet apps). [Read more…]

Squarespace Dethrones WordPress On iPhone

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After initially exposing the world to their iPhone app, it looks like the boys and girls at Squarespace have released an update that will make WordPress fans jealous.

While the Squarespace iPhone app already allowed users to view their blog’s stats, the team decided to go one step further in order to make the iPhone app truely useful for those blogging on the go.

Comment Moderation. This has been a very long time coming, but hey, anything worth doing is worth doing well, right? Moderate existing comments, reply to comments, approve comments, mark comments as spam, and email comment authors directly from the app.

Push Notifications. Yes, this is technically part of comments, but it deserves its own bullet. New comments and/or comments awaiting moderation will now send a push notification to your device. New comments will also pop a pretty badge onto the app’s icon if you ignore the push notification. (Official Squarespace Blog)

Note: Emphasis theirs.

Other features mentioned include various improvements when editing a post, as well as the ability to (finally!) create a blog post in landscape mode. The video below displays Squarespace’s comment moderation in action, which is similar to WordPress’s iPhone app. [Read more…]