This is half-pie.

P900 moblogging

Posted 2. May 2004, 23:53 in by Alan Macdougall, received 5 comments.

It looks like I’m going be able to keep the P900. (It seems that resisting getting a work mobile for as long as possible has paid off.)

And one of the nice capabilities of this phone is its ability to access the Internet – which of course means I can now blog from anywhere. There can be no escape!

Given the expense of web-surfing via GPRS it’s probably not a good idea to do it through the blog’s web interface. Luckily, these days most blog tools allow for posting directly using XML through a client application, which uses much less bandwidth.

Looking around, I found three blog clients for the P900. All seem to be based on Java, and none are the final word in mobile blog clients. Here’s my thoughts on each.

  • Kablog 1.4: $12.00 US. There are versions of this application for many handheld platforms. I can’t really comment on them, except to say that I hope they’re a lot better than the P900 version.Totally inadequate in many ways. Avoid. (Having said that, I understand they are working on a better version for the P900.)
  • Teazel Blog Photo Diary 1.2: $8.99 US. Very slick and nifty, with a straight-forward interface.Can’t handle categories, and could do with a better entry editor. The only one of the three to support posting photos – which it does well, except that there’s no control over image placement in the site’s filesystem. It’s a fantastic feature, all the same. I like it a lot, but not as much as…
  • Azure 0.5: Freeware. Currently the best all-rounder, and the one with the nicest price. Has by far the best entry editor (it can insert many HTML tags but like the others is missing simple Cut Copy Paste functionality – is this a Java thing?). Can handle categories and allows for the editing of excerpts andextended entries. The developer seems to have lots of plans and is well on the way to creating the Ecto of moblogging. Download now.
So it should come as no surprise to learn that I used Azure to post this entry, which worked really well. But the main issue/barrier to blogging via the P900 is really the text entry via the on-screen handwriting recognition: OK in short bursts, but a bit of a pain on anything longer. Looks like I, er, ’need’ another useless gadget an infrared keyboard…




Comments

  1. Patrick Quinn-Graham
    3 May 2004, 17:30 #

    Back in 2002 I used to blog from my palm pilot occasionally (during lectures, what not), and that worked quite well. (It used AvantGo, so I'd do my post and then get home, sync it, and it would appear online.) It certainly facilitated more random posts, and lots of things I would probably have missed otherwise. I should investigate a low weight XHTML client that could run from a T610, or even WAP.

  2. Alan
    3 May 2004, 22:49 #

    Kablog will work with the T610 - you should give it a go (despite what I said above: it does work, it's just that compared to the competition available for the P900 it's a dog).

  3. Alan
    4 May 2004, 07:17 #

    ...And, so will Azure (having just checked!). Cancel my suggestion to get Kablog for your T610: proceed to the Azure site instead.

  4. Martha
    6 May 2004, 18:20 #

    No excuses then for not doing more frequent updates??! Since Leto is gone you're now it - and now I know you can blog on windswept corners I expect daily entertainment - please.

  5. Alan
    6 May 2004, 23:13 #

    It's a big ask. I'm verging towards the techno-tedious at the moment, but I'll try. :-) There are some very good other Wellington blogs, of course. I've linked to a few on my links page. And... why don't you start your own? It's not that hard these days...

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