WpToGo and blogging in public.

Posted: September 13th, 2009 | Author: TimConneally | Filed under: Android, Apps | Tags: Android, blogging, butterfinger, g1, newsweek, racist babies, wordpress, wptogo | 1 Comment »

Before I go into anything, I would like to warn anyone who’s attempting to seriously blog from their Android phone with wptogo as I have...you will lose your work at some point.

This is my fourth attempt at making a post entirely in the wptogo WordPress blogging app on my G1…let’s see if I can save a draft before I go on.

I think that worked. Unfortunately, though, I’ve lost a lot of pretty decent writing due to force closes when attempting saving drafts or other features. I wrote half of one post using only the soft keyboard and talking about the interesting benefits of auto-completion while blogging on the move. I tried to post some instantly captured pics…and I explained the app’s layout and its pros and cons.

But it’s all gone, and I’m a little upset about it.

However, it’s not anger or annoyance… It’s disappointment that this app has not been the magical solution it promised to be. I thought of all the professional bloggers who use WordPress that could seriously benefit from this app, and I was saddened by its frequent crashing and the thought of all the brilliant work that could get lost.

I was also particularly fond of the idea of writing a blog about an Andoid blogging app while using that very app.

Anyway, let’s talk about the app and hope that it sticks. The touch interface makes this app great, I can highlight text and hit bold or italics, insert links, blockquotes and in-phone images. It’s a bit wonky if you don’t already have photos snapped because you can’t leave wptogo open, go to the camera and take a quick picture for the entry. It requires saving and moving around.

I hit “pictures>add” but nothing has shown up in this field to indicate that a picture has been inserted. It’ll be a surprise for me to discover later. They should be random pics I just took here in line at the grocery store of caffeinated Butterfinger candybars and a sensationalist Newsweek headline.

Okay, I’m back on my computer at home to finish out this review, and apologize for the serious lack of cohesion. Re-reading this entry now, I realize that my composition process is totally uncoordinated, and when I can’t constantly revise a piece of writing, it seriously lacks flow. I shouldn’t say WpToGo RUINED this review, the lack of flow is my fault, but the crashing made me progressively more careless until I eventually just wanted to get something posted.

And as you can see, the one picture was automatically inserted in the top of the post….so I have a nice, ridiculous teaser shot that is sure to get people shaking their heads.

By the way, a woman in front of me in line saw me take the picture of that magazine cover and asked why I had. I said “well, because babies pretty much love everything by default.”

And I kid you not…she said “yeah, and if they don’t, you slap the shit out of them.”

People are hilarious. This is why public blogging is great.

---