and probably some more

The post I wrote early this morning was published using the new Blogger app for iPhone. I wanted to try it and I imagine if a popo watched me walk to work this morning the cop would most likely stop me to check if I’m drunk. Coding at 3 AM while walking in streets lit by a handful of streetlights is something I won’t attempt any time soon.

The good news though is it works. The bad news is it’s not fully functional especially if you’re like me who is anal about aesthetics. Here are some of the features and challenges I had noticed and experienced when I was using it:

• Posts are not arranged on a consecutive order. Perhaps it was based on the date when the app was launched that’s why I notice the dates were all “11-09-09”. Yet even the entries were not arranged from most recent to oldest but a mishmash of very old, very new, and some in between.
• When writing a post and publishing, it will use the generic Times New Roman 12 font in black. To publish on your preferred font, size, and color you need to know a bit of HTML coding. If you want tabs, alignment, create a list, use any italicization you got to code it. Writing a post is like writing the simplest form of email without any embelishments.
• Pictures can be uploaded using your camera or existing photos in your library. I’m not certain though if you can use either/or the front and back camera of the iPhone 4 as I am using a 3GS.
• Unlike the full site, you can’t schedule when you want the post to be publish. You only have three options: 1.) save as a draft; 2.) publish it now; or 3.) delete it permanently.

• It takes an average of a minute for you to save a draft and then see your draft in the full site. That’s not bad.
• Tapping the nifty “B” at the bottom center of the app will bring you to another page where you can see your blog in mobile format. However, it will only display your post entries and any extra columns you have will not show up besides the “About Me” section. There is an option though to go to view the web version without having to open a Safari browser.
• Any post written/embedded in Java will not show (this is an iPhone limitation).
• If you use any java against plagiarism it will be disabled. Meaning if people can’t right click on your blog if they use a browser, using this app they can. But no need to be paranoid. They won’t be able to access your iPhone Blogger app anyway unless for some reason you leave your phone lying around unlocked.
• You can include your location in your post. I don’t use this particular features but it is included.
• Key features not available are: Posting videos, stats, blog settings management, comments moderation, page management. changing template, and layout editing.

Over all, I’d give them a Needs Improvement but would give a B+ on speed. Hopefully the feedback I submitted would be accounted for. Can’t gripe about it though as the app is only 2 days old.