Blogpress Review
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Blogpress Review

Our Review by Chris Kirby on July 14th, 2010
Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar :: EASY HAS A PRICE
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Blogging on the go with an iPad/iPhone blog editor sounds great, until you try to insert a link.

Developer: INFOTHINKER INC
Price: $2.99
Version Reviewed: 1.7.1
Device Reviewed On: iPad

iPhone/iPad Integration Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarblankstarblankstar
Re-use Value Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar

Blog editing can be deceptively complicated sometimes. What can and should be an easy process for bringing content to the masses can also quickly descend into a miasma of arcane code. Hence, the rise of the simplified blog editors, where HTML code is generally hidden in favor of a more traditional word processing layout and paradigm. In theory this is a good idea. In execution, however, it rarely lives up to the hype.

Take Blogpress, for instance. At first glance, it's a simplified, straightforward blog editor, capable of working with a fairly wide variety of blogging platforms including Blogger, Wordpress, Drupal, Moveable Type and Typepad, among others (sorry, no Posterous or Tumblr support yet). The interface is simple and seemingly elegant. Just select the blog or blogs you want to post to, type your post in the app's word processor, add photos pulled directly from your iPad or iPhone library, and publish. It's as simple as that.

It's when you start digging just a little under the surface that you start seeing some real problems with this set-up. The first major problem is so mind-boggling I can hardly believe it's a missing feature. The embedded word processor in Blogpress does not include basic formatting buttons or controls. In other words, there is no built-in solution for setting fonts or font styles or even (horrors!) inserting links! Yes, you can insert the necessary HTML code and get these features in your post, but if something as basic to blogging as inserting links is missing in an editor such as this, it seems like it's hardly an editor at all.

The second issue with Blogpress isn't a missing feature, it's just one that is more hidden than it ought to be. It took me quite a while of fiddling with the app to discover how to add tags and how to schedule a post for a later time or date. The solution to my problem was clicking a small info icon next to the blog post title, but that hardly seems intuitive. I must have gone to the settings icon a dozen times or more looking desperately for these basic features. I wrongly assumed that the info icon would just show data related to my post - word count, etc. A more obvious implementation of tags, categories and post scheduling is definitely needed.

Considering the price is only $2.99, and that Blogpress is a universal app you can carry with you anywhere on your iPhone or iPad, it still might be worth giving a try if you are mainly interested in writing simple posts with pictures, and you don't mind adding HTML link code by hand. It also allows those without a Wi-Fi connection to compose posts offline and easily publish them when a connection is restored. Blogpress definitely serves a purpose and could fill a needed niche. It just needs a little more work.

iPhone Screenshots

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iPad Screenshots

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