Testing the TypePad Mobile application

Written on the phone:

Six Apart’s Michael Sippey has announced tonight the release of a new product, TypePad Mobile, a mobile application that allows smartphone users to post pictures and (basic) blog entries from their phone. This was already feasible by email but the application - running on my Cingular 8125 on which I type this - does provide a slightly better user experience and control.

The installation was pretty straightforward when downloading the CAB file on the phone (note that it should be signed). The download on the PC did not add it to the list of applications to be installed by ActiveSync and no explanation was provided as to how it should be done. The text editor does not react exactly like Word or the mail program, like automatically capitalizing the first letter of a word after the end of a sentence, which makes it a bit bizarre to use. There is no concept of links, or tags, which means that mobile posts have to be updated from a computer after the initial publication, which I guess is fine for now.

Pictures can be automatically resized to 640px in width. I would have liked to see this option to be offered per post rather than a preference of the application.

Added on a PC:

It seems to me that blog posts that include a picture should have a choice of layouts like Buzznet or Flickr have. The current default is to display the picture on top of the post, and then insert the text that has been typed. There is also a slight issue when a user has a large number of blogs and photo galleries, only the first few ones can be accessed via TypePad Mobile.

According to Sippey, TypePad Mobile is the relaunched version of SplashBlog after its acquisition by Six Apart.

 

Comments

[Michael Sippey]

Jeff -- thanks for trying out the app, and thanks for the feedback. We should definitely add better install instructions for users downloading the apps off the web, and I'll pass on your feedback to the mobile team re. the app itself.