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Google Rolls Out New Blogger Template Designer

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For all those who stuck around with Google’s free blog hosting service Blogger, Google has just rolled out the new Template Designer. Finally, the folks at Blogger.com realized that the old selection of templates are too outdated and decided to introduced some new templates that you can use on your blogs as well as a new set of tools for customizing your blogs including designing your own Blogger template. This is also good news for those who wants to start their own blogs just now but don’t want to use WordPress.com.

Google’s Blogger Template Designer currently offers 15 new professional templates, custom blog layouts that you can apply in each of the new templates, professional background images coming from iStockphoto plus several color, fonts and other customization features that you can use.

If you have an existing Blogger account, you can try the Template Designer out by going to Blogger in Draft. Once you’ve come up with a great design, you can simply save it

The Blogger Template Designer is  currently hosted in Blogger in Draft where you are free to try it out on your blog. You can see the Template Designer if you click on the Layout link. Once you’ve come up with the best template and design for your blog you can opt to apply it on your blog.

It would be interesting to note why it took Google this long to come up with such features. I almost thought that Google is about to shut down Blogger since it has not been given too much attention the past few months. But then again, given the millions of blogs hosted on Blogger.com, Google will definitely put this service down.

If you are currently maintaining a Blogger blog, check out the new Template Designer and share with us your experience.

Originally posted on March 11, 2010 @ 5:34 pm

WordPress 1.0 Now Available for BlackBerry

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The mobile version of WordPress seems to be having a tour across smartphone platforms right now.  Or is it perhaps because of the resounding fact that the future of blogging is mobile?  Anyway, after appearing on the Android market for all Android phone users and mobile bloggers to use, WordPress 1.0 is now also available for BlackBerry devices. And like the Android version, the BlackBerry version is equally robust and quite good if not better.

WordPress for BlackBerry has been in beta for quite some time now and after getting subjected to the scrutiny of selected beta testers, Automattic finally decided to take the app out of beta mode and release the final version of WordPress 1.0 for this smartphone.

So, what’s in store for all of you BlackBerry users who blog on your WordPress installation using your smartphone? The app lets you write posts, upload photos and videos, edit pages and manage comments on your blogs.  It supports both self-hosted blogs as well as WordPress.com blogs.

Aside from the usual mobile blogging features of other WordPress mobile app, this one for the BlackBerry also features:

 

  • overall enhancements to the speed and stability of the app
  • streamlined UI and functionality relating to comment moderation
  • support for HD video service VideoPress
  • ability to record and upload videos from your phone

Since I don’t have a BlackBerry yet, I can’t test how good this app is. I really wish I could compare it with the Android version. Perhaps next week, after I got my BlackBerry Bold 9700. But the app must be so great that Darnell mentioned something like this app putting the iPhone version into shame. Now I’m intrigued.

Originally posted on February 5, 2010 @ 8:50 pm

ZooLoo Puts a New Spin on Blogging with Graffiti and iPhone App

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Sometime in July 2009, we’ve covered this online life management site called ZooLoo.com.  Now, after several months, ZooLoo has launched a new blogging service, an iPhone app and a storefront with one main objective – to give you a facility to promote yourself and your interest from your own domain and social networks.

The site’s new blogging service is called the “Graffiti”. It allows you to publish links, thoughts, status, quotes, photos and videos to the site and share these as a blog posts to on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn. The site lets you post content either from the ZooLoo homepage or by using a Share button or through their  newly released iPhone app. (iTunes Link)

As for their  new storefront, the site gives you various paid packages that they offer. The free service is still there, but if you want your blogging service hosted on a paid account you can choose from the different packages which have the following key features:

  • Custom domain names
  • Web Dashboards that bring all of your interests into one place
  • Patent-pending privacy manager
  • Customizable site pages using ZooLoo’s site creator
  • Third party tracking integration
  • Photo manager and gallery.

Each feature can be purchased with monthly micro-payments.

If you want to run ZooLoo on an enterprise setting, they also have solutions for this purpose.

Originally posted on February 3, 2010 @ 5:13 am

WordPress 1.0 for Android Released

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Automattic just added a new application to the many available WordPress versions. This time the target are mobile bloggers using Android Phones. The new WordPress 1.0 app for Android has just been released and one thing I can say is that – this app is definitely a good one.

I don’t know if I’m just really excited to use the app on my new Nexus One although I’ve already installed a similar app called wpToGo. But having a mobile version of a WordPress from the official developer is certainly different.

Anyway if you’ve used wpToGo for Android before, WordPress 1.0 is almost the same since it was used as the foundation for this app. In fact, wpToGo will now be discontinued because all the development efforts will now be focused on WordPress 1.0 for Android.

So, if you haven’t used any mobile version on WordPress, now maybe the right time to try one out. If you’ve got any Android device download the app and enjoy these key features:

  • Configure and manage multiple blogs
  • Comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments
  • Create and Edit Posts including categories, tags and photos
  • Create and Edit Pages
  • Get notified of new comments in the Android notification bar

I’ve just installed the app on my Nexus One and it’s pretty cool. Setting up multiple blog accounts is a breeze. Likewise posting new blog post is also fast. My only gripe is that the app does not allow you to publish post quickly. You need to save it first to local draft before you can push it to your blog. But it’s just a minor issue and does not really affect the app’s usability.

 

Originally posted on February 2, 2010 @ 4:37 pm

WordPress 2.9 Available fror Download

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Here you go, the endless updates to everybody’s favorite blogging software, WordPress 9 is now available for download. Codenamed “Carmen” after the legendary jazz vocalist Carmen McRae, WordPress 9 boasts of several nice features with the built-in image editor as probably the one feature you would surely like.

If you’re looking at WordPress 2.9 from the point of view of a user, here are its nicest features:

1. Global undo/”trash” feature – lets you restore posts or comments which you might have accidentally delete.

2. Built-in image editor – crop, edit, rotate, flip and scale your image attachments before publishing your post.

3. Batch plugin update and compatibility checking – lets you update 10 plugins at once, also check whether plugins are compatible with new releases of WordPress.

4. Easier video embeds – this feature is going to make all our lives easier. This will let you paste a URL on its own line and WordPress will turn it into a video embed code. Supports YouTube, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Flickr, Hulu, Viddler, Qik, Revisions3, Scribd, Google Video, Photobucket, PollDaddy and WordPress.tv.

If your inclination is a bit on the technical side of  WordPress blogs, here are just some of the features under the hood:

1. rel=canonical support for betther SEO.

2. automatic database optimization support, which you can enable in your wp-config.php file by adding define(‘WP_ALLOW_REPAIR’, true);.

3. Themese can register “post thumbnails” which allow them to attach an image to the post, especially useful for magazine-style themes

4. a new comment meta table that allows arbitrary key/value pairs to be attached to comments, just like posts, so you can now expand greatly what you can do in the comment framework.

5. Custom post types have been upgraded with better API support so you can juggle more types than just post, page, and attachment.

Alright, time to do some WordPress upgrading folks. Good luck!

Originally posted on December 19, 2009 @ 10:30 am