WordPress has released version 2.0 of its Android app for mobile blogging, and as a WordPress for iOS user, I am jealous. The new app launches with a screen that covers just about every first action a mobile blogger needs. It's arranged in correct order of priority, and it uses a big, easily tappable grid of buttons with an "action bar" over the top to handle the rest.
Other additions are catching up with WordPress for iOS, but they're welcome. The post editor now has a formatting toolbar above the keyboard, and the app now has a tablet view. The app also adds post uploading in the background and gets a few other fixes. This is an open-source app, and it's the best mobile blogging interface I've seen yet. What's up with everybody else?
Yesterday WordPress launched version 3.3, named "Sonny," in honor of the great jazz saxophonist Sonny Stitt. The release has two goals: To make the editing process easier for return users, and help introduce new bloggers to the platform.
The new toolbar is a combination of the admin bar and the old Dashboard header. There's now support for drag-and-drop media uploads. The new dropdown menu has become a hover menu. WordPress has also added touch support for iPad. WordPress users who have felt frustrated over the co-editing experience will find this update especially satisfying. Now, the red bar that tells you if someone is editing the post will only pop up if another is actually in the post. The 3.3 version has also added a Tumblr importer so that users can quickly bring their Tumblr blog into the mix.
Yesterday, WordPress announced WordAds, a program for hosted WordPress.com blogs to make some money off their sites. The first ads will come from the WordPress partnership with Federated Media announced at Web 2.0 this October. Interested users must apply to join WordAds, and it requires a custom domain, a service for which WordPress charges.
In return, WordPress is offering independent publishers a chance to make money on the WordPress platform. WordPress already provides a healthy living for thousands of self-employed developers, and now publishers have a chance to earn money from their WordPress content, too.
I just fell in love with Calepin. It's a blogging tool that gives you an instant, minimal website using two of geeks' favorite little helpers: Dropbox and Markdown. It is nerdy, but only a little bit, and I'll talk you through the whole thing. By the end of this short tutorial, I bet you'll want one.
First, you need an account. Go to Calepin.co and register your user name. It's early; you can probably get whatever you want. Next, log in with Dropbox. Calepin will create a folder in your Dropbox that it will watch for text files written in Markdown. When you click the big 'Publish' button on the Calepin site, it will publish all the documents as a blog at [user name].calepin.co. Here's mine, for example. The blog's appearance is spare and relaxing. It's a great place to just stick your thoughts up on the Web. Don't know what a Dropbox or a Markdown is? Don't worry. You'll quickly get the gist.
Automattic has announced the launch of VIP support for Web hosts of WordPress blogs. This expands VIP hosting and support services currently available to VIP WordPress clients, who include media companies, sports leagues and Fortune 500 companies.
The new services include better support for major infrastructure, annual review of clients' entire WordPress hosting stack, an annual security audit and review of best practices and a one-day onsite training of clients' WordPress-focused staff. Pricing starts at $250,000 per year.
WordPress.com launched a new photo carousel feature today for its users. This full-size carousel view presents images as large as your device can display them. Readers can "like" a photo from a carousel in the same way they already do on Facebook.
The "like" feature on the photo carousel follows on the heels of WordPress notifications that look exactly like Google+. Earlier this year, WordPress.com added a comment panel to show the most active posts and commenters, and 'follow' buttons and subscription widgets for its Web and Android apps.
WordPress.com launched a new notification feature today for logged-in users. A box in the upper right corner of the toolbar now notifies WordPress bloggers when someone follows their blog or likes a post. It also allows the user to follow back those fans right from the toolbar.
This feature replicates the new, ubiquitous Google+ toolbar pretty audaciously. The only difference is that the WordPress notification badge is orange, whereas Google's is red. Is this formula really the best way to increase engagement, or whatever it is these free social services are trying to make us do?
Today Storify launched its new editor interface, featuring slicker, easier-to-use tools for fast content curation.
The new foundation flip-flops the search and editor sides of the interface, and places a higher priority on each content curator writing their own text for the story. Photo searches are big and bright, and the results are displayed in a handy gallery format that mimics a slick, white cube art space. The drag-and-drop functionality makes story curation more user-friendly. Previously, Storify didn't have a logo - now it does. Storify has its own login system now, too.
Jux, the boldest, loudest big-screen personal publishing platform around, has just made its natural leap to the iPad. As of today, the multimedia publishing platform that launched in August now supports touch-powered browsing. It's iPad-optimized, but all it needs is a tablet browser. Just go to jux.com and dive in.
When I covered Jux's desktop launch, I called it "post-blogging." I intended some irony then, but now that I've touched Jux on an iPad, I take it seriously. Very seriously. The experience is continuous between the desktop and the tablet. For all its media-heavy intensity, Jux is a responsive design. This is no boring WordPress Onswipe theme for a blog. This is the publisher coming to life through every screen.
SoundCloud may have been knocked offline by a DDoS Attack last night, but today it's back and fully integrated into content curation platform, Storify.
Storify launched its public beta version in April of this year, and quickly became a popular platform for online content curation. Storify allows users to pull information from social media - tweets, videos, photos, links - in order to build stories, and SoundCloud is a smart, seamless way to add original music to the stream. It's an easy way to stitch together a diverse array of content into a news stream, a homeknit story, or just a curious experiment, like the aggregated nyan cat content below.
