How to Use an iPhone 3G to Update Your Blog

These are interesting times we live in. There are events happening all across the world, and these are all caught and shared instantly on blogs and personal websites. Not only has news, information, and personal stories become ubiquitous (always on and always present), but the tools to capture and document these events are always around as well. Many people have begun writing and blogging from mobile smart phones, but finding the right combination of software and hardware to get the job done can be a challenge. Take the iPhone 3G for example. With the iPhone 3G, you have a very powerful, high speed, and fully functional computer at your fingertips that you can update your blog and document your world from.

Now that the iPhone 3G has access to the iTunes Application Store, there are dozens of applications to capture and share your news and information across the blogosphere. For millions of iPhone owners, updating a blog from a smart phone is a reality. From the proud mom who is sharing her child's first steps, to the professional freelance author, the iPhone 3G is the perfect mobile blogging and writing solution. It is not as bulky as a laptop, it has an internet connection that is always on, a web browser for research, and a camera for photo documentation.

Now, an author probably does not want to write the "great American novel" on the iPhone. The keyboard is small, the spell check is lacking, and there is the glaring omission of a cut-and-paste feature, but for small pieces, or a 300 word blog entry, it is great. It won't work on its own however. You need quality blogging software from the iTunes Application Store to make it possible. There are many choices, but there are a few that stand out in the crowd.

Best Blogging Software for the Apple iPhone

VirtueSoft BlogWriter for the iPhone

VirtueSoft BlogWriter provides a blog link from the iPhone to MSN Live Spaces, WordPress.com, WordPress powered blogs and other blogs using the WeblogApi. That means, that you have support for a very wide range of blogging services. With VirtueSoft BlogWriter you can publish, sync, and delete posts and photos, and you can also geotag photos. You also have access to an RSS reader so that you can have any research that you might need for freelance writing on location.

I used VirtueSoft BlogWriter and found it stable and pretty useful. Setting up my MSN Account took some time, but once I was able to get my account information in correctly things worked fine. The early version had difficulties with the keyboard overlapping on your text field, but that has been corrected. If you are currently using WordPress or MSN Live Spaces VirtueSoft BlogWriter might be a great iPhone mobile blogging solution for you. It costs $9.99, and is available at the iPhone application store.

LifeCast for the iPhone

If you blog via Blogger or Tumblr, then LifeCast is the tool for you. With LifeCast you have the unique feature of creating a "timeline" of your life, and then that becomes your blogging entries. Essentially, LifeCast allows you to create a photo and story trail of your daily adventures and tie that timeline to a blog. The LifeCast can then be synced and uploaded directly from your iPhone.

LifeCast was the more simple and most straight forward of the mobile blogging tools for the iPhone. Text entry and syncing with Tumblr was very straight-forward and simple. While blogging client support is limited, the developer is promising more soon. I especially appreciated the concept of creating a timeline of my day and life and creating a blog from that flow. I can see this "lifecasting" concept taking off with families and individuals that want to take their life online and run with it.

WordPress for the iPhone

Many blogs run on the WordPress blogging technology, and that does not include the thousands of blogs hosted at WordPress.com. Therefore, it only made sense that WordPress would be supported on the iPhone, and it is supported very well. I currently author for a few blogs that use WordPress , and I was able to get the WordPress iPhone application up and running in no time. It synced with both of my accounts flawlessly. For a mobile writer on WordPess, this iPhone application is fantastic.

Text entry was easy, but a landscape option would be a blessing. It does get a little crazy typing a few hundred words on the iPhone keyboard in portrait mode. For big hands and fingers, it was a trial and error process. It is a good thing that the iPhone predictive text knows me well. The WordPress application is open source (like WordPress itself), so hopefully new features will flow quickly. Even in its current state, mobile blogging on the iPhone 3G was not bad at all with the WordPress application.

TypePad for the iPhone

Blogging with TypePad is not something I do regularly, because TypePad is a premium, pay service. But, after testing the free TypePad blogging application for the iPhone, I might be willing to pay for the TypePad service. The TypePad application was the simplest and smoothest mobile blogging experience I could find on the iPhone. Unfortunately, unless you have a TypePad account, the application is of little use.

Text entry and photo integrating via TypePad is very simple. In fact, I was able to create long and full featured blog posts on TypePad with little trouble. Unfortunately, I had nowhere to upload them. I have to say, if the other blogging applications can become as good as the TypePad application, or if TypePad offers a free account, they will have something special.

Updating your blog with a smartphone might not seem like the optimum way to get work done, but with the iPhone 3G quality software from the iTunes application store, you can become a mobile blogger, and update the world in real-time.