Blogging tools

This post is not a list of tools to use to make your blogging life easier.

Recently I’ve switched my primary laptop from a Lenovo to a Mac. This in turn brought with it a need to change (almost) all of the software I used, including my blogging client. I use a desktop blogging client because I still have times when I’m not online, because I appreciate the responsiveness and the feature bloat of a desktop text editor.

On Windows I used Windows Live Writer, which, contrary to most MS products, is a good one. It worked like a charm, taking me through some blog changes and merging without glitches. However, it doesn’t work on the Mac, so I had to find something else. After fiddling with the idea of using a simple text editor and a custom script to post, I ended up using the trial version of Ecto. So far it seems an OK editor, though with less (apparent) features than WLW. I say apparent because I haven’t used for long enough to get to all of the hidden features, but unless I do in the 13 days of trial left I may even consider running WLW in a virtual machine.

Oh well, the price we pay for being lazy.

iPhone reloaded

Just read the live coverage of the WWDC 2008 keynote by Steve Jobs on Ars Technica and seen details on the second version of the iPhone. Again the rumors were true – the second installement of the phone is more enterprise friendly, but most interesting – it’s got 3G, GPS and a price tag of only $199. For that price I don’t think you can get a phone with all these features, as well as the design and user experience that the iPhone brings.

The app store touted by Apple as the only way of getting 3rd party apps on your phone seems to become the primary revenue driver behind the new phone. By lowering the price while adding features, Apple seems to get into a ‘printer-like’ business: sell the printer cheap, but bill for the ink and other parts. So I’m guessing Apple wants to drive adoption, so it can thicken the revenue stream through the app store.

Some of the features Steve announced today will also be available on the current version of the iPhone, via a free software update near the end of july. Which means my jailbroken iPhone will get it a month or so later 🙂 still before the second version will be in my hands.

Welcome Mihai

Starting today, one of my colleagues, Mihai Corlan has started his own blog. If you’ve visited our local adobe site (myadobe.ro – sorry, romanian only) you have probably enjoyed some of his posts. He has posted on the myadobe blog for quite some time and now he’s got his own place to rant about stuff.

I can only wish him good luck and encourage you to visit him.