I Am Blogie

I’ve recently purchased a premium plugin for creating the mobile edition of my WordPress sites: WPtouch™ 2.0 Pro. I’d been using the free version of WPtouch (up to v1.9.16) and had been quite happy with it, so I decided to give the paid version a go. The premium version promised better features, you see. And, so far, I’m really satisfied with this plugin by Brave New Code (BNC). The $29 (Canadian) price tag seems really worth it, considering the broad functionality the plugin offers.

WPtouch doesn’t only give you added reach — by making your WordPress-powered sites available to the increasing number of mobile Internet users out there — but it also presents new opportunities for exploring the mobile platform for your online presence.

When you install and activate WPtouch 2.0 Pro, you will have access to its dashboard (“WPtouchboard“), where you will be able to tinker with tons of tweakable settings. There are visual controls over the design and back-end aspects of your mobile site, such as input boxes for ad placements (currently supported: AdSense & Admob) and statistics tracking (you can embed your Google Analytics code). On the other hand, you have complete control over the plugin’s code — it is GPL, after all — so you can dive in and swim around the plugin’s internal workings all you like.

One huge difference between the free and paid versions of WPtouch is in theme management. In the free version, you only get one theme, and if you modify it, you’ll lose the mods when the plugin is upgraded. In WPtouch Pro, you can create your own themes and get to keep the mods & customizations across plugin upgrades. What’s more, BNC promises to ship more themes in the near future. But if you’re a theme designer, you can actually make use of the built-in skeleton template and create your own unique theme!

By the way, BNC is looking for theme designers who’re willing to contribute to the pool. If they ship your theme with the plugin, that’s going to be a good advertising opportunity for your services! I don’t know what other benefits you might receive — why don’t you go ahead and find out for yourself?

What’s an iPhone app without cool, shiny icons? Another WPtouch feature is its skinning capability. You can choose from the 200+ icons that come with the plugin for use on your mobile site, or you can upload your own. You can also create an iPhone home-screen icon for use when you create a home-screen bookmark (BNC calls it “WebApp”), as well as a splash page that appears when you launch the WebApp. When you create a WebApp, your mobile site will be displayed in full-screen mode. No navigation, no address bar. Excellent for keeping your visitors glued to your site, no? (Now, all you’ll need is to make sure you got great content!)

One more thing I appreciate in the way BNC designed this plugin is that, WPtouch is made to be aware of other plugins in your WordPress installation. If there are conflicting plugins, WPtouch will let you know about it. Plus, there’s an option to disable plugins that are not compatible with WPtouch when your site is loaded on a mobile platform. On the flip side, it will also tell you with which other plugins it works best.

GoDaddy iPhone App

It was pure delight to find out that GoDaddy — arguably the #1 domain registrar in the world — has an app for the iPhone / iPod touch. According to the App Store, it was posted late last year. Sometimes I get an inspiration for a domain name, and it’s now so much easier and more convenient for me to just whip out my trustee mobile device and access GoDaddy.com via mobile.

It’s a great little app: you can do pretty much all the basic domain-name registration stuff, plus a little more. Purchasing domain names, of course, is the main feature. But aside from that, you can also manage your domains, including updating nameservers and other DNS-specific records, domain ownership details, auto-renew settings, etc.

Here are a few screen shots of the GoDaddy iPod app in action, taken when I was acquiring yet another piece of Web real estate.

Domain Registration

Domain Administration

Whois service

There’s even a way for you to check who beat you to that domain name you’d wanted to get. An online whois service right on the palm of your hand. Actually, you can also do a whois on the domain name search results screen.

I have 60+ domain names registered, and as heavy user of mobile platforms, this GoDaddy app is now one of the most indispensable tools in my iPod touch. There are still some glitches, but I’m fairly certain GoDaddy’s going to be updating this application faithfully. Also, there’s only one way to pay: credit card; no PayPal payments accepted via this app yet. But other than that, it’s awesome!

Problem is, it might cause even more domain-buying sprees…

iPod Apps Top 25

I’ve noticed that Philippine-made iPod touch / iPhone applications have been consistently featured in the Apple App Store’s list of Top 25 (paid apps) for a couple of weeks now. In fact, the #1 as of this writing is an application called Filipino iPhone Community or FiC, an app that allows FiC members “to check the latest posts in the [applei.ph] forums, as well as access the LiveChat feature of the site.”

Another one in the Top 25 is iManila, which is by the same developer of FiC, MangCode.com. iManila is an online directory for finding businesses, stores, etc., retrieving contact information and other details from EYP. (I hope they’ll come up with a directory for Davao City as well as for other Philippine cities in the near future.)

It seems that the number of iPhone / iPod touch users in the Philippines is steadily increasing, and that the downloading of apps among Filipinos is now as commonplace as using ebay or Amazon. Judging by comments and reviews on paid apps posted by Filipino users in the App Store, I think it’s safe to assume that there’s a steady stream of good business happening for Apple.

Personally, I have purchased quite a number of apps for my iPod touch, from games to productivity software, even a couple of audiobooks. I’m so glad that the App Store is open to the Philippine market, unlike iTunes, which remains closed to us.

I understand that there are copyright issues covering US-published music, hence the inaccessibility of iTunes from the Philippines. But with the healthy activity going on in the App Store, wouldn’t it be good business sense for Apple to make at least certain parts of iTunes open to us? Podcasts and audiobooks, for example.

Having the ability to download more content into my iPod would certainly increase its worth as a companion gadget. More than just a device for playing music and videos, turning the iPod touch into a content-rich ebook reader would be very welcome indeed.

No matter how splendid Apple® headsets are, sometimes your ears get sore when you have earphones plugged into them for too long. Sometimes you want to be surrounded by perfect-sounding tunes without being aurally isolated from the world.

You’re the type who likes things portable and compact (which also refers to what you spend for them). That’s why you have an iPod touch and a BurgerBass mini speaker. The entertainment system that’s spot on for you.

As I write this, I have the iPod/BurgerBass combo on cool Norah Jones tracks. The “hamburger” speaker delivers a surprisingly crisp, rich sound that’s comparable to some bigger systems. I’m not a sound engineer, but I guess the remarkable bass resonance is care of BurgerBass’ accordion-like design. It’s just one tiny apparatus, and yet the output is that of a high-fidelity loudspeaker’s.

What’s more, it weighs almost nothing, and packs neatly like a really tiny… uh… burger patty. The speaker comes embedded with lithium-ion batteries, which you can recharge by plugging it into your computer’s USB port (retractable cable included). At Php950, this minute burger is a bargain!

The iPod touch 16gb retails for about Php16,750 now. It’s the dream Christmas gift — for a loved one, or a valued employee as reward for a good year behind.

Happy Holidays, everyone!