weblogs

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Weblogging With Your Palm

Mobile WebloggingAs everyone who reads this weblog must know by now, I love Palm OS handhelds. So, it was only natural that I would try and find a way to manage my weblog via my ever present pa1mOne Tungsten C, or one of the other Palm OS based devices that I carry with me. For managing my weblog, I use Movable Type, so most of my focus was on finding a solution for my specific weblog, but alone the way I found a couple other cool programs that can help you make your weblog mobile.

Web Browsers
Weblogs are web based, so my first thought was to try using one of the many web browsers for Palm OS. I tried Blazer, Eudora Web, and the built in browsers for the Kyocera 7135 and the Tungsten C and none of them worked well enough for me to use them for my weblog. The biggest hurdle is that Movable Type makes use of pop up windows which no browser seems to support. Not only that, but it’s rather cumbersome trying to navigate the MT interface via such a small screen. The text entry is a dialog box, so it doesn’t really lend itself to entering a weblog post. In fact, while trying to edit a post, one of the browsers ended up deleting it entirely! :O

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Speak! Good Weblog, Good Weblog

Speak Weblog!Thanks to a handy little guide on Dane Carlson’s Weblog, I’ve added speech capability to my weblog. Simply click on the button at the end of each post and the first 45 words of the post will be spoken. Given my gift for gab in both verbal and text mediums, I don’t think you’ll ever have a chance to hear an entire post. Also, I’d recommend that only broadband users choose this option because the resulting file size can reach in excess of 500k.

How does this work? Well, AT&T has a product called “Natural Voices” that allows developers to add voice capability to their applications. The provide an online demo and so via a web form I’m can submit a post to the demo and have the results streamed back to you. Pretty cool huh? There’s a variety of voices and languages that can be used and Chris Pirillio has taken it to the limit by randomizing both the language and the voice, so you never know what you’re going to hear when you click his “Speak” button. :D

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Photo Web Logging

Handspring Treo 600There’s a new trend that’s appeared in the last six months that seems to be catching on big time and that’s having a camera in portable devices. More and more cell phones are coming equipped with built-in cameras and even pda/handhelds are now including them. As a result, more and more people are taking snapshots throughout there day. Given the popularity of weblogs, it was only a matter of time before photo weblogs began popping up.

TextAmerica has started offering free Moblogs, so creating a mobile weblog is easier than ever. The images are hosted on their server, as well as the templates and pages, but there are decent template editing tools so that you can integrate it with any web site you wish to add it too. The best part is that you don’t have to have a camera phone to use it. Simply e-mail any photo that you’d like posted to a special address and in a few minutes your photo will be added to your gallery for everyone to see. You can include text with it as well. Another nice feature is that it has it’s own RSS feed, so visitors can keep up-to-date as easy as your regular weblog.

I started one a few days ago, just so I could play with this new type of weblog. The other reason it interested me is that sometimes I have a photo that doesn’t fit in the usual galleries that I use in my photo gallery and this way I can post it here. Besides, posting it is a piece of cake. The only limitation at this point is that the image must be 700k or smaller.