iPad – A Blogger’s Field Test

I’ve been messing around with the iPad for a little over a week now. I thought I would offer a few thoughts, as well as answer this question…

Can you blog from this thing?

First, let me talk briefly about the Ipad as a media consumption device, then I’ll talk about blogging from it. Hint: I’m writing this post from my MacBook, if that tells you anything.

Consuming Media On The iPad

The iPad shines as a device for consuming media. I’ve been using it every single day since I got it to do things like:

• Check the news
• Read books.
• Watching videos

The book and magazine capability of the Ipad is really awesome. It renders my Kindle completely redundant. I have access to the iBook library, the entire Amazon library (via the Kindle app), and even Barnes & Noble has gotten onboard with their Ipad app. More and more media will be coming for the Ipad, and being that (as a blogger) I’m in the web media business, this alone is more than enough reason to get an Ipad.

Watching video on it is pretty cool, too. Youtube videos work quite nicely. You can stream Netflix all day long to the device. ABC has a KILLER app which allows you to watch any ABC show for free online. I would imagine the other major networks will soon do something similar. Last night, I even watched a regular MP4 video that I had wanted to watch. I grabbed it during the day from my Mac. Not wanting to watching it right then, I just moved it to my Dropbox. Using the Dropbox app on the Ipad, I pulled the video down and watched it in bed – on the Ipad.

Getting Work Done

I am routinely using the iPad to check my email (with Gmail). I’m checking Twitter using the Twitterific app (the best option so far). I’m checking up on Basecamp to manage business-related projects and their interface works quite well in Safari.

As a quick way to check up on things, the Ipad is nice. I can now carry around a small device anywhere, about the size of a small paper notebook, and pretty much deal with anything. On a decent size screen, too. I have an iPhone, but it feels SO SMALL after using an iPad.

I should also mention that Evernote on the iPad rocks. As a heavy Evernote user, I love having access to it from anywhere – with a decent screen.

Blogging From The iPad

My first instinct was to get the WordPress app for the iPad. So, I set it up and even started typing this very post inside of that app – on the iPad.

First, the WordPress app is extremely limiting. No formatting options. No links (I couldn’t find it anyway). It is about as feature-packed as Notepad is on Windows. In other words – bare minimum. But, here’s the real kicker…

It is UNDEPENDABLE. I had spent about a half hour typing up a blog post. I wanted to draft it online so that I could finish it up there and publish. So, I changed the status to “draft” and hit “Save”. POOF. GONE. The post fricking vanished. It was not online and I could not fetch it from inside the app. So, not only is the WordPress app lacking features, but it eats blog posts.

The good news is that the WordPress control panel works quite well inside of Safari on the iPad. The screen size means the interface is actually usable. If I had typed that blog post there rather than the stupid WordPress app, I’d still have it. The only real limitations I’ve found from the WordPress control panel on the Ipad is:

• The WYSIWYG editor does not work. However, switching to HTML view does. So, if you don’t mind typing your posts in HTML, you’ll be good to go.
• You cannot upload media (like images). Why? Because the iPad really has no file system to speak of, so WordPress simply doesn’t know what to do. You can bring in remote images (by URL), but you cannot upload images from your iPad to your server. For that, you’d need to use the WordPress app and take your chances of it actually working and not lose it.

Obviously, typing on the Ipad takes longer. I find I get faster at it over time, but it is notably slower than using my Macs. There is an external keyboard for it, but I don’t have one and really don’t want one.

All in all, you can blog from the Ipad. It’ll be slower and I recommend you use the WordPress control panel itself – inside of Safari. The multiple-thumbnail way of opening multiple sites in Safari is also probably very close to the way multitasking will work when it comes out in OS 4 for the Ipad. If you need to go look something up online while using the WordPress app, you’d have to close it and go to Safari. By keeping everything in your browser, you can actually mimic a multi-tasking environment, in a weird way.

Iphone OS 4 – with multitasking – is going to make the iPad so much more usable. I’m looking for to it.

Final Thoughts

It is no secret that the iPad isn’t a full computer, nor does it have anywhere near the capability of one. I expect it will get much more useful with the release of OS 4 and a bunch more third-party apps. But, if you’re looking for all the convenience of a regular computer, you’ll not find it on the iPad.

But, the original question was – can you blog from this thing?

Answer: Yes, but it’ll be more cumbersome. And when you do, don’t use the lame WordPress app. Great blog platform, crappy Ipad app. For now, anyway.