I have fallen in love again.
It's ok. Really. I'm not talking about another woman. I'm talking about my new Blogsy app on my first generation iPad.
I've owned my iPad for a couple of years now. As a Typepad blogger, I've been frustrated with the lack of iPad support from Typepad. There is a limited Typepad iPhone app and no Typepad iPad app. Trying to use the Typepad online blog editing tools with an iPad is worse than frustrating. It's maddening! That meant that anytime I wanted to write in my blog, I needed to pull out my laptop. No more. Now I have Blogsy on my iPad.
Blogsy is a full featured iPad application that allows me to do just about everything I want to do for blogging offline. I write, edit, insert pictures and videos on my iPad. I'm surprised by how well I can type on the built in iPad keyboard. I'm sure my typing skills probably has something to do with the fact that I've owned my iPad for awhile now. Blogsy provides 16 different font families, 7 different font sizes, and any text color or background I choose.
The genius of the Blogsy app are the built in services that support my blog writing that slide in from the right hand side of the screen. From here I can insert any photo on my local iPad, many photos that might be available online or that I have stored in online media libraries. I can also connect with my online videos in my YouTube and Vimeo accounts.
Inserting a photo takes a little bit of iPad finger coordination. One slides the photo over from the side and holds onto it with one finger, while moving the text up and down vertically with the other finger. I admit that I didn't do it right the first time. I can see this is something that just takes practice.
Inserting a link Is also a thing of genius with Blogsy. The Blogsy app contains a built in browser that also provides an automatic link to any highlighted text. This means that the Blogsy app user doesn't have to continuously switch from the Blogsy app to the Safari app, copy the link, switch back to Blogsy, and paste.
What if you are like me and sometimes want to work in HTML? Those of us who have been blogging for awhile sometimes like to peek behind the curtain. No problem in Blogsy. A three-finger swipe changes the screen from the pretty rich text interface to the actual HTML code. I especially like the black background on the HTML side.
One more thing that makes the Blogsy app so wonderful: the built in support is the best I have ever seen. Lance Barton and company have really helped lower the learning curve with how-to videos, an online guide, and lots of FAQs. The Typepad user will especially appreciate all the FAQs dedicated to interfacing with Typepad's unique features.
One thing that would have helped this newbie would have been some order to the videos. Many of the videos were code named to the particular past release of Blogsy, which was confusing.
One negative to be aware is for those who still use the 1st gen iPads. Blogsy uses a significant amount of memory resources. While writing this review USA Today and Fox News flashed a breaking story on my iPad, causing Blogsy to crash. While there is an auto-save feature, I did lose my last paragraph. I'm sure this would not be a problem with the latest generation of iPads.
Blogsy will change the way I blog. No longer will I reach for my laptop and hope that my battery will last long enough. Now I'll grab my Blogsy equipped iPad and be good to go for the whole day!
What about you? Do you use Blogsy? What are the features you love? What would you love to see coming soon to a new release near you? Leave your comments below. Let's talk!
