Off-line blog editors – a look at a few

Surprisingly Windows Live Writer 2012 came out on top as my
favoured off-line blog editor tool

For me, blogging (it’s really writing for that matter) comes down to a set of creative preferences.  The screen and keyboard are core to how productive I will feel in being able to convey and share information.  The keyboard is a very personal relationship we all develop with our kit and underpins our comfort of getting our thoughts out, given our experience with the old school keyboard and mouse combo.  As a relatively recent blogger, I’ve also found the software solution is just as important as my hardware preferences.

I created this blog on Google’s blogger platform primarily because it was relatively quick and painless in creating a name and applying a suitable template to get started.  Add Google’s data centre infrastructure in terms of high availability, reduced risk of data loss and globally large pipe access to ensure solid performance from most major locations, (regardless of traffic volumes) made it a much simpler to deal with and of course, free (subject to agreeing to terms and conditions with Google of course).  If you’re not into HTML coding, then you run up against challenges in altering the design as much as you would like.  That’s certainly an area I’ll look at when I have time.

In terms of editing blog posts, beyond using the web based editing tool for Blogger which is solid in terms of the ease of editing I require, my main hang up on it, is having to be on-line which is not always possible and sometimes not what I prefer.  I ended up looking at some Mac and PC client software to connect to my blog with the aim of providing me a rich editing experience while at the same time being a doddle to use with my favoured hardware combos.  So here is a short write up of 3 different solutions I’ve tried to date.

MarsEdit
Red Sweater’s MarsEdit software is the rated Mac Blogging solution featured the Mac Apps Store, and so despite its £30 price tag, I plumped for it thinking it would cover all of my basic off-line blogging and proofing needs.  Using a familiar UI in terms of side panes, inspector-like features and toolbars, the software provides a reasonable level of sophistication for off-line editing and posting back to my blog.  It does have one curious functional omission – advanced control of images inserted into posts.  I’ve found I cannot not easily change size, placement or add captions to my images inserted into posts, which is essential to my style of posting.  This is a deal breaker on the current v3.6 release.  I’ve since raised this with Red-Sweater software who envisage to add such functionality into a future release. 

In fairness, they did suggest a way around this by adding custom "Style Macros" in the Media Manager, the downside being it would hand-editing the HTML mark-up for the macros to (e.g. add desired margins to images I insert). Theoretically, once I have set them up I wouldn’t have to edit the HTML every time you added a photo (real meaning – some geeking and hacking I don’t have time for right now, but will come back to).

Blogsy
This is an iPad blog editor which supports a variety of blogging platforms, including Blogger and WordPress.  Surprisingly, the UI takes a bit of getting used and provides video and general off-line help in getting started and the usual how-to items.  While general text editing is reasonably okay within the confines of using an iOS on screen keyboard (real meaning – not comfortable), I came across frustrations when adding and editing images inside one post I was creating.  To be fair, I need to spend more time using Blogsy to form a more rounded opinion.  Initial impressions are I’ll use it and endure the learning curve if I have to, given a) blogging on an iOS device is still not natural to me and b) my favoured blogging set up involves my Lenovo PC keyboard (actually the SK-8825) and a 19-24 inch widescreen monitor which I have either in the work or home office.

Windows Live Writer 2012
Smacks of irony on this one.  Principally being firstly that I did not expect to find PC software to be what I found easiest to use and secondly, that it’s a free from the Windows 7 Live Essentials pack.  Given that I’ve been using MS Office all my working life and the ribbon is essentially ingrained in our daily usage habits, Live Writer certainly sets itself up as the the software client you will already know how to use.  It supports all the major blogging platforms, is straightforward to set up and connect to your blog.  When you get into just the writing, I found it’s replicated more than 80% of the required functionality I use on Blogger’s web based editing tool.  Image editing is fairly good in that it allows placement and sizing, although the downside is I have not found a way to adding captions to my images.  Like Mars Edit, most editing could be done in the off-line client, then uploaded in draft before top and tailing using the web editor.

Now wouldn’t it be something if I could access this rich functionality for off-line blogging on a Surface tablet running Windows 8 RT and found that the tablet itself, touch cover and RT software worked together beautifully? (i.e without a kludge desktop mode baked in).  Now that would be a hybrid tablet worth having Microsoft..

Brief looks with the iPad mini

 

As it’s iPad mini launch today in multiple countries, this was my first opportunity to hold and use one in the flesh.  It’s  easy to have a mental idea of the mini from the numerous articles and reviews recently, but I must say I was surprised given the 10 minutes of playtime  I had on the device at my local Apple Store.  For me, it’s an exciting device given our growing need in the smartphone and tablet space for a device which is truly portable but immersive enough in screen size.

Build
This thing is smaller than I thought.  I have big hands and it felt comfortable.  It’s light and very thin.  Both portrait and landscape feel comfortable using both one or two hands.  For all of its slightness, it feels well made and built to the exacting standards we expect from Apple.  Their continuance to use metal for the outer shell of their products marks them from the competition.  Compare to the plastic feel of the Nexus 7 which I had a play with in the summer.  Plastic rarely feels premium.

Usability
Even more surprising, is that I felt instant attraction to the mini as my main device when carrying a device in addition to my iPhone.  Touch and gestures were as expected and in line to everything I would do with other member of the iOS family.  For books, using either Kindle or iBooks this is going to be a real boon.  Add to that  Reeder and Tweebot and then the Times and Guardian and I see this is my favoured tablet for when I’m on the go.   The nicest surprise was using they keyboard.  It felt really natural.  Less awkward and more easy to use than the full size iPad. 

Performance
It’s funny I didn’t initially notice the lack of retina display, but in time I’m sure I will. It has a higher pixels per inch value than the iPad 2, given the same number of pixels are being packed into a smaller screen.  The in-store demo unit seemed fast enough for all the regular apps and I didn’t try any heavy graphics games out.  I’ll have to see what it feels like after a few weeks use at home. 

So what’s my first look gut feeling rating?  7 or 8 tops – in terms of its build and usability, Despite the pricing it’s sure to take the 7 inch market by storm finding new and existing customers alike.  It’s solves a problem I’ve had since the very first iPad – the sheer heft of a 9.7 inch tablet.  Don’t get my wrong, I love my iPad 3, but it adds weight to the rucksack everyday and it’s not 100% ideal for reading without an ache in the arms.  Hence, most of its favoured use is at home, on the plane or in the hotel room when I know I’m going to be be settled somewhere for a while.  The 7.9 inch model with only half the weight and thinness  covers those scenarios on the train where reading and tweeting can be done with real immersive advantages over a smartphone.

Roadmap
The problem I have with this device is the technology stack inside it.  For a 2012 release where we’ve seen the iPhone 5 and iPad 3rd and 4th generation, I’m not impressed with the use of the A5 chip (of iPad 2/Apple TV 3rd Generation/iPhone 4S fame) plus a paltry 512Mb of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera and lack of Retina display. It feels Apple has crafted a device from hand me downs of last years tech to maximise economies of scale and thereby maintain profit margins.  I suspect it’s a case that putting in the A6 chip, 1Gb RAM, Retina display and maintaining 10-hours of battery life may not doable at the margin required for a v1.0 product. It could be a case that, there is a required engineering breakthrough to get us that 2nd gen iPad mini in 2013 which will have the same footprint but will will add Retina glass and new levels of performance.  It seems plausible in the Apple way of continually improving products.  In the meantime, it will do for now, and sell by the proverbial bucket load.  Once the Retina version comes along, the usual cycle of obsolescence and upgrades will start.  Translation – I’ll buy one now and plan for an upgrade in 12-months time.  Or you could do the waiting thing for an iPad mini 2nd generation as other fine posts have pointed out.

The elephant in the room for me is the iPad 2.  It’s been suggested Apple are still selling sufficient quantities of this model to keep it in the line up, but it just seems odd. To continue with a 9.7 inch non-Retina display model which is crudely speaking has been shrunk down to make a mini version. Not sure who still buys this anymore.

One last thing - the white one with the silver back is strangely more attractive than the matt black finish which I’ve always plumped for.  Not sure what’s happening to me, it could be white shoes next :)