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Blog From Your Cellphone?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the gag dept.

seldo writes "The BBC has an article up about blogging from your mobile phone. The idea is not really news, but the interesting part is the host of links to interesting new (free) software that lets you do it, including: Manywhere Moblogger (Java), WAPBlog (Perl), and KABLOG (J2ME mobile Java, runs on devices like Palms, the Treo and Blackberries). All three of these interface to also-free server side tech which you need to set up yourself (KABLOG interfaces to the popular MovableType server and compatibles). The article also mentions the proprietary foneblog service which seems very easy to use, but it is software intended to be run by cellphone companies for their users."

12 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Keypad by Big+Mark · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If I have to use a mobile 'phone's keypad to update my blog I think I'd rather not. It's bad enough trying to dial someone, let alone compose a LiveJournal entry.

    And mobile 'phones with keyboards just look wrong. Save it for the PDAs.

    -Mark

  2. Now how to lower the cost? by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is a great idea and I'd love to use it... But i doubt I could live with the fees that my operator would charge for making even just one entry a day. Even though I live in Finland most operators bill like crazy for data traffic.

    A PDA-based solution with which you could update your blog offline and sync it when you have access would be nice.

    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
  3. Re:This is terrible by phorm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Except that after the initial novelty wears off, and most people using cellphones get tired of the hitting "2" thrice just to get a letter "C"... it will become somewhat less frequent, and used only in special occasion or when the blogger is extremely bored.

  4. J2ME = run on mobile phones ! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Here in europe most sold phone are J2ME complient : nokia, motorola, sagem, alcatel ...

    This is not a know featured, but easilly verifiable when operator push : can play to thousand games ;)

    Enduser do not care tech they use, but just what they can do ! J2ME is evrywhere but people do not noticed ...

    By the way the MIDP 2.0 (cf. midlets) standard spec is much more fun, because it add major feature to the J2ME environement ! Nokia already pusing this one ...

    -ERT

  5. Phlog by vohlish_n · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Don't forget phlog an on-line community developed by a friend (and regular slashdot reader). Whenever I call him up, he's always busy "phloging" which always makes me laugh. Images of him, whip in hand when really he's probably sat with his perl book. It looks fun, though I cannot use it as my T68i communicam is next to useless (see my previous comments on this subject). Go have a look, what he really needs is to be slashdotted. LMTH (laughs manically to himself)

  6. Re:This is terrible by King+of+the+World · · Score: 3, Interesting
    With the advent of the web, I predict that the quality of Gopher will go down the hole as Netscrapers start saying random shit whenever something seems interesting for a moment. The scrapers will become watered down by passing distractions, people will lose interest, and the web will go the way of the narccicistic "this is me, this is 8,000 pictures of me, here are my favorite movies, blah blah blah" sites.
    Hey, you're right!
    --
    --Giving to trolls for the benefit of us all
  7. No wonder the tech industry is in the dumps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    blogging from cell phones? Is this really the most
    exciting thing that has happened lately??

    Just think about what we used to talk about:

    15 years ago: You can buy your own computer!
    10 years ago: you can get a unix on your computer!
    6 years ago: all of humanities knoweldge--on your computer!

    now: blog from your phone!!!!

    Where's the excitement? Where's the next big than?

  8. Stop the insanity! by WheelDweller · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Which Illuminatti keeps telling us that doing text-entry on a cellphone is a really fun, good idea?

    Whoever it is, has never tried to communicate by pressing M-M-M, G-G, R-R-R. And blogging is just another application pushing this to the limit.

    We don't need to blow our brains out, trying to type (as well as display) on a cellphone....WE NEED BETTER CELLPHONES. It doesn't have to be the size of a lunchbox...just a little larger. How about doubling the size and using handwriting input? Maybe a keyboard with real letter-keys? And a 1" screen isn't gonna cut it, either.

    How about something like a tricorder: snap it on your belt and 'Bluetooth' a set of headphones to it? When it's time to enter a lot of text, just unclip the main unit and lift the lid to start doing some real work.

    Since before the world 'slapped themselves in the forehead' and realized we only need a handful of Amazon.coms, only a couple of PayPals, and NOT another mega-auction site, someone has been pushing the internet on these microscopic devices. And the industry has greeted this technology with a yawn. It's great stuff....but using it is very annoying.

    Let's quit wasting time trying to make the phones small-and-sexy; let's make'em useful, instead!

    --
    --- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
  9. MMS logs by epollux · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Since you can send an MMS to an e-mail address then it is really easy to automatically fetch the e-mail extract the image and create a log. I am running mine: www.birlouez.net/mms

  10. If you're the type to rant in your blog... by gagravarr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've been using Mojo to post to my LiveJournal from my wap phone for about 6 months. So, when I'm sat at the station and Virgin have canceled my train again, I can log in and rant about it. When I'm bored and waiting for someone, and I've been thinking about something for a bit, I can write about it I find that the biggest problem to mobile blogging from your phone is the data entry - you think it's hard enough to use the thing to write a 160 character SMS, try using it to write a fully fledged blog entry...

    --
    This post will enter the public domain 70 years after my death, unless Disney buys another extension.
  11. Re:Good to see by arvindn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Sorry, I've got to disagree. I'll give some concrete examples of how losing something on your mind may an Unfortunate Thing, even if you're Nobody In Particular.

    • Remember Trent Lott's remarks on Thurmond? Consider a similar scenario. Mr Public Figure makes Incendiary Remarks, but Big Media misses it entirely. Now, whether or not the scandal ever sees the light of the day might depend entirely on J Random Blogger, who was in attendance at Public Figure's speech, is able to reproduce his exact comments, which in turn might depend on JRB's being able to Blog On The Spot.
    • Your comment "weblogging is a form of vanity publishing" is very cynical, and also pretty representative of the /. view. Blogging is much more than that. For instance, one of the things blogging allows you to do is distributed cognition, in contrast to "group think" that happens here. For this to work, however, the activity must take place within the attention span of an individual. So the latencies typically involved in having to be near a computer in order to blog are unacceptable. Get the point?
  12. Re:Good to see by Elwood+P+Dowd · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most teenagers I know can type quicker on their phones than they can on a keyboard.

    Apparently there are kids in Japan that can key in 200 wpm. That's faster than they talk. Text messages can, in some cases, work as a better communications medium than speech. When you're standing in the same room.

    Alvin Toffler was a fag.

    --

    There are no trails. There are no trees out here.