Blob, The One and Only Blogger App for Symbian ~ SCRATCH e-PAD!

Just like the rest of the Symbian smartphone using bloggers around the world, Blob, is an answered prayer to a long time request, which on my part, dates back last year via these article about Nokia N8, a Symbian running device, not going well as a Bloggers phone having no dedicated client app for Blogger, well, a developer answered the challenge by creating the very first one.

The app promises the following features:
- Read, edit, create and delete posts and comments in different blogs
- HTML5 enabled post viewer
- Add labels, set custom publishing date and time in posts
- Comes with one of the best and convenient rich text editor ever made
- Smooth, fast and clean UI

...but did it lived up to expectation? Can I really write an article directly on my lust green Nokia N8, without my laptop?

Well, as much as I wanted to, my first blog post attempt was unsuccessful because the version I have is the FREE one that has no blog posting feature. I need to install the full retail version to be able do so, but nonetheless, I had an overview of how it works.

The app was a huge challenge on its own, it has only limited features, like for instance, in the writing mode where it only shows 7 options like Bold, Italic, Underline, Strike, Link, Paragraphs and Image; it uses only an HTML set-up; it doesn't have any direct photo or video upload, that users need to upload them online and get there links before they can be added to the blog post; and that the client automatically fits articles to its predetermined format.

In addition, if you're using a touchscreen phone, the virtual keypad might also be a problem. It wouldn't be as comfortable to use compared to a full mechanical QWERTY keypad. Users will have to adopt to the virtual set-up that might take sometime to get use to.

A few remedies were available online though, for instance, SWYPE, a virtual keyboard mechanism that enables users to input words faster and easier through one continuous finger motion across the screen keyboard, can definitely address the keyboard issue. On the image addition, users can upload images to Flick'r, Twitpic or any other image hosting sites, by copying its url using the copy and paste feature of the phone, then attached it to the image url and its done.

Overall, its a good start but I would love to see fixes on the aforementioned problem specially on direct photo or video upload to Blogger and the apps format fixation. I hope it won't take the developer sometime to address this issues.

To download Blob, CLICK HERE! Full version is worth PhP20.00 locally ($1 worldwide).