How to turn your mobile into the ultimate blogger tool
In my opinion mobile blogging hasn’t really taken off. Most bloggers are wizards of the keyboard and have LCD-trained eyes. But the reality is that most things a blogger needs can be found on a regular 3G mobile phone (save the qwerty keyboard). Everything from email and RSS feeds to camera and video are on the tiny device you carry around in your pocket.
What’s in my pocket? A MOTORAZR maxx V6. A new-ish HSDPA-enabled addition to the sexy RAZR series, and this is how the blogger in me uses it:
I’ve got mail
As a Gmail user, I’ve downloaded and installed the Gmail mobile app. It may not work on every phone, but it does well on my new Motorola as well as my old Motorola L7. Yahoo! Mail users can grab Yahoo! Go, a beautiful suite of Yahoo! apps specially designed for the mobile phone and Yahoo! Mail works just fine.
Read my feeds
One of the benefits of using a web-based RSS reader is you get to take it with you. I use Google Reader and while I love my widescreen LCD reading, when I’m on the go, it loads up just as well (even with pictures) in my mobile phones WAP browser. Here’s how you do it.
A camera in my pocket
Most phones today have a camera. Sure its not much compared to my digital SLR, but it sure comes in handy for those parties and funnies that surround my mobile life. My phone’s camera captures 2 mega pixels, so that’s good enough for blogging.
Mobile vlogging
These mobile phone cameras often double up as video cameras. That’s a good thing for those who vlog. I don’t, or haven’t tried it rather, but I sure see the potential here especially in doing a monologue with those 3G phones with cameras that face you for video calls.
Sharing my moments (on Flickr)
Another feature I find really neat in Yahoo! Go is that it lets me access my Flickr account and upload photos I take while on the go. Yes it does help that I have a 3G phone, so speeds are fairly good. I’m just waiting for the operator to upgrade to HSDPA so uploads will be a little more like home broadband.
Spreading the word (on Twitter)
Just because its hard to blog on a phones keypad doesn’t mean I can’t micro blog. Twitter is a lovely platform for getting the little bits of info out to your friends via SMS from the mobile phone. In fact, you can receive the messages from Twitter right on the phone as well.
Be the hot spot
Sometimes when I carry my laptop and inspiration strikes, I sit down at a cafe and try to blog. But not every cafe has free or working WiFi, so once again my mobile phone comes to the rescue. Without even taking the phone out of my pocket, I can connect to it via bluetooth and use it as a wireless modem.
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How much did you pay for your 3G bill?
I used probably half as much as you do last month and I had to pay close to $40 it! And I noramlly surf on my Opera Mini with image turned off.
Nice overview!
Yeah, how much do you pay for your data plan? Let alone twittering via SMS from Singapore? I didn’t get a data plan because I know it would be the end of me. Until someone offers unlimited access at a decent rate in Singapore, I’ll wait.
Oh, I see my durian strudel in your mobile Flickr feed.
OK man… I will be seeing a lot more of your blog posts online from now onwards I guess! I actually gave up trying to take photographs on my Dopod 818 for blogging as the quality just isn’t good enough. This in fact led me to buy a smaller camera (Panasonic Lumix) which is actually largely so I can blog better!
Hi, I wish yahoo had a mobile mail client like gmail that worked well on all phones. Yahoo to go still does not work on some phones. I use jaiku instead of twitter. They have a mobile client and it works well over wi-fi too..if case you have wi-fi phone.
I only have Starhub’s Gee Value ($5.25/month). It isn’t much not sure what it gives me, something like 6MB a month or so. But its actually more than enough for Gmail and Reader. I may consider upgrading now that my new phone can upload to Flickr.
A late comment here, but i was doing a search on anything mobile and Yahoo Go! and your post pop up!
Very nice overview! We definitely need to have coffee soon!