Ray Province

The HootSuite ap for iPhone is one of those rare applications that I actually paid money to own. In my case, I bought it so that I could more easily manage the Twitter accounts of my clients, for which we do social media micro blogs.  It also lets me handle my own account.

The surprise is how well the ap works.  It has been flawless for me.  It also allows me to better manage “mentions” from people who follow me. That’s a chore, because I have over 5000 people I tweet with all the time.  I don’t like losing people in the Twitter Ocean.

There is a featured Section, so you can get tweets for HootSuite, and you can get their featured users. As to your own account, you can keep up with live stream, Mentions, DM’s in your inbox and outbox, Sent Tweets, and Favorite Tweets. So, it really has all my favorite features that I use on the big version on my laptop.

If you are serious about Twitter, or you manage multiple accounts, you need to look at the HootSuite Program.  If you are also an iPhone junkie,  the HootSuite Ap for iPhone is worth the couple of bucks you’ll pay. Enjoy your Twitter experience more.

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province

Celtic Ozark Solutions

Ray Province

The Godaddy.com people have published their own iPhone application. I have to tell you that I really like it.  It has really opened up some new possibilities for managing my account on Godaddy.com.

I realize that some of you may not be as excited about Godaddy.com as I am. You hear good and bad stories, though, about every Domain Hosting Company. I have just always had a good experience there. Granted, my need for technical service is minimal. I can usually handle my own issues. However, I have needed them at times, and I have always been able to get a live voice from Tech Support that speaks English as well as I. (or almost so!)

The new ap has components that will let you check your email. You can also handle Domain Management, and order new products. You can renew also. In the future, I expect to see total DNS managment as an option.

If you’re a fan of the commercials, there is also a link to that.  A Contact Us section will also allow you to communicate with the Godaddy people. There is also a WHOIS search feature.

It’s not bad for a first edition of the iPhone application. Hang on. I’m sure there is more to come. Want to more more about Godaddy.com services, just click here.

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province, Celtic Ozark Solutons

Jailbreaking your iPhone involves putting software on your iPhone that will unlock its full functionality. Many types of programs are unrunable on the iPhone, because of security restrictions placed on it by Apple. Some people also call this process hacking the iPhone.

The reasons behind why people want to jailbreak the iPhone are many. Some of the bigger reasons, though, involve the limited custimizability of the iPhone.  There are also been complaints about text messaging privacy on the iPhone, and a lack of ability to run background applications.  Personally, I would also add the limited ability to “tether” an iPhone, thus making it act like a “WiFi router.”

You need to know, though, that hacking your iPhone will void your warranty.  You also need to know that you open your iPhone up to some bad programming also.  If those risks are acceptable, then you may be able to gain some real functionality by jailbreaking your iPhone.

One easy place to get help with a clean, safe  jailbreak of your iPhone is Blackra1n.com .  The system is easy to follow, and works well. Make sure you also make a backup of your iPhone before trying the process. You will then have a way to reset your iPhone to earlier settings set in your iTunes configuration.

You may also want to check out Cydia and RockApp for a place to start getting aps.  The two sites are safe, and provide some real quality applications.  A lot of them are free.

Jailbreaking your iPhone may open up a lot of functionality for your phone.  It may also be a source of some problems. Just don’t be mad at the Apple folks!

We’ll talk again soon,

Ray Province, M.A.

Ray Province

The BlogPress iPhone ap makes blogging on your website a breeze.  I am always looking for iphone aps that help me be more productive, when I can’t be in front of a desktop or laptop computer.  The BlogPress ap has made it possible for me to blog whereever I am.

I have the ap set up to handle all my blogs on Blogger.com  It can do much more, though.  It also handles my blogging on Wordpress and Joomla.  This includes my websites like this one, which are built on a Wordpress theme.  There are setting for MSN Live Spaces, Movable Type, TypePad, Live Journal, and Drupal.  You can also hook in Youtube,  Twitter, and some other sites.

For my wordpress sites, I had to activate the XML-RPC settings in the Settings>Writing section of my admin console.  There is also a setting there to active Atom style protocols.  This allows the iPhone ap to publish to a private website.

In Joomla, you will have to download and install the MetaWeblog plugin for Joomla. It grabbed it from the Joomla extensions site.  You also have to enable web services in the Global Setting section of your admin console in Joomla.

You may also want to grab the free iPhone ap for Dragon dictation. You can then dictate your blog, and paste it into the page you set up in the BlogPress ap.  Pictures can also be added this way. 

The BlogPress iPhone ap makes blogging on your website a breeze. I hope you will give it a try. Then, the world can become your blogging office!