OK, finally. The WordPress for iPhone app came out, but I had to wait until I could upgrade my blog to the latest version of WordPress… the problems that arose because of which are detailed below. But the entire post below was written on the iPhone, so the thing works. This post is not written on the iPhone, for a very simple reason: it’s not easy to type on the iPhone. It is, of course, far easier and far faster than using a numeric keypad on a normal cell phone, and I’m getting pretty fast at it… but it’s still a pain in the butt if you want to input a substantial amount of data.

[A side note: I am getting very used to the iPhone’s predictive correction mode, so much so that I subconsciously expect it to help me out when typing on my laptop or desktop machines–and then I am annoyed to remember that the feature does not work on those machines. Why not?]

Other problems: entering HTML commands is a pain, as the angled brackets needed are two shift-screens away–you essentially have to type the angled brackets and other stuff like slashes beforehand, then go back and fill in the alphanumeric stuff, otherwise you’re spending all your time getting into and out of shift modes. WordPress could add a killer feature by placing an HTML tag menu in the input screen–tap once to see the choices, tap the selection and it inputs the HTML. Hard to understand why they did not include this feature in the first place.

But all kvetching aside, it’s a nice app, and I plan to use it from time to time. It’s just that its entry was marred by very poor planning on WordPress’ part.

Alas, it is past one in the morning here, so doing a photo blog test wouldn’t make much sense. I’ll see if I can’t add something tomorrow, though I’ll be pretty darn busy most of the day. Tomorrow is the Tokko lecture, Mr. Tadamasa Iwai (former WWII suicide pilot) telling us about his experiences and his outlooks. For those of you interested, the information to attend (it’s free) is on this page.