Most blogging platforms offer their own iPad apps, but to date, none have truly capitalized on iPad’s interface. Developer Fomola wants to fill this void for Blogger and WordPress users through the app Blogsy, currently $2.99.
Blogsy’s hook is its support for drag-and-drop media, such as photos and videos, directly from the web and third-party services, such as Flickr, Picasa and YouTube. Blogsy helpfully launches into its instruction page to help users get started, but before you can really explore the app you’ll need to link your Blogger or WordPress site via the tools at the bottom right.
After linking your blog, you can start composing your entry. A single swipe across Blogsy switches between rich mode and write mode, but I didn’t see any denotation of which side I was in until I started working. When I hear “rich,” I think of a pure rich text editor that can modify text directly. This isn’t entirely the case with Blogsy’s platform. Instead, the rich side works more as a preview pane of what your blog will look like. Media you drop in can be modified here in terms of size and alignment, but the text is uneditable — in fact, the keyboard won’t open when you’re viewing the rich side. In write mode, where you actually compose your blog, you can use the provided style options, including bold, italic, formatting, bullet points and quoting. The necessary HTML will drop into your entry automatically, but you’ll need to write around it. In all, I found this method to be strange. Since the app is equipped to display rich text properly, I’m not clear why bloggers aren’t able to use the feature directly, without seeing the HTML itself.
Adding photos, links and video to your blog posts is a matter of pulling the media up in the sidebar. Hot buttons are provided for services Blogsy has integrated, but there’s also an option for Google images as well as a built-in Safari browser. Drag your selection into the rich side of the app and your photo will appear. Tap it to modify size and scale. For now, users cannot upload photos stored locally on their iPads, but this functionality is on the way. I thought the drag-and-drop interface was smart, but I did have trouble placing the images exactly where I wanted, so I found myself deleting and moving text to accommodate.
To publish your post, you can use a three-finger swipe or the publish button. Blogsy seemed to save posts automatically in the local pane, but the lack of a true save button made me nervous. If you turn on the draft option, you can save your post as a draft in the published section, but you’ll need to disable it once you’re ready to go live.
I think Blogsy shows promise, especially once local photo uploads are enabled. I’d love to see integration for other platforms, such as Tumblr and Posterous, in the future just for ease of use. If Blogsy is serious about a price increase — and I think the developers are — you’d be smart to check it out now.
Download the free Appolicious for iPad app
