However, I feel compelled to write this one just because using it encourages me to write about it.
I am writing my first post from my iPhone, so it is an appropriate time to make a mini review of the new Wordpress app for iPhone.

The Wordpress app is an application for writing posts to your Wordpress blog while on the go from your iPhone. It let’s you save your login name and password then you can get started editing or writing posts.

The good

The application was extremely easy to set up and configure. That was done in less than 1 minute after launching for the first time.

Composing a post was also very easy to get going with key fields just as you are used to in your regular wordpress interface.

Typing is as easy as using the iPhone keypad, which is easy for some, not so easy for others. For me it’s the fastest mobile input I have used.

Photos can be added directly from the phone by choosing from your photo library or taking a photo directly with the camera.

The bad

The first time I tested a post I saved a draft and tried previewing the post only to find that the system published a blank post live to my blog. Not exactly what was expected when previewing a draft.

Some of the things you can’t do include formating text with a WYSIWYG editor (although you can directly type HTML inthe post), anything involving special content in your blog and setting the position or size of your images.

Plugins that I miss include the Twitter one that auto-tweets when you publish and the Youtube widget. But both are not deal killers.

The other tricky thing with composing on the iPhone is the lack of copy-paste. This is not a limitation of the app but of the phone. It makes it pretty hard to link text in your post as many links are too long to type.

The conclusion

This is clearly going to be a great app for blogging live events… Expect to see a lot more live blogging of the next Stevenote than we already get. A quick release “take photo and blog it” workflow is going to be great for a lot of people.

You won’t stop using your regular wordpress interface but this will be a good one for getting those little posts out quickly on the run.

Now… Let’s see how this looks when I publish it.

(Note: this post was composed entirely on the iPhone app)
(Note2: the images seem to get dumped at the end of the post)

This is the 7th most popular site in Japan after just 1 year of existence. Many of the funny jokes and comments are in Japanese, but I have still had a lot of people asking me to show them how to access the site.

When navigating a foreign language site you always have a few challenges but you can usually get by with a few guesses and some lucky clicking. For Nico Nico Douga, this is a bit more difficult than usual because you need to register first before you can see anything.

So, in order to help more people understand what this phenomenon is, I have put together this handy guide to registering and getting to the fun stuff so you can all benefit from my 6 years of clicking through Japanese websites.

1) Getting to the Register Form

The first thing is actually knowing you need to register to see something, but I have implied that, so lets get started.

From the home page, click the Registration button as marked in the screen shot below.

2) Registering

Registering becomes a lot easier when you know what all the fields are. I have tried to give a basic breakdown of all the important parts of the registration form. Follow the following screen shot for a guide on what to enter and where.

Fill out all the fields, because in typical Japanese style, EVERYTHING is a required field.

If it sends you back to the same page after you submit, that means you had an error somewhere. The most likely error is someone has chosen the same username, so the first thing to do is try a very obscure username. If you still have troubles, go through each field and double check you don’t have too many or too few characters (I have included limitations in the translations) and also make sure your age is something believable (ie. not this year).

3) Confirm Registration Details

The registration confirmation page is much easier than it looks. If you got this far, you have passed the main tests, so all you need to do is pass the human check and hit submit.

The human check is the common read the text in the image trick. It is all in western characters, so you shouldn’t have any problems. If for any reason you can’t read what is in the image, click the button next to it and you will get a fresh image.

The submit bottom is underneath there, but note, it is not the bottom button (that one will take you back to edit your details). Refer to the image for locations of where to press.

You should now see a message telling you that an email has been sent to your registered email address and you should click the confirmation link inside within 24 hours to complete your registration.

4) Check your email

You should now receive an email with the confirmation link. The mail will come from “info” and have a Japanese title.

There is only one link in the mail so not much to get confused with. Click it!

And you should get to a confirmation page like this…

You can now start to explore. The Nico Nico Douga link on that page will get you to the start with the latest news page, and you can then start clicking through the tabs on the page to check out what recent videos are available.

5) You are in!

Now that you are in you will need to explore a bit by yourself. I will give you one more screen shot as a guide, but it is up to you. It is a site where the adventurous will be rewarded.

enjoy!