WordPress mobile blogging on the Nokia N97. Bad for Nokia blogging, great for diary blogging.

Note: this is actually written entirely on a Nokia N97 using wordpress and GSM data. Thank God for wordpress’ auto save function as a few mispressed links took me away from the page (pressing back leads you to a blank post).

If you can read this, then the title of the title is misleading, right?  Well not really. For my Nokia blogging, I’m refering to the type of blogging that needs some slight formatting, inserting relevant links here and there, moving text around, copying excerpts…the usual stuff.

Not that the N97 was designed for wordpress, but it would have been nice if it worked properly. The following are either issues with the Nokia N97 browser in general or with wordpress.

The image above is a screenshot of a youtube video I wanted to write about: the series of physically demanding/damaging tests the new Rugged phone from Nokia is being put under. However, I couldn’t do that because:

• You can’t select text. No selecting text for mass delete or to move around. No selecting URL or highlighting words to insert url
• You can’t copy text (thus no pasting ). Even if I could highlight text, since there’s no copy function, I couldn’t insert url unless I typed it manually.

Other issues:

• You can’t press enter to start a new line (though if you set editing to html instead of visual, you can.)
• THE KEYBOARD BEING STUCK IN CAPS LOCK THE MOMENT YOU SET IT ON. UNLESS I HOLD THE SHIFT BUTTON OR go back to editing in html mode, everything is written in capital letters. There should be an indication icon/light somewhere when caps lock is on.

• Multiple browsing is solved by installing another browser, such as Opera, or better yet, just open up a new browser window from another app. E.g gravity. That way I can read about one story in one window and talk/write about in another. However, with RAM limitations, this may not always be a good option as the browser may spontaneously close.

The lack of copy and pasting is my biggest gripe as it prevents me from linking to other news/articles/youtube videos. I always try to make it a point to link back to the original article and unless I found the story myself, also link to the site that directed me to the story in the first place. Manually typing a link is NOT a reasonable option.

However, it’s not all bad. Despite formatting limitations, if your blog style is more like a diary of thoughts then it should be fine. You can even upload and insert pictures from the N97 too.

That should be ok for my other blog which is basically just a diary of thoughts about a project in Uni. Lengthy text entry isn’t too much of a bother either now that I’ve gotten used to the keyboard. Now that I think about it, for my Uni project, the N97 may serve me well as an instant event blog/diary tool. One of the reasons I haven’t kept up that blog is I forget to write about it as soon as I get home. Now maybe I can write about it whilst/straight after our workshops/meetings.

It’s a slight shame that my N800 from 2007 (and most likely an even older N770) runs rings around the N97’s browser. If only Nokia would always stay at the levels they achieve instead of sometimes having these step-backs *cough*xenon*. The only niggle with the internet tablets is that they cannot make data connections on their own (needs phone modem or wifi), otherwise they would have been perfect for mobile blogging. Perhaps that rumoured N900 will be the ultimate Nokia internet device. Real desktop internet experience, wherever, whenever (cue Shakira hips).

I’m gonna get out of bed now and get some breakfast.

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Tags: N97, Nokia, Nokia N97, Nseries, S60, Symbian

Category: 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian