(If you want to skip the background and go to the actual queries, they are at the bottom of the post.)
I’ve not posted a blog entry since the end of May. It’s not that I don’t have things to write about – I have knitting to show you, I have writing projects to talk about, I have cello insights to muse on.
The problem is the actual device I use for blog posting because I now have an iPad.
I’m not an early adopter of technology. I’m an eventual adopter. I get around to the latest thing once I’m convinced it has some staying power in the world, won’t be a waste of money, and really will be useful to me.
Tablets seem to have some staying power. (Am I the only one who thinks Douglas Adams’ description of the actual Hitchhiker’s Guidebook sounds awfully like an iPad or a Kindle? And does anyone remember the portable device that Picard would sometimes read things on in his ready room? Looked rather like a tablet thingy.)
Anyway, I got an iPad because there were several things I wanted to do more portably – research, read, and write. I don’t always want to sit at my desk to do these things, especially reading, and laptops are still clunky enough to be a pain to move elsewhere.
I’m happy to say I do all three things on the iPad and then some. I read ebooks from Kindle and iBooks. I write my Morning Pages brain dump on 750words.com. I use Skype to chat with my mom. I watch stuff from Netflix. I post messages on Twitter and Facebook. I use the Evernote app to store novel outlines, research notes…and blog post drafts.
And then things come to a screeching halt. I have never had problems with Blogger itself as a site on which to have a blog, which is why I’ve stuck with it for so many years. However, importing text and images and links to Blogger on the iPad is Painful. I mean, Paaaaaiiiiiiinnnnnfuuuuuullllll. It’s a very fiddley and slow process.
So that means I end up having to do the actual blog publishing work on my laptop, which makes my shoulders sag at the very thought. I would love to get rid of my laptop, but unfortunately, there are still some word processing things that can only be done, or can be done more easily, on a laptop or desktop computer. Mores the pity.
I have a backlog of blog posts, and absolutely no desire to fire up the laptop to post them.
Here are my queries: Do you blog from a tablet device? If you do, do you do it directly on the site from your tablet or do you use an app? If you use an app, which one?
