Right then, what is the Compal like as a blogging tool? It’s okay. There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the device, and people used to the web admin tools for their blogging client will be perfectly at home.
The Browser might be labelled CoolFox, but in essence it’s a variant of the popular Firefox browser, and that means compatibility with the back end of the popular clients. Mid Moves (and my own blog) run the latest version of WordPress (2.7) with a number of Ajax tweaks as well as pages for editing. The Compal easily handled this web interface, albeit over a cellular connection it was relatively slow.
The keyboard, naturally, isn’t designed for touch typing, or any sort of speedy input, so doing longer text entry can be slow, and there’s a tendency to make a lot of typing errors simply because the device is either being held in two hands (and your thumbs are doing the work); you’re working one handed; or it is flat on a table.
I ended up preferring flat on a table for the previous post, but then the screen is at the wrong angle for viewing. User ergonomics here have been traded for a simplified construction. If only the screen tilted towards me as the keyboard lay flat…
Can the Compal post to a blog? Yes, and it’s a lot easier than smaller mobile devices such as the iPhone or a smartphone. The larger screen and ‘full’ web browser are the reason why, and it’s hard to see how other portable devices can improve on this.
What would be nice is specific blogging tool, along the lines of Windows Live Writer, except for Linux unfortunately those are few and far between, so you’re left with using the web browser for posting, and the Open Office word processor if you want to do local drafts. Is that enough for a typical MID users? I think so, but would love to see some work on a standalone client.
