I have asked this question before, but want to know if I am the only one. When you add a calendar entry, contact or anything else that others do not see, do you still use proper capitals and punctuation? I do all of the time no matter what I am typing.

If you run a Wordpress powered site it can be tricky using a mobile to publish rich content that looks like the rest of your desktop published content. After many months of searching I have finally found a way to do so on my iPhone. Here are the tools I have been using-

BlogPress

There are a few options for updating blogs on the iPhone including the official WordPress app which doesn’t allow formatting at this stage and as such is only really suited to simply home blogs that do not require links or any formatting. BlogBooster boasts a WYSIWYG feature which is unique on the iPhone and many other features that mean it should be the leader in this field, but in my experience it is highly unreliable and I have found that 2 out of 3 posts created on it struggle to even make it to PDA-247. The multi-tasking is very poor and flipping between apps, which you need to do to create a blog post simply does not work most of the time with the text disappearing for no apparent reason. Multi-tasking is also very slow because the app continually tries to synchronise the site.

BlogPress has worked 100% of the time for me so far; multi-tasking is fluid and leaves your work in the exact state you left it and the html inserts are cleverly implemented. It isn’t WYSIWYG, but it doesn’t need to be because anyone can work with it. Simply highlight some text and choose your insert. Images are a bit tricky because a left aligned images drops the text one line and a centre aligned image truly is centred. There is no option for no justification. Besides that I can make most posts look the same as they do from a desktop.

Mobile Safari

Any browser will do for this task and Mobile Safari includes the only two options you need; saving images and copying the full URL you are viewing. Copying text is also a snap and works perfectly for this task.

Adobe Photoshop Express

Copying images from a web page is OK, but rarely will the image be the size you need. Crucially Adobe Photoshop Express allows you to select a part of an image and save that separately. It doesn’t do scaling and I am still looking for an app that does that, but it just about does what will be needed for most bloggers. Out of interest it also does borders and effects which could be useful for some sites.

My Writing Nook

I am using this more and more to create content and it has proved invaluable for not losing data. I am also using it to write a book at the moment and its simplicity is what makes it work so well.

These are the only tools I need to manage 247 on the go and I am 90% successful in posting what I need to. BlogPress needs a small amount of work on image handling and Adobe needs some more options, but it is great to finally be able to manage the site when away from home. Total cost: £3.58.

How often do you search for new smartphone software? I must admit to looking daily and use the site as an excuse for that particular habit.

In my review of the Motorola FLIPOUT I made the following comment at the end-

“People who want an Android phone want a big screen or at the very least something that looks semi-serious. People who want a trendy phone that is unusual and catches the eye will want to send messages, mess about on it and do little else. The FLIPOUT is a smartphone that looks like it should be on a teenage girl’s shopping list and thus it may struggle in both markets.”

Android hardware is being built that caters for every sector of the market. Power users who want to customer every aspect of the software have the Desire, Galaxy S and others. People who just want to try out Android can opt for the Pulse Mini, HTC Tattoo and a whole range of budget offerings which is growing by the day and trendy young things can go for the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini or the previously mentioned FLIPOUT.

The problem Android has, as I see it, is that it is a very busy operating system that comes with a huge number of apps installed. The manufacturers then include a selection of apps that they believe make it more functional and some even include their own layers on top which can make an Android phone feel very different to the next one. Android is quite cool because of this and offers much flexibility, but it also means that people moving up from a feature phone may find the interface and everything else far too cluttered to get to grips with.

I have reviewed a few Android smartphone so far and have not covered all of the apps on any of them so far, and dare I admit it, not understood all of them. Sometimes they feel as if they have been thrown into a phone and just left there for the user to discover on their own. I am fairly certain that if I owned an Android phone I would not use more than half of the included apps, and am just as certain that most Android users will use less than 25%. It is not a bad thing to have lots of apps built in, but when they get in the way it starts to make the entire experience feel cumbersome and unnecessarily complex.

Nokia does a similar thing with Symbian which can include too many apps and menu functions that are crazily long winded. This is the kind of setup that stops people sticking with a smartphone and Android and Symbian are two examples. The sells figures for Android suggest I am wrong, but I don wonder how many new Android users struggle with what is being sold as a consumer operating system on so many consumer designed phones.

Would you pay for access to the websites you like? This is an initiative which is being explored by Newspapers, but I am curious as to if you would consider paying for access to your favourite websites? Personally, I wouldn’t and believe that websites need to stand on their own two feet to survive by other means.

I decided to give R-Type a run on my iPhone just for old time’s sake and what a blast it turned out to be. Not only did it brings back memories of the hours I spent playing it on my Atari STE, but surprisingly it has proved to be just as captivating as it was all those years ago. It is still frantic, still frustrating, and gloriously long. Very few games make me want to come back time and time again to get through a level and I am still hankering for just one more go.

That’s all very nice, but the real story for me is how my 10 year old son greeted the game.

“This is too difficult!”

“Is this what you called fun when you were young?”

To say he has been struggling with the game is an understatement, and this for a boy who is way better than me at Doodle Jump, Angry Birds, Loopy Laboratory and countless other games. He is a bright kid, he cleared all of the levels in Loopy Laboratory in 1 day, but he struggles to cope with the challenge R-Type offers him.

And I am so happy that he is struggling because I can ramble on about how things were more difficult when I was young, you don’t know you are born etc. etc. It feels weird to reminisce about computer games, but we have reached that time where they are too old and difficult for some children today.

R-Type is an exception because the retro renaissance happening in the App Store has not always produced titles that are worth playing today. For example, the Commodore 64 emulator is going just too far back and the games are rubbish. However, I come away feeling slightly smug that some of the games from my day are slightly too tricky for my 10 year old son and that’s a good feeling. It feels even better to be playing the game on a phone 23 years after I first played it and to still be enthralled by the experience.

I am a person who is more likely to jailbreak and iPhone than most. I like the idea of shaking my phone to bring up Expose panels and I can see the benefit of many of the other apps and tweaks that are currently available. In theory you can customise and do much more with a jailbroken iPhone and it should be a no-brainer to make the jump and crack it open to enjoy all of the new possibilities.

It is not illegal and on the newer phones, like the iPhone 4, it should not have the performance impact that jailbreakers experienced on earlier iPhones, but still I haven’t made the jump and jailbroken my iPhone 4.

As much as I want to do this, I use my iPhone far too much to take the risk of bringing instability into my daily mobile routine. It would probably work perfectly and offer me much more flexibility, but I just can’t do it. Somehow Apple has made me believe that it will cause problems without implicitly saying so. One thing Apple is good at is making you feel that it’s core software configuration is always best and this is where the controlling nature is of benefit.

How many of your most used apps need to be connected to work? I have noticed that when I have no 3G connection available my iPhone is virtually unusable. It is amazing how quickly the smartphone world has moved to a near complete dependence on wireless connectivity.

What do you use text messaging for? That may sound like a silly question, but I ask because 95% of my incoming texts seem to be jokes, and rude ones at that:)

BlackBerry gaming is hardly the pinnacle of mobile entertainment, but there are some good titles available if you take the time to look. I admit that finding 10 was not easy and that it took some time, but did eventually come up with a selection to turn your trusty emailer into more than just a business tool.

Addictive Tower Defense 8/10

For graphics alone Addictive Tower Defense stands head and shoulders above many other BlackBerry games. There is no sound, bizarrely, but the game play is immersive and you will find yourself playing for long periods of time in a desperate attempt to beat the enemy which is relentless in its approach. I certainly did.

Druglord Wars 2 7/10

Druglord Wars beings the controversial genre back with a bang to the BlackBerry platform and brings with it entertaining graphics and game play that will keep you coming back time and time again. You can pick it up for 5 minutes and just like the title suggests it is highly addictive, but not in a bad way.

Pinball Deluxe 7/10

Pinball Deluxe is an ambitious title because this is a genre that would seem unlikely to work well on a BlackBerry. However, the animation is smooth and there is a genuine pinball feel to the title. It does what it needs to and is a title worth keeping for when you have a few spare minutes.

Air Traffic Control 8/10

If you own a BlackBerry Storm this is the game to get. If you think of it as the BlackBerry answer to Flight Control that is all you need to know. Excellent.

Labyrinth 7/10

Labyrinth is another game that is for the Storm only. Because it requires an accelerometer it will only work on the Storm, but is a good conversion of the smash iPhone title and provides a more immersive experience than most BlackBerry games.

Astraware Casino 8/10

Astraware has brought its own brand of game development to the BlackBerry and done so much more effectively that could have been hoped for. Casino is a fully features and graphically pleasing title that plays and look much better than most other BlackBerry titles.

Platypus 9/10

There are very few arcade games on the BlackBerry platform, but Platypus shows that it can be done. Astraware has brought this cult classic to the platform and it plays just as well on a BlackBerry as it does on other platforms. An impressive achievement.

Nintaii 9/10

Crazily addictive and a game that will really push your mental prowess. I spent many weeks trying to crack this one and was actually quite sad when I finished it. A superb title.

Yahtzee Adventures 9/10

One of very few titles that looks and plays as well on a BlackBerry as it done on any other platform. It will keep you going for weeks and is surprisingly cheap. With quick bursts of concentration built in to a longer term goal it marries the two main aspects of game play well.

Monopoly 8/10

Still a classic board game that suits the smartphone format perfectly, no matter how small the screen is. The original from Handmark still stands out as being the easiest to view and ultimately the best to play.

As I said at the start, it is not easy choosing multiple BlackBerry games, but there are some gems included in this list. Sadly we are still some time away from seeing genuine arcade classics reach the platform.

Do you use your smartphone to consume or create? This is a difficult question, but I tend to use my iPhone for consumption and my BlackBerry to create communications, lists and documents.

The news that Blockbuster could file for bankruptcy in the next week or so is of course very sad. Some will say that this is the natural course of business and that the company deserves to fail, and they are correct. Businesses either survive or fall and that’s the way of the world.

The problem with Blockbuster is that it has become a victim of competing businesses before everyone else is prepared to flock to these new forms of digital delivery. How many people do you know who rent or stream films and TV programmes over the Internet? The number must be very small compared to the number who rent films in a physical store.

I still rent films for my children and the trip to our local Blockbusters is a small treat that invariably includes popcorn and some sweets that iTunes does not sell yet. I admit that I am now much more likely to rent a film from iTunes, hook up my iPhone to the TV and watch it within a few minutes of placing my order. I don’t have to return the DVD to the store the next day and the cost is the same as getting it from Blockbusters. The convenience alone wins out for me.

But, I will miss those little trips to the store and so will my children because there are no alternatives. Not everyone owns a device that can play digital films and few want to do so. These people now have little choice except to go out and buy films and that is sad.

Do you consider the service your network provider offers to be good value for money? I am on a £30 / month tariff and on the whole am satisfied that it represents good value, particularly because I managed over 3GB of mobile data last month and they never seemed to notice…

I have asked this before, but it would be interesting to see if the trend has changed at all. What social network do you use more than any other on your smartphone? It’s Twitter for me and that’s about it. For some reason I have never got on well with Facebook and find it less than intuitive.

Symbian is down, BlackBerry is down, Windows Mobile is down, Palm is down, iPhone is up and Android is up. That is the state of play in the smartphone industry at this time if you believe the online press. Unfortunately all of the analysis and statistics available also back up this premise and it really does seem as though Android and the iPhone is on the way up at the expense of the others.

The reason for this is momentum.

Momentum is a difficult thing to attain and an easy thing to lose and there is little doubt that Android and iPhone have momentum in spades at the moment. Every day new apps are released on both platforms that are original and exciting to a large group of people. Every day a new accessory is released for the phones running these platforms and some of them can add genuine usage benefits to the user. Almost every day a new Android device is released (a slight exaggeration) and the continual process of new phones, new software, accessories, hacks, tricks and everything else keeps the platforms in the public eye all of the time.

The fact that Apple and Google are behind the platforms only helps; we are talking about two companies that are to some controversial, to others God-like and to the rest of us highly recognised. They can generate headlines from nothing and Apple in particular creates a huge amount of buzz around a phone which is updated once a year.

When was the last time you heard of a software release for BlackBerry, webOS, Symbian or Windows Mobile that made you sit up and think “Ooh that looks good!” Well, I can’t think of any recent examples.

The plain fact is that smartphones not running Android or iOS are stable workhorses that do almost everything exactly as they should do. But this is simply not enough to compete with Android and iOS today- even if the iPhone and Android smartphones have problems that can be infuriating they will still sell in bigger numbers because they bring with them a constantly changing landscape which keeps the mobile user interested, and as such much more likely to stick with the platform when upgrade time comes along.