Blogger iOS App Rant

After downloading the Blogger iOS App onto my iPhone 4S to allow me to write Buzz Nations Articles while I've not got access to my Laptop I felt I had to vent my dismay the UI and Keyboard still the pre-iOS 7 style, and with iOS 8 out I'm surprised that one of Googles own Apps hasn't been updated for iOS 7+.

Skullcandy UpRock Review

After using my Skull Candy UpRock headphones for a while now I thought it was about time that I wrote my full and in-depth review.

The sound that comes out of the UpRocks is perfect for any type of music as they're not bass heavy & they're not too light on bass so they're perfect for listening to spoken content such as Podcasts along with watching YouTube videos & even gaming.

Skullcandy UpRock Un-boxing

I was looking for some on the ear headphones for YouTube viewing on my Laptop, Phone & Tablet, Podcast listening on my Phone, Music listening on my Laptop, Phone & Tablet & some light gaming on my Windows Laptop as I usually use my Microsoft LifeChat headset for extended gaming and after watching many YouTube videos I decided on the Skullcandy UpRock or JVC  HA-S44X Xtreme Xplosives. After looking at both pairs of headphones I decided on the Skullcandy UpRock's as the size of the JVC Xtreame Xplosives were a little on the large side for any kind of use other than at home.

I really wanted the Navy & Gold UpRock's that I'd seen on the Argos website (a UK retail chain) and was a little disappointed that they were out of stock as they were reported to have been an Argos exclusive colour, so I settled on a choice of the UpRock Rasta's, UpRock in Black or the UpRock Space, while out I went into my closest B&M Store (a UK discount retailer) and saw that they had got the UpRock's for £9.99 in both the regular & with Mic versions.

WordPress Post Dashboard Clutter

If like me you've used WordPress for nearly four years then this Post will feel close to home for you. I've Blogged via WordPress since September 2010 and have amassed 360 published Articles and two drafts and my All Posts Screen in the Posts Dashboard looks like this.

A sample page from my WordPress.com Posts Dashboard

Blogger Vs WordPress And Why I Decided To Return To WordPress

In this post I'll compare Blogger Vs WordPress And Why I Decided To Return To WordPress.

I switched my Blog from WordPress to Blogger in late 2011 to explore all the tools that Google offer for Blogs and Websites such as Analytics and AdSense, but I was unable to build up a following similar to what I had built up on here.  Google then took it on themselves to block my AdSense Account stating that I'd breached the Terms & Conditions of AdSense, but never explained what I'd supposedly done to breach the AdSense Terms & Conditions. I then tried  to get Google Authorship & Author Rank working which it never did properly, but I still continued to write posts until this year when I just couldn't be bothered with Blogging any more that is until this morning when I decided to dust off my WordPress Account and start again.

The main reasons that I decided to ditch Blogger and return to Wordpress are:

Admin Console

• Blogger's Admin Console is to cluttered and not logically organised compared to the WordPress Admin Console.

Customization

• Blogger relies heavily on editing HTML & XML code to do a lot of the Customizing of a site.


• Most of Blogger's Themes are paid compared to WordPress that ether has more Free Themes or a 50/50 split.


• Blogger isn't as user friendly as WordPress to get to look how you want it.

Sharing

• Blogger only has the choice to share a Post with Google+ compared with WordPress where I can share with Google+, Facebook & Twitter along with other social services that I'm not a user of.

Post Editor

• Blogger's Post Editor is a simple lightweight editor.


• WordPress's Post Editor is a Feature rich editor that has all the options that you would expect in a Word Processor.

Categorizing Posts

• Blogger only uses tags to categorize posts which is a bit limiting.


• WordPress uses tags and Categories to categorize posts which gives you a lot more flexibility.

Themes

• Blogger's Themes seem to be highly geared towards the average user, but require HTML & XML coding knowlage.


• WordPress's Themes cater for everyone from the average user and are easy to customize to your exact needs via drag & drop widgets and don't need any code editing to get what you want.

Miscellaneous

• Blogger seems to be heavily geared towards users of Google's services who want to take advantage of Google AdSense to make money or Professionals who have money to invest in someone to code the Customization of their site just the way they want it, but they do offer unlimited free video & images in posts.


• WordPress is geared to the average Blogger who wants to just produce content, and has an easy to use set of settings for customization. WordPress also offers various Add-on Packages if you want more that the basics you get with the Free service.  WordPress has a very helpful Support Team and a very useful and friendly forum. WordPress also offers the WordPress Framework as a free download from http://wordpress.org/ if you want to self host your WordPress site from ether a leased Server or your own private server which is very handy if you are a company that wants to keep their Blog in-house or if you are just the average user that wants the greater flexibility that you get with self hosting ether privately or via a leased server.

I also found that getting any form of Ranking was totally impossible most of the time with Blogger, compared to with WordPress & no matter how much effort I put into tweaking the Title of a Post I could never get a Rank anywhere in Google compared to WordPress where a little Tweaking and re-tweaking if necessary I could get a decent Ranking depending on the Post subject.

Roland