iPhone

Blogging Insights — My Device

Fandango16 Comments

Blogging insightsIn this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know what devices we use for blogging. She asks:

What device (desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone) do you find most useful for blogging and why?

I use my iPhone for my blogging close to 100% of the time. Why? Primarily because it’s extremely portable. I’m not tethered to a desktop computer. And even though a laptop is somewhat portable, it has its portability limitations. With my iPhone I can be composing posts, reading what other bloggers have posted, and commenting on other’s posts from anywhere. I don’t need a keyboard or a mouse, either.

I can blog

…in bed.

….while sitting on the toilet.

…from the living room sofa while my wife is watching “Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail,”  “Pretty Woman,” or any one of the many romantic comedies she loves and has already seen dozens of times.

…from the backyard.

…while riding a bus.

…or sitting in a taxicab.

…in the waiting room in a doctor’s or dentist’s office.

…at the DMV.

…in the car (when someone else is driving).

…while sitting on a bench at the park.

Yes, with my iPhone I can blog from anywhere!

Blogging Insights — The Gutenberg Editor

Fandango28 Comments

Blogging insightsIn this week’s edition of Blogging Insights, Dr. Tanya wants to know what we think of the WordPress Gutenberg (aka Block) editor.

She asks:

What is your experience with the Gutenberg editor?

I use my iPhone for blogging and I use the Classic editor. I tried using the Block editor on my iPhone, but I’ve found it very difficult to use because of the relatively small amount of screen “real estate.” Perhaps if I were using a laptop with a regular, full-size screen, my experience with the Block editor would be more positive, but I don’t, so my experience attempting to use it on an iPhone has been quite negative.

Do you prefer it over the previous editor?

No, for the reasons noted in my previous answer.

If you are not satisfied with Gutenberg, what suggestions can you make to WordPress to enhance your blogging experience?

My advice to WordPress is to continue to offer and support the Classic editor as an option for those of us who prefer it over the Block editor. If the day ever comes when WordPress no longer offers the Classic editor, that will be the day I will either find a different platform for my blog or I will just stop blogging.

As It Turns Out…

Fandango22 Comments

Well, this is a little embarrassing. You may recall, in this post the other day, I complained that my cat caused my iPhone to fly off of our dining room table onto our hardwood floor. When I first picked up my phone, everything seemed fine. But then I discovered that, while I could make phone calls and send text messages, I could neither receive phone calls nor text messages.

And so I immediately did what any red-blooded American male addicted to and dependent upon his iPhone would do. I ordered a new one from Amazon. Well, actually not a new one, but an unlocked, refurbished iPhone 8 Plus, because it’s a whole lot cheaper than a brand new iPhone 11 Pro Max. My new, refurbished iPhone has been shipped and is being delivered tomorrow.

Great news, right?

Well hold on there buckaroo. Suddenly, at around 8 pm Monday night, my “broken” iPhone started pinging. Three text messages suddenly appeared as well as notifications of five missed phone calls. Huh? I asked my wife to text me. It instantly showed up. I asked her to call me. And my iPhone rang. WTF? My broken iPhone suddenly healed itself?

Well, as it turns out, there was nothing wrong with iPhone and no reason for me to be pissed off at my cat for disrupting my life. Because the actual culprit was a major cellular service outage.0D6DDDC0-5FE4-4A3C-998F-F7AEF7BA1C0CSo it seems that, while I could still make calls and send text messages, that cellular outage, not my cat, was responsible for my iPhone’s inability to receive calls or text messages. Don’t ask me why the outage would be a one way street because I have no clue.

So first, let me apologize to my cat. “I’m so sorry, cat.”

Second, I hope I can return the now unneeded replacement iPhone to Amazon for a full credit.

Cat-astrofe

Fandango29 Comments

So my wife and I are in the midst of a competitive game Rummy 500 when our cat jumped up onto our dining room table and sat down right in the middle of the “playing field.” I went to pick up the cat to remove him from the table, but unbeknownst to me, he extended his claws and caught them on a cloth placemat upon which my iPhone happened to be sitting. DFD5765B-7610-4476-9159-14B7B0DD7B86As I lifted the cat from the table, the placemat to which his claws were attached also lifted, and my iPhone went flying across the room landing hard on the wood floor.

I dropped the cat and reached for my iPhone. I picked it up and carefully examined it. The good news: the screen and body were intact and everything looked copacetic. Phew.

But about an hour later I got an email from my son asking me why I hadn’t responded to his text message or answered the phone when he called. I called him and said I never got a text or call from him. He said that he’d text me again, and when it never showed up, I called him back to say I didn’t get it. Then I told him to call me back, hung up my iPhone, and waited. Nothing!

Anyway, the bottom line — and it’s a weird one — is that everything works on my iPhone, including its ability to make phone calls and to send text messages. Everything, that is, except its ability to receive phone calls and text messages.

Time for a new iPhone, I suppose.

Leave Well Enough Alone

Fandango41 Comments

What is the deal with June 1st at WordPress? Is that the first day of the new fiscal year there? It was June 1st 2018 when WordPress called a halt to its Daily Post, prompting a number of us to start our own daily word prompts in order to fill the void WordPress left.

Now, according to a post that Li, over at Tao Talk published a few days ago, as of June 1st, WordPress will be “retiring our older WordPress.com editor and transitioning to the more recent (and more powerful) WordPress block editor.”

This is not good news for me. If you don’t already know it, I blog exclusively from my iPhone. Not from a desktop computer. Not from a laptop. Not even from a tablet like an iPad. Just from my iPhone. Have any of you tried using the block editor from a smartphone? It’s not a good user experience. There isn’t enough “real estate” on a relatively small smartphone screen to make it work. At least not for me. So I have continued to use the “classic” editor.98818DF8-5454-4C7F-82CE-C2F64AC6C394My initial reaction to this news that the “classic” editor is being “retired” was to just quit blogging, at least on WordPress. But Li was kind enough to link to this post from WordPress. The good news is that the WordPress link indicates that, “You also have the choice to switch to the Classic editor.”

I hope that is, indeed, the case and that you don’t have to jump through hoops to use the “classic” editor. Because I really don’t want to leave WordPress to go to another blog hosting site or to quit blogging altogether.

Why can’t those happiness engineers at WordPress just leave well enough alone? Jeez, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!