WordPress for iPhone, Take 2

Anybody who’s used WordPress for iPhone knows how annoyingly buggy and horribly designed it is. Lists don’t line up with the side of the screen, the app will rotate upside-down on some screens but not on others, they don’t use the standard iPhone buttons, and getting anything useful accomplished is exceedingly slow and painful. That’s enough to make anybody who’s owned any Apple product for more than ten minutes cringe in disgust. If there was some sort of opposite of the Apple Design Awards, this app would get it, and more than deserve it.

After figuring out that the WordPress 2 app was a separate download and not an update to the original app (makes no sense, they aren’t charging like Tweetie), I downloaded it. From the home screen, there was a slight difference in the icon coloring and gradient. Those who don’t obsess over design like I do won’t notice much, but the gradient is different and the lighting on the big “W” icon is more prominent.

When you open the WordPress 2 app, you’ll notice a brand-new startup screen. It looks much better than the old one that just said “WordPress” at the top.

When the app finishes loading, you’ll notice the biggest change of all: a magical new interface for switching between Comments, Posts, and Pages. Instead of forcing users to pick one of the three from a menu, the WordPress for iPhone developers finally decided it would be a good idea to use some buttons.

Which one would you rather use?

And those two things aren’t the only things that have changed. Here’s the complete list:

• A new comment management interface, with the Gravatars and author URL shown in the list
• Refreshing is no longer a toolbar button. Instead, it has been moved to the top of the list because there simply is no more room. It’s a poorly written rip-off of Tweetie 2′s “pull down to refresh” feature.
• Posts don’t blow up/get deleted anymore if the network connection is lost while saving, perfect for those piggybacking on a neighbor’s Wi-Fi network
• The app now re-opens to where you left off the last time you closed it
• Fixed the really annoying bug when WordPress would rotate upside-down and everything on the screen would be distorted
• Fixed the problem where WordPress would decide to delete all the work you put into your local drafts folder

The WordPress 2 application is not an update to the previous one. WordPress certainly wants to break away from the bad taste left in users’ mouths when they used the original WordPress app. Go download the new app, you’ll have to re-enter all your settings, but it’s well worth it.

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