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Download WordPress iPhone App v2.5 for iOS 4 Featuring Retina Display and Fast App Switching

Samrat P — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:56:33 +0000

Apple has released iOS 4 and many developers have updated their iPhone Apps to support the latest features present in iOS 4.0. Even the popular blogging platform, WordPress has got an update and the updated WordPress App for iOS supports iOS 4 features like Retina Display.

Apart from fixing bugs and working on performance enhancements, this update also includes some updates to help iPhone users take advantage of two very nice additions from Apple: iOS 4 and iPhone 4. The latest WordPress App v2.5 includes support for fast app switching, which is perfect for blogging on the go. The App is also optimized for the new Retina Display.

WordPress Version 2.5 for iOS – Whats New

Cut-and-paste now behaves as expected on the iPad.
Better handling of drafts in progress when quitting the app.
Several performance enhancements, UI improvements, and bug fixes.
Support for fast app switching in iOS 4.
Optimized interface for the Retina Display in iPhone 4.

Download WordPress v2.5 for iOS 4 [iTunes Link]

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Upgrade or Download WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” With New Twenty Ten Theme

Samrat P — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:23:40 +0000

World’s popular blogging software, WordPress has released its latest update – the WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious”. Thirteenth major release of WordPress, WordPress 3.0 includes many new features and enhancements, along with remarkable bug fixes. After several months of development, the major enhancements of WordPress 3.0 incorporate a new default theme – Twenty Ten, menu management, custom post types and the long waited merge with WordPress MU that enables running one or multiple blogs from the same installation (multi-user) easier.

WordPress 3.0 includes new API’s thus making developers more comfortable in implementing backgrounds, menus, headers and more instead of editing the themes repeatedly. Supporting Custom post types and custom taxonomies along with bulk updating of themes and plugins, WordPress 3.0 contains a list of new features, which visit codex page. The polished Dashboard to the admins of major sites makes WordPress 3.0 more enticing.

Matt Mullenweg also announced that their development team is focusing on all of the things around the WordPress project such as showcase, Codex, forums, profiles, update and compatibility APIs, theme directory, plugin directory, mailing lists, core plugins, and wordcamp.org and WordPress 3.1 will also soon be available as well. Though a bit late than expected, WP3.1 is certain to come and until the release of WP3.1, you can download and rejoice the enhanced of WordPress – the WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious”.

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Blogger Template Designer Graduates From Blogger in Draft and Now Available For Everyone

Samrat P — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:52:37 +0000

Google launched its experimental Blogger Template Designer feature in March 2010, and today this designer template is officially available as a draft experiment in Blogger to incentivize all the buffs of blogging.

For those unaware of Blogger Template Designer, a template allows one easily customize the look and feel of their blogs without any prior knowledge of HTML or CSS. With pre-defined templates, colors, column layouts and background images readily available, Blogger Template designer facilitates users to customize as well as enhance their blogs at an ease.

Upon logging into the Blogger account, a notification appears saying “New! Template Designer”, using which one can play around the various designs and colors available, right mix them, and apply for a new blog or an existing one. Explore this amazing feature and start creating stunning blog designs. Happy Blogging!

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Improve WordPress Blog Performance on Shared Hosting With Hyper Cache

Samrat P — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:13:21 +0000

If you have a WordPress Blog with high traffic then it is always a better idea to install a caching plugin which will server static pages to reduce the server load. Hyper Cache is one such WordPress Plugin which caches your Blog pages and reduces the server load. Hyper Cache is very useful for people who have their WordPress Blogs on low resources hosting provider.

Hyper Cache is very easy to install and there aren’t many modifications or settings that needs to be done. Hyper Cache supports cache autoclean on configurable time interval along with redirects and 404 caching. Gzip support for enabled browser with Gzip caching is also available in Hyper Cache.

Download Hyper Cache WordPress Plugin

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Design Blogger Templates With Blogger Template Designer for Blogger in Draft

Samrat P — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 05:39:42 +0000

Yesterday, we wrote about the “Blogger Template Designer“, a newly added feature to the Blogger in Draft of the popular blogging site the “Blogger“. Blogger Template Designer includes 15 customizable templates with great patterns, one, two, and three column layouts along with hundreds of background images and patterns from iStockphoto.

You can try this Blogger Template Designer by logging into the Blogger in Draft through http://draft.blogger.com/ and clicking on the blogs “Layout” link that proceeds to the Layout tab. This tab will feature a link to the Template Designer located at the end of the row of sub-tabs. Template Designer tab allows you to have live previews of the new templates on your blog and once satisfied with look and feel you can publish it to the world by simply clicking on the “Apply to Blog”. Template Designer enables users to backup their existing templates. If you are viewing a “Template” link instead of “Layout”, then it seems that you are in Classic format and you need to switch to the Layouts before trying out the Template Designer.

Here are few tips provided by the Blogger Team to create impressive blogs:

Use Background Panel’s “Main Color theme” for quickly matching all your links and background image at once.
Several gadgets can be fitted in to the blog using the three-column footer.
Customize the tabs using the unique tab designs available for all of the new templates.
Use the “transparency page curl” and background image picker to see the patterns to be used in your blog.
Edit and add your authorship or copyright information in your blog using the “Attribution gadget”.

Bloggers Template Designer does not support Internet Explorer 6 and hence all the bloggers and readers utilizing IE6 needs to update for the latest version in order to access this feature. Update yourself with the latest IE and rejoice the customizable Bloggers in Draft using the “Blogger Template Designer”. Happy Blogging!

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Create Blogger Templates Easily With Blogger Template Designer

Samrat P — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:29:23 +0000

Blogger, the popular site used by many users worldwide is now set to add-in new features to its Blogger in Draft, thus making blogging a more easy, fun and rewarding process to express oneself online. Blogger has announced the launch of an experimental feature “Blogger Template Designer” on the Blogger in Draft, which enables users to easily customize templates and create a unique Bloggers blog.

Blogger Template Designer provides users with 15 new professional templates, amazing background images from iStockphoto, customizable blog layouts along with options to choose colors and fonts. This Template Designer will be available for all the Blogger users and as per the reports, will soon be rolled out as a default feature by Google with many additional options included. This innovative step of Blogger is certainly a boon to all the bloggers who desire to maintain an blog with amazing look and feel!

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BuddyPress Turns Your WordPress Blog Into A Social Networking Site

Samrat P — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 20:02:17 +0000

Now, all WordPress users can rejoice the latest BuddyPress that add upon many impressive features in it. The latest version the BuddyPress 1.2 is here for everyone with a WordPress installation. Using the latest BuddyPress 1.2 you can not only enjoy personal publishing and blogging but also add new social features using which you can extend profiles, stream users comments, manage discussion forums, effectively handle private messaging, and allow multiple discussions by topic. BuddyPress 1.2 acts as a good tool for making blogging and discussions more interactive and impressive.

BuddyPress 1.2 will work on WordPress and WordPress MU 2.9.1 or even later including all the features irrespective of whichever version of WordPress you are using. With simple installation procedures, easily expendable and usable features, BuddyPress 1.2 comes with great themes and Active Streams that make it more powerful. You can also turn off the features if you do not require them. All these enhancements turns BuddyPress 1.2 more worthy to try!

Download BuddyPress

Also Read: Procedure to Install WordPress Locally on Windows 7, Vista and XP

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Download WordPress for Android 1.0 App from Android Market

Samrat P — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:47:48 +0000

Good news for all those owing an Android phone, the popular publishing and blogging tool, WordPress officially launched WordPress for Android 1.0 (Hurray!). You can now easily blog from your Android phone using the WordPress Android App, an open source application that is backed up by WordPress.org. WordPress Android App enables you to not only post and edit blog posts from your phone, but also to moderate and post comments.

WordPress App for Android is a easy to use application and allows configuring and managing multiple blogs simultaneously. It uses basic HTML editor that provides features to italicize or bold text as desired. Uploading photos and videos is also very easy with this app. The best part is, this app displays notifications whenever a reader comments upon a blog post.

Features of WordPress Android Application

HTML editor that allows Italic and bold text formats.
Support for configuring and managing multiple blogs simultaneously.
Notifies reader comments from Android notification bar and provides comment moderation including the ability to reply to comments
Easy to Create and Edit Posts with different categories, tags and photos

WordPress Android app is an open source effort and a large part of the code is based on the popular wpToGo application. wpToGo will be discontinued as all development efforts move forward with the Open Source WordPress for Android app.

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Nokia 5230 Giveaway at TechHail – Winner Announcement

Samrat P — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 08:22:46 +0000

Finally the long awaited 5230 giveaway contest has come to an end yesterday. I’m very much delighted to see a very good response from the huge crowd. The contest has went very well beyond my expectations. At one point of time I was unhappy as I had got only one prize. It would have been a good thing if there were couple of more prizes. But one good news is that I’m working with some sponsors to get some very good stuff like Nokia N97 Mini, Apple iPod Touch and some hard cash as prizes for the upcoming contest.

Coming to the stats. It took me more than 1 hour to sort out the valid comments and tweets. Though some of them were not accurate to the point, I considered them into the draw. There are a total of 48 valid comments, 58 tweets and couple of mentions on blogs. Every one who has tweeted got 1 tickets, comments were given 1 ticket and blog entries were given 10 entries. All the contest participants names or twitter handles were entered in List Randomizer at “random.org” in alphabetical order and “Randomize” button was clicked once to choose the winner.

So here is the winner and his comment – “Venkat Krishna”

Nice offer. Nokia 5230 is damn good mobile with excellent features. I don’t use twitter and no website for me. So im only commenting here. I want to win this mobile.

Thanks
Venkat

I have mailed the winner already and will parcel the Nokia 5230 as soon as I receive a response from him. If I do not receive a response from him with a week I would again run the List Randomizer to select a different winner.

Thanks one and all who have helped me directly or indirectly to make this giveaway a BIG success.

I’m already working with few sponsors to kick start a new contest very soon. This time I’ll arrange for atleast 3-4 prizes for the winner. If you have any other ways to organize a better contest then do share it with me through the comment section.

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Win a New Nokia 5230 by Tweeting or Commenting in TechHail Giveaway

Samrat P — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:03:39 +0000

Nokia 5230 Giveaway at TechHail Winner Announced

Recently I had won a Nokia 5230 in the Nokia Tweetup Event held in Bangalore. I’m already using a Nokia 5800 which has some high end features when compared with 5230. So I thought it would be a better idea to give “Nokia 5230” to one of my TechHail readers.

Features of Nokia 5230

Nokia 5230 XpressMusic is a touch screen mobile similar to Nokia 5800 which runs on the Symbian S60 5th edition and is powered by a ARM 11 434 MHz processor. It has a 3.2″ TFT resistive touchscreen and supports a resolution of 360×640 pixels. There is a 2MP camera to capture images at 1600×1200 pixels and VGA video at 30fps. Other features include Proximity sensor, Accelerometer, 3.5 mm audio jack, GPS, 70 MB internal storage, microSD Card slot with support upto 16GB, 3G, Bluetooth, microUSB, Stereo FM radio with RDS. The main missing feature in 5230 when compared with Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is the WLAN. Totally Nokia 5230 is a worth trying phone which costs around $225.

Procedure to Win Nokia 5230

There are totally 3 ways for you to win a Nokia 5230 at TechHail. You can win 5230 by tweeting, commenting and writing about this contest in your blog. If you tweet the message you get one entry ticket for the lucky draw. Commenting on the blog entitles you for one ticket and a review on your website/blog gives you 10 tickets.

Win Nokia 5230 Mobile by Tweeting

You can one entry ticket to win the mobile by following me @samratp (if you aren’t already) and then tweeting the following message.

Win a Nokia 5230 by tweeting and commenting at #techhail – http://bit.ly/5sKBr6 @samratp

Win 5230 by Commenting on the Blog

You can get one entry ticket to win 5320 by writing a comment on this post. Comments should clearly tell us why you love the Nokia 5230 mobile (You can even write about my blog if you really love it).

Win Nokia 5230 by Writing About This Give Away

You will get 10 entry tickets if you write about this event on your blog or website and put a link back to this post. Do not copy paste the entire post. Just write few sentences and your thoughts about the contest.

This contest will run until Jan 31st 2010 11:59pm IST and winners will be announced on Feb 1st 2010. One Winner will be selected randomly and will be sent the box packed Nokia 5230. This contest is open for all my blog readers across the world. So try to gather maximum tickets and win the Nokia 5230 from TechHail.

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