Do you have a smart phone? I just bought myself an iPhone and I am blogging while in a taxi using the WordPress iPhone app. There also a wordpress app available for the black berry and on both counts the app is free… I love wordpress!

The interface is very simple, it does not have all the same features as the advanced mce editor found in the admin area when you use your browser. You can’t create tables or embed media as easily, but if all you need is to post some text, links and perhaps photos, the wordpress app is a steal.

I have frequently been at a loss not having a smart phone to blog on the fly when inspiration strikes or when I bored to tears waiting for the next train. I used to drag my MacBook around with me so that I could check email or write proposals, but now I essentially those functions available to me my pocket.

What’s more, is that this phone has a media player I can use to showcase all my music and video projects as well as the websites I have built. Now I will never be empty handed when I bump into my next prospect.

On the downside, in looking at some of the websites I have built through a mobile browser I have discovered a few design flaws that I was unaware of until now. For instance, because of the limited screen view, websites are generally remade with a conditional template that only loads when a mobile browser is detected. Flash objects are all missing from mobile browsers as well… so those pretty flash slideshows, videos and even navigation bars are all lost.

The essential goal of a mobile theme is to enlarge all links and remove all flash elements for an alternative, i.e. youtube video versus flash video or javascript navigation versus flash navigation. That being said, if the mobile internet market is your target, you might want to speak with me about creating a mobile template designed specifically for the iPhone and BlackBerry. Use the quote form to request an estimate for your website.

Our server was hit by a wordpress worm spamming our posts and pages with external links. You would think that the spam filter Akismet would catch all of this spam but sadly this worm isn’t spamming the comments form, it’s actually logging into your wordpress website and adding “invisible” links in your content.

This can get your website blacklisted by Google and other search engines. When search engines find excessive links to the same url within your content, it’s seen as a “fishing website” which is essentially a fake website in their eyes… one used to redirect traffic.

The WordPress community has released security updates in version 2.8.5 but advises to install the WordPress Exploit Scanner to determine whether or not your wordpress website is at risk of a similar worm. The plugin will only report your security exploits. It will not fix your security exploits.

Examples of an exploit would be having your website configured with some of the default settings such as the user name “admin” or table prefix “wp_“. These are often used by hacking programs that count on users not customizing such settings.

It’s the same story with your wifi home networking that has the user name and password of “admin” & “admin” fresh out of the box. This is often “exploited” by people living in your area who leech off of your connection because you never customized your user name and password.

If you have never had a security scan of your wordpress website then you are likely to have several security exploits that need be fixed. To have us perform a security check on your website and fix all wordpress exploits, please place an order in our online store.