WP Premium is a theme released by wpRemix. I’ve seen it used in a few blogs I’ve visited, including itResource who was good enough to give me a free web hosting account (I have ample space on my current server but I’ve been experiencing some downtime due to dns server changes at my current host (Servers Australia) recently so I’ve realised the benefits of spreading my sites around!). So I’ve downloaded it and tried it out at sliick.com, which is now hosted with itResource.

What I like

1. It’s nicely layout out.
2. The dynamic tabbed sidebar for the search, archives, and categories is a great way of conserving space without sacrificing usability.

What I don’t like:

1. the tags widget is not well supported on the sidebar (it looks like crap)
2. I had to uncomment the_tags() line in the single.php to show my tags. Why not put it in by default?
3. the links on the black theme that I’m using are black which means it looks just like the rest of the text! I had to alter the stylesheet to make them blue.

The Conclusion? Whilst the dynamic tabbing is great, I’m sure it’s been ripped off a few other themes like the revolution or wp-magazine theme. The cons I’ve listed are such simple, careless design mistakes that really drag down the theme designer. It’s definitely not polished enougth to be deserving of the name WP ‘Premium’.

Del.icio.us : wordpress themes

Popularity: 6%

I’ve just discovered desktop blog publishing clients. They use the xml-rpc protocol which comes with wordpress - where have I been hiding?!

Remote blog publishing would really be awesome because most of the clients come with multiple blog account support so I’ll be able to post to all my blogs from one place and not have to individual log into each one them. How neat!

From this list of xml-rpc clients on the official wordpress site, I followed through to all their websites, tried a few and have selected my preferred choice.

• BlogDesk - free, multiple blog profiles
• BlogJet - visited the site, there’s a free version and theirs a paid version for 29.95 euros. Doesn’t say what’s missing from the free version so I couldn’t be bothered downloading it.
• Blog Writer - now released as Zoundry Raven
• Deepest Sender - not interested in firefox extensions
• Ecto - The main product is only for mac. There is also a beta windows version. I thought it was free but it’s not. Move on.
• Elicit - website down. too bad
• Flock - it’s actually a browser.
• jBlogEditor - open source but no longer actively supported.
• LIPIDr - website has missing links on the screenshots. No support forum, no active blog, I pass thank you.
• Post2Blog - Apparently the pro version was a paid product and the express version was the freeware. For some reason ByteScout has decided to make the pro version free. Hmm.. a free pro version! Good enough for me to try then. The download link was actually hard to find so here it is from download.com. This is feature rich. Has every feature I’ve tested from the others so far with the added extra of auto uploading images to imageshack so that i don’t have to use my own server space! sweet!
• Qumana - has a Q Ads feature that you need to sign up to. I don’t know.. just don’t get a good feel on this site.
• ScribeFire - another mozilla plugin. pass
• Semagic - it’s a livejournal client but it’s listed on the wordpress client page so it must be compatible. Also It’s open source so that’s a plus - I’ll be able to hack whatever is missing! I downloaded it, installed it, and couldn’t work out how to connect to my wordpress blog. Bummer.
• Zoundry Raven - looked great but the auto inserting of amazon links bugs me - (Yes, I know you can turn it off, but…) Also, the text editor had problems with making numbered lists, there was no resizing option for uploading to imageshack, and when I installed this as a portable version on my usb stick, symantec reported a W32 silly virus! - the virus could be a coincidence but I’m not game enough to try the install again just to confirm it.
• w.bloggger - nothing amazing. no imageshack option and damn it no uninstall shortcut!
• WB Editor - gotta pay mate.
• Windows Live Writer - Official M$ product. Looks feature rich. They’re trying to copy the google model by providing free products to win us over! I like it. It has plugin support so you can develop a plugin for it. Existing plugins include a digg this button, screen capture, picasa gallery link, and more..
• WriteToMyBlog - web based. ie. i’m not interested.

So my pick of the bunch?

1. Post2Blog. Because of the imageshack feature

2. BlogDesk. Because it is very simple and intuitive to use. Has just the basic features (multiple blog profiles, saves your posts to your harddrive, spell checker, etc.,) and is what I used to blog this post.

3. Windows Live Writer. Because of the plugin feature.

Popularity: 5%