Filed under: Software, Blogging, Internet Tools, iPhone, App Store
Squarespace hosting/CMS service launches iPhone app
After a long wait, Squarespace customers finally have an iPhone app of their own. Squarespace is a hosted blogging/CMS service that competes with the likes of WordPress.com and Typepad. Having used all three, I can say that interacting with Squarespace (posting, changing your site's look and feel, etc.) is unlike the others. Instead of a separate control panel/dashboard, Squarespace previews changes in real time on the same screen. It's really nice.The iPhone app [iTunes link] seems to be an extension of its browser-based sibling. For example, check out the live preview mode pictured at right. You can also manage multiple accounts, post, upload multiple images at once (awesome) view stats and more. The UI looks nice as well.
While bloggers on other platforms have had compatible apps in the App Store for a while now, this is Squarespace's first solution. We're eager to play around with it. Squarespace for iPhone is free and requires a paid Squarespace account.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kyle said 9:52PM on 11-06-2009
Did my own review. From a Squarespace site.
It has some bugs. I submitted a bug report they are fixing them. Major bonus.
http://paperjamindustries.com/news/2009/11/3/squarespace-iphone-app.html
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ianlive said 12:56AM on 11-07-2009
Interesting to see a discussion of this company. I used SquareSpace for a few months before cancelling my membership and reveritng to RapidWeaver plus my own hosting plan.
I have to say that despite my choice to discontinue my membership they are a really solid company and the service has so much potential. The company's philosophy is to create a hosting/crm service that allows full customization of any and all portions of your site/blog. Pretty bold. They even go so far as to say with the right CSS skills, the site and UI allows you to duplicate any website you can find online. My experience is that you really do need to know coding to accomlish this, but it's still impressive.
I was pretty stoked to find this company as I've found that most blogs/CMSs are too restrictive with the look an feel of your site. Unfortunately, as with so many things digital, the more control you allow the end user, the harder it can be to figure out how to make said changes. I think this is where they could use some improvement.
As it stands, the interface can make it hard to figure out exactly where you're trying to make changes. I've also found that although they have quite a few included templates, they seem to still have a similar feel.
If anyone tries the service and likes what they find, I would encourage them to stick with it. Squarespace's customer service is the best I've ever seen online (less than 24 hr response and often within minutes of posting a support ticket) and they seem to really have their act together. I will be keeping an eye in them to see if they make changes to the areas I found lacking.
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karinatwork said 3:35AM on 11-07-2009
Alas... for me, their services are too expensive. Looks great though.
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Aaron Houghton said 11:25PM on 1-14-2010
Ianlive mentioned some of the drawbacks of this system so I wanted to point him to an alternative solution.
I work at a company called Preation in North Carolina and we have built a new website content management and marketing system for small businesses called Eden. Eden allows anyone to update their website and optimize it for the search engines on their own. We believe that this solution is very important to small businesses because most of them cannot afford search engine optimization services from traditional consultants.
Eden has unique do-it-yourself search engine optimization features as well as a large number of easy website management features including: professionally designed templates, real on-page editing, drag-and-drop page tree, photo galleries, forms, testimonials, slideshows, video, multi-tier navigation, calendars, and event registration. Full details about Eden’s features are available in the product tour on our website (http://www.preation.com/content/build/4756).
If you want to give Eden a test drive a free 15 day trial is available at http://www.preation.com/freetrial/.
Regards,
Aaron
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