Twi-Mobile has a new home on Wordpress.com!

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http://twimobile.wordpress.com
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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Welcome to Twi-Mobile!

Welcome to the Twi-Mobile Network!

If you use a mobile device like iPhone, iPod touch, Blackberry, Palm, iPad, Kindle, or other mobile device or cellphone to read twilight blogs then you've come to the right place. All the Twilight websites on the upper right sidebar have a mobile site making it much easier to get your Twi-fix.

Visit and bookmark Twi-Mobile's mobile site (from your mobile at http://twimobile.prohost.mobi/) and you'll have direct links to all the mobile blogs from a single page. See?


Check out
- Our FAQ
- Making a Mobile Version of your Blog
- How to Read Fanfic On Your Mobile
- Twi-Mobile Badges
- iPhone Wallpapers
- iPad Wallpapers
- Mobile Wallpapers

Followers - Want to know if new blogs get mobile sites too or about new wallpapers for your phone? Click Follow Me to get updates to the Twi-Mobile Blogroll.
Bloggers - Want to learn more about getting a mobile version of your blog? Read our FAQ or email me at twimobile(at)gmail.com to join our network. It's easy!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions


What is a mobile blog?

What is Twi-Mobile?
Where are the mobile friendly blogs listed?
What if my favourite blog/website isn't on your list?
How do I read fanfiction more easily from my mobile?
for bloggers
I have a blog/website but don't have a mobile. Does this still apply to me?
I want to mobilize my site - what are my options? Costs?
- for blogger blogs
- for self-hosted wordpress blogs
- for wordpress.com blogs

What is a mobile blog?

If you try and read the regular version of a blog from your cell phone/Blackberry or mobile device like an ipod touch or possibly Kindle you'll notice that it's harder to navigate properly.



Regular version - hard to read
It may take forever to load and then you end up wiggling all over the screen. Or if you are using a text-only mode there is a whole bunch of extra crap when all you want to see is the latest post.

Enter the Mobile Blog - you take the regular desktop blog and just get the posts and make them into a compact easy to read version for your mobile phone or device.



Mobile version - easier on the eyes






As a frustrated iPhone user I started compiling all the mobile friendly Twilight blogs and websites into one place. I also helped to convert quite a few blogs to become mobile friendly. Thus Twi-Mobile was born.


Where can I find the mobile friendly blogs?

From my desktop Twi-Mobile site see right sidebar.
From your mobile see http://twimobile.prohost.mobi/



Let them know it's something you'd like to see them do and link them to this page or have them email me at twimobile(at)gmail(dot)com and I'll help them get set up.


How do I read fanfiction more easily from my mobile?


See my post "How to Read Fanfic on your Mobile." It tells you about online fanfiction.net and reading downloaded (offline) fanfiction.net and offline twilighted.net. Makes it so much easier to travel and read without an internet connection.

For bloggers

I have a blogger/website but I don't have a mobile. Does this still apply to me?


Yes, as a blogger it's in your interest to keep your followers happy right? Well, about 20% of your readers access your blog from either their cell phone or some other mobile device. This will make it easier for them to follow you while they're away from their desktops. Your posts are updated instantly as the mobile blog just gets content from your blog's RSS/Atom feed.

How do I set up a mobile version of my blog/website? What are the options? What does it cost?


For blogger blogs
Sadly there is no built in mobile site and no widget to easily add things either. Options are:

Easy, pretty, low cost $3/month - Mofuse was a company that offered free mobile sites to blogs as well as pay professional mobile sites. They shut down their free division in June. But they have discounted their starter package to just $3/month (price of one Starbucks coffee). Go to mofusepremium.com and if you sign up with discount code three it should give you that rate. The Mofuse mobile site builder is easy to use and also gives you the ability to automatically redirect mobile traffic to the mobile site. You can also monetize/advertise as well. This is what most of the Twi-Mobile members are using like myself.
Take a look at Malicious Mandy's Mind blog at http://maliciousmandy.prohost.mobi/

Free, very pretty, flexible content, need to know CSS/HTML - If you absolutely want to do this the free route then try your hand at mobify.me. It is a mobile site builder that is very flexible and gives you a lot of content control. The catch? To make it really pretty you need to have a basic handle on CSS/HTML. It is really meant for web designers.
Take a look at Twilightish at http://twilightish.mobify.me/ to see what you get.

Free, basic generic, easy to use - Google Reader
Now this ain't too pretty but it gets the job done.
All you do is add your post RSS feed URL into the text below. Then make a text link under your header or on your sidebar saying 'Mobile Version'


http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/your RSS post feed URL

For example mine would be http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/http://twi-mobile.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Click that link to see what you get. It ain't to pretty but it's easy to see from any mobile device.

For those on Wordpress.com blogs


I think most of you should know by now that you have a mobile version of your site already. When readers are on mobiles visiting your site they automatically get redirected to it.

For self-hosted blogs using Wordpress
Hopefully you'll have found a massive number of plugins available for you to choose from. 
For a pretty good review of the plugins available and the differences between them check out this article at W3 Magazine.

Any questions? Email TwilightCupcake at twimobile(at)gmail(dot)com



Sunday, March 14, 2010

How to Read Fanfic On Your Mobile

Reading Fanfiction.net ONLINE


For those of you who don't mind reading fanfiction.net online from your mobile they've finally made it easier. Go the story that you want to read and then change the www in the URL to an m. It's that simple. See my post here for more info.
For those who still want offline versions on their mobiles read on.


- note Twilighted.net does not have an easy online mobile site


Reading Twilighted.net and Fanfiction.net OFFLINE




Easiest - no desktop computer required, must have a Gmail account and give them your password


If you want to convert fanfiction.net or twilighted.net stories into files you can download onto your mobile and do not mind giving your Gmail account info to the fanfic downloader site then go ahead and see my new post

More effort - no Gmail account required
- only works with Fanfiction.net 

What it doesn't do? Automatically update your fanfic for you into your mobile ereader. I don't think that's been invented yet (please tell me if it has). For now, you'll have to manually update each time.

Note that when you use this method it is great for complete books and if you are willing to download each update yourself onto your iphone then it is totally worth it for the partials too.

Of note, I use Windows XP but all this would work with Vista. I have an iphone, ipod touch, or iPad and this method works on both devices. If you have a Blackberry or Palm then stay with me until you get to the Stanza part and you should use Mobipocket ereader instead.

Last thing, I am assuming you are using a wireless network and that your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad (set on Wifi) is on the same wireless network as your PC.

If you are not using a wireless network then see the Stanza FAQ here. You may need to save as a different file type as well in fanfic downloader so take a look at the FAQ first before embarking further.

Things you need to do:

part 1

This first step takes the whole fanfic story you like from www.fanfiction.net and converts it into an electronic book (in this case a Mobipocket ebook) using fanfic downloader.

1) On your desktop Download and install fanfic downloader from this site Raimonds Homepage.

2) Once you have installed it, open up the application Fanfiction Downloader.

3) Before you do anything else go to the Settings at the top and pull down to Settings. I will uncheck the box that says "###" separator at beginning of each chapter. Leave this alone if you want the whole book to be one big file without individual chapters. Press Save.

Untick the box "###" separator at beginning of each chapter


4) Go to www.fanfiction.net and get the URL for the story you want to convert. I chose Master of the Universe by Snowqueens Icedragon because it's my favourite. It has now been removed from fanfiction.net so I'm glad I got it when I could (I still have the files if you want them email me).

URL in this pic http:www.fanfiction.net/s/5368782


5) In "Step 1: Source URL and ID" copy and paste the URL of the fanfic you want into the field "Story URL."  Then, click continue.

6) In "Step 2: Check download" you can change which chapters you want to download. If you want the whole book then don't change any of the numbers. Next to the "Name" there is a field where you can change what Title this book will have on your computer. I also just leave the default here.

7) Click "Save As" and change which folder you would like this file saved in. Don't worry about the "Save as Type" field and leave it as whatever it shows up as. Then, click continue.



8) In "Step 3: Configuration" choose between having chapters or having one long book. I usually like to have the book broken up into chapters.

9) Next box choose "Save as Mobipocket ebook."

Your screen should now look like this


10) Press Download and wait until you see a black screen zooming by with lots of text. When that finishes then you are done.

Your story is now a mobi file stored in whatever folder you put for "Save As."

part 2

If you have a Blackberry or Palm just go to Mobipocket eReader and follow their instructions.

If you have an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad then I'll walk you through.

You need to find a way to open this mobi file and then you can read it on your PC. You use Stanza desktop to achieve that. When you have opened a book on Stanza desktop then you can share it with any ipod touch or iphone that is sharing the same wireless network.

1) Download Stanza desktop for your Microsoft Windows PC here and install.

2) Open Stanza desktop and go to File, pull down the menu to Open File. Go to the folder where you have stored the mobi file and select the file itself. Remember choose the file that has the .mobi extension.




3) It should take less than 20 seconds to load and you should be able to see the story now in Stanza Desktop. You can minimize Stanza desktop now but don't close it.

Not always tall and skinny; can change to full screen

transferring from PC desktop to ipod touch, iPhone, iPad - the tricky part


4) Now you need to transfer it to your ipod touch or iphone. You do this through the wireless network.

5) On your iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad download the free Stanza app.

6) Now on your PC on Stanza Desktop go to the Tools on the pull down menu and go to Enable Sharing. Make sure that there is now a checkmark next to Enable Sharing. This allows Stanza on your iphone or ipod to get any story that is open on your Stanza desktop.



Now Stanza says there are many ways of sharing your books with your mobile - ways listed here.

7) This is the step that gave me the most trouble - sharing your books from the desktop to the ipod/iphone. For this part at first I needed to turn off the firewall on my PC for a very short time. I can't let my husband find out since he is a network security specialist by trade. Please don't email me that we shouldn't turn off our firewalls - I know already...

*********long technical part***********
If you have trouble here see this Troubleshooting FAQ from Stanza.

They will suggest that if you have a firewall enabled (you can find it in the Control Panel under Windows security) make sure that it allows traffic over TCP port 9652. You do this by going to Exceptions and then "Add Port" and typing in name "Stanza" and Port "9562" and tick off the TCP box. They will also ask you to check that the program Bonjour is also ticked off (see Stanza support).




The thing that I finally fixed to get it to work with the firewall enabled was that I made it so JAVA(TM) PLATFORM SE BINARY was allowed to access the internet (it asked if I wanted to keep it blocked and I said no). I actually couldn't find a way to get that step but the computer prompted me.

If you get frustrated remember that in the end I ended up turning OFF my firewall for a few minutes. Just remember to turn it back on after you transfer your fanfic to your ipod/iphone.

*********************************************

8) On your ipod/iphone click on your Stanza app. You should see this screen.


9) Still on the iphone click on the bottom middle "Get Books"

Click bottom left - Get Books
and then go to Shared at the top.

Click Share at the Top and you should see your
computer listed below.

You should see your computer listed there under "Computers Sharing Books" so click on your PC name.

Surprised my netbook is named Isabella? How many of yours are too?

10) It should say "Loading" and eventually your story should show up.


11) Click on the green arrow to the right of the title and it will download the file into the Stanza app and put it in your library. When it is downloaded the green arrow changes to a grey circle.

12) Once the gray circle appears, click on the story and voila!


You should be able to flip pages and also be able to touch the screen once to get here

Bottom left Book Icon leads you
to Table of Contents

and then if you click on the lower left Book Icon it should take you to this Table of Contents.



what to do about updates?

Every time there is an update you have two choices

1) This way keeps the whole thing together all the time but still with chapter markings. Before you add an update, delete the book off your ipod Stanza. Then go through all my instructions from the top again starting with copying and pasting the URL into fanfic downloader. You will have the whole book every time all as one file.

2) The second way keeps the already existing partial and new updates will appear each as a separate book from the original eg. not adding to the original partial book file. Do the exact same thing as above but in the fanfic downloader step 2 input only Chapter Number "X" for the updated chapter and also change your Save As file to a different filename otherwise you will get confused eg. Master of the Universe 2. Finish the process as above to get it on your ipod.

I am not a techie by any means so I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer at twimobile(at)gmail(dot)com

Of course, this ended up being one of many technical posts but as long as someone finds it useful...

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Twi-Mobile Badges/Buttons


Aren't you proud of yourself for having a mobile version of your blog? It's a pretty big deal considering that you usually only think of big sites like Amazon and ebay as having separate mobile sites.

Grab your badge below and put it on your sidebar.

Please link your badge to the Twi-Mobile Welcome page at http://www.twi-mobile.blogspot.com/

Then followers can bookmark the mobile Twi-Mobile page at http://twimobile.prohost.mobi/

If you need help with setting up the image and link in the sidebar let me know and I'll send you the code to put in your image widget.

I made a few different badges to match the general black/white/red Blogger theme that seems to be ubiquitous in Twitardia. It takes me 5 minutes so if you need a custom colour don't hesitate to ask.

These are new buttons from MissAmyJoon

Aren't they pretty?

You can either just copy and paste image into sidebar with a link to http://www.twi-mobile.blogspot.com/ and let Blogger adjust the width automatically.

OR

Copy the code below the badge you want into your sidebar gadget HTML/Javascript - they're set for about 150px wide so change code as you need.













PNG By DreamySim1

DreamySim1's PNG version

White

100X35

150px wide
170px wide
Original

White with black border

150px wide

170px wide
Original


Black

100X35
150px wide

170px wide
Original

Black with white border

150px wide
170px wide
Original

Brown

100X35
150px wide

170px wide
Original

Brown with black border


Any questions? Want a custom colour? Ask me at twimobile(at)gmail(dot)com

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

iPhone Wallpapers Archive (updated July 15)

This is the collection of Twilight wallpapers for the iPhone I've amassed. This is by no means an exhaustive list so if you have some favourites you'd like to tell me about send me an email at twicupcake(at)gmail.com to let me know.

I'll be adding to this list daily so Subscribe or Follow Me to get updates sent to you.

For a tutorial on How To Put Wallpapers on Your iPhone or iPod touch click here.

Updated July 15

The talented MissAmyJoon has posted more iPhone wallpapers on her tumblr blog.


My Favourites
(Click them to go to her blog for download) 








Updated July 9
made by DreamySim1
.
As always click on the images to be taken to her links for download.
Enjoy!

Click here to see the whole set
iRobs #9 May 31, 2010
My favourites





Next set

iRobs #10 June 2/2010

My favourites




iRobward Eclipse


Final set

iRobs #11 June 28/2010
My favourites




Updated May 31
made by me




Updated May 20

Official Bella Eclipse from Summit


Updated May 17th
by DreamySim1 on her tumblr (check out over 50 iRobs at the bottom)





Updated May 6
by me (TwilightCupcake)

Super basic.







Updated April 24th
by MissAmyJoon
at http://missamyjoon1.wordpress.com/

Check out her blog for beautiful desktop backgrounds and these iPhone wallpapers.











by Dreamysim1
at http://dreamysim1.wordpress.com/

Check out her deskRobs and iRobs (I absolutely love that she coined the term iRobs!)

To date Dreamysim1 has made almost 50 iRobs here are a few of my favourites from each of her collections:

ifaceRobs (Nov 2009)

Click to see the ifaceRob set
My favourites:




iRobs Set 2 (Dec 2009)

Click to see iRobs Set 2
My favourites




iRobs Xmas Set (Dec 2009)

Click to see iRobs Xmas Set
My favourites




iRobs Set 4 (Dec 2009)

Click to see iRobs Set 4
My favourites


Random Acts of Rob special

iRobs Set 5 (Dec 2009)

Click to see iRobs Set 5
My favourites

iCityRob has matching deskRob here



Click to see iRobs Remember Me Special
My favourites




iRobs Set 7 (Jan 2009)

Click to see iRobs Set 7
My favourites




Bel Ami iRobs (April 2009)

Click to see Bel Ami iRobs
My favourites



Okay, that should keep your iPhone pretty for a few days, don't you think?

from www.zedge.net

This site has so many backgrounds it will leave you reeling. I have posted the ones for other phones in the Mobile Wallpapers Archive. None of the wallpapers below are my creations - you can see the talented artists who made them when you click on the picture and go to their zedge page.

To download:
From your PC or Mac just click on the wallpaper you like and it will take you to the webpage for download.
If you are on your mobile you can directly download Zedge backgrounds to your phone by going to m.zedge.net/zcode and then entering the zCode that is listed for the item you like.  




Uploaded April 26 - Robsten (I've included the zCode to use at m.zedge.net/zcode from your mobile or you can click the picture to download to your PC or Mac):



zCode 14117513
zCode 12659565
zCode lovesaga

Let us know what you think and don't forget to leave our talented artists some love in the comments.