Mofuse Server Maintenance

Hi everyone,

Well, I woke up to all the mofuse blogs being offline today. And, it's not just our Twi-Mobile blogs. Everyones free mofuse blogs aren't running today.

I blame myself since I spent hours yesterdays tweeting and emailing with David, the CEO of Mofuse. He was helping me figure out a bug I found on Mofuse for free. In the end to help me solve the issue he gave me a whole whack of mofuse premium blogs eg. no ads and all in all prettier blogs.

But I am assuming today that they are busy fixing the bugs that I mentioned to him. My bad.

So apologies to all who were hoping to stay in bed surfing their mobile Twilight blogs all day and ended up getting "file cannot be found" messages.

The Mofuse service is free and under no obligation to give us any warning when this happens.

If you want to transfer your mobile site to a premium site where this is much less likely to happen let me know. Granted I will have to be your admin for it since I'm the one with the free accounts (thanks to David) so you'd have to be okay with that. Otherwise it's about 7 bucks a month.

Or you can switch from blogger to Wordpress and then you'd have your own built in mobile version. MissAmyJoon, DreamySim1, and Thinking of Rob all are WP blogs and hence unaffected by today's outtage.

By the way, more iPad wallpapers to come and also a tribute to Hockeyward as well.

Twilight Tracker Review - Is it worth paying for?

So being an iPhone lover means having a love of apps. This post has been a long time coming on Twi-Mobile.
Where to start? Have to start with the official stuff first right?

iPhone/iPod touch

Official Twilight App from Summit Entertainment

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Official mobile page at http://www.eclipsethemovie.com/

It's great that Eclipse has an official app but it's not free. Read on to see if it's worth the 99 cents.

By the way, to get the app you can't go to the Official Eclipse Movie mobile page from your iPhone. It's in Flash and iPhone doesn't support Flash. Funny huh? So you'll have to go to your App store and search for Twilight tracker instead.

You could download it on your desktop Mac or PC through the Official Eclipse Movie page to your iTunes and then sync it with your iPhone.


Here are some screenshots from my iPhone:

Homepage

So far still no Eclipse cover

News Page

Usually quite up to date

Photo gallery

Photos contain their promotional stills

You can even add the stills as wallpaper right away

Videos

No more Youtube searches

Characters

I love how they are too PC to have Edward or Bella at the top.

They include everyone - small biography of each included

Store

This is linked to the US store only and I couldn't get it to work from Canada. There were some goodies in here that I had forgotten about from iTunes.

Free podcast Rob Pattinson and Catherine Hardwicke

Download Rob's playlist from iTunes

Calendar

Info provided by Twilight Lexicon

Lastly there is a Shouts area that I have not created a profile to participate in. If you have and would like to share your experience let me know.

Verdict? Worth it. Even just to have the official trailers on their from Summit itself. I'm a sucker for anything that even has the word Twilight in it so the 99 cent pricetag didn't stop me for a second.

Next up, an official Summit podcast that I somehow missed.

DreamySim1 and Walk With Mrs. P Join Twi-Mobile

Happy Mother's Day weekend to everyone. A quick note - my email has been changed to twimobile(at)gmail.com from twicupcake(at)gmail.com

I'm pleased to announce two more additions to the Twi-Mobile network. One of them should be assumed since DreamySim1 already has her own section in the iPhone archives.

DreamySim1

 DreamySim1 has amazing wallpapers and since she has a Wordpress blog her site is mobile friendly already at http://dreamysim1.wordpress.com/

Walk with Mrs. P

We all know and love Mrs. P from Twibite. Walk with Mrs. P is technically not a Twilight blog but who cares? It is Mrs. P's rant blog and I love hearing that woman complain! I hope you'll follow her on your mobile site at http://walkwithmrsp.mofuse.mobi/

So go to their mobile sites and add their bookmarks to your homescreens. Of course they'll be added to the Twi-Mobile mobile site blogroll so you can just bookmark http://twimobile.mofuse.mobi/ and they'll be on the list:

See?

Twilight Blog iPhone App Icons - Collect Them All!

So every Twi-Mobile network blog has an icon you can add to your iPhone/iPod touch.

These are the ones we've got so far:

(I'm missing Thinking of Rob and Trixie & Tess because their iPhone icons aren't working and just shows a screencap - let me know when it's fixed ladies. For mofuse blogs remember it's in the iPhone settings and you need to add the URL of the image (must right click on the image wherever you have hosted it). Reminder of how to add an iPhone icon to a Wordpress or self hosted blog is here).

So even though you technically only need to bookmark Twi-Mobile at http://twimobile.mofuse.mobi/ to get one stop access to all these mobile blogs, if you want to have a couple pages of app icons dedicated to your Twilight blogs go ahead and put them on your iPhone or iPad.

How to add these to my iPhone homescreen?

To add an icon to your screen of a twilight blog just go to the mobile version of that blog and then click the + sign at the bottom of your iPhone and you should see this page

Select Add to Home Screen and you are done.

Note, Mrs. P at Twibite is helping me test if these work on her new iPad as well.

Eclipse Wallpapers for iPhone and iPad

More Wallpapers today - made by me.

Reminder to click on the image and hit the download button. Right click will only get you a thumbnail.

For a tutorial on how to set the downloaded images as wallpaper on your iPad click here.

for iPad

for iPhone

More Wallpapers to come for Blackberry and other mobile devices.

Please link back if you post these. Thanks.

One Link to All Twilight Mobile Blogs

Recently Dangrdafne tweeted that she didn't load (I'm assuming she was referring to bookmark) enough mobile blogs on her phone for her Disney trip to Florida. That is what Twi-Mobile is for and I just haven't been doing a good job telling you all.

Twi-Mobile mobile version

The Twi-Mobile mobile site has a link to every mobile blog that has joined. So, even though you could bookmark all the blogs you love onto your phone and get their awesome icons, if you only have space for one bookmark then go to http://twimobile.mofuse.mobi/ http://twimobile.mobify.me/ http://twimobile.prohost.mobi/ and bookmark it.

See the Twi-Mobile mobile version from the iPhone? If you scroll down you'll see links to the mobile versions of some of your favourite blogs here. It's in alphabetic order for easier navigation.

More iPad and iPhone wallpapers to come. Follow Me or Subscribe by Email to get updates sent to you.

A Web App Makes Mobile Fanfic Even Easier

So I have detailed post on How to Read Fanfic On Your Mobile about how to use the Fanfiction Downloader program on your PC or Mac to create a mobi file which can then be read on multiple ebook readers including the Stanza for iPhone.

Well, there is a faster way around all of this which I have been neglecting to tell you about.

You know how it's annoying that with the old way you had to make them on your desktop and then transfer the files to your phone? This new way can make them online and then your iPhone can go and get them from the web.

The same guy who wrote the Fanfiction Downloader software also Thank God Roman Kirillov created a web program where you can use Fanfiction Downloader online and it will store your converted story files online for you automatically IF you give them your Gmail account info.

That is the kicker.

My husband (Mr. TC as you know him from my regular blog Twilight, Travel, and Treats) is an ex-hacker turned good so to speak. He is super paranoid about network security and spends his whole work life trying to prevent people from getting hacked. The idea of me giving my Gmail account info to anybody is appalling. Thus until now I had ignored the whole web app and just continued doing it offline on my laptop.

However, I was convinced to give it a go after Alison, owner of Twifans, told me that this is her go-to method for fanfiction on her iPhone. It just felt wrong to not share and give you the option.

(Btw, Twifans is revamping their mobile site to make it even better so they are technically not as mobile friendly as before but I am leaving them up just because it makes me happy they are on the list.)

You can read more about the Fanfiction Downloader Web App and how it works from the creators post here. So, if you are okay with giving your Gmail account info to the Fanfiction Downloader Web App, go ahead and try it. I went ahead and did it and it was exceedingly easy and they store your fanfic for you. They say that your password is not given out by Gmail to anyone else but I don't know enough about it to tell you if that is trustable

If you have an iPhone you can get the stories sent straight to Stanza on the iPhone; no more having to put them on Stanza desktop and transfer them.

The Web App makes epub files which are quite universal but can't be read by certain ebook readers, like the Kindle without being converted. The desktop version gives you mobi files which are Kindle friendly. Both versions output text and html files.

If it's important for you to have a working Table of Contents where you can click on the chapters:

for iPhone - both the Web App or desktop Fanfiction Downloader will work. Stanza on iPhone seems to be able to read chapter markings on prc, mobi, and epub files.

for Desktop - I tried Kindle, Barnes & Noble ereader, Calibre, and Stanza desktop. None of them could give a workable Table of Contents. The table of contents could be seen on Stanza desktop but wasn't usable. The only winner? Mobipocket Reader was able to read prc and mobi files with clickable chapters. Note that it often crashed too. Sigh, nothing perfect so far.

Hope you find this helpful and thanks to Alison from Twifans for the push.

New Eclipse iPad Wallpapers

So, the new Eclipse official Wallpapers for Desktop came out today. Here are some basic ones. I'll be making some from the Eclipse promo shots too.

iPad

Important: To download click the image and then the download arrow  - right click will only get you a small thumbnail.


For a tutorial on how to get the downloaded images as your wallpaper see this article.

Follow Me or Subscribe by Email to automatically get iPad Wallpaper Updates!

Check out the rest of the iPad Wallpapers at the archive I just started here.

Twifans Joins Twi-Mobile!

Twifans

So Twifans, the biggest Twilight fan site, agreed last night to join the Twi-Mobile network. Last check they had 32,000 members! If you go to their regular site http://www.twifans.com/ your phone should be automatically detected and redirected to their mobile site. Of course there is a link back to the desktop site too.

Also, Alison at Twifans uses the fanfiction downloader app (made by the same guy as the fanfiction downloader software that I mention in my sidebar post) to read fanfic on her iPhone. It is amazing and I'll post about it shortly.

New Blog Additions (Updated May 2)

Super happy to have Thinking of Rob join the Twi-Mobile Network. They are the original place to find DreamySim1's gorgeous work and a fountain of info for all things Twilight. Given they are a Wordpress blog their site is mobile friendly already :)

iPad for the Twilight Fan - Coolest fanfic reader and more

So as an owner of an iPod touch and an iPhone I am excited that Apple has released the iPad. The biggest reason I don't have one is that they aren't available in Canada yet. I was also holding out for one which had 3G instead of just wi-fi capability - good news is that this is being rolled out April 30th (tee hee, can you tell I drafted this post last week?).

My hubby says it looks like a big iPod touch but it's so much more

Just like the iPhone you can use it vertically or horizontally see?

These are some accessories you can get to make it more useful - the keyboard with dock is great and I like the stand that makes it into a big digital photo frame.

And probably the most useful feature of all for me as a lover of lemony fanfic? You can read your fanfic on it offline in Stanza, just like on the iPhone and iPod touch.

iPad makes a great eReader for bringing your fanfic with you

Above is the Kindle bookshelf for those of you who prefer to buy your regular ebooks. For those who just want to read Twilight fanfic on their mobile then you can convert the stories to a file that you can upload to your bookshelf. Just see my post here on how to do that.

Note - Stanza for iPhone apparently looks pretty bad on iPad. Most people suggest using iBook and uploading epub fanfic files into itunes. You can generate the epub files with the Fanfic Downloader web app.

How a typical story looks in landscape mode. This is more like it.

Twilight wallpapers to pretty up your iPad.

So when I do get my iPad I expect to be able to pretty it up just like my iPhone and iPod touch. I went looking for iPad Twilight wallpapers and came up with only less than 20 of them. The places I found them were http://www.coolipadwallpaper.com/ and Digital Citizen.

What is so special about iPad wallpapers and why can't you just use some random desktop one?

I found this great post at Digital Citizen explaining why you'll have a problem using just regular desktop wallpapers.
Essentially, the iPad has a screen that is 1024 X 768 pixels. You can use it horizontally or vertically. Regular desktop wallpapers are meant for a horizontal screen. In some tablets PCs that can rotate, like the HP one that my husband uses, when you switch to a vertical position the wallpaper gets squished to tall and skinny eg. very distorted. The great thing is the iPad doesn't squish your wallpaper BUT it will crop it to be tall and skinny. So no distortion but you better hope that your wallpaper didn't have something important (like Rob's head) in the sides that are going to be cropped off.

How a regular desktop wallpaper looks on the iPad.
Not bad if you don't mind the new moon title being cut off.
It just looks a bit messy.

So what to do? If you don't care just go ahead and stick any old horizontal wallpaper in there. It will probably work and if you don't use it vertically often then it's fine. If you are type A like me and want your screen to look perfectly pretty Twilight style horizontally and vertically then you need an iPad specific wallpaper. The correct proportions are a square 1024 X 1024 pixels. That way regardless of which way you are holding your iPad nobody's head gets cut off.

Much better. Neat and clean.

So, following the guidelines of the post from Digital Citizen and testing it in this awesome iPad screen emulator I made a few wallpapers of my own. These are not the super gorgeous ones I know that my talented photo girls in the Twilight blogosphere can do but they'll do for now.

Almost all the original images that I used to make these wallpapers came from Lion & Lamb Love. They have an absolutely huge collection of high quality of Twilight related images.

Here's a few to get you started.

Important: Click on picture to download - right click will only get you a thumbnail.


For a tutorial on how to get these wallpapers onto your iPad or iPhone click here.

Let me know what you think or if you have questions.