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One HTML novice, a Mac and a website dream
I have a secret. I can't write HTML to save my life. For most people, that would be okay. But as a tech journalist, it's a bit embarrassing not to have fluency with the language that underlies the World Wide Web. My lack of HTML savvy is one reason why I loved Apple's old iWeb Mac web-composition app so much. Sure, the sites were a bit formulaic and clunky, but for someone who wanted more than a Facebook page, it was great. But when MobileMe's one-click hosting for iWeb went away, so did my site. [For readers who found themselves in the same hostless boat, Steve's tips on replacing the iWeb / MobileMe team are still valuable. –Ed.] But no longer. Though I still haven't learned HTML, I've decided I'm going to make the effort to create a new website based on the current crop of tools available on the Mac. Each month, I'll be using a different tool (be it an app, a Mac-only website builder or a hacked-together website from apps that aren't really meant to build websites). Along the way, I'll report on my journey, and I hope to get lots of feedback from those of you who were in a similar situation and tried different things. To start with, I'm going to try to design a version of my site using RealMac's capable RapidWeaver app and some pretty slick themes from designer Michael David. Next month, I'll report on how that went and show you my results; then I'll try to build the same site using different tools. In the end, I'll be able to know which Mac web tools are the best for folks like me, and which only say they are. You can follow all the posts in the series using our tag for My Mac Site. With all this in mind, I'd love to get your input on what you've found useful. Feel free to leave your comments below or tweet your advice to @michaelgrothaus.
Friday Favorite: Jimdo
Back in the "good old days," Apple had a nice little app called iWeb that was part of the iLife suite. It was designed to let anyone easily design and publish a website, and despite some failings, it did a pretty good job. iWeb has been ignored by Apple for some years now, and the demise of MobileMe meant that hosting of those sites disappeared unless you knew the secret of moving the site code to another host. Other easy website creators are around and I've probably tried all of them. Lately my attention was drawn to a service called Jimdo, mainly because they offer a free hosting option and also because they have a new free iOS app for creating and editing content. It's this service (free to $240/year) and the accompanying app that are my Friday Favorite this week. The Service I teach a basic website/blogging class at the nearby community college on a regular basis, so I like to get an idea of what tools are available to the general public for creating websites. I've demoed everything from Wordpress.com and Blogger to Squarespace and Barley, and now I think it's time to introduce my students to Jimdo as well. Anyone with a Mac, PC or even "just an iPad or iPhone" can get to work with Jimdo almost immediately. Like many of the "website builder" genre, Jimdo is a website on which you sign up for an account and are presented with a variety of templates that you can then customize. For many site builders, customization means that you can change the name of the site and perhaps choose a color scheme. Jimdo offers more than that, providing a number of layouts with each template, as well as the ability to customize text attributes and colors. But that's not all – if you have the ability and desire, you can even get in and create templates -- CSS and HTML editors are at your fingertips. How did I get interested in Jimdo? I am setting up a simple website with tips on how to set up and use a particular model of amateur radio handheld transceiver, and I didn't want any costs associated with it -- at least not yet. Jimdo had just released the iOS app, so I thought I'd give it a workout. Setting up the free account took no time at all, and then I went in and selected a template that wasn't too offensive (at least to my eyes). From that point, adding content is quite simple. You add elements to any page to contain content, and there are a wide variety of elements to choose from: headings, photos, text, text with embedded photos, columns, vertical spacing, tables, photo galleries, file download links, forms, horizontal lines, a guest book, a "blog display," video, Flickr and Google Maps embeds, HTML widgets, store items and catalogs, and a handful of social media plugins. Like iWeb, if you can't find a built-in tool to enhance your website, you can always use the HTML widgets to add features. There's a web commerce piece that's available to any user -- the total number of possible products in your virtual store is limited to five with PayPal payments only for the free accounts, but with the more expensive accounts, the stores can have unlimited products and take almost any form of payment. One very nice feature is that all of the site templates also include mobile equivalents, so your site is easy to view on any sort of smartphone. Each template has a variety of mobile templates to choose from, so it's easy to find one that expresses the look and feel of your site on a mobile device. So, if you have a Jimdo site set up and running, what can you do with the new iOS app? The App The Jimdo app is definitely 1.0 material, but it shows a tremendous amount of promise. My biggest complaint at this point is that it doesn't support all of the elements, so adding a blog entry -- as an example -- cannot be done from the app. Unfortunately, this can't be done from a mobile browser like Safari or Chrome for iOS, either. So what does the app actually let you do? At this time, the elements that are accessible with the tap of a plus sign are headings, text, photos, text with photos, and photo galleries. The latter element is perfect if you're setting up a photography or travel website, since adding photos from the iPhone/iPad photo library is a snap. For websites that are rather simple in layout and only contain text, headings, and images, the tools in the app are sufficient to let you design and maintain a website. It's just if you're planning on adding those other elements that you're going to have to resort to using your big boy computer and put the iPad or iPhone away. The Bottom Line There are a lot of website creation tools and sites out there. If you're interested in building anything from a free blog to an online commerce empire, Jimdo has something for you. The template designs are a good start, the ability to customize adds polish to your site, and the limited ability to make changes from anywhere with the iOS app is a bonus as well. I'm hopeful that future versions of the app will add all of the capabilities that are available from a desktop web browser.
Rage Software demos EasyWeb at Macworld: a modern replacement for iWeb
Apple's abandonment of iWeb has left a lot of would-be web admins unhappy. If you had a pre-Mac App Store copy of the app on DVD, you can still install it and even design sites, but some of the previous functionality and MobileMe iWeb publishing is gone. Rage Software is demoing EasyWeb at Macworld/iWorld 2013, an easy website design and publishing app that may be a worthy successor to iWeb. Megan Lavey-Heaton and I took a look at a pre-release version of the app, which provides design flexibility that wasn't available in iWeb. Users can start with predesigned themes (a number of designers are working on themes for EasyWeb) or a blank slate. While iWeb was stuck with one-level horizontal menus, EasyWeb users can choose from vertical or horizontal menus complete with drop-downs. There are a number of widgets built into the app for functionality like adding Google AdSense ads, Vimeo or YouTube movies, PayPal payments or social media (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Pinterest, etc...) links. At this time, there's no word on the cost of the app or when it will be available. The company will be offering a MobileMe-like hosting service at US$99 per year to enable one-click publishing of sites, but alternative/BYO hosting isn't going to be in version 1 of the product.
Sandvox adds iWeb migration assistant to scrape your iWeb/MobileMe site
The June 30 sunset date for MobileMe is only a few short weeks away. If your website is built with iWeb and hosted on MobileMe, there's no time like the present to get it shifted over to more permanent hosting. To better serve iWeb users looking to move their existing sites into Sandvox, Karelia has introduced a new migration assistant in its version 2.6 update. This tool allows you to enter the URL for an iWeb-based site, and then it scans for key text and image elements as well as links and page structure. It's a make-do solution that works around the need to parse and process iWeb's proprietary project files. Instead of reverse-engineering Apple's format, Sandvox scrapes your site to recover key website content. It then provides a rough outline that you can then customize inside the app. The transfer is not perfect. You will need to inspect and correct fine details like page names, on occasion. But by preserving your content and site structure, you won't have to copy and paste those years of blog posts, or re-create those photo albums that you worked so hard on. A company spokesperson explained to TUAW that while they couldn't offer a native import feature, they wanted to reach out to iWeb users and offer the simplest possible transfer solution -- imperfect as it is -- so users could quickly get up to speed with Sandvox sites. Of course, the iWeb application itself will still keep working past June 30; if your site isn't hosted on MobileMe, it's not at risk right now. The new assistant is due to go live in the Mac App Store today, and is a free upgrade for existing purchasers.
Dear Aunt TUAW: Help me move on from iWeb and MobileMe
Dear Aunt TUAW, With the demise of MobileMe and [the corresponding decreased functionality of] iWeb the question has come up with myself and friends as to what to use instead. Looking for something along the lines of iWeb but with a bit more flexibility. Something like Adobe DreamWeaver is way too complex and I'd like to avoid web based applications that restrict you to their hosting services. I'd like to be able to simply build a web site and upload to my own host provider. Your loving nephew, Richard Dear Richard, Auntie took a look around at possible replacements. She feels comfortable recommending Karelia Software's Sandvox 2 as a well-rounded iWeb replacement. It offers great easy-to-use features that impressed Auntie, whose iWeb use was admittedly scattershot at best. It's not cheap -- US$80 -- but after some intensive hands-on testing, Auntie feels it's perfect for people looking for a simple, flexible, and friendly solution with lots of handy webpage designs. In Sandvox you'll find easy ways to create photo albums, blog posts, web pages and more -- most of what you'll be missing. And the interface will feel familiar and comfortable to anyone who has used iWeb, with the app's "what you see is what you get" live editing. "We've been taking care of people graduating from iWeb for years," a Sandvox spokesperson told TUAW. "We think people making the move should jump over sooner rather than later now." Karelia publishes a handy migration guide, too. You will, however, have to find your own website hosting plan, but Sandvox makes that easy too. You can select a remote provider and use FTP/SFTP/WebDav with an easy built-in "Publish" button. Uncle Steve covered some hosting options for the post-iWeb era here. Other quick and easy website design options recommended by far-flung members of the the TUAW clan include RapidWeaver, Freeway Express AS and Flux. Uncle Steve also pointed out that if you want to have the control of hosting your own site but still want the convenience and sophistication of a full content management system, you can install your own WordPress setup... but that may be more geek aggravation than you signed up for. Hugs, Auntie T.
Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I post a website on Dropbox?
Dear Aunt TUAW, I read Uncle Steve's write-up about posting an iWeb site to a Dropbox folder. It's a great blog post and neat trick! But it's using the Public folder... Is there a way to use a non-public folder to do the same? Your loving nephew, Seb Dear Seb, Auntie is fond of Kissr.co, not just because of its name, of course, but because it makes setting up a website on Dropbox super easy. Just register for a name, and use Uncle Steve's save-from-iWeb secret techniques, and boom, you'll have a full website running from your Dropbox in no-time. If you want a custom domain, Kissr offers those for a small charge. If you're more interested in wikis than blogs, take a look at WikiPack. It's a markdown-powered Wiki service that also serves from Dropbox. (And Uncle Brett consulted on the project!) Auntie has tried both services (albeit, just poking around, no serious testing) and both seem to offer practical, portable, usable solutions. Hugs, Auntie T.
Adobe's Muse a middle ground between iWeb and Dreamweaver
Adobe sent out an email yesterday inviting users to test its Muse beta. The software brings the ease of InDesign to creating HTML and CSS websites without code and could be a boon to those looking for an iWeb replacement. While much of iWeb's strength was in its templates, Adobe is emphasizing the process of creating a site from scratch sans code knowledge. iWeb does allow you to do this, but it was always easier to start from a template, especially for beginners. Muse appears to be aimed at print designers looking to transition to web design without learning web code. UI Muse feels and acts more like InDesign than Dreamweaver, Adobe's professional web-authoring program, but is a good hybrid of the programs. The large menu bar clearly indicates the steps to publishing a website: a grid-style planning section, a design section that mimics InDesign, a preview section where you can play with your site without having to load it in a browser and a publishing section where it'll upload everything for you. At the moment, publishing a site requires an Adobe Business Catalyst account, but you can export the files and upload them to your own server using FTP. %Gallery-130749% Use When you create a new site, you can quickly plot out the pages using the planning section. Plus (+) buttons to the left and right of the page thumbnail will let you create individual pages or sub-pages. You can rename these pages by double-clicking on the name. Clicking the thumbnail itself will open that page in design view. Design view is similar to InDesign, Photoshop or Illustrator. A floating menu palette on the right gives you access to several features. Instead of a floating toolbar to the left, it's integrated with the menubar. Unlike InDesign and Photoshop, the menu palettes can't be anchored to the edge of the page. They can be collapsed into a single, thin bar showing icons, but selecting one item opens the entire palette. If designing in InDesign is your speciality, then you'll feel at home using Muse. I quickly created a basic layout, though there were some InDesign-specific features I missed such as giving a text box more than one column and the align palette. There also is no line tool, which I hope is rectified very quickly. However, there are some nice extras for those getting used to web design. For example, when you select text from the dropdown box, Adobe identifies a web-safe font and which fonts will be exported as images. The color picker will let you key in RGB numbers and return the hexadecimal for that color. The eyedropper tool will run over any image and provides the hexadecimal and RGB values in the color picket. There are palettes for wrapping text around images and spacing. While Muse doesn't have any premade templates, it does come with basic widgets that allow you to add galleries, slideshows, menubars and a few more options. You'll also find web-specific palettes such as states, where you apply an attribute to elements like rollovers, action upon clicking a mouse, etc. Preview mode is nice. You can test links to external websites from within Muse, and you can also preview using external browsers. The publish section is useless unless you have an Adobe Business Catalyst account. I hope that Muse gains built-in FTP client like Dreamweaver has. Comparison with iWeb Muse is not quite iWeb, but it's not Dreamweaver or InDesign either. iWeb holds your hand every step of the way, from a plethora of templates to colorful widgets that tell you exactly what each element does. Dreamweaver is not for novices. Even though you can work in WYSIWYG mode, you still need a good knowledge of code to fully utilize it. While Muse hides the code, you still need a basic understanding of how a website functions in order to use it effectively. For example, if you want to click on an image and have it link to somewhere else, you need to fill out the hyperlink option when the box is selected. You must understand how anchors work, rollovers and so on. If you're comfortable with iWeb and want to explore with designing your own elements, then Muse is a good fit and is worth a try. Otherwise, there are several iWeb replacements to consider. Requirements Muse requires installing Adobe AIR, which can be a turnoff for some people. The program is mostly stable, and I did my testing on my 11-inch MacBook Air. While the fans kicked on, I've certainly heard them make more noise then they did while running Muse. The first time I used Muse was fine, but the second time it locked up upon launch and required a force quit. Once it successfully launches, it hasn't crashed. Muse requires an Intel Core Duo or faster processor, OS X 10.6 or higher, at least 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended) and Adobe AIR 2.7 or higher. It's worth giving the beta a shot as an iWeb replacement. You can see some screenshots in the gallery above. However, it is very much a beta product, and I expect a number of features to come out over the next few months as testers weigh in. Muse will be available in early 2012 via Adobe's subscription model only because of expected frequent updates. If you sign up for a year, it's US$15 a month. If you go month to month, it'll be $20.
Sandvox updated for Lion; Karelia wants to lure iWeb orphans
If the impending loss of MobileMe has you wondering how you will maintain and create websites, Sandvox is worth a look. It's more powerful than iWeb, but still easy enough for most beginners. We took a look at Sandvox in May, and now the folks at Karelia are offering a pretty painless path to switch. iWeb users can get 25% off the US $77.00 toll through the end of this month. Just use the coupon code 'iWeb Graduate' when you purchase. Karelia also offers clear advice on how to transfer from iWeb to Sandvox. Of course with MobileMe going away, you're going to need a new place to host that site, and there are a lot of good alternatives that Steve Sande wrote about last month. There's more good news from Sandvox today. An update just released (version 2.1) is Lion ready, has some speed increases, and a boatload of fixes and enhancements. You can get details on the latest version here. iWeb isn't dead of course, but with MobileMe going away next year, there's no telling how long the application will be around.
iLife updates add full-screen Lion support, change iPhoto UI elements to match Lion
Today's earlier iLife updates are a sign that Lion is set to drop any day now. Not only do the updates add full-screen support to the iLife apps under the latest Lion Developer Preview release, they also tweak some UI elements of iPhoto to match the upcoming UI Finder elements found in OS X 10.7. The image shows a side-by-side comparison of the source list of iPhoto '11 (version 9.1.4) and iPhoto '11 (version 9.1.5). Both are running under Mac OS X 10.6.8. Gone are the colorful icons designating Events, Photos, Faces, and Places. They've all been replaced with grayed-out counterparts that mimic the look of the Finder's source list in Lion. The source list in iWeb has retained its color icons, though that's no surprise as iWeb (and most likely iDVD) has no future as part of the iLife suite and their minor updates today were solely focused on 10.7 compatibility.
Apple confirms iCloud web apps, impending death of iWeb and iDisk
MobileMe's complete disappearance is still a good ways off, but it's safe to say that the transition to iCloud is well underway at Cupertino (and Maiden, North Carolina, for that matter). A brief FAQ has emerged today over at Apple's site, detailing answers to a few burning questions about the future of MobileMe. As stated before, all MobileMe users who had an account prior to June 6, 2011 will see their service extended through June 30, 2012 at no extra cost, but what's new here is the amount of functionality that'll also be available from a website. Starting at an undisclosed time "this fall," icloud.com will allow users to access Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Bookmarks, Find My iPhone and Back to my Mac, relieving fears that iCloud was severing ties with the browser altogether. Unfortunately, iWeb, Gallery and iDisk aren't making the cut, and while it seems that previously stored files will still be accessible, we wouldn't count on being able to add anything new a year from now. Hit the source for the rest of the nitty-gritty.
TUAW TV Live: More website design options than you can shake a stick at
Today's TUAW TV Live is designed to impart a lot of information in one hour, and to get my current obsession with iWeb replacements out of my head for good. In case you're wondering why I've been writing so much about iWeb lately, it's because I've written three editions of a book about the Apple website creation tool for Take Control Books. Naturally, I started getting a lot of questions from readers of both TUAW and my book about what they should do if iWeb and MobileMe hosting disappear from the face of the Earth. Between thinking of answers to these questions and having a wealth of information from a community college class that I teach, I figured it was a good time to create a treasure trove of web and video resources for reference in the future. I'll be demonstrating and discussing a variety of website design and hosting options today on the show, so if you have even a slight interest in the topic, be sure to join in or watch the recorded show later. Below, you'll find a Ustream livestream viewer and a chat tool. The chat tool allows you to participate by asking questions or making comments. If you're driving somewhere and would like to watch TUAW TV Live while you're stuck in traffic, please don't -- keep your eyes on the road! However, if someone else is doing the driving, you can watch the show on your iPhone and join the chat by downloading the free Ustream Viewing Application. If you're on an iPad, you should be able to use the Skyfire Browser to watch the stream, although you will not be able to participate in the chat. We'll start at about 5 PM ET, so if you're seeing a prerecorded show, be sure to refresh your browser until you see the live stream. For those of you who are not able to join us for the live edition, you'll be able to view it later this evening on our TUAW Video YouTube channel and as part of the new TUAW TV Live podcast viewable in iTunes or on any of your Apple devices.
TUAW TV Live at 5 PM EDT: Alternatives to iWeb demoed
A few days ago, I published a list of ways that iWeb users could host their content away from MobileMe or move to other alternatives. Today on TUAW TV Live, I'll be demonstrating some of those alternatives for the audience. Whether you're looking at RapidWeaver as a replacement for iWeb, want a WYSIWYG HTML editor to maintain an existing iWeb site, or are thinking about moving to a web-based content management system like WordPress, I'll cover it this afternoon. I've used a lot of these tools over the years, so I'll give you my take on each of the apps or services as well. As usual, I'll be starting the show at 5 PM EDT (2 PM PDT / 10 PM BST) sharp, and we'll take a few minutes to chat before the demos start. To join in on the chat and watch the live streaming video, drop by TUAW about five minutes before the start time to get your instructions on how to participate. If you're unable to join us for the show, remember that you can always subscribe to the video podcast and watch the show at your leisure in iTunes or any other favorite podcatching app. The past shows are also available on the TUAW YouTube channel.
Ten ways to replace iWeb and MobileMe hosting
Yesterday, we reported on a rumor that Apple's website creation software, iWeb, is about a year away from obsolescence, along with MobileMe's hosting of iWeb sites. An iWeb user allegedly sent Apple CEO Steve Jobs an email asking if he should start looking for another website builder and a new host, and Jobs provided one of his patented terse replies: "Yep." In my post about this, I mentioned some alternatives that TUAW readers might want to look at. Here I'm going to take a more detailed look at several easy website creation tools and hosting alternatives, so that you can start making your plans to move away from iWeb and MobileMe. I will not be covering professional web design tools in this post, as iWeb is designed for easy creation of sites. Instead, all of the suggestions I'll make here are aimed at the folks who just want to create a relatively good-looking website quickly, without a lot of training. iWeb hosting via FTP If you want to keep using iWeb for a while but would like to move your iWeb site away from MobileMe hosting, then get yourself a domain name, get a web host, and start publishing via FTP. iWeb 3 made it possible to publish your website on a traditional web host. You set up the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) settings in iWeb's site publishing settings, and pressing the Publish Site button takes care of uploading graphics, text, and any changed pages to the host. Just about every major and minor web hosting provider supports FTP. Note that some of the standard iWeb features, including password protection, blog and photo comments, blog search and the hit counter don't work when you use FTP for publishing. The great thing about this solution is that you can just change the host for your website, point iWeb to the new host, and publish your same old site to the new location. Not much is lost in translation, and you won't need to go through a lot of redesign work. Unfortunately, iWeb probably won't be supported in the future and may eventually stop working with future releases of Mac OS X. The other negative? You'll need to pay for web hosting from one of the many hosting providers. You can also use your own Mac as a web server (no matter how old), but that's the subject of another post... iWeb hosting on Dropbox If you have a lightly-used iWeb site and don't feel like spending money on web hosting, consider getting a free Dropbox account and hosting your iWeb site there. I wrote some instructions on how to use Dropbox as your iWeb host a while back, so check them out. Advantages? You can continue using iWeb for a while longer. Disadvantages? Dropbox isn't designed for large-traffic web hosting, and might shut you down if your site is wildly popular. Likewise, if you have a huge and complex iWeb site with a lot of photos, you might go over the free 2 GB free storage limit and have to start paying for web hosting. Facebook Do you just want to have a "site" where you can post pictures and videos, let your friends know what you're doing, and get comments on your content? Then you may just want to move over to Facebook. It's free, and most of your friends and relatives are probably already using it. Facebook is fine for the new material you create, but how do you move your old posts to the land of Zuckerberg? It's probably not going to work very well. I can envision some sort of long session involving copying and pasting text to Facebook, but with the constantly changing wall of content on Facebook, your old content is going to be wiped off the wall fairly soon. If you have a lot of your iPhoto pics on your iWeb site, then you're in luck. Just open up iPhoto, put all of those iPhoto pics into an album, and then use Share > Facebook to move the photos into a Facebook album. What if you're looking for a more personal and unique site? That's where my next suggestions come in. WordPress / WordPress.com When I want to put a website or blog together quickly, I use WordPress. This blogging tool (content management system) has been around for years, and it is wildly popular. Over 14% of the top 1 million websites were created in WordPress, and the most recent major release of WordPress had been downloaded over 32.5 million times by February of 2011. There's even a professional version, WordPress VIP, which our sister site TechCrunch uses as its underlying CMS. WordPress is not a Mac application; rather, it is an AMP (Apache / MySQL / PHP) application that runs on a server (or on your Mac). You log into a dashboard from your favorite web browser, add content, change the look and feel of the site with themes and plugins, and then publish your changes. There's no need, as in iWeb, to make changes locally and then wait for your modifications to be uploaded to a server. For beginning WordPress bloggers, I recommend a free WordPress.com account. It's a great way to learn how WordPress works, all your content can be migrated to another WordPress host at a later date if necessary, and the fairly new step-by-step tutorials are an incredible way to learn all about this powerful content management system. If you decide to head out on your own, most major web hosting providers have one-click installers for WordPress. In other words, you sign up for a hosting plan, then say that you want WordPress installed. A few minutes later, you get an email from your WordPress site saying that you need to log in and create an administrative account. Do that, and you're on your way to blogging superstardom. Among the hosting providers that provide one-click installations of WordPress are Bluehost, DreamHost, MediaTemple, and GoDaddy. Note that you're going to have to pay for a hosting plan, so maybe the $99 you'll be saving every year by not renewing MobileMe will pay for your web hosting. WordPress is remarkably powerful, and a vast developer community is constantly creating new plugins to add functionality to the tool and designing new themes to make pages that are unique and beautiful. If you can't find a theme to your liking, there's always Artisteer, an app that you can use to easily create your own custom theme. iWeb users who might have set up a small shop using something like Google Checkout or PayPal buttons can actually get a real web commerce site going with WordPress. There are several plugins now available for WordPress that integrate with shopping cart services like FoxyCart. Finally, WordPress is an excellent way to get familiar with most content management systems. For anyone who has aspirations to become a professional blogger, starting with WordPress can get you familiar with the tools and workflow that you'll need to move on up the ladder. Tumblr Want a very easy to use and free way to host a website? Tumblr's a good start. You can sign up for free in minutes and be posting immediately after that. There's a selection of Tumblr themes -- none of which I found to my liking -- that you can choose from, and all you need to do to post is have a web browser or use an iOS app like Tumblr (Free) or QuickTumblr ($2.99, for iPad). As you can see from the Tumblr dashboard screenshot above, once you've logged into your account you have a choice of what you can post. Each one of these buttons leads to a data entry page that you can use to post a specific type of content. On Tumblr, you can create some social engagement by choosing other tumblelogs to follow, or by liking/favoriting posts which you can quote or reblog on your own site. Tumblr's bookmarklet and email posting tools are pretty snazzy, and they make it easy to clip and share popular links or videos. You can call in posts from your cellphone, if you like blogging in audio format. We even have a TUAW Tumblr for material that might not be suitable for the main site. I personally don't like the vibe or feel of Tumblr, which is why I use the next tool for some personal posting. Posterous The only thing you need to start a Posterous blog is an email account. Why? Because you can actually do a lot of your posting by just sending emails to a special Posterous address. You can also use the web-based editor with Safari, Firefox, Chrome, or any other modern web browser to update your information. Posterous is completely free, and there's also a free iPhone app for posting on the run. I've been using Posterous on and off for three years for my personal blog, and I really like it. There are some great themes -- the current one I'm using uses a grid of fifteen photos to show the last fifteen posts, and it works very well on an iPad. Speaking of the iPad, I recently found out that I can use the handy Writing Kit app ($4.99) to write posts in Markdown and then email 'em to Posterous for publishing. It also has some of the same posting options as Tumblr, and it offers a Groups feature for collaboration & sharing among friends or family. [Since it's graduation season, don't miss the Posterous "instant collaborative photo album" trick, which leverages the geolocation features of the Posterous iPhone app to cluster pictures around an event. So slick. –Ed.] As far as I'm concerned, Posterous is the best for free hosting of personal websites. It's incredibly flexible, drop-dead simple to use (I mean, how hard is it to send an email?), it has links to and from the social networking world, offers great looking themes, supports your own private domain names, and never seems to have any downtime. However, for small business sites, which are one of the other main uses for iWeb and MobileMe hosting, it's really not appropriate. Squarespace Businesses looking for a way to make beautiful sites with associated hosting should take a peek at Squarespace. This is a combination of a typographically-friendly web-based design tool and hosting that produces some great-looking sites. As with MobileMe hosting, you can have Squarespace host your own domain, and the hosting prices are relatively low -- $144 to $432 per year depending on how popular your site is, how many editors you want, and how many big business features you need. As with WordPress, Squarespace is easily integrated with shopping cart services. And when you see small business sites like this or this, you can see how professional and compelling Squarespace websites can be. Drupal / Drupal Gardens WordPress probably powers more websites and blogs than any other content management system, but Drupal is another hugely popular tool. It's an open source system like WordPress, meaning that the software is written and supported by a community, and the base files are free for the copying. Drupal powers the websites for The Economist, Examiner.com, and even the White House, so you can see that it's a professional system. For those who are making the move from iWeb and MobileMe hosting, Drupal Gardens might be a good place to start. It's a hosted system similar to WordPress.com and offers a lot of the power of Drupal 7. It's free for low-bandwidth use, with paid subscriptions for more users, more traffic, and support. Drupal sites can be extremely idiosyncratic in style, and the content management system has built-in features like forums, polls, galleries, and more. The free account is a great way to get your feet wet in the ocean of Drupal, and you can then either move to a paid subscription or put a Drupal installation on another host and move your content. RapidWeaver I've talked a lot about web-based blogging tools here, but what about easy Mac-based website tools? RapidWeaver ($59.99) from Realmac Software is a favorite of a lot of Mac users. In many ways, RapidWeaver is similar to iWeb. You create a site using a template, add pages, drop in addons (like widgets in iWeb), and then publish your site. While you're working on your content, you can toggle between an editing mode and a view of the site as it will look when it's published -- that's helpful for making sure that there are no surprises when the publish button is pushed. If you use RapidWeaver, you'll need to have a web hosting provider. The app supports FTP publishing, so just about any web hosting provider will be able to accommodate your site. Realmac has a store for RapidWeaver themes, plug-ins, and another feature called Stacks. Themes define the look and feel of the site, plug-ins provide extended capabilities like forms or ecommerce, and stacks are another way of including features that are not built into the basic app. There's a free trial available from RealMac before you buy RapidWeaver from the Mac App Store or direct from the company. Sandvox Another venerable web creation app for Mac is Sandvox 2 ($77) from Karelia Software. For a website creation and publishing experience that is close to that of iWeb, but with a lot more features and flexibility, Sandvox is probably the way to go. Even the user interface for Sandvox looks a lot like iWeb. As with both iWeb and RapidWeaver, there are a variety of themes included, many of which come in more than one choice of color. Unlike with iWeb, you can edit the raw HTML of your website and even run it through the W3C Markup Validation Service from within the app. Sandvox includes a long list of objects (essentially the same as iWeb widgets or RapidWeaver plug-ins). Things like Amazon lists (for use with an Amazon Associates account), a built-in Facebook "Like" button, Flickr thumbnails, or a built-in Twitter feed are easy to drag right into a Sandvox page. Once again, you'll need to get web hosting from any of the many providers out there. Sandvox supports publishing not only through FTP and SFTP, but WebDAV as well. You can download the app for a free trial and see if Sandvox is for you. Conclusion These are just ten of the possible web creation and hosting solutions that iWeb users have available to them. If you're currently hosting an iWeb site on MobileMe, it's a perfect time to start thinking about what you'll do in the post-MobileMe world. Whether you choose to continue using iWeb for a while and just host your site elsewhere, or decide to go with another tool or a web-based content management system, there's no better time to begin planning your website redesign or move. Keep in mind, though, before you tear up every bit of your carefully crafted iWeb workflow: it is still June of 2011, and there will be a full year before the MobileMe servers go dark in June of 2012. It's likely that we'll be hearing something more from Apple with regard to iWeb site migration around the time of the iCloud launch later this year. After all, as Fortune points out, this isn't the first time that an Apple web publishing tool has been kicked to the curb -- .Mac HomePage got the boot in July of 2009. I did not include professional-level tools like Adobe Dreamweaver in this list, since we wanted to show tools that anyone who is well-versed in the use of iWeb could easily use. If you favor other easy-to-use web creation and publishing tools, let us know in the comments.
Rumor: Steve Jobs says iWeb and MobileMe hosting are going away
Those of us with a vested interest in iWeb have been perplexed by the lack of interest shown by Apple in the former iLife web design app. Couple this with the pending demise of MobileMe on June 30, 2012, and that confusion turns into concern. MacRumors featured a post a few hours ago about an iWeb/MobileMe fan who was so concerned about the lack of iWeb love coming from Apple that the user sent Steve Jobs an email. In the email the iWeb user asked, "Will I need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host my sites?" The alleged response from the CEO of Apple: "Yep." iWeb's discontinuation wouldn't be completely surprising. When iLife '11 debuted late last year, the lack of a new version of iWeb frustrated a number of users. When iCloud was announced last week, there was no indication that websites created with iWeb and hosted on MobileMe would have a migration path to the new world of Apple cloud computing. There are many free website alternatives to a MobileMe-hosted iWeb site, such as WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, and Posterous; paid options include Squarespace, Drupal Gardens and hundreds more. In addition, Facebook is an excellent alternative for both individuals or companies who just want to create a simple web presence to inform friends or customers of what's going on. If your needs are for a straightforward yet powerful WYSIWIG web authoring environment, both RapidWeaver and Sandvox deliver much of iWeb's power with more flexibility for non-MobileMe hosting. For those who still want to have their websites designed in iWeb and hosted somewhere other than on MobileMe, you might want to start looking for low-cost web hosting soon.
MobileMe: Some speculation about the transition to iCloud
I'll start this post off by stating the obvious -- there's a lot about how MobileMe services will transition to iCloud that we don't know yet. But I'm going to take a stab at some of the most pressing questions we've received from TUAW readers regarding the transition. As more facts come in, we'll update this post and/or let you know in a new article. First, let's talk about what's available in MobileMe as it stands today. The details are in that graphic above, which is taken directly from the web-based MobileMe service. There are web-based versions of Mail, Contacts (Address Book), and Calendar (iCal); there's Find My iPhone, which has already become a free service; there's iDisk, a "cloud-based storage" solution; and then there are things like Gallery and iWeb hosting. Speculation #1: Web-based versions of Mail, Contacts, and Calendar will be de-emphasized I'd speculate that the web-based versions of Mail, Contacts, and Calendar will get less attention going forward, and might even disappear on June 30, 2012. Seriously -- who needs them? If you have a Mac or three, you'll sync Mail, Address Book, and iCal through the free iCloud service. The same with your iOS devices, which will send Mail, Contacts, and Calendar changes to the iCloud, where they'll all be echoed to the rest of your digital world. For Windows users, you'll be using Outlook 2010 or 2007 to sync to the iCloud. The only scenario in which you might not be able to get to your "stuff" is when you're using a public computer of some sort at a hotel, on a cruise ship, or at a cybercafé in Spain. Of course, you don't want that to happen, so you'll have your iOS device with you. Hook up to Wi-Fi or use your 3G data service, and the problem is solved. That's why they call them mobile devices. [The counterargument would be that dropping web-based access to PIM and email from iCloud would be a pretty big competitive disadvantage for the service, compared to Google and Microsoft offerings. It's equally likely that the web components will simply flip over from MobileMe to iCloud without any new features or engineering effort -- since Apple is already doing a passable job on them. –Ed.] Speculation #2: iDisk disappears Apple's already stated that iCloud will back up your content -- music, photos, apps, and documents. But there's nothing out there about what will happen to your other stuff. I personally have about 15 GB of iDisk storage available to me on MobileMe, of which I've actually used about 3 GB. All of my important data is sitting out in my Dropbox, syncing between my Macs and iOS devices. I personally don't see the need for iDisk in this world of Dropbox, but there are others who may be using iDisk since they either don't know about Dropbox and similar services or don't want to migrate to them. I think iDisk is going to go extinct, but that Apple will provide iDisk users with a variety of third-party cloud storage solutions and warn them to migrate their data well in advance. There is a full year to prepare. Speculation #3: Gallery is toast Gallery was Apple's way of creating web-based photo albums of your photos for sharing with friends and relatives. Once again, I can't see a need for it in the post-MobileMe world. Apple has already provided an "out" to those who want to share their photos to the world -- iPhoto supports sharing pictures to both Flickr and Facebook. I don't know what Flickr's membership is these days, but Facebook has well over 600 million users, and a good number of them may be former or current MobileMe subscribers. Those two services are perfect for photo sharing, and I'd be willing to bet that the current number of photos hosted in Gallery is a tiny fraction of the number out on Facebook or Flickr. Another reason I think Gallery is going away is the tendency for people to use iOS devices as a sort of electronic photo album. I don't know how many times I've seen my wife show off photos of our trips to friends or complete strangers using either her iPhone or iPad. It's a lot easier than telling them to go out to some long-winded MobileMe URL to see a gallery of pictures. Speculation #4: So long, iWeb hosting As the author of several editions of a book on iWeb, I have a vested interest in the future of this Apple product. However, the future just doesn't look all that bright for iWeb. The software hasn't been updated recently, and there is a lot of rumbling out on the Apple Support Forums about what will happen when MobileMe disappears. My guess? Apple will once again tell MobileMe users that they need to find their own hosting. iWeb can publish websites to a number of hosts, so it's no big deal to republish on a new one. I even wrote a post almost two years ago about how to use free Dropbox space to host an iWeb site, so there's a solution. Finally, a significant portion of the people who set up iWeb sites initially were putting together personal sites. Many of those people have probably gone the easy route and are either letting friends know about their lives via Twitter and Facebook, or have set up sites with free services, like Blogger or WordPress.com. Nevertheless, judging by the frustration and concern on Apple's support boards, this may be one of the trickiest transitions to manage. Conclusion Before some of our readers who are adverse to change go all ballistic on me in the comments, remember what I said at the beginning -- we don't really know what's going to happen to some of these services between now and the demise of MobileMe on June 30, 2012. All of this is speculation about what will happen, based on my personal perspective. If you have an alternative idea, or you're a disgruntled MobileMe employee who wants to spill the beans, please let us know about it in the comments or send us a tip via the "tip us" button at the top of the page.
Three reasons iWeb may be doomed
I like iWeb. Apple's website creation tool is easy to use, creates great looking sites, and has been installed on just about every new Mac since 2006. In fact, I've written about iWeb for Take Control Books, and I often recommend iWeb to Mac users who are seeking a powerful website tool but don't want to face a tough learning curve. However, I have a nagging feeling that we may have seen the last of iWeb. The app wasn't updated as part of the iLife '11 release, and Apple remains mum on the future of iWeb. I'll be the first to say that I hope I'm wrong, but there are three factors that probably point to the demise of iWeb. 1) Facebook: When iWeb first appeared as part of iLife '06, Facebook had yet to become a phenomenon (the service as we know it officially opened on September 26, 2006). Part of the initial attraction of iWeb was the ability for Mac users to easily create web pages for sharing photos, videos and personal experiences. You'd launch the application on your Mac, pull photos from your iPhoto library, type up a little story and update your site, which was usually hosted on MobileMe. Apple later added Facebook integration to iWeb, so anything you published on your iWeb site also could update your Facebook page.
TUAW readers get 30% off "Take Control of iWeb '09"
TUAW's very own superstar Steve Sande has released a new ebook version of "Take Control of iWeb '09," and it's updated to reflect the fact that iWeb is practically the same in both iLife '09 and the newer iLife '11. No matter which iLife you're using, Steve's got some excellent tips in here for you. From using Dropbox to share and publish low-cost iWeb sites, to embedding Google Calendars and Keynote presentations, and even setting up iWeb sites for mobile iOS devices, Steve has you covered on all the various functions of iWeb 3 for either iLife '09 or iLife '11. Since you're reading TUAW, you can consider yourself lucky. By following this link, you can get Steve's ebook for 30% off, making the usually US$15 ebook just $10.50. Congrats to our own Mr. "TUAW TV Live" on another successful publication, and if you want to grab that special TUAW-only discount, head through the link above.
iWeb 3.0.3 update released
Software Update calls your name... the latest version of Apple's iWeb site editor (part of the iLife suite) is available now. The iWeb patch contains "bug fixes and improvements," including: resolving an issue when using the iSight Movie widget on certain Macs; an issue publishing iWeb sites using FTP; and "improves compatibility with Mac OS X" (an odd thing to say, as it presupposes that iWeb might be compatible with some other operating system that we didn't know about). The update is 186 MB. Removed the Aperture update detail, as it was indeed an old update -- sorry for the false alarm.
Buy individual iWork, iLife apps from the Mac App Store
Apple's iWork suite is a nice collection, but some users don't need all three apps. Fortunately, the Mac App Store lets you pick and choose between iWork and iLife apps. Starting today, you can buy and install only the apps you want for US$20 each. For iWork customers, that means Pages, Numbers and Keynote. Buy all three and spend $60. That's a savings of $40. Now some of you are probably saying "$40? But iWork '09 only cost $80? So if I can get them for $60, that's a savings of $20." Ah, but you are forgetting that the app you are buying can be used on all of your computers, meaning that you are really getting what used to be called the "Family Pack" which sold for $100. The Mac App Store also recognizes if you already own them, so you won't have to buy them again. Similarly, the iLife apps can be purchased individually. You'll find iPhoto or iMovie or GarageBand on sale for $15 each. That's a significant savings over the $80 for iLife Family Pack. There's one big caveat, however: you will not find iWeb or iDVD in the Mac App Store. Maybe they're coming later, but it seems more likely that Apple signified that they were cutting them lose when they were included in the boxed set of iLife but never mentioned during the announcement. Where is iWork '11? Several of us were surprised to see that iWork '11 is not on the Mac App Store. iWork '09 is, obviously, a few years old now and the Mac community has been anticipating a new release. the Mac App Store just seemed like it would be a good opportunity. Not yet, but hopefully soon. Just a reminder: there has never been Mac upgrade pricing on iWork or iLife, so if you buy Pages from iWork '09 today for $20 and iWork '11 is introduced next week, expect to pay full price for that upgrade. Caveat emptor. UPDATE: If you already own these apps but the Mac App Store doesn't recognize it, make sure they are up to date (iWork just had an update last night). After updating apps, restart App Store app and it should recognize they are installed.
.Mac Homepage shutting down today
In April of 2009, Apple announced the pending discontinuation of its .Mac Homepage service. A formal date was set in October, and that date is today. Your sites won't be gone for good, however. To find them, open your iDisk and navigate to the Sites folder. There you'll find all of the HTML pages that made up your Homesite. Likewise, pictures and movies will be found in the Pictures and Movies folder. Note that publishing with iWeb will not be affected by this change. So long, Homepages! Thanks for all the fish.
