PhoneBlogz News

Updated dedicated number coverage

2008-07-31 20:30:08

It's been a while since we updated the news section, so we thought it's time we did! Below is a list of countries that you can buy a dedicated number for your own PhoneBlogz account. Also keep an eye out for an announcement coming in the next few weeks. It's gonna be huge!!

Argentina
Brazil
Canada
Chile
El Salvador
Mexico
Peru
United Stated
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
Bulgaria
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Romania
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Australia
Japan
New Zealand
Pakistan
Singapore
Panama
Puerto Rico

To purchase a number, login to your account and click Dedicated Numbers from the menu on the right.

New features for fall!

2007-10-14 11:04:13

It's been a while but we've added some new features here at PhoneBlogz:

Custom intro/outro messages

You can upload intro and outro MP3 files to PhoneBlogz. Each message that you or your callers leave will get wrapped in your custom audio before posting. This means you can brand the messages with your own audio identity. Call dropped options

Ever been frustrated when a call gets dropped and your message gets lost? Not any more! You can now choose what to do when this happens. You can either delete the message completely, store it for later approval or go ahead and post it anyway. In-place listening for Blogger

If you post messages to your Blogger account you'll now be able to hear them in-place with the Flash audio player. No more hassle having to download the MP3 file in full and listening to it offline. New menus

The menus were getting a bit cluttered on the PhoneBlogz site, so we categorised them under three main headings and provided some text to explain each sub-option better. Head over to the site to check it out!

Updated module for Drupal 5.1

2007-05-01 20:16:05

The folks at drupal.org have been working hard and have released the next major version to their flexible open source content management platform earlier this year. We've just finished work on a version 5.1 module for the new version of Drupal which is now available from the modules page: http://drupal.org/project/phoneblogz.

Blogger support updated

2007-04-28 17:35:44

Not so long ago, Blogger performed a major update of their site to bring some great new features to their users. PhoneBlogz is now working fully with Blogger so you can continue to leave PhoneBlogz posts on your Blogger pages.

Exciting new PhoneBlogz features

2006-11-11 07:44:14

We've just updated the PhoneBlogz site and included a host of fun new features:

Toll-free USA numbers from $8.50 per month
End-of-recording warnings
Drupal module updates:
- Multi-user support
- Organic Group compatibility
Call records for toll-free and dedicated numbers
Custom voice announcements
Updated help system

We hope you have as much fun using these as we have had in developing them. As always, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions.

Set your own MP3 tags

2006-10-09 17:16:05

We've just added the ability to set your own MP3 tags. You can change the artist, title, genre and album details which will be applied to every audio message you leave.

To personalize your PhoneBlogz messages, login to http://www.phoneblogz.com and click on the "Setup MP3 Tags" menu item.

Drupal Module now available

2006-10-02 17:16:05

Whilst we've supported the excellent Drupal CMS system via XML-RPC since we started, we thought it about time to write a native Drupal module for PhoneBlogz.

Using the audio module for Drupal, the PhoneBlogz module automatically posts your MP3 messages to your blog with little setup.

See it and try it on our demo site at http://drupal.phoneblogz.com. For more information head over to the module page at http://www.phoneblogz.com/api/drupal.php

WordPress plugin update - Audio Player supported

2006-08-02 18:56:50

The WordPress plugin is now officially stable so we've released it as version 1.0

The biggest update for this version is support for Martin Laine's Audio Player plugin. If you have this plugin installed, you can select to use it instead of the built-in PhoneBlogz Flash player. Audio Player is very customisable and also works around the known problem whereby PhoneBlogz posts get messed up if you try and edit them.

Grab hold of it here: http://www.phoneblogz.com/api/wordpress.php

WordPress MU now supported with accompanying account levels

2006-06-23 14:30:51

We've just released WordPress plugin version 0.7.1. This new version sports WordPress MU compatibility

WordPress MU is a multi-blog, multi-user version of the popular WordPress blogging software. The plugin allows the server administrator to setup a single PhoneBlogz account and assign a unique PIN number to each MU blog user. After the user has left their message the MP3 will be uploaded to that user's own blog. The user can also customize their message on a blog-by-blog basis.

The plugin and installation instructions are available from the WordPress plugin page.

To accompany this exciting functionality, we've created the SITE set of account levels to cater for those who need larger volumes of daily messages. These can be seen at the Account Levels help page. Each SITE account level includes an additional 5 user accounts to get you started.

As always, if you have any questions please get in touch!

New account levels available for longer messages

2006-05-07 10:41:15

We've just added the PLUS range of account levels for those who need to leave longer messages but only a small number a day. Check out the account upgrades page for more details:

http://www.phoneblogz.com/help/accountlevels.php

Gizmo Project now supported

2006-04-21 22:22:02

We now directly support posting to your blog via Gizmo! The Gizmo Project consists of free software you can install on Windows, Mac or Linux to make free calls to other Gizmo users. You can even purchase outgoing minutes and incoming numbers.

To leave a PhoneBlogz message via Gizmo, just dial PhoneBlogz from your Gizmo software. Remember, calling PhoneBlogz from Gizmo is completely free!!

Going Live!!!

2006-04-08 14:32:09

Over the last few months we've been working really hard getting PhoneBlogz ready for going live. From midnight EST Saturday 8th April, PhoneBlogz will be open for all to use. We have made some changes to the system which are outlined below:

Call-in numbers

We have acquired new US and UK numbers and added a number in Canada. Please use these new numbers instead of the older ones as they provide better quality and reliability.

Phone IVR changes

After leaving your message on one of the phone numbers you can now review and optionally re-record your message, as well as opting to post immmedaitely or save the message for review and posting at a later date.

Dedicated numbers

Of course, you can always buy your own number that is reserved exclusively for your use. You can even select whether the caller needs to enter the access code and pin code - this allows you to customise the number for your use.

Website changes

We've made a host of changes to the website including better and more comprehensive help pages, updated the My Blogz section to allow you to suspend, approve or delete posts and added the ability to test your Blog site to see if it's compatible with PhoneBlogz.

Account upgrades

Non-paying users will be allowed to record one message a day with a maximum of 20 seconds. We've finalized our account levels and prices so you can now upgrade your account to suit your requirements. You can also purchase user upgrade packs so you can have more than one user and PIN number per account. This allows you to have multiple people PhoneBlogging to your blog, each message coming up under their name.

Livejournal

The Livejournal options have been changed - you can now enter an FTP site location where MP3 messages are posted to and your Livejournal blog entry will link to this location. This removes the requirement for Livejournal audio messages to be stored on the PhoneBlogz servers.

WordPress plugin

The WordPress plugin has been updated. Once a message has been successfully published to your blog, it is flagged for deletion from the PhoneBlogz servers. Additionally, When you add a new user to WordPress, that user is also added to PhoneBlogz and an e-mail sent to the new user so they can blog immediately without you having to manually setup their account (this only works if you have purchased a user upgrade pack).

SPECIAL OFFER!

If you purchase an account level upgrade or user upgrade pack between midnight EST Saturday 8th midnight EST and Sunday 9th, you will receive 25% off the cost of the first two months payment, so sign up soon!!!

We hope you continue to enjoy using PhoneBlogz in the future. As always, if you have any questions, problems or suggestions then we'd be glad to hear them. Just contact us via the website or in the user forums.

Hope to hear you soon!

Matt
phoneblogz.com

We now support Typepad!

2006-02-28 18:40:17

We've just added support for Typepad, so all typepad.com accounts can now use PhoneBlogz.com to post MP3 messages to theior blog.

Just register at phoneblogz, enter your username and password on the posting page and select your blog. You're now setup to post to typepad blogs

More information about typepad can be found at http://www.typepad.com

PhoneBlogz forums now up and running!

2006-02-01 23:13:29

We've setup a set of forums for PhoneBlogz users to play with. Unfortunately you need to register again (we haven't got the username/password hooked up to the main site yet!) but head over and join in

You can get to the forums via the link on the PhoneBlogz site or at http://www.phonelobgz.com/forums

Serendipity plugin 0.3 released

2006-02-01 23:08:51

We've just released the first "stable" version of the Serendipity plugin. There have been a host of UI changes here and several bug fixes.

The plugin can be found here

More information on the Serendipity blogging system can be found at http://www.s9y.org

WordPress 2.0.1 release

2006-02-01 22:57:13

We don't usually announce releases of our supported software, but this is an exception because the developers have fixed a bug with the upload mechanism - so if you use the direct posting method of PhoneBlogz, WordPress 2.0.1 is for you!!

You can download the latest version here: http://wordpress.org/download/

WordPress plugin 0.5 available

2006-02-01 22:55:39

We've just release the new version of the WordPress plugin. This solves several issues with the notify URL as well as implementing the new Flash player movie and fixing a few bugs with posting.

Check it out here.

Serendipity now supported

2006-01-26 17:28:21

Over the last week we've been working with the author of Serendipity (http://www.s9y.org) to provide a plugin to support auto-posting of PhoneBlogz to a Serendipity-powered site, very similar to the way that the WordPress plugin works. We're excited to announce that the initial version of the plugin is now available, more information can be found via the links below:

http://www.phoneblogz.com/api/serendipity.php
http://blog.s9y.org/archives/106-Phoneblogz-support.html

You may have also noticed that the menu on the site has changed slightly. We've seperated the account information and posting methods into seperate pages for clarity, and this also allows us more scope for future changes... watch this space!

WordPress plugin 0.4 available

2006-01-21 14:14:14

The new WordPress plugin is available from here.

Changes include:

ability to change the subject, message body and category of a post
can now use a Flash movie to play the clip instead of having to download the MP3
MP3 files are downloaded and stored on the local server rather than the PhoneBlogz server
enclosure tag included for podcasting support

WordPress plugin 0.3 available

2006-01-14 14:02:14

Added ability to download and/or listen (via Flash movie) to your posts from the message list page.

The plugin now updates your phoneblogz.com account with the notify URL which makes installation and setup a bit easier

Get it here!

More BETA accounts available

2006-01-11 22:21:42

Due to demand we've enabled another 25 beta accounts for PhoneBlogz. Grab them now whilst they're hot!!

Wordpress plugin now available

2006-01-10 18:31:41

Due to many requests we've created a plugin for WordPress. Although we can post directly to a WordPress system, many users are concerned about security so we've created this plugin in response to that.

Without going into details, when you leave an audio message, PhoneBlogz simply calls a page on your system that in turn asks PhoneBlogz for any new posts. You can get the plugin here.

We're also going to start work on an identical plugin for Drupal to achieve the same task.

As always, we value your comments - so feel free to get in touch.

Mentioned at Auburn Media

2006-01-09 21:42:41

I'm surprised how the word is getting round about PhoneBlogz, especially as we're not officially running yet (we're still in Beta!) Click here to read the article on Auburn Media.

We now support WordPress

2005-12-28 23:08:55

We've just added support for WordPress, adding the ability to post MP3 files direct to your blog.

Livejournal now supported

2005-12-28 11:43:38

We've added support for Livejournal. The MP3 file is kept at PhoneBlogz because Livejournal doesn't support direct upload of files.

Quality improvements

2005-12-27 17:08:03

I've increased the quality of the MP3 files as they were way too low.; You should now be able to hear yourself properly!!!

The MP3 format is also compatible with Macromedia Flash - watch this space ;)

Demo site now running

2005-12-23 00:00:00

We now have a PhoneBlogz demonstration site up and running. It's a basic install of Drupal and you can post phoneBlogz to it simply by dialling a number. Head over to http://demo.phoneblogz.com to give it a go, for FREE!

We're going BETA!

2005-12-20 00:00:00

As of December 20th we've now gone Beta. Registration is limited to the first 25 people to keep server load down. If things go well then we'll be investing in better hardware and opening the system up to more users. Grab an account now and let me know how it goes here!