The rumours over the last couple of days have proven true it would seem, as Automattic has just released a WordPress blogging application for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

According to the iTunes store:

“Robust but simple to use, the WordPress for iPhone Open Source application allows you to create and edit content on your WordPress blog(s) with support for offline use.”

ReadWriteWeb notes (“WordPress Comes To iPhone“):

The new WordPress App for iPhone supports both WordPress.com installations as well as self-hosted Wordpress.org blogs that are version 2.5.1 and above.

The app includes the following features:

- Embedded Safari previews of posts
- Full support for tags & categories
- Photo support for both camera phone pics and library photos
- Support for multiple blogs
- Ability to password protect a post, save as draft, or mark for later review
- Auto-recovery feature recovers posts interrupted by phone calls

The application can be downloaded from the iTunes store here.

The following video overview has also been made available:

I’ve only just downloaded the free application and have yet to try it out. Personally speaking I find the tiny keys on my iPod Touch quite tedious to use and would much prefer to use my laptop for mobile blogging than hunt-and-peck on an iPhone/iPod Touch. That said, hopefully Automattic will have thought of that and made the keyboard nice and chunky for fat-fingered people like me.

Regardless, this news would seem to offer some significant new abilities in the realm of mobile blogging.

Update: I’ve had more of a play with the application since my initial post and unfortunately it would seem that the keypad hasn’t been changed from the native iPhone/iPod Touch version. This is a shame, since applications such as Twitteriffic have shown that it is possible to enlarge the keypad, thereby making it easier to use.

The ability to include images is a nice touch; as is the option to preview before posting. You also seem to be able to sync a nominated number of your most recent posts for offline viewing. However personally speaking I can’t see myself using this with any regularity – especially for any posts that require elaboration. Using the current keypad configuration will just take too long to prepare anything of expository value.

People live-blogging an event or launch of some sort will almost certainly have an advantage with this application; however for the rest of us we’re arguably just as well off using a text editor and waiting until we can use a standard computer.