TmoNews changes for 2009!

Alright so we’ve been getting requests for some kind of refreshing change to the blog and we’ve been trying to come up with something cool that would make the blog a lot easier on the eyes (aside from pictures of scantily clad models). 2009 rolls around and we thought to ourselves, “New year? Old blog? Doesn’t add up” so we moved quickly to get something in motion. Enter TmoNews Blog v2.0, the next “evolution” of our wonderful little blog about all things T-Mobile.  It’s pretty straightforward, but I feel I should let you know what’s going on now and what’s planned overall. More after the break…

First and foremost, we have the big gray “featured articles” box that will show up on the front page. In there will go, ummm, featured articles that we want to keep up there for awhile. Full articles can be pulled up by simply clicking on the name of the article that you see in there – pretty simple.

On your right you should see, right below the Search box, a Twitter Update box. Self explanatory, but an easy way to find our latest twitter feed when you’re visiting your favorite source for T-Mobile news (AM I RITE?). Below that is our Featured Video section which can be used to highlight videos from people like YOU (and us) such as unboxing videos and the like. Maybe even a random T-Mobile commercial if it’s one of those laugh out loud ones… or not… it’s just for fun, and we don’t get paid by T-Mobile so just throwin’ the idea out there.

Below the featured video section is a TAG CLOUD. Familiar to some, unfamiliar to others, we’re going to start using tags as links to various things in our articles such as phone models and upcoming services and current services and things like that. Instead of bouncing around to different categories and creating a seemingly endless number of them, just about everything will be tagged and placed in the tag cloud… and tags with more posts show bigger than the others (just check out the G1!). We’re eventually going to phase out the categories and shrink them down to simple things such as “Upcoming Phones”… so it should be easy to see the latest posts in the Upcoming Phones category, and if you know the device you want you can just as easily find it in the tag cloud.

Below all that is the massive list of all the categories we’ve created since we started this blog last April. That should be shortening in the future as we start the massive task of switching to tags, but we’re doing it all for you! So yeah, not forgetting the very bottom of the blog is a big gray box which houses most popular posts, most comments, and things like that. I know, it’s all the way down there but it’s a nice little addition… for you comment dwellers, that’s for you.

SO what’s in the future, you ask? Well, we have some planned upgrades to the comment system, maybe a little rearranging of small things here and there, some changes to the forums (hey you forum cats/dwellers, don’t glare at me like that… it won’t be that bad), some TmoNews services, etc. etc. We’re not gonna mention everything, but hey… look at this layout, the gears they are a’turning!

Ummm, and at the request of David, I have to actually take credit for my work so – the design related stuff is all me, Mystictrust (in case you hadn’t checked the post author), your friendly neighborhood “Techie”… or “Behind the scenes guy” or whatever.