I have received a couple emails from my readers asking me what plugin I use to generate my archives page. Well, truth be told, my archives page is not a plugin. I hard coded that page using Wordpress’ built in template tags. Since there is a lot of interest in this page, I decided to post a walk through of how you can recreate my archives page on your own blog.

All of the code below is show via images for posting reasons. Click the images to view the high res versions of the code. If you would like to cut and paste code, find the link the the text file containing the full code in step 10. I would advise against cutting and pasting because this code is specific to my custom templete and will not display correctly on your blog. It is better to understand everything below so you can customize it to your site.

1. The first step to creating your archives page is to understand how the Wordpress template system works. I would recommend your read up on the Wordpress documentation before you proceed. http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Themes
2. What you want to do now, is locate your template directory which is normally at: http://www.yoursite.com/wp-content/themes/yourtheme
3. We now need to create a new file called archives.php and upload it to this directory. This file should be blank, but have the name and extension of archives.php.
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As you all already know, I am loving my new iPhone. While the phone itself is awesome, the true enjoyment of the phone comes from the third party apps. Below I am going to walk you through the useful apps I have choose to follow me everywhere I go. This list is only the useful apps; I am going to review games in Part 3 of my iPhone coverage.

If you think I am missing some great apps, please let me know so I can check them out.

WeatherBug

The default weather app on the iPhone SUCKS! It is missing a lot of information that one might want when looking for a weather report. WeatherBug gives you all the normal stuff like current temp, heat index, humidity, and a few day out forecast, but what I really find useful is that WeatherBug allows you to view radar maps that use the Multi-Touch pitch zoom functionality.

While I have had some issues with the radar maps not loading completely, it has not really bugged me. WeatherBug also allows you to view weather webcams around your area. Also, you can track multiple locations very easily.

iTunes Download Link: WeatherBug

Twitteriffic

As most of you know, I am a twitter fanatic. I love posting tweets when I am away from my computer. I have been doing this for sometime via text message, but now I can easily post tweets without using up my text messages.

Twitteriffic has some nice extras too. You can post photo tweets directly from Twitteriffic as it is integrated with the Twitpic.com service. Twitteriffic also uses the built in iPhone GPS to update your profile on Twitter with your exact location. I find this to be a little to intrusive on my privacy. I don’t want people knowing exactly where I am all the time so I don’t use this function.

There are 2 versions of this app, a free version and a pay, I use the free because well, it is free. The only real difference is that with the free version, you see an ad appear in your Twitteriffic home screen. This does not bug, because the ads are tastefully done, and placed in non annoying locations.

Additional Note: Twitteriffic is very complex and might be overwhelming at first, but read the hints and give yourself some time to figure out how it all works then you will love it!

Associated with: http://www.Twitter.com/
iTunes Download Link: Twitteriffic