I have bought a new blogging app – again. Will I ever learn? Stay tuned!
The always awesome Shawn Blanc mentioned a new app called Desk on his blog, that was sponsoring his site this week. I was curious and went to check it out.
Now this looked intriguing.
I spent the last two days trying to learn more about the software. First, I found the really beautifully designed website ( I mean, seriously – it’s all parallax scrolling and transparence, and gorgeous imagery – really beautiful!) and watched the obligatory “Cute Girl In A Coffeeshop™ using our software”-video, that literally all trendy, hip, upcoming, environmently conscious and biodegradable software has to have these days. (I mean, seriously – did you notice? “Cute Girl In A Coffeeshop™” videos are literally everywhere!)
The “Cute Girl In A Coffeeshop™ using our software”-video was very charming, and struck the right chords with me. I then had a look at the developers blog, who seemed like a really nice and genuine guy, who came across as really passionate about writing and design, and had put a lot of thought into his app.
I then checked out the app on the Mac Appstore, and it was £20.
Now, I am all for compensating software developers for their work, and if their software is worth its money, it deserves a justified price. But £20 are not an impulse buy. Handing out £20 – especially after I just had bought another blogging app just a few weeks ago – was not something I was going to do without making sure I had a good idea what I was buying.
This is where things became a bit difficult – there was no trial version, and apart from the aforementioned “Cute Girl In A Coffeeshop™ using our software”-video, there was no actual way to see, what the app looks like in actual usage. The screenshots on the Mac Appstore where just showing some shiny, trendy corners and edges, but I did not feel they gave me any actual useful information about how to use the app. Instead, we had even a picture of the app developer, wishing me a lot of enjoyment with his app (and I did not really mind – as I said, the guy seemed very genuine and likeable, and it was a nice, personal touch.)
So, off to Google we went.
The app just got published a week ago, so of course there was not much information available – but I got a lot of hits for desks. Finally, I did find a report by an alpha tester on one site – and that was exactly what I had been looking for. He talked about his experience using the app, showed some actual screen shots, and more or less confirmed my initial impression, which I had got from reading the official website.
So I mulled things over for another day, although I already knew that I would get it, and then I bought the app when I returned from work this evening.
And this is my first blog post using Desk.
There was a bit of a “I did a huge mistake”-moment, when the app would not connect with my website and was asking for some obscure xmlhpc.php-thingie – I had to go the (very clear) help file, which explained that I did not need to know xmlhpcwhatever, and it took another moment of senility, until I realised that in all the excitement, I had put in the wrong site.
And now I am finding my way around. I think, I really like the design: it’s essentially just a blank screen, waiting to be filled with words. There are a few bumps and a few features I am missing (a sharesheet extension or safari extension would be neat, so I can easily add content while browsing), but writing itself is really pleasurable.
Will this make me blog more? It’s hard to say. As a wise man once said:
Sometimes you need to change the tool, sometimes you need to change the tool who uses it.
(I came up with this myself. I did a pun. I was punny. Whee!)
Anyway, how can you not like a software, that does this:
