Today is the last day for Apple’s Get Productivity initiative to get people to be well, more productive. It has been going on for a week already, but I held on to my wallet till five minutes ago. Now, I’m typing on Desk, a desktop publishing client I’ve been considering for some time already.
I first came to know Desk through its sponsorship on Daring Fireball. We all know that with John Gruber’s massive following and sustainial influence, it’s bound to drive traffic and garner exposure which would otherwise be unattainable. But, how good is the actual result when it comes to the thing that matters most – purchases. John Saddington, creator of Dsek, revealed in his blog that opting to sponsor in DF is the correct decision afterall, though he blew a significant amount of marketing budget on it.
I’ve always wanted to try a dedicated client for publishing. I don’t consider myself as a regular writer. All I ever wanted to be is to improve my writing, share my experience and have fun. WordPress has improved over the years but plenty of features still feel redundant. They bugged me down and I never feel entirely at ease writing a long post in the dashboard. For longer articles (which I hardly write these days), I either write in iA Writer, Simplenote or if I’m in a hurry, I would just use the Barley plugin within the WordPress.
Before Desk comes along, I’ve heard good things about MarsEdit. Shawn Blanc and John Gruber swears by it, and they have been around for a long time so that explains something. But, I never really get round to even download the trial. It’s one of those things that’s nice to have, but not really essential.
That is until Desk was launched.
I’m a sucker for things that seemed to be made with the kind of single-mindedness, passion and devotion. Desk has a nicely put together introductory video that really pings my heart like no other publishing clients. Weaving storytelling elements with user-friendly platform that puts the focus on creation, rather than the product. It’s a little bit like Apple’s commercials in the way that the product should almost always be invisible, and it’s the connection between people that technology helps to bring together. I can relate to it. I root for indie developers that are active, passionate and hands-on. John Saddington, in his blog, has been pretty transparent in how Desk has been performing and in most of the posts, he shared actual figures and revealed how the expenses are coming along.
There’s still plenty of things to explore, and lots of more posts to come. With Desk looking so promising, I may be tempted just to open this app and type just a few words. These few words may turn into a few sentences and may eventually lead to a proper paragraph. Until then, let me sign off here.
(Written in Desk)