Dave Caolo

Squarespace is a web-based publishing tool, often used by bloggers. It’s very slick and unlike others like Typepad and hosted WordPress. Today they revealed plans for an iPhone app, which I’m very eager to see. Good luck to them.

Merlin Mann:

“When your sole metric is the number of times that pages on your site are loaded … it becomes unbelievably tempting to start doing things that you know are total bullshit.”

Agreed. Write because you want to make something awesome. Do it for the nickles that an AdSense ad generates, and you end up with the above.

From Nick Cernis at Put Things Off

“I’d like to see online publishers building businesses with their content — not on the back of it. I have a lot of respect for any online publisher who can make a living using the regular models, but I can’t help wonder: Why not just sell some of the content that people are already coming to your site to read or download?”

A slippery slope, as people are largely unwilling to pay for something they’re used to getting for free, even if it’s a great product. Satellite radio, for example. Read the whole article, or my interview with Nick from last year.

Earlier this week I reviewed the forthcoming Gas Cubby 2.0 for iPhone and iPod touch. This post is a supplement to that one.

While using Gas Cubby, I realized how an application’s features and benefits affect its longevity. Specifically, the features attract your attention, while the benefits grab you for good.

As I said at TUAW, Gas Cubby makes it easy and even fun for me to record my automotive expenses. And that’s crucial, because if something’s fun to do, I’ll be more likely to repeat it. The best part of this app is the charts. Perhaps is my years of training in ABA, but I love analyzing data via charts.

Those are the features.

The benefit is peace of mind, and that’s why Gas Cubby is a keeper. It’s important that I record this data, and other methods were failing me. I’d be stressed that I forgot to write down some service, fill-up for other travel expense. That would bother me and potentialy make tax time a hassle. Gas Cubby eliminated that worry.

No, it doesn’t fart, illuminate a dark room or use the iPhone’s unique features (like the accelerometer) in a “because we can” manner. Those are features. That’s the real reason I love this app is the benefit: It allows me to know that I’m doing what needs to be done, and that’s worth a lot more than $9.99 to me.

The best part of Birdhouse is that most people don’t know it’s a joke.

I love Gas Cubby from App Cubby (it’s among the top apps on my iPhone), and was lucky enough to spend last week with a preview of version 2.0, which I reviewed for TUAW. Check it out.

For more on Gas Cubby, check out my supplemental post.

As usual, Poolga releases some awesome iPhone wallpaper. The Speak And Spell rocks.

Defeat the ultra-annoying Diggbar with

• Expression Engine
• WordPress
• Ruby on Rails
• Django
• Greasemonkey

[Via Daring Fireball]

Weirdsmobile, on the return of CompUSA

“I, for one, am delighted that CompUSA is back from the dead. CompUSA was like a sponge that soaked up all the lazy, incompetent, clueless employees in its vicinity. When they folded, all of those employees were released into the wild, set free to get jobs at other stores and confuse, irritate, and exasperate customers all over town. I can only hope that the newly resurrected CompUSA will now reabsorb some of those doofuses.”

Amen.

The once mighty Star Wars galaxy has become a parody of itself, largely in part to shamelss, incessant merchandising. I can’t respect a franchise that’s so obviously used as a cash grab.

The folks at Spyglass must have the same goal for Star Trek movie as their marketing eruption gets underway. I’m sure I’ll be completely turned off by May.