The email app Mailbox is probably the most exciting technology thing of the week, over half a million people are waiting in an imaginary line to use it.
Their demo video is really cool, and MG Siegler (in my opinion one of the smartest and least abrasive people writing about tech) has been calling it “game changing” for some time.
I have a number of hesitations about using the app, namely:
- It’s a free download and there’s no way to pay for it, so as is the company won’t always have incentive to act in the users’ interest
- It’s built on a third party platform (Gmail) that Mailbox has no control over
Those issues aside, I’m actually very excited for Mailbox. Email is one of the biggest problems in my life - Paul Graham said that an attempt to fix email would be “frighteningly ambitious” - and Mailbox is a fresh approach. The design I’ve seen so far is fantastic, and despite my tweets above I actually think they’re handing the rollout in a smart way; nothing gets people more excited than waiting for something.
The productivity types have been going gaga over waiting in this line (I’m in the top 30k myself). But a fairly huge question needs to be asked here: Why is it that there are all these efforts to reinvent e-mail — from Postbox on the Mac, to the now-abandoned Sparrow, to this recent effort with Mailbox — but none of them are supporting Microsoft Exchange users? Gmail is great and I’d use it for everything if I could, but the fact of the matter is, 53% of businesses use Exchange according to a recent study by a technology research firm, and let’s be honest — for most people, the need for this app is specifically in regards to e-mail at work, not personal Gmail accounts. While Google Apps for Business is out there, it doesn’t have nearly the foothold Exchange does, so, to put it simply, no matter how innovative these apps are, they only solve part of the problem if they ignore Exchange users.
But that said, Max’s joke is hilarious. — Ernie @ SFB
UPDATE: Since I posted this last night, Mailbox’s twitter account has publicly claimed that Exchange support is coming. We’ll see what happens, though.
See, now I have hope!
Pro tip: If a potential employer asks about your “passion” and says “Any color you can add to your application would be appreciated,” don’t do this. That mistake is so funny it overshadows even his Comic Sans use.
“Please explain your rationale for the rainbow.” New catchphrase.
Introducing Microsoft’s newest email service, a much cleaner and more organized service introduced under the Outlook banner. Unlike Microsoft’s other free email service, the long-panned Hotmail, Outlook will launch ad-free with heavy Skype and Twitter integration. The “Microsoft ID” will replace the “Windows Live ID”, and existing members’ information will migrate upon sign-up. Outlook.com is also open to new users, though the site appears to be down at this time. Will you guys switch over? (Image via Engadget) source
You might want to check your Timeline, and make sure that your listed email address(s) is the one you actually use. Without warning, or apparent reason outside of possibly trying to force Facebook e-mail adoption, the social networking giant altered many users’ profiles to display the Facebook e-mail address they’ve never used, which redirect to a user’s inbox and chat functionality. The company has not released any information on the change, and has yet to acknowledge what happened. Either way, now might be a good time to review the information you have posted, particularly if you run a business or want to ensure your privacy. source
…if I add the context that Googling ‘George Bush monkey’ gives you over 3 million hits, and most of them are jokes where President Bush’s face is transposed on a monkey, you see what’s really going on. Democrats and advocates of civil rights are using the media to further an agenda at the expense of a woman who was probably so non-racist that the photo in question didn’t set off her alarms…“Dilbert” creator Scott Adams • On the topic of Orange County Republican official Marilyn Davenport, who emailed a photo of an Obama “family portrait,” showing two grinning adult chimpanzees with a chimp-ish baby Barack. First of all — the Dilbert guy? What? Why!? But second of all, we agree wholeheartedly with the folks at Mediaite on this one. To compare Bush monkey/chimp jokes to ones directed at Obama is at best silly and at worst willfully evasive and/or ignorant. You don’t have to be a scholarly social critic to understand why a joke aimed at two different people could be construed as racist against one, and at worst stupid or unfunny against the other. To deny this seems like digging your head in the sand about what are and aren’t racial stereotypes in our society. Wanting to excise racism doesn’t necessitate pretending not to recognize it. source (via • follow)
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