4 ms·

Finally the future of e-mail on iPad?

9 points by evahenson 14y ago

mfincham 14y ago
Please allow the user to disable sending / viewing HTML mail. This is the number one bug with Apple's built in iOS mail client, imo. It drives me nuts.
eps 14y ago
How is it different? Aside from "Intelligent tags", "Files" and "Collborate".
michael_miller 14y ago
Minor nit: it's a little annoying that the the site takes over horizontal panning. It effectively makes the swipe forward/backward gestures useless in Chrome. The information could have been presented in an equally effective manner with a simple vertical page layout.
redact207 14y ago
Can't comment on the app itself (don't have an iPad), but I liked your pitch of "first 10,000 to tweet get it for free". Clever idea.
- redact207 14y ago
  An aside: most headlines I read that are written as questions invariable end up answering in the negative in the content. So regardless of the solution I'd either not click the link or click it already in the wrong frame of mind.
- lukifer 14y ago
  If it's a native app rather than a web app, I'm curious how they would do such a thing. There's no way to get 10,000 evaluation codes.
  - rys 14y ago
    Probably a separate code to enter into the app to unlock it.
xijuan 14y ago
I am using Chrome on my Mac. The horizontal rolling is very very laggy. Usually, when I swipe right, I can go back to the previous webpage I was on. But I can't do that with this website.
huhtenberg 14y ago
When viewed in Mobile Safari, "Want hello?..." sits under the input box. Something to fix I guess.
thejosh 14y ago
site doesn't load
pioul 14y ago
It surely looks beautiful, but how is that different (feature-wise) from Gmail?
cageface 14y ago
An entire page of whinges about the web site, instead of the app itself. I guess this is some kind of progress. Here's one vote for all of you to submit comments like that to the webmaster instead of posting them here and reserve your breath on HN for comments about the subject instead.
- asmosoinio 14y ago
  I think those are very valid comments on how the app is presented. I did not bother looking at the app, because I got distracted by the scrolling. This should be interesting data to the developers.
- laumars 14y ago
  1stly, there were comments about the app itself: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5163365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5163365 2ndly, if an app is boasting about redesigning the way we use email, yet gets the fundamentals of the way we use a webpage completely wrong, then I think criticisms are justified. After all, it's not like this website isn't being used to show case the developers skills.
asmosoinio 14y ago
The site has very annoying scrolling on the page (Chrome on Mac) -- it seems to scroll horizontally when I do the motion for scrolling vertically. Took a while to figure out what the heck was happening, and it still feels non-intuitive.
ajani 14y ago
Tweeting doesn't provide any link to download the app.
laumars 14y ago
The problem with e-mails are not the front ends we use with them, but the protocol itself. Everything is transferred as text, which means binary files (embedded images, attachments, etc) have to be Base64 encoded. This adds a CPU overhead, but most importantly inflates file sizes by ~30% Then there's security issues; the vast majority of mail servers default to clear text rather than SSL. But that wouldn't be so bad if there was some inbuilt method for end-to-end encryption. Sadly there isn't, so we have a whole plethora of 3rd party hacks for the mail client - most of which are incompatible with each other. And while we're on the subject of clients - things are a complete mess there. Trying to design a HTML email that will work on most clients is like trying to design a webpage in the 90s. So we need a more standardised way of displaying that data - and if that means forking HTML for email purposes specifically, then so be it. Also, horizontal scrolling webpages are counter intuitive and a complete pain for most users who only have vertical scrolling on their mice / trackpads. Quite frankly, if that's an advert of their product design then it leaves me less than excited about the 'innovations' they'd make to email clients. I know all this seems highly critical against this project - which isn't really the best etiquette on HN. But honestly, why are the old ARPNET protocols (FTP, email, etc) still in widespread use when we have the technology and experience to release vastly improved specifications?

9 points by evahenson 14y ago

Please allow the user to disable sending / viewing HTML mail. This is the number one bug with Apple's built in iOS mail client, imo. It drives me nuts.

eps 14y ago

How is it different? Aside from "Intelligent tags", "Files" and "Collborate".

michael_miller 14y ago

Minor nit: it's a little annoying that the the site takes over horizontal panning. It effectively makes the swipe forward/backward gestures useless in Chrome. The information could have been presented in an equally effective manner with a simple vertical page layout.

redact207 14y ago

Can't comment on the app itself (don't have an iPad), but I liked your pitch of "first 10,000 to tweet get it for free". Clever idea.

redact207 14y ago
An aside: most headlines I read that are written as questions invariable end up answering in the negative in the content. So regardless of the solution I'd either not click the link or click it already in the wrong frame of mind.
lukifer 14y ago
If it's a native app rather than a web app, I'm curious how they would do such a thing. There's no way to get 10,000 evaluation codes.
- rys 14y ago
  Probably a separate code to enter into the app to unlock it.

xijuan 14y ago

I am using Chrome on my Mac. The horizontal rolling is very very laggy. Usually, when I swipe right, I can go back to the previous webpage I was on. But I can't do that with this website.

huhtenberg 14y ago

When viewed in Mobile Safari, "Want hello?..." sits under the input box. Something to fix I guess.

thejosh 14y ago

site doesn't load

pioul 14y ago

It surely looks beautiful, but how is that different (feature-wise) from Gmail?

cageface 14y ago

An entire page of whinges about the web site, instead of the app itself. I guess this is some kind of progress. Here's one vote for all of you to submit comments like that to the webmaster instead of posting them here and reserve your breath on HN for comments about the subject instead.

asmosoinio 14y ago
I think those are very valid comments on how the app is presented. I did not bother looking at the app, because I got distracted by the scrolling. This should be interesting data to the developers.
laumars 14y ago
1stly, there were comments about the app itself: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5163365 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5163365 2ndly, if an app is boasting about redesigning the way we use email, yet gets the fundamentals of the way we use a webpage completely wrong, then I think criticisms are justified. After all, it's not like this website isn't being used to show case the developers skills.

asmosoinio 14y ago

The site has very annoying scrolling on the page (Chrome on Mac) -- it seems to scroll horizontally when I do the motion for scrolling vertically. Took a while to figure out what the heck was happening, and it still feels non-intuitive.

ajani 14y ago

Tweeting doesn't provide any link to download the app.

laumars 14y ago

The problem with e-mails are not the front ends we use with them, but the protocol itself. Everything is transferred as text, which means binary files (embedded images, attachments, etc) have to be Base64 encoded. This adds a CPU overhead, but most importantly inflates file sizes by ~30% Then there's security issues; the vast majority of mail servers default to clear text rather than SSL. But that wouldn't be so bad if there was some inbuilt method for end-to-end encryption. Sadly there isn't, so we have a whole plethora of 3rd party hacks for the mail client - most of which are incompatible with each other. And while we're on the subject of clients - things are a complete mess there. Trying to design a HTML email that will work on most clients is like trying to design a webpage in the 90s. So we need a more standardised way of displaying that data - and if that means forking HTML for email purposes specifically, then so be it. Also, horizontal scrolling webpages are counter intuitive and a complete pain for most users who only have vertical scrolling on their mice / trackpads. Quite frankly, if that's an advert of their product design then it leaves me less than excited about the 'innovations' they'd make to email clients. I know all this seems highly critical against this project - which isn't really the best etiquette on HN. But honestly, why are the old ARPNET protocols (FTP, email, etc) still in widespread use when we have the technology and experience to release vastly improved specifications?