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Dropbox Acquires Mailbox
- JeremyKolb 14y agoI hope dropbox builds on what Mailbox is currently doing. It would suck if mailbox just went away because Dropbox just wanted to get some more talent.
- dirtyaura 14y agoI think this is obviously not just a talent acquisition. An email client is something that Dropbox needs in the long run to provide awesome integrated experience for your productivity tasks. Without it, they won't be able to compete with Google on user experience. I'm really happy for this acquisition. It could be an early sign of a new trend in which companies heading to IPO buy strategic products and teams in the early stages to build something awesome together. Facebook's Instagram acquisition could be seen this way, but it was much more defensive move. Mailbox acquisition is clearly done from more win-win perspective.
- ishansharma 14y agoNow only if they launch an email service of their own and integrate Dropbox with it for stuff like attachments and we will have a potential GMail killer.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- kmfrk 14y agoWell, if my files still map to a checksum hash that is compared to other's files for storage redundancy, I'll stay with Gmail for the privacy.
- SimonPStevens 14y agoI think this statement really shows how our expectations of privacy have changed. You'd prefer GMail for it's privacy - That's the mail service that 'reads' your email and displays adverts based on it's content. Google clearly have the ability to access the plain text of your email so I'd be really surprised if they don't do some kind of storage de-duplication too. (Unless of course you were being ironic and I misread you)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ceejayoz 14y agoThere's no reason to believe that Gmail doesn't do the same thing for attachments. It's entirely possible they dedupe in the same manner.
- ljlolel 14y agoOne of Larry Page's earliest papers is about dedup. Google itself has published papers on email deduplication.
- wangweij 14y agoWhen Dropbox sees a dup, it does not upload the file at all and therefore you know there is a dup. If I understand correctly, Gmail always uploads the attachment. When there is a dup Google saves storage space. Users will never noticed any difference.
- ceejayoz 14y agoThat just makes the potential privacy violation undetectable, though. Doesn't remove it in any way.
- spullara 14y agoAny email service that isn't deduping attachments is being fiducially irresponsible.
- mikeash 14y agoWhy is that a problem? With something like Dropbox itself, there's potentially timing info exposed that would let you discover if someone else already had stored that file. But surely e-mail is far too asynchronous for that, and obliterates any timing information.
- spencerfry 14y agoWe can hope!
- dfischer 14y agoGoogle does that with Drive already.
- nilved 14y agoI think most other people would call that feature creep. The day Dropbox does anything more than sync files is the day I stop using Dropbox.
- jostmey 14y agoI don't care if new features continually creep into Dropbox, so long as the service is kept simple and invisible. The Dropbox service, I suspect, is super-super-super-super-super-super-super-super-super complicated. But Dropbox made file syncing so simple that the software is essentially invisible to the end-user. I believe it is possible for Dropbox to continue adding new feature while keeping their service relatively invisible. The multi-billion dollar question is will they.
- changdizzle 14y agoany word on if orchestra will still be worked on / going to dropbox?
- jonpaul 14y agoThat's exactly what I came here to ask. I hated Mailbox, but love Orchestra and use Orchestra daily. I hope they keep it around, but I have an odd feeling that they won't.
- niggler 14y agoHow long till we see Dropbox go public?
- pazimzadeh 14y agoThe funny thing is that I think Mailbox has put much care and ingenuity into their iPhone app than Dropbox has. The 2007 four tabs at the bottom UI is not the best way to browse your files.
- pifflesnort 14y agoWhat's wrong with tabs? I'm personally not a big fan of designers trying to out-clever user familiarity by getting rid of tabs (or other standard interaction models to which users are accustomed). Are tabs sexy? Maybe not, or at least designers don't think so. However, tabs are very well placed in terms of usability, very familiar to users, instantly understandable, and a lot less complicated than the back-bending design gymnastics some designers are doing just to be different from Apple.
- seivan 14y agoSame here, what the guy doesn't understand is that tab based scale easily when doing universal apps. The tabs move over to a side panel on the iPad. Works out of the box and offers the ability to write a single code base for both platforms. Most designers ("UX monkeys") are too dumb to realise this as they are just Photoshop slingers and can't code for shit nor know the SDK. It has an amazing cost benefit when you're a small startup and want to push to both platforms without compromising design. Seriously, Tab based works wonders when doing universal - mostly because it's out of the box. Another way is the side panel. Now that comes out of the box for iPad, but not iPhone. Using a tab gives you the ability to have a tab on the iPhone and side panel on the iPad with as little change as possible.
- Alshie 14y agoSuspect it was more likely that he thinks the ease of development shouldn't be the sole consideration in the design of an app. Just because the SDK makes it easy does not make it the best design solution.
- pazimzadeh 14y agoI may lack coding chops, but you lack imagination. Don't let the coders design, I guess. http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/03/10/designers-are-not-programmers/ http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/03/10/designers-are-not-p... I replied above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5382745 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5382745
- michaelmartin 14y agoWow. Just over a month ago they were posting their "Week 1 In Review," that was a fast acquisition! This one is actually quite exciting I think though. They already have the product, but they need to scale like crazy. A company like Dropbox will help massively with that, and hopefully the service will grow without the Twitter-esque growing pains we're used to. I'd far rather see these guys acquired by a company interested in keeping the product, than a company who just needs a talented team.
- DanielRibeiro 14y agoBut it started two years ago: http://www.mailboxapp.com/story/ http://www.mailboxapp.com/story/ and http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra
- dgrant 14y agoAs an Android user who has never tried Mailbox, what makes it so great? (briefly)
- qaz_plm 14y agoAs an iPhone user who has tried Mailbox, nothing.
- dylanpyle 14y agoIt's super fast and enticing to triage emails immediately rather than letting them gather dust in your inbox. Not much in the way of revolutionary features, but it definitely makes the entire workflow noticeably smoother.
- stevoyoung 14y ago1) The app is extremely well designed 2) There are some slick features that are virtually friction less to use such as telling the app to remind you about an email next week. 3) with #1 and #2 combined you have a more pleasant email experience than other clients. All that being said, the problem with Mailbox as a standalone company is this: http://pandodaily.com/2013/02/11/wham-bam-thank-you-mailbox/ http://pandodaily.com/2013/02/11/wham-bam-thank-you-mailbox/
- neovive 14y ago"Whether it’s your Dropbox or your Mailbox, we want to find ways to simplify your life." Great tagline! Synergies are even present at the brand level. :)
- shardling 14y agoCould... someone tell me what Mailbox is? (i.e. what makes it special.) Their website is weirdly devoid of an explanation.
- resu_nimda 14y agoIt's a mail app with todo list/triage features. You can easily reorder items, set reminders for tomorrow/next week, etc. Intro/promo vid: http://vimeo.com/54553882 http://vimeo.com/54553882
- tb303 14y agoIt's a mail app that treats inbox triage like shoving all your physical messes in time-based closets instead of actually dealing with the mess (like Boomerang). But it has a few very clever swipe-based interactions that are an improvement upon every mail app around, and those alone are worthy of all the attention the app's received. Just like PTR, others can implement these interactions and the app won't be novel for much longer. But for now, it's the only one doing it.
- dclowd9901 14y agoStill, the whole thing smacks of Jobs-era Apple-like overabundant zeal. It's a mailbox that attaches mail organization to gestures rather than buttons. Big whoop.
- Karunamon 14y agoSmall and incremental improvements over a current iteration can kick a product from "meh" to "must have". Remember the iPod? You solve one minor annoyance in an existing product and you might just have the next Big Thing® on your hands.
- alex_doom 14y agoAt first I thought it was going to be a stupid app. But it's now my main email client. I'm even liking it more than my desktop app. One of the things that really sold me was the snooze options. I can quickly decide how to deal with specific emails: "later" (2hrs), this afternoon, this evening, tomorrow, next week, some day, OR my favorite - a specific time and date. Which has completely halted the use of my calendar. I'll set a time and date for an email to remind me of a meeting or appointment I have and when it arrives I have all the context about that event. Brilliant.
- kevingibbon 14y agoCongrats Gentry and team!! If you'd like Gmail + Dropbox attachment management now, use Attachments.me
- vaidabhishek 14y agoHonestly speaking. I still don't understand What is Mailbox? :-(