@paulgeller exactly. I find this project ridiculous.
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@paulgeller@chrismessina Full disclosure: I have been helping the Gmail for Mac team with their Kickstarter campaign.
With that said...
I've been using Mailplane for over a year now. I've been generally happy with it, but have found it to be unreliable and buggy at times (crashing, slow, plugins not working properly, ect.)
The Gmail for Mac team gave me a beta version of the app they've built so far and I've been using it for a few weeks now. In my (somewhat biased) opinion, it blows Mailplane out of the water.
The app is fast and reliable, but what really makes it great is how it perfectly mimics your Gmail experience in a browser. I prefer managing my email in a native desktop app rather than in a browser tab (which is why I've been using Mailplane) and I believe if Google decided to offer a desktop app for Gmail, this would be it.
@juliaroy it's hard to know how to evaluate your statements — since I'm an avid user of Mailplane, have experienced the crashes, but also appreciate that Ruben has been developing this app for years. It's not that I'm against competition, but rather *for* clear marketing claims.
The differences mentioned above seem slight; of course we all want faster, more stable apps. But is that really enough to differentiate this product? I'm not yet convinced.
@chrismessina@juliaroy +1. Seems like the only real features are the notifications. But you could just add a notifications app to mac and call it a day.
And it's not really "beautifully designed" because it wasn't really designed. They just embedded the Gmail site, and basically called it a day.
Lastly, whether they can actually do this is questionable. Gmail could easily shut them down and it'd be over.
@chrismessina@juliaroy First, as my friends, I love you both. Second, Julia I hope the app gets a chance to really showcase its abilities, but for now I agree with Chris.
I have long searched for the "perfect" gmail email client. After using a million of them, I have settled on Airmail. A native client which seems to work with Gmail well (except you can't use any of the plugins).
Mailplane is great. I am a big fan, except for how it handles offline and that its primarily a wrapper on gmail.
Mailbox has some great features, except its limited by design.
If Gmail for Mac (which I imagine is about to get a C&D from Google for the name) is significantly better, I will switch.
What I don't understand is the KS campaign. Just release it. Get users. Then charge. People love to pay for great software.
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Well, this is one of the most buzzed Kickstarter projects I've seen in awhile, and for the $5, I backed it just to see how I'll use it and if I will.
So far, the only email client I REALLY loved was and is Mailbox (for iPhone and for Mac, although the beta for Mac is a bit buggy, to say the least).
I understand the need to use a wrapper, and looking forward for a test drive on this, although so far I don't see this replace my beloved Mailbox
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I've started using it and I love it. Its something I've been looking for a while - to use the power of Gmail, with multiple accounts, all integrated in a seamless app with combined notification in my menubar. Superb work by the team.
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I already have Gmail for Mac. The project name for it is Gmail.com.
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@kevinace If you're happy using Gmail in the browser, then that's fine. That's works for hundreds of millions of people. This is a desktop app to keep Gmail out of the browser, which is what some people want.
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@clayhebert Why do people want this? Security? Ease of access / launching? Features that a browser cannot provide?
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@kevinace Lots of people prefer a desktop experience over a browser experience. If you've ever used Outlook or similar, the desktop app is more powerful than the browser. Other people want to check their email without opening a browser. Others really want an icon in their dock or to be able to Alt+Tab to it as another application.
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