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Mailplane - Just Hype?

byakuya

byakuya

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Hi,
I do not intend to hurt anybody's feelings but after waiting for quite a while I finally got a private beta invitation by the programmer of mailplane and I have to admit: I do not quite get why this application got so much hype (TUAW, and other mac sites). For me this is just a browser that is limited to visiting my gmail accounts...I admit with the nice little feature that you can use GoogleTalk by a single click. If anyone could explain to me the benefits of using this application instead of Mail I'd be very grateful.
Maybe I just didn't get the point of this mail program.

byakuya
 
byakuya said:
Hi,
I do not intend to hurt anybody's feelings but after waiting for quite a while I finally got a private beta invitation by the programmer of mailplane and I have to admit: I do not quite get why this application got so much hype (TUAW, and other mac sites). For me this is just a browser that is limited to visiting my gmail accounts...I admit with the nice little feature that you can use GoogleTalk by a single click. If anyone could explain to me the benefits of using this application instead of Mail I'd be very grateful.
Maybe I just didn't get the point of this mail program.

byakuya
Click to expand...

Compared to Mail, I prefer the web interface of Gmail, mostly how it will group conversations together. Mail will highlight them all the same color, but you still gotta scroll through them to find that older email.

Compared to just using Gmail in a normal browser, I've found it nice to be able to use the shortcuts on the top, plus if you have multiple Gmail accounts, switching between them is super easy without having to log out and back in on a normal browser. The drag and drop to attach function is pretty cool too.

All in all, it's a pretty cool app. I'm not sure if I'll buy when it gets out of beta, but I see it as an app that is definitely worth existing.
 
It's nice because it gives you notifications and the ability to access Gmail without having to open a browser. I use it at school when I can't use Mail.app but at home I just use Mail.
 
FYI in mail you can have it group conversations. It's not quite as nice as GMail, I liked how they were kinda "piled" and you could see them as a pile or you could expand them to see them all in order... Mail, when grouping them, doesn't put in the sent items, just the received, but you could have the sent items put into a folder with the received items and then they'd all be listed together in order sent/received.

As for Mailplane, it took 24 hours or less for me to get the invite so it wasn't a long wait, but I was disappointed when I got there. Being so used to using GMail through my browser I wasn't using any of the included buttons at the top (because the same exact buttons are found within the browser area and if you've been using those for so long it's be hard to get used to pressing new buttons... plus duplicate buttons seems unnecessary... it could be a little more than just a browser that only visits gmail, it could look and act like gmail but with those buttons in place of the links to do those same things within the window). I tried it, and ended up moving to Mail.app.
 
polycat33 said:
FYI in mail you can have it group conversations. It's not quite as nice as GMail, I liked how they were kinda "piled" and you could see them as a pile or you could expand them to see them all in order... Mail, when grouping them, doesn't put in the sent items, just the received, but you could have the sent items put into a folder with the received items and then they'd all be listed together in order sent/received.
Click to expand...

Who wants to create a different set of folders for every single group of conversations they have? I don't think that's close to being the same at all.
 
It struck me wrong off the bat with their headline:

You love them both: Your MAC and Gmail, right?
Click to expand...

And from there things spiraled when I saw the screenshot of it just being a browser window containing toolbar buttons, and the gmail webpage inside it. It looks confusing, redundant, and utterly useless.

I'll stick with Mail.app and a fully functional browser, thanks.
 
Judging from the most replies there was nothing I missed then. It's just a browser with some little features (like a few buttons here and there) and a notifier for multiple accounts. I just don't get how something like this can get so much hype and good press. And it's supposed to become shareware?! I seriously doubt that there will be someone who pays hard earned money for something like this unless it improves dramatically.

Thanks for sharing my views on this software (most of the replies anyways)

byakuya
 
I use it constantly. I tried just keeping Gmail open in Safari, but I always close the window when I'm done and then have to go back to Gmail to keep checking. With Mailplane I can keep it open and hidden and it alerts me when I get a message or I can just glance down at the dock quick and see how many unread messages I have.
 
ITASOR said:
With Mailplane I can keep it open and hidden and it alerts me when I get a message or I can just glance down at the dock quick and see how many unread messages I have.
Click to expand...

I'm not passing judgment or anything, but if that's all you need why don't you utilize one of the many Gmail notifier applications? I mean, that's Google's, but there are a few alternatives out there. I can understand after the mess Google Desktop Search creates why no one would want to put Google applications on their Macintosh. I would wager a bet that the notifier menubar app uses fewer system resources than Mailplane.

I guess that's why I become confused as to the usefulness of this application. Many of these functions exist without the need for a full-fledge application dedicated solely to, of all things, Gmail. If you find it useful, all the power to you, but it just seems redundant in many ways.
 
Lixivial said:
I'm not passing judgment or anything, but if that's all you need why don't you utilize one of the many Gmail notifier applications? I mean, that's Google's, but there are a few alternatives out there. I can understand after the mess Google Desktop Search creates why no one would want to put Google applications on their Macintosh. I would wager a bet that the notifier menubar app uses fewer system resources than Mailplane.

I guess that's why I become confused as to the usefulness of this application. Many of these functions exist without the need for a full-fledge application dedicated solely to, of all things, Gmail. If you find it useful, all the power to you, but it just seems redundant in many ways.
Click to expand...

I absolutely agree. There are a lot of other alternatives to be notified which are smaller in footprint and on top which are for free. If you are a FF user there are plenty of add-ons you can install for instance.
Mailplane isn't shareware yet but as far as I know the developer is going to ask for money once it enters final stadium.

byakuya
 
Well, if anyone wants to try it out themselves, I have 4 beta invites remaining. I use it off and on. No real verdict here yet.
 
byakuya said:
Hi,
I do not intend to hurt anybody's feelings but after waiting for quite a while I finally got a private beta invitation by the programmer of mailplane and I have to admit: I do not quite get why this application got so much hype (TUAW, and other mac sites). For me this is just a browser that is limited to visiting my gmail accounts...I admit with the nice little feature that you can use GoogleTalk by a single click. If anyone could explain to me the benefits of using this application instead of Mail I'd be very grateful.
Maybe I just didn't get the point of this mail program.

byakuya
Click to expand...

clevin said:
you are right, its so overrated. why use an app to make simple things more complicated?
Click to expand...

Lixivial said:
It struck me wrong off the bat with their headline:



And from there things spiraled when I saw the screenshot of it just being a browser window containing toolbar buttons, and the gmail webpage inside it. It looks confusing, redundant, and utterly useless.

I'll stick with Mail.app and a fully functional browser, thanks.
Click to expand...

I love Mailplane. Here's why: it adds all the niceties of a stand alone email application (drag and drop, dock new message counter, etc) while letting me keep all my mail stored safely away on Google's servers where I can access it from anywhere in the world. I get to have one copy of all my mail, in and out, that I can use anywhere. Plus, I like the Google search and a few of the other features.

Mail is fine, it's search is good, it's easy to use, etc etc. It's a nice programs and if I didn't want to have simple, CONSISTENT access to my mail from multiple locations, it would suffice. But, GMail gives me that global access and Mailplane gives me some extra features at home without sacrificing the benefits of GMail.
 
But this program gives you instant access to Gmail once you see the notification. Granted, it's only a split second faster than opening a browser windows, but it's still a feature.
 
mrgreen4242 said:
I love Mailplane. Here's why: it adds all the niceties of a stand alone email application (drag and drop, dock new message counter, etc) while letting me keep all my mail stored safely away on Google's servers where I can access it from anywhere in the world. I get to have one copy of all my mail, in and out, that I can use anywhere. Plus, I like the Google search and a few of the other features.

Mail is fine, it's search is good, it's easy to use, etc etc. It's a nice programs and if I didn't want to have simple, CONSISTENT access to my mail from multiple locations, it would suffice. But, GMail gives me that global access and Mailplane gives me some extra features at home without sacrificing the benefits of GMail.
Click to expand...

Ok, I see your point. That might be very useful indeed but:
then it should have some kind of offline message storage also. Because if the main argument for this program is: you can use it anywhere anytime...anywhere+"temporary without internet connection" should be included in my opinion. Till there is no offline feature to this software it's pretty much useless when you're somewhere you don't have internet access.

byakuya
 
let me first say that i prefer Gmail's interface to Mail's. i don't care much for Mail's method of organizing my "conversations", e-mails, etc. i also don't like having all my e-mail downloaded to my hard drive - this seems unnecessary.

what i like about Mailplane is it puts an icon in my dock - like Mail - that lets me know i have new messages. that's pretty much the only reason i keep it around. i know i could have the Gmail notifier in the menubar, but i prefer keeping the menubar as empty as possible.

it does have a few nifty features. like you said, Gchat is just a click or two away. also, i can drag pictures onto the application and it automatically creates a new message. Mail works nicely with iPhoto with regard to sending pictures, but this way is good, too.

if i had to pay for Mailplane, i would not use it.

EDIT: one major bonus of Mailplane right now is that it has Webkit built in. i don't use the Safari 3 beta, so Gmail through Safari lacks rich text editing. i don't use rich text too frequently, but when i want to, it's nice that it's there in Mailplane.
 
Another opinion

Late to the thread but I've been using MailPlane for about a week and it works real well for what i need (which is an interface into 4+ different gmail boxes).

I did use the pop3 interface and Mail.app for a bit but this just works cleaner (now if Google offered IMAP that might change things).

That said, GMail is a bit wierd with the way it handles folders and stuff (archive, etc). Mail.app would work well with IMAP but I'm just not a POP3 fan.

Now if they would include Yahoo and Hotmail it would be a real killer app.
 
Interesting. I'm pretty happy with the Mail.app / web mix for GMail. I actually kind of like not having Google Talk in my GMail interface, because I would just as soon keep it in Adium. But I guess, more power to the Mailplane people. Not sure why I'd want it, but.... 🙂
 
I could see why people would like this program, but personally, I like mail.app. I have all my emails from previous accounts in mail.app I can access really quickly, and I don't understand the "use it from anywhere" argument because I can log into gmail from any computer around the world and check my email there.
 
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