Blog Archives
Clear + Leap Motion: A Clear Leap Forward?
RealMac Software posted a demo video showing how their Clear app for Mac might work with the Leap Motion controller.
Leap Motion provides a sensor that allows you to interact with your computer through simple hand gestures. It’s the interface idea made famous in the movie Minority Report and builds on the camera tracking techniques used for XBox Kinect. Simple swiping and pointing allow you to interact and make changes on your computer. What could be cooler than that?!?
Now, RealMac has begun work to support the Leap Motion controller in their list app, Clear. This app has already gained a lot of attention by simplifying the list app down to its essence and by presenting it in an intuitive app with a Flat, minimalist look-and-feel. The app lets you mark to-do items as done by simply swiping. You can stretch a point in the list to create a new item. There is almost no visible interface since it is mostly gesture driven.
I highly recommend checking out the video and check out the Clear app also if you haven’t already. You’ll be glad you did.
Mailbox: A View of the App Hype from the Back of the Line
I’m number 755,235 in line, and I’m excited to be there. Already, 14,580 people have gotten in line behind me. This is the place to be!
What is the Mailbox App?
Mailbox is a new app created by Orchestra, Inc that promises to help you turn your email inbox into a task manager. Orchestra previously created a task manager that won Apple’s Editors Choice selection, but they observed that a great number of the tasks originated and were channeled back to email. So, they decided to reinvent the archane email inbox and add the task management functions directly into the mail client. There are 3 aspects that are exciting to me and the reason I must try it out myself.
1. Mobile-First experience
Mailbox has built their app as a mobile-first way to read and process email. They have some fancy data optimization and are creating quite a buzz just due to the responsiveness and quickness of the app to load emails and email threads that reportedly outpaces the Gmail and Apple Mail clients handily.
2. Quick processing
You can quickly swipe emails to send them on to the archive. This is huge if you ever hope to achieve and maintain the GTD goal of “Inbox Zero”.
image from mailboxapp.com
3. Snooze
With just a swipe and tap, you can ‘snooze’ your emails away and they will return after your chosen interval. That will ensure that you will think of it again at a better time without clogging up the current inbox and ruining your “Inbox Zero” chances.
image from mailboxapp.com
The bad
The biggest downside that I see is that they only support Google’s Gmail with an iPhone app for now. So, only that combination even gets to apply.
So, I know that this won’t really solve my email challenges. I’m already a happy subscriber to Sanebox for both my Gmail and my other primary email accounts. That service offers the ‘snooze’ function and automatically separates out less important emails into a daily digest. This has been a major time-saver for me, especially in cutting through a lot of the clutter with minimal training needed.
The Hype
I think that Orchestra has made a smart choice in having a live ‘line’ in the app. It has helped them manage the number of active users so that they control their rate of scaling up (to a degree). Also, it has generated word of mouth as new fans give their friends a heads-up to get in line as soon as possible. It’s hard to fight the sense of urgency when a new product or service is obviously limited in supply. In our long-tail digitized world, this doesn’t happen as often as it used to happen.
Care to join me in line? I’m now up to 754,880! Woot!
DrewWilken 