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Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

kickstarter.com

11–20 of 25 posts

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#11
I have a system whereby I email tasks to myself and setup a filter to automatically dump those tasks into a special folder. I do the same as a "Read It Later". I know its not the same level of complexity as this product but I always liked email for its simplicity and my approach is simple and works for me. I'd be interested in hearing what other techniques people employ using email.

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#12
This space of "handle tasks in email" is starting to explode since pg called it as a giant opportunity. Indeed, I believe Mail Pilot are launching their public beta soon - the timing makes me think these guys were (savvily, tbf) trying to jump in alongside it.

It's not just another "todo list", it's really dealing with the pain of remembering the promises you make in email, and the fact email is used to discuss all the work we do, but is completely disconnected from our other management tools.

It's also obviously a positive thing that lots of innovative new products are getting involved: a single pioneer does not a movement make.

Disclaimer: I've been working on ActiveInbox for Gmail[1], first as a hobby project and later as a bootstrapped business, since 2006. In fact I think we were the earliest, certainly for Gmail.

Oddly enough the transition from hobby to business came about in a very Kickstarter way, but long before it existed -- early users simply wanted to give money to keep us going, we refused at first because it was a "hassle to deal with tax" (this is also long before Lean Startup: customer validation was clearly not something we were tuned too), and eventually set up a PayPal donate button.

And I'm really proud of our community - we've been discussing ways to improve email very openly since we started. They drive ideas, and we implement them to create a very experimental product.

I'd really like to write up our experience for HN, including the experience of getting an invite to YC, but not a place. There are a lot of stories of how regular people - our customers - pulled a business out of a geek hobby, and lots of mistakes and missteps I've made that could have been avoided.

[1]: http://www.activeinboxhq.com

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#13

This space of "handle tasks in email" is starting to explode since pg called it as a giant opportunity. Indeed, I believe Mail Pilot are launching their public beta soon - the timing makes me think these guys were (savvily, tbf) trying to jump in alongside it. It's not just another "todo list", it's really dealing with the pain of remembering the promises you make in email, and the fact email is used to discuss all t…

Email has been very closely integrated with task management in Outlook for a while now.

On the same note, I've been hoping that Google would flesh out Google Tasks for a while now -- technically Tasks ties in with Gmail and Google Calendar already, but that integration is fairly primitive, and Tasks is still missing extremely basic things like search, labels, and a usable (non-widget) UI in Gmail. Of all the projects Google is letting stagnate, this one hurts me the most. I could make great use of it if it were more complete.

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#15

I like the idea of merging tasks with emails - but if I can make one suggestion: I don't think I'd ever hit an auto-reply button that said "I'll get it done. It's now in my Taskbox ." Unless replies are customizable, this sort of self-serving superfluous information would turn me off to the product.

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, replies are customizable.

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#16
post #9
post #7

It's a good idea to play with. I've been using Streak, which merges CRM with gmail inbox. Google's own task integration (as with Apple's, Yahoo, et al) have been poor. But I agree with previous commenters that a speculative mobile app is unsuitable for kickstarter. I wouldn't be surprised if the new rules issued to prevent speculative hardware projects were eventually expanded to include things like mobile apps, but…

Just a quick note: I'm not affiliated with the app or its creators in any way, but I have been a beta tester for it, and it's working pretty well (the app is bootstrapped so far). The Kickstarter is to add integration with other email providers (Exchange, etc.) and to create a web app that integrates with it.

That is correct. The iOS app will go live in October and folks are welcome to wait for that if they'd like. We're hoping to raise funds for expansion of engineering into web and android platforms via Kickstarter.

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#17
post #13

This space of "handle tasks in email" is starting to explode since pg called it as a giant opportunity. Indeed, I believe Mail Pilot are launching their public beta soon - the timing makes me think these guys were (savvily, tbf) trying to jump in alongside it. It's not just another "todo list", it's really dealing with the pain of remembering the promises you make in email, and the fact email is used to discuss all t…

Email has been very closely integrated with task management in Outlook for a while now. On the same note, I've been hoping that Google would flesh out Google Tasks for a while now -- technically Tasks ties in with Gmail and Google Calendar already, but that integration is fairly primitive, and Tasks is still missing extremely basic things like search, labels, and a usable (non-widget) UI in Gmail. Of all the projects…

I got the impression from a single conversation I had with Google back in January (please take this as the single data point it is), that they really did re-route the entire organization to focus on Google+, and were prepared to scale back efforts on Google Apps for at least a few months. For reference, the conversation was about them seeking 3rd party vendors to fill in the gaps in their offerings.

Re: Taskbox - Turn your inbox into a task list

#18

I like the idea of merging tasks with emails - but if I can make one suggestion: I don't think I'd ever hit an auto-reply button that said "I'll get it done. It's now in my Taskbox ." Unless replies are customizable, this sort of self-serving superfluous information would turn me off to the product.

I currently have the app, and this was the first thing I changed :)
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