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Sunrise is shutting down

blog.sunrise.am

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Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#71
post #13
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was something like it just for Calendaring though. Especially on the desktop. For email I'm already using Polymail full time and it's a hassle to have two email clients just for calendar.

What do you use for calendaring right now? What do you wish it did?

Not the OP, but on my Android device I have an easier time of calendaring since basically any app I choose will show all of the calendars I want (personal, my work calendar, my manager's calendar, my team's calendar) in the same space. For desktop, I did have Sunrise's desktop app until I noticed I wasn't getting a proper sync of some (apparently random) appointments from desktop to cloud/mobile, and even more so because I accepted an appointment via Sunrise and it changed my email alias in the response from my actual address to Sunrise's generic "invitation@email.sunrise.am" so that people then started emailing me at the generic email rather than my actual address.

Most of my calendars are Google Apps. Outlook was my backup for the work calendar using the Google Apps Outlook Sync app (although I've noticed a few sync failures there, too), and just adding additional calendars to Outlook without having all of my email there too looks like it requires some kind of arcane magick. Thunderbird+Lightning got rotated out of the mix quickly due to a lot of issues syncing and getting multiple calendars into it.

Probably because everyone we're communicating with is mixing between Google Apps/webview calendar and Outlook or Office 365, I also find that I regularly can't see an appointment that is emailed to me in my email client as it shows up as an .ics file attachment instead.

So featurewise:

- Most important for me: Easy addition of multiple calendars, where I can just select which calendar a new appt should be added, as easily as I can in my Android clients- I hate using web clients for calendaring, and they never really show multiple calendars well. NOTE: I mean that the calendar has a direct sync to each of the calendars online, not having one main account to which I have to share all of my other calendars. I want one place where I can go to view and create appointments and then have them also show up in their respective accounts. - Supports open standards like CalDAV/CardDAV as well as syncs to Google or Office 365 (I can select a provider like Fastmail that uses CalDAV for my personal calendar, but I'm stuck with Google or O365 for work) - Desktop client, multiple views (agenda, today, week, month) - drag-and-drop of items into the calendar to create a new appointment - "Send to calendar" from an email as an option - Categorization/tagging on an appointment would be nice - Outlook allows this but Google doesn't seem to allow tagging appointments like you can email

A bit of a data dump, but a desktop client that handles multiple calendars well is surprisingly difficult to find in Windows. I happily pay for a number of otherwise free services (Pandora, Evernote, Pocket, Lastpass, etc.), but there really isn't even a pay option.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#72
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can anyone commit to building a proper business? How about we users commit to building the tools we need, and forget about relying on businesses to do it for us? That's what free software is all about — head on over to the Free Software Foundation and pitch in today!

Another angle... It's sad when we pay $5 for a coffee made in 5 minutes that we'll drink in 3... but not $5 for an app that took 5 months that we'd use daily for a year.

Well, if coffee shops started offering up free coffee with ads on the cup, people wouldn't pay $5 for coffee either.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#73
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can anyone commit to building a proper business? How about we users commit to building the tools we need, and forget about relying on businesses to do it for us? That's what free software is all about — head on over to the Free Software Foundation and pitch in today!

Another angle... It's sad when we pay $5 for a coffee made in 5 minutes that we'll drink in 3... but not $5 for an app that took 5 months that we'd use daily for a year.

My experience has been that since underlying platform software changes so quickly locally run purchases are often more work to maintain than SAAS offerings.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#74

Once a startup gets bought, I look for alternatives. If they don't shut down, I still learned something new! But usually they do. In this case, I landed on Fantastical [1] — it's a little pricy but completely worth it. (Mac/iOS only.) [1]: https://flexibits.com/fantastical

Given that so many startups only exist for the purpose of being bought, the logical conclusion here, is that perhaps you shouldn't rely on things made by startups.

At least, until they reach a level of self-operation that makes it clear that if they are bought, they'll be kept.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#75

Once a startup gets bought, I look for alternatives. If they don't shut down, I still learned something new! But usually they do. In this case, I landed on Fantastical [1] — it's a little pricy but completely worth it. (Mac/iOS only.) [1]: https://flexibits.com/fantastical

i tried using Sunrise but was already a devout Fantastical user. i'm just too into the Alfred / Fantastical macro life now. Glad I stuck with them.

I'd be curious to hear how you use Alfred and FantastiCal if you're willing to share?

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#76

The best part about Sunrise was Meet, its quick little method of booking meetings with someone: https://sunrise.am/meet You'd choose some available times, it gives you a link which you send to whoever you want to meet with, and the recipient books a time slot with a couple of clicks. It updates in real time so if you book something new, the slot disappears. It even has a little iOS keyboard to generate these links. D…

vyte.in does it in a more general way.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#78
post #56
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what sense?

My understanding is that Outlook for iOS uses a cloud service that talks to the Exchange server and stores your credentials/data: https://blog.winkelmeyer.com/2015/01/warning-microsofts-outl... . So logging in involves giving Microsoft (and indirectly Amazon, since it runs on AWS), clear-text access to your information.

Your credentials aren't stored in clear text. They are encrypted with a key only your device has.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#79
post #37

This is becoming a tiring pattern. I've just gotten used to the UI. Can anyone commit to building a proper business? Is Sustainability no longer a virtue of creating a service/application?

This is why I am very skeptical of (non-open-source) software made by startups. Often they are not in it to build a sustainable long-term business, but just for an exit, and that almost inevitably means the death of the software. It's as though the software is really just a sort of "corporate resumé" made to support their goal of getting bought out, not really something to be used. Unfortunately, I realize this attit…

This has nothing to do with opensource. Many opensource startups have just died and not taken things forward.

If anything, look into the mission of the company and how they make money. i.e. look into their business. If it's all doled out for free, it's a good idea to give them a miss.

Re: Sunrise is shutting down

#80
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes there are no great alternatives :( I still use Sparrow for email on Mac. Would use it on iOS too, but it's quite buggy in iOS9. Spark is _almost_ as good as Sparrow on iOS, but it's free which makes me wonder whether they're doing some kind of data mining for revenue and how long they will be around. P.S. +1 for fantastical, it's great!

Nylas N1, Airmail, Canary, or Polymail. Take your pick. Personally, I use Nylas since it's open source and the extensibility of it is awesome.

I really can't recommend Canary enough, has everything I need. Just need them to make an iOS version.
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