Comments on: First Look: Mailplane â€“ A desktop Gmail client for OS X

By: Rob Schultz

Rob Schultz — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:16:25 +0000

Like you Justin (No 3) I cant help but shake the feeling that this is redundant. While the design looks great, and I’m sure that it does what’s advertised, I just don’t see a huge need for something like this.

By: jk

jk — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:23:46 +0000

No. 9: That would be one of the aforementioned “not good” workarounds…

Personally, implementations like “Recent” mode, that depart from standards, just rub me the wrong way. If I can’t use IMAP, I’d rather have one definitive POP client. However, that may be a good solution for many folks.

By: imajoebob

imajoebob — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:50:52 +0000

You left out the biggest con: Absolutely no privacy or security from prying eyes. Google’s history of rolling over for ANY government(s) requests for your email messages makes WWII Belgium look like the Spartans, and the telcos like the ACLU. If you have anything you want to keep confidential, NEVER use Gmail. Or the Google apps. They treat their users with impunity and disdain.

And if you think I’m being paranoid, I dare you to email something with some magic phrases regarding certain religious sects that are antagonistic toward America. Or better, liinks to their websites. You’ll quickly find out how private your Gmail really is (not).

By: Ami

Ami — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:57:49 +0000

Answer to nÂº 7

You can use Gmail on multiply devices and client. You just have to had “recent:” before the account ID. Look it up here:

By: Van

Van — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:43:43 +0000

Way to overpriced for what you get (a glorified webkit based browser).

I was one of the first beta testers for the this app, and I loved it. It’s a simple intuitve way to access my gmail accounts. But 25 dollars? The developer must be joking. When tesing, I was thinking along the lines of: 5 to 10 bucks.

By: jk

jk — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:21:02 +0000

The problem with Gmail in Mail.app occurs when trying to use it from multiple locations… Since Gmail only supports POP, once one client downloads the new messages, they’re unavailable elsewhere. So if I have Mail at home and Mail at work set up to check the same Gmail account, anything I receive at work is unavailable at home and vice-versa. Yes, there are ways around this, but not good ones. Until Gmail starts supporting IMAP, it’s either Gmail through a browser at work, or Gmail through Mailplane, and Mailplane wins hands down.

By: Ami

Ami — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:24:46 +0000

You can use Mail but then you have no Conversations and searching is better in Gmail. If it was not for MailTags and the Act On plugins I would use Gyazmail anyway… Mailplane is for Gmail users and not for Mail or other offline clients.

By: gb

gb — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:11:52 +0000

I’ve been using Mailplane for about two months ago and find it indispensable — it accesses Gmail more quickly than Safari, and I no longer inadvertently close the wrong Safari window or tab when surfing and email concurrently.

Redundant? Kinda. But many useful apps are redundant or derivative.

As far as using a “normal” email app (like Mail.app), my beef with using them with web-based email is I want the same look, feel, and CONTENT each and every time I access my email, esp. since I do email on multiple computers. I tried using Mail.app on my primary computer, and found the difference between Gmail via Mail.app and Gmail via the web unnecessarily distracting.

Your milage may vary, but for me, I’m glad Mailplane is an available choice.

By: bob.

bob. — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 16:38:31 +0000

Yeah I agree with the last two posters… why not just use Mail.app or ANY other normal email program. You can then read mail offline, too.

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:51:27 +0000

I don’t get it. Gmail has free POP access, so I use Gmail with OS X’s native mail application. It works great. Mailplane seems like a waste.