Howdy all, I don't get to catch up here all to often but I do love mailplane and use it daily.
I noticed someone mentioned on one of the threads here today a todo list manager called Taskpaper https://groups.google.com/group/taskpaper http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/taskpaper This excites me because it's a lot like the free task manager I've been using for a year or two called EtreTask: http://www.etresoft.com/etretask.html No doubt TaskPaper has a far more polished UI then EtreTask. And of course both of these are very similar to the relatively new google tasks feature. For years task managers quite plainly sucked and now with google, remember the milk, and the two desktop apps mentioned above I have four superb choices that allow drag and drop sorting, indented hierarchy and notations. Say what you will about "web 2.0" but the last few years have been a boon for my productivity in this area alone. That said I do slowly intend to move my task management to google tasks. It has the added advantage of being accessible from virtually anywhere since it's in the cloud. Google has done tremendous amount to integrate it with the iphone, Android and even added offline syncing. In short I can not only view and manage tasks when I'm walking down the street with my phone, but I can now also simultaneously manage or add a tasks from two different computers sitting side by side... and I do. Task management is now ubiquitous. So herein is where Mailplane comes into the discussion. What I'm getting at is I'd not only love to see better google task integration in mailplane but ideally another Mailplane type app that is completely separate and only does google task management. I haven't seen mailplane spin off any apps, but I'd really love to see them spin off this one. It would hopefully be superbly simple to branch. It could even be added with the mailplane package as a helper app. One that could be optionally spawned from within mailplane if a user likes, but would none the less be a separate application in the OSX dock and therefore enjoy all the separate UI advantages therin'. Ideally this app would have Google Gears built in (or whatever it is google is using now for offline use now). == Why should tasks be a separate app? == While I'm sure mailplane probably works almost perfectly by default with google tasks (besides the minor need for a Command-key to launch the task list in a separate window) I just don't like applications that do everything. To put it bluntly calendering... is not emailing... is not IM'ing... is not task management. It's to much for one app to do all these things properly. 1) These tools have completely different purpose, work flow and mindset 2) The integration of all these tools can be annoying, distracting, and actually reduce productivity 3) Since these tools lie outside of gmail's core competency they're often usurped by better tools 4) And finally, the integration is just plain beginning to slow down the primary tool, gmail, detracting from its value. Case in point you might use iCal for your calendar, Adium X for IM'ing, Taskpaper or Remember the Milk for task management. I imagine if a poll was taken here we would find that a very small percentage of users use at least one other application for one of these four areas mailplane covers. A particularly great example that illustrates all the shortcomings of "do it all" style of gmail is IM. == IM as straw man. Why one app can't do it all. == As one of the oldest web tools (besides email) IM now has highly developed and specialized software that in many cases is far superior to mailplane's / gtalk (through no fault of the superb mailplane developers. :) Google's integration (and therefore by proxy mailplane's integration) will probably never do all or even a quarter of the instant messaging I need. Therefore it makes no sense for me to run it in mailplane when I'm also using AdiumX, skype, and twhirl (for twitter.com). (Also, I occasionally use meebo when traveling.) I don't use IM in mailplane because I use Adium X, a far superior IM application that simultaneously does IRC, AOL, MSN, Yahoo and half dozen other things. (see point 3 above) Likewise I find the gtalk tools in gmail an annoyance to my concentration. This is particularly when I'm trying to concentrate on capturing a bunch of thoughts in email. (see point 2 above) I simply use IM differently then I use gmail. One is for composing thoughts in a clear and concise fashion, the other is for quick non-formal texting (see point 1 above). This would mean I switch back and forth between IM and other applications A LOT... whereas I just need to access my every hour or so. Thus the juggling of windows between mail and IM in mailplane would be a hassle. Finally, gmail has enough JavaScript in a page. It has enough page load. This may not seem like a major issue, but when you're using an old hamster wheel of a computer in a cybercafe or library... or a netbook... or whatever homogeneous "toaster" type hardware you'll be using to access the internet next year... this stuff is just to much. As open source developers know apps can never be to optimized, never to fast, and never consume to little memory. (see point 4 above) == in summary == So, I'll likely never use gtalk in mailplane despite the developers superb integration. Though I've made my point with IM, hopefully this illustrates the value of having a separate tasks application as well. Google Tasks would be well served by separate mailplane like widget. That is if the mailplane developers don't find it to much of a hassle or to trivial. What do others think? -Mike mmeiser.com/blog flickr.com/photos/mmeiser2 On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 1:59 AM, Ruben Bakker <ru...@mailplaneapp.com>wrote: > Hi Alex,Unfortunately, I have no (official) way for Mailplane to access > the Task "window". However, you can click the Arrow key (first screenshot) > to get into it's own window (second screenshot). > > On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 6:20 AM, alex...@gmail.com <alex...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> >> Ruben, >> >> Would it be possible to have a "external" Task window and button like >> we have to Google Talk ? >> So we can open while composing an email. >> >> Cheers, >> Alex H. >> >> On Dec 9, 6:46 am, "Ruben Bakker" <ru...@mailplaneapp.com> wrote: >> > You'll love it :) Fully integrated task management in Gmail. Add it with >> > "More Actions->Add to Tasks" or use <shift>+t. Like the >> Mailplane/OmniFocus >> > plugin the original email conversation is available as a link. >> > More info:http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-in-labs-tasks.html >> > -- >> > Rubenhttp://mailplaneapp.com/bloghttp://www.twitter.com/Mailplane >> > >> > tasks2.jpg >> > 30KViewDownload >> >> > > > -- > Ruben > http://mailplaneapp.com/blog > http://www.twitter.com/Mailplane > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mailplaneapp" group. To post to this group, send email to mailplaneapp@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to mailplaneapp+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mailplaneapp?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
