Review: Postbox is a slick, affordable desktop email client that plays nice with Gmail

If you're after a desktop email client that isn't Outlook, you may discover you don't have very many options. Mozilla Thunderbird is no longer actively developed; Eudora is a distant memory; The Bat! is still around, but costs $35 (or $45 for the Professional edition). One of the more appealing options available is Postbox, a slick, modern-looking desktop email client that plays nice with Gmail and will set you back just $10 after the 30-day free trial.

With all panes shown, the Postbox interface feels powerful almost to the point of being overwhelming.

Postbox v3.0.7 is actually based on Thunderbird: If you go to Tools > Options, you'll find a very familiar looking Options dialog. The rest of the interface, however, looks different. Gone is the traditional horizontally-split layout, replaced by a vertical split that puts your message headers on the left, with the message body on the right, much like the Gmail Offline Chrome extension. You can still bring the Classic View back, though.

By default, the leftmost part of the window is populated by a nested list of folders based on your Gmail labels. Almost all of my labels synced correctly, except for one: the Bulk label, which I automatically filter incoming "gray mail" into. That label never made it all the way to Postbox due to a configuration error on my Gmail account: I had to make it available via IMAP (as all other labels were set), after which it synced to Postbox without a hitch.

In the past, each email was its own little island of text. Modern clients such as Gmail changed this by showing threaded conversations, which cleverly group related emails into one cohesive view. Postbox uses the same concept, and adds a few desktop interface niceties such as being able to pop open the conversation and access a specific email directly from the list of message headers.

Postbox makes it easy to individually collapse every pane, so that you can end up with a minimalistic list of conversations if you prefer.

As much as Postbox strives to play nice with Gmail, some of the visual differences are disorienting: For example, the message list shows senders' names in bold, even for messages you've already read. The "unread" marker is a small blue dot, quite elegant, but not as obvious as bold/non-bold text. There is a way to change this, but only by manually editing the configuration (or switching to the Classic, horizontally-split, view). Another point that kept me from seriously using Postbox is the lack of support for RTL languages, such as Hebrew and Arabic. If you write even the occasional email in such a language, Postbox is out of the question.

One of the challenges of managing email is quickly getting to the messages you care about within a cluttered folder. Gmail lets you do this with blazing-fast searches and clever operators like "is:unread." Postbox offers a more visual way, in the form of the Focus Pane. This collapsible pane lets you quickly slice and dice the current folder: Show only unread messages, show only messages that have attachments, only messages from today, yesterday, the past week, or the past month, and more. Postbox even lets you assign "topics" to your emails, which are another layer of classification, distinct from labels. You can assign any email to a topic such as Work, Home, or Personal. The Focus Bar lets you quickly filter these, as well.

With the folder pane, the focus pane, the vertical conversations list, and the email preview pane, the Postbox interface feels busy. Fortunately, Postbox allows you to eliminate the folder pane by setting up a handful of favorite folders, which you can then access via a toolbar at the top of the window. You can also collapse and expand the focus pane with a single click, and even hide the email preview pane, so that you're left with just a minimalistic list of message headers.

Threaded conversations, familiar to every Gmail user, are fully supported in Postbox.

Postbox isn't perfect, but then again, the same can be said about email itself as a communication medium. Still, if you're not happy with Gmail's browser interface and yearn for the comfort of the desktop clients of yore, you would do well to try it out. Be sure to allow for an adjustment period. Slick as it may be, it's still an acquired taste.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
More by Erez Zukerman

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Review: Cryptocat chat client includes encryption

Endlessly tweaking his workflow for comfort and efficiency, Erez is a freelance writer on a mission to discover the simplest, coolest, and most effective software and websites to make tomorrow happen today.
More by Erez Zukerman

Chatting online is easier than ever; chatting securely, not so much. The chat clients built into Facebook and Gmail emphasize ubiquity and ease of use over encryption. Cryptocat is one chat client that says you can have both security and convenience, and made quite a splash upon arrival.

CryptoCat's simple aesthetic makes it easy to focus on the conversation.

Cryptocat demonstrates an important lesson about security software: Newer rarely means better. Following a glowing profile piece Wired published on Cryptocat and its developer, 21-year-old Nadim Kobeissi, security guru Bruce Schneier published a cautionary post in his blog letting readers know Cryptocat wasn't as safe as it seemed. At the time, the problem was that Cryptocat handled security host-side, rather than locally. This has since been addressed, and Cryptocat now runs as a browser extension and handles encryption locally. Still, this is an important example to keep in mind: Encryption software, even when it's open-source, can't be considered secure until it's been thoroughly audited and battle-tested (preferably for years).

While I wouldn't use Cryptocat for mission-critical secret communications, it does add a modicum of security and privacy over the features built into Google and Facebook, and is just as easy to use. After installing a Chrome or Firefox extension, all you have to do is pick a nick (a handle) and a title for your chat room, and presto–you can chat with any other Cryptocat user who joins the room. The aesthetic is decidedly old-school 8-bit, but that only adds to Cryptocat's charm. It's a nice way to chat with friends, and can serve as a reminder that it's important to use other forms of security, too.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Review: Tweeki is a beautiful, mobile-like desktop client for Twitter

Twitter is one of the most popular social networks around, and accordingly, Twitter clients are a dime a dozen. Despite how common these clients are, it's surprisingly hard to find one that works well, is simple and easy to use, and is also nice to look at. Tweeki is trying to be just that: A simple and beautiful Twitter client, with all the basic features needed to manage a Twitter account.

Tweeki is an intriguing combination between Web app and desktop app. It runs on Pokki, a desktop interface and store for web apps.  If you don't already have it, it will automatically install when you download Tweeki. Compared to popular clients such as TweetDeck and MetroTwit, Tweeki is no more than a mini-app, and feels almost like something you would install on your mobile device. The interface is nice and clean, and includes everything you could want from a simple Twitter client.

Tweeki's interface makes it very easy to read your Twitter timeline.

After logging in with a Twitter account, you'll find five tabs you can use to browse your stream: timeline, mentions, direct messages, lists and search. The interface is simply gorgeous. Your timeline is easy to read:  Your own tweets appear against a green background and your mentions are marked in orange. This makes it doubly easy to see what's what in your timeline. Tweeki's color scheme cannot be changed, however, and the available one is not colorblind-friendly.

Each tweet includes the usual options to reply, retweet (both old style and new), send a direct messageand add to favorites. Conversation view is also available, helping you keep track of back and forth tweets.

You can easily browse the people you follow, your followers and your favorites.

You can use Tweeki's interface to find all the lists you're a member of, and to create and subscribe to new lists. You can also perform Twitter searches from within the app—those can be saved for recurring use—and even explore world trends through hashtags.

Through the settings, you can enable or disable your Tweeki notifications; these come as either "badges" or "banners", and can be activated for timeline, mentions and/or DMs. Badges will simply show the number of new tweets in a tiny badge over Tweeki's tray icon, while banners are actual pop ups, and are much more noticeable. You can play with these options to create your personal notification preferences. Take note that if you enable banners and then choose to shut down Tweeki, you will be bombarded with them when you launch it again.

The difference between the "badges" and "banners" notifications.

When it comes to tweeting, things are almost perfect. Writing a tweet is easy enough, as is attaching an image, which is a nice feature.

Trouble starts when trying to attach a link. The program's settings include the option to shorten links automatically, but unfortunately, this doesn't always work. Not only does the automation fail, but they sometimes remain long even after shortening manually by clicking and choosing "Shorten link." Even when a link does take its short form, the character count for the tweet doesn't always update, which is quite confusing. Another sorely missed feature is a spell checker.

Set your favorite notification preferences through the settings.

Tweeki includes the option to manage more than one Twitter account. You can add more users by clicking the small arrow next to your profile image at the bottom of the window. Once you add several accounts, you can easily switch between them through the same arrow. Switching accounts takes several seconds, and notifications are not labeled in any way to indicate which account they belong to. This turns multiple-account management in Tweeki into quite a confusing experience.

In the first ten minutes I used Tweeki, it lost connection to Twitter for quite a long time,  and it wasn't entirely reliable when it came to showing every single tweet. This problem solved itself within approximately 30 minutes. Since it's part of Pokki, there's no visible way to close Tweeki. You can sign out from your Twitter account, but you might have to enter your username and password all over again next time you want to log in.

Tweeki is a simple client with a stunning interface, and as long as you don't need to manage more than one account, it's an excellent free option. Tiny and sweet, it turns keeping up with Twitter into a joyous task, despite the occasional reliability issue, which is present in almost every client. If you need to manage several accounts, and want to spend some money, you might have better luck with MetroTwit. In all other scenarios, give Tweeki a spin.

Note: The "Try it for free" button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

MultiMi Brings Your Entire Online Presence Under One AVG-Secured Client

How do you control your ever-increasing number of social networks and activities? Most either keep their networks separated, or use social clients such as HootSuite or TweetDeck to aggregate their social activities under one roof. These are great options for controlling your social accounts, and sometimes even your blog, but what about email, calendar, media and documents? A new free solution from AVG aims to bring all these activities under one client called MultiMi.

The customizable MultMi homescreen. You can decide what aspects of your social life will be included in your homescreen.Many things about MultiMi sound innovative and exciting. To start, it aggregates much more than just social accounts. Aside from Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, MultiMi also includes your emails, photos, Google Calendar and Google Docs, among other services. In addition, its AVG origins bring AVG link scanning to all your social activities, protecting you from dubious links and phishing scams.

In practice, however, MultiMi seems to have bitten a bit more than it can chew. Upon launching it for the first time, MultiMi will prompt you to add your accounts. Here, already, some problems arise; for example, the connection to Facebook chat failed without further explanation, only to suddenly connect without notice several days later. Once your accounts are linked, MultiMi will take a while to synchronize your activities, which can now be browsed through the left sidebar.

MultiMi provides a convenient interface for browsing your activities, with a large window display of the current message, complete with all possible actions.MultiMi's sidebar is divided into 10 tabs, including a customizable Home tab, Messages, Social, Events, Reader, Photos, and even a built-in browser. Moving between tabs is a slow affair, at least on my 2.2GHz, 4GB machine, and even after all items load once, there's still quite a wait when switching tabs.

Looking at the imported content in MultiMi, I saw that almost nothing made it through in one piece. Google Reader feeds were stripped of their folders, Picasa photos simply never made it, Facebook content took a very long while to appear, and not all unread emails appeared as they should. To top it all off, Google Talk showed only one contact out of dozens, and a spell-check bug marked correctly spelled words and included the mark in an outgoing email.

Adding accounts to MultiMi is easy. The friendly interface will show you the way.On the positive side, MultiMi does let you send updates, emails and files from one slick, centralized interface. Adding files is done by a simple drag and drop, and files can be shared on social networks or simply uploaded to Picasa, Google Docs or Box.net. You can also save drafts of your Facebook and Twitter updates to send at a later time, although a post scheduler is still missing.

The killer feature, and the one I will probably come back to MultiMi for, is the ability to search through all your networks for one keyword or phrase. In theory, you can also use the interface to view only photos and media from your feeds, but this worked only partially, pulling photos mainly from Facebook.

The addition of some useful features and improvement of the current ones could turn MultiMi into a decent and secure control center for your online life. All in all, MultiMi feels like a great effort, but one which is not quite baked yet.

—Yaara Lancet

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

Twitter Client Blu Takes Just a Little Desktop Space

Many of today's best Twitter management applications--from TweetDeck to HootSuite to Seesmic Desktop--take up a good portion of your desktop real estate. If you're looking for something a little smaller, consider Blu. Developed as a concept application for Windows 7, Blu is a slick little Twitter client that leaves you with plenty of room to get some work done.

Blu lets you see @replies and mentions in a conversation view, which makes it easier to understand them in context. Blu's rectangular shape is reminiscent of the dedicated AIM client I've always relied on for instant messaging. But is attractive interface is far superior: It features a muted blue and white design that manages to look both simple and sophisticated at the same time.

Blu's default display shows you Twitter timeline, while icons at the bottom of the Blu client make it easy to view @mentions, favorites, retweets, direct messages, and your own Tweets. I especially like how Blu lets you see @replies and mentions in a conversation view, which makes it easier to understand them in context. It's a handy feature.

Additional icons let you access Twitter search and compose new tweets. Blu's singular column design means that you can only view one of these categories of information at a time. Rival TweetDeck, meanwhile, features a multi-column design that lets you view multiple information streams at once. This omission is the trade-off for Blu's slim footprint, though, and it's one that I'm willing to take.

Blu's social media support is limited to Twitter, and this app only allows you to manage one Twitter account. If you can live with those limitations, you'll find that Blu is a whole lot more than just a pretty face.

Note: The Download link takes you to the vendor's site, where you can download the latest version of the software.

-- Liane Cassavoy

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

eM Client: Affordable Alternative to Microsoft Outlook

If you're looking for the Microsoft Outlook experience without paying an arm and a leg, you should definitely consider eM Client. eM Client is a functional dead ringer for Microsoft's flagship e-mail client and organizer, with e-mail, tasks, contacts, and calendaring, and it's organized in largely the same fashion. If you know Outlook, you'll have no trouble using eM Client, though eM Client has many more features.

Though eM Client's look is a bit different, functionally it's a dead ringer for Microsoft Outlook.EM Client offers the e-mail basics: support for multiple accounts (it's less buggy with this than Outlook), junk mail filtering, and the ability to organize and search. It also fully supports Gmail as well as Facebook and Skype messaging, and it imports Outlook's entire range of data: e-mail, contacts, tasks, and calendar appointments.

One unique and very cool eM Client feature is in the sidebar to the right of the main window. It shows all your email to and from the person connected with the currently displayed e-mail or contact. This feature is absolutely worth its weight in gold, and could be mined even further by making the program contact-driven. You don't even have open the email, simply hover over it and a readable preview pops up. On the downside, I miss Outlook 2010's feature that lets create rules by right-clicking on an e-mail .

eM Client has its own hosted Exchange service so you can easily sync email between your PC, laptop, and mobile devices. At $50 per year, it's quite a bit cheaper than most hosted Exchange services. (That said, many of the more expensive hosted Exchange services grant you a free license for Outlook.) Your $50 gets you unlimited accounts and phone support. The free license for eM Client is for personal use and supports only two email accounts.

eM Client isn't perfect; I'm not in love with the overall appearance, which is just a tad busy, or the poorly divided avalanche of options in the Settings dialog. But once you have eM Client configured, you'll find its features addictive as well as inspiring.

--Jon L. Jacobi

eM Client is being developed as an alternative to MS Outlook. It integrates enhanced Calendaring interface, Task and Contacts and Instant Messaging that users can simply configure and use. With eM Client you can easily import your messages and contacts from MS Outlook, Outlook Express, The Bat, and Thunderbird. eM Client 2.0. allows full synchronization with Gmail, Facebook, Skype and many other servers or services.

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Hands-On with Tweetbot 2.0: Best iPad Twitter Client

While Tweetbot 2.0 for iPad reorients to either portrait or landscape mode depending on how you’re holding your slate, we recommend that you use the app horizontally. This way, you’ll see how the developers have really made use of the screen real estate, placing a handy navigation bar on the left-hand portion and your tweets front and center on the iPad’s display. Navigation is divided into the different sections you expect to find on any Twitter account: Timeline, Mentions, Messages, Favorites, etc. When you turn your iPad vertically, these labels morph into tiny icons.

Looking further down the navigation bar, you’ll discover one neat new feature of the app: Mute Filters. Tap into this section, and you’ll see the complete list of People, Hashtags and Clients that you’ve cut out of your Twitter feed to reduce the noise. Tap on the Edit button on the upper right corner to add or remove Clients—for instance, if you want your feed clean of all Instagram or Path updates. In order to mute People and Hashtags, you’ll have to access options from within your regular timeline. And you can choose to do so for a day, a week, a month or even forever.

Speaking of that regular timeline—Tapbots deserves high praise for a thoughtful user experience here. The first time you fire up the app, you’ll get a brief tutorial on gestures, but to be frank, you’ll be able to get by even if you don’t pay attention—it’s that intuitive. Tap and hold on any Twitter user’s avatar, and a pop-up appears with options to send the user a message, manage his list memberships, mute him or unfollow him.

When you tap and hold on the tweet itself, a similar pop-up appears, with options to send the tweet to the “read later” service of your choice (Instapaper, Readability, Read it Later, etc. – configurable through Settings), copy the direct link to the tweet, copy the tweet, email it or translate it.

Seeing an “@” character ahead of any tweet can be taken as a sign that you can apply the tap-and-drag-to-the-right gesture. Afterwards, you’re shown the original message the Twitterer is replying to. A tap and drag to the left lets you see if anyone has replied to a particular tweet, and what those replies are.

Tweetbot has a friendly way of dealing with layers, too. If you get lost in the tiers of @ replies and user profiles, you can apply the two-finger swipe from right to left to move back up a level. If you use three fingers to swipe from right to left, you go straight to the top level, or where you originally started from. Finally, a three-tap gesture is configurable from Settings: you can assign it to let you reply to a tweet, retweet, favorite or translate it, or view the tweet in Favstar.

Another nice touch on Tweetbot for iPad is the ability to tap any link or hashtag directly on your main timeline. (Previous iterations required you to drill into the individual tweet first, before the links became tappable.)

On hashtags, a tap-and-hold gesture brings up a popover to let you either create a new tweet with that hashtag or mute all incoming tweets with that hashtag. On links, this gives you a popover for beaming the text over to a Read Later service, tweeting the URL, opening it in Safari and copying or emailing the URL.

One of our favorite features is Tweetbot’s ability to view any webpage link either in its full-fledged HTML glory, or a stripped down, text-only version. When you click on an embedded link, you’ll see a slider on the menu across the top that lets you toggle between the two views.

One aspect inherent to Twitter as a service is having a steady stream of updates trickling in. This is a great way to stay on top of the interminable news cycle, but distance yourself for one second and you could end up missing something. Thankfully, Tapbots knows this too—which is why they’ve integrated a convenient expand (+) button to let you go back and read that chunk of tweets you missed while you were away.

And how about the basic act of composing a tweet? Tweetbot doesn’t neglect any of the features you’ll find in the best Twitter clients. The app will autocomplete usernames of Twitterers you follow and hashtags that you use; you can easily add a location and photos too. A smart feature we appreciated was the addition of a “Use Last Photo Taken” button – Tweetbot boasts the ability to detect and pull up the last photo you took on your device.

Tweetbot for iPad is thoughtful, intuitive, and contains more options to master your Twitter account than we ourselves as users can imagine. Our only quibble is that the developers require you to make separate purchases for the iPhone and iPad—so if you already own the iPhone version, you’ll still have to pony up another $2.99 to get it on your iPad. Still, we would argue that it’s worth buying twice. If you’re interested in grabbing this gem of an app, you can head over to its iTunes Store page here.

From Laptopmagazine. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center Here