Orchestra’s Mailbox app now reservable in the App Store | Hacker News Reader

Orchestra’s Mailbox app now reservable in the App Store

thetechblock.com

33 pointsbayan0941 comments

Now I get to see what's stronger - my desire to try Mailbox or the fingernails-on-chalkboard irritation of an app on my phone that doesn't do anything.

You can delete it and it will still hold your place in line.

Downloaded it, couldn't use it, wondered why a 3rd party needs push access servers for a mail client... became suspicious... deleted it... probably not reinstalling it.

If they didn't have push access and servers, how would they let you know when you had new mail? Third party iOS apps can't poll for new mail, so remote notifications are the only way!

+1. Push notification is the only way to notify about new emails. The trade-off is that you are gonna have to store user credentials on server. That's the reason why Sparrow didn't implement push notification.

And even then, I bet they're using https://developers.google.com/google-apps/gmail/oauth_overvi... which means you could revoke the oauth token at any time from your Google account!

Looks good. So you can store oauth on server, which should be safer. Is it possible for an oauth client to "suicide" on its permission? I'm thinking, in case a third-party service is comprised, they can just ask the oauth server to abandon their permission to avoid further loss for users.

Thats fine, when you get several hundred emails a day you don't want push notifications. If its important it shouldn't be going to me via email, I mean thats why I have a phone.

So, turn them off. Most people don't get several hundred e-mails a day.

At it's current rate of fulfilling the queue, I can expect to be invited in about 30-50 days. Looks like a decent app, but no thanks. If this is a marketing ploy, it might backfire on them.

I'm really regretting not wanting to give my phone number to some random startup the first time I saw Mailbox. I did end up signing up a month or two later but now there are 250,000 people in front of me...

Now the question is, how will they make money?

I gave them my number a while back but never heard anything. Now there are 250k people in front of me. I guess it doesn't matter too much since my gmail accounts aren't the ones I primarily use.

I got the SMS when there were 320k people already in the queue. I think it's likely they forgot to send out the SMS notifications.

They stated that the service will remain free, but they will add premium features for a fee.

The Verge have posted a review of the app, claiming it has, "just fixed email on the iPhone." - http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/7/3961544/mailbox-app-for-iph...

It will be interesting to see whether it lives up to the hype, but everything I've seen so far points in that direction.

However, despite registering within ~10 minutes of the reservation announcement, there are apparently 16,222 people in front of me in the queue.

I registered around 1:35 PM EST and there was ~250,000 people ahead of me. Looks like a lot of traction. You are, of course, giving this company access to your Gmail, but perhaps that's a small price to pay?

I'm pretty anxious to try the app out, luckily I have a low number in the queue, but the first thing that happened when I opened the application was that it asked me to share it with friends... How can they expect me to endorse something that I am still waiting in line for?

Wonder how Apple approved this app. It doesn't do anything (I mean, anything) if you forgot about the "get in the line" moment. I'm sure once you get access to it maybe it's the coolest but still wonder how Apple approved the app with this type of hack built-in. 274,000+ people in front...I might eventually forget about this.

Looks good, though I'm not sure how I feel about this queue system. I understand that they're claiming its to make sure they can handle the numbers but I can't help but think it might also be a clever marketing ploy.

Kind of like how when no one could get on Google+ everyone wanted to be on Google+.

Not sure if you guys know, but Eddie Cue's son works at Orchestra. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple ends up buying this company. I think they should. Their Mail.app client feels so far behind compared to Mailbox.

From what I can see of Mailbox, it looks fantastic- but it's not for all users. It's adapting e-mail to a specific usage pattern that many of us will have, but few non-professionals would use. So I don't think it would replace Mail.app.

Interview with Founder:

http://thetechblock.com/interview-mailbox-gentry-underwood/

I hate that it is only available for iOS 6. I can't upgrade from 5.1 because my Mac is too old to use the newer versions of Xcode.

You are running a computer that is more than six years old and complaining that you can't use an app that came out today?

Unless my computer can run iOS, I'm confused by your comment.

He probably deploys apps from Xcode to his device. Since his computer can't handle the iOS6-compatible Xcode, he has chosen to not update the device to iOS6.

I signed up long ago, but apparently lost my reservation number. Guess I'll have to get in line with everyone else...

I hope that in time we will be able to use other email accounts than Gmail.

iTunes preview link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mailbox/id576502633?mt=8

Anyone think that the reservation numbers might be inflated?

Not available outside the US?

I downloaded it from the UK store, but I had to download it through the link in this post, as the Apple search cache probably hasn't updated yet on the App Store.

A word of warning - if you have a reservation, make sure you don't accidentally click on the first button in the app by mistake. Once you do, there's no way to get back to the first screen to enter your reservation code, even if you uninstall and reinstall the app.

I had that, try using a different IP address on reinstalling.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and was able to use my reservation code after I remember I had it. So was my friend! The button to use the code is kind of hard to see

I did this, and uninstalling/reinstalling was fine and allowed me to enter in my reservation code.

I agree I was stupid to have forgotten that the code was not in email but in a text message (not finding anything in the email made me give up and get back into the reservation line). But it is pretty idiotic to not allow us to use our reservation code once we realize mistakes like that and find our codes. And now I have 2 pairs of reservation-private codes sitting idle in my text message inbox.

Tap and hold the mailbox icon above the numbers. (Can't remember where I saw that, but it does bring up the code entry thing again)

wow thank you... i take back my criticism (although not sure why they would obscure this part).

wait.. so reservation/private codes just allow you to jump ahead in line and that's it? no immediate access? :(

Reply on news.ycombinator.com