POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Your suggestions for future versions of EssentialPIM

Moderators: TerryRogers, Max

What three options do you like most ?

Poll ended at Thu Jun 21, 2012 9:22 pm

- Spam filtering, with white and black listing and move those messages to a spam or trash folder - DONE
57
20%
- Block the preview pane and by that NOT loading e-mails unless opened or needed for the preview pane. - DONE
18
6%
- Option to block loading remote content (mostly pictures) - DONE
22
8%
- Label (flag) messages to categorize them (color or category, like in the other EPIM modules) - DONE
66
24%
- Mark messages (for remembrance or as spam) - DONE
20
7%
- Threading e-mail messages - DONE
31
11%
- Option to apply column changes also to all other accounts/folders - DONE
13
5%
- General option for requesting read receipt confirmations, now this can only be set per e-mail.
11
4%
- Timed e-mails, so you can set a time and date for sending out the e-mail in stead of immediately - DONE
15
5%
- other (1,2,3,4,5 as described in the first message or other own suggestion)
26
9%
 
Total votes: 279

daho2018
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by daho2018 »

Yes, that's right again, my thought was that the invitation comes by email. Hence the idea for mail, but I agree, it's more of a calendar issue :-) Sorry.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by admin »

Yep, got it, thanks!
Android version of EssentialPIM. Keep all your data in sync!
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by norsea »

And, it is now 10 years after this poll was started, and I do not remember when EPIM for Android was first released.......

But here we are, many, many years later and there continues to be a complete refusal to include the email module in the Android version. If the calendar from Thunderbird could be migrated it would seem that the email could as well.

This is the most frustrating issue I have with EPIM - the inability to have the email module in the Android version....

Regards,

Jim
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by Dziktor »

Replying to the 10-month old posts is kind a weird, but that's the way it works here :)

Today I've read that EPIM developers want to finally add an email feature to the Android version and I think this is a horrible idea. IMHO it's a feature that noone really needs. Developing and maintaining e-mail client consumes huge amount of valuable resources that could be used elsewhere. There are tons of great e-mail clients for Android, most of them totally free. Why would anyone need another one inside EssentialPim? There is no real added value here. What we will get will be yet another medicore e-mail client that would require 2 taps instead of one to access. This will come with a cost - we wont't get many other useful features that could be developed instead.

The same situation is with Android calendar app. It's completely useless for most users, as there are tons of better alternatives for Android. Emails and calendars are all standardised multiplatform cloud services, offered by many third party vendors. Every email client and calendar app integrates them easily. Android calendar in Epim is for this extreme minority of users who, for some reason, still use offline EPIM calendars and need to sync them with their smartphone. Android email client will be literally for noone. It's just developing a wheel again - no field for innovation here.

In my opinion Android app should integrate only features unique to EssentialPIM (notes, tasks) and abandon all standard cloud services (calendars, emails). With Windows app it might be a different story. EssentialPim has absolutely best calendar app for Windows. Adding a multiple account sync recently was a real game changer. It's a very convinient alternative to clunky web-browser apps.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by kb5cth »

Dziktor,

First, where did you hear they're finally developing an email module for Android? I'd like to get in on an early source of information myself!

I desperately want an an Android EPIM email module.

Then, the reason I want an Android email module is the ability to sync with Windows EPIM. Currently, I can update my personal calendar wherever I am by updating my phone and syncing to Windows when it is convenient, but I can't see my emails in real-time because I don't have a native EPIM email program. If I download my emails using a different client, then I can't sync the saved or categorized ones to Windows; I must leave the emails on the server and duplicate that effort when I open Windows EPIM next time. Also, the info contained in my many (windows) emails is not currently available on my phone so I can have it any time. Having the both ability to receive my emails as they come in rather than the few times per day that I receive in Windows, and having my saved emails available whenever I'm carrying my phone, would be an incredible help to me.

I value my privacy too much to EVER place my data on any cloud service. Don't even try to sell me on the convenience. My privacy is more important than any "convenience". I much prefer the "closed" system of EPIM Android and Windows (But would prefer syncing via cable rather than wi-fi...again, provides me more assurance that my data remains as far from the internet as possible).

Just my opinion.

Bill L
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by Dziktor »

I got this news from todays newsletter (blog post): https://www.essentialpim.com/blog-and-n ... -in-review

I agree that ability to store data offline in an encrypted container is a huge advantage of EssentialPIM. This is the reason why I still use it for archiving my personal notes and keeping calendar events from various online sources (I've been using EPIM for 20 years or so). I can keep all of that in a single handy encrypted database file. Just a personal journal that I dont' want to share with the world and corporations. Honestly - this is the last thing that keeps me with this app.

But with e-mails this approach seems quite pointless. E-mail is not a secure communication channel in any way. Every email you sent will be stored on at least 2 different email servers (usually google), and it often goes through many poorly secured servers. Even after you delete an e-mail it is still kept on servers for months as backup. You can't also really expect that the persons you communitate with will keep their data secure. Keeping all your email archive in local database is a good practice, as you are not reliant on some remote vendors that can simply delete all your data or make you pay for accessing it. But it's only an illusion of security. Syncing that huge e-mail database across all devices seems a bit odd and counterproductive.

Eventually you can just maintain your own e-mail server and access data with IMAP - which is not that difficult. And for archives - you can just put your Thunderbird folder on VeraCrypt container :)
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by kb5cth »

...or I can sit and patiently await EPIM's Android email module.

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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by norsea »

I have learned, over the years, that the main reason the vast majority of people do not like email and prefer text messaging is something I never considered.

When I first started using email the network we had was using 300 baud modems and dial up UUCP connections between UNIX systems in the 1970's. It took three days to get an email from the West Coast of the US of A to the East Coast. When the internet came along I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

It was during that same time that the first word processing systems were being sold into offices by big blue (IBM) for the use to secretarial staff. I was using what was essentially a typesetting language (NROFF/TROFF) on UNIX systems to prepare any documentation I needed. When PC's started to hit the office space and it was discovered that anyone could prepare documentation the cost savings of being able to do away with typing pools, etc., was enormous.

It was at that time that we were looking at email as well to cut down on interoffice paper that needed humans to pickup/sort/deliver that I discovered what the issue was.

The vast majority of the male population never took a typing class and, as a result, could not spell keyboard to say nothing of use one. The most famous statement of the 70's in that office by the men was, "I don't type. That's women's work".

EMail is considered by many of today's youth as being ancient and outdated. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

And, getting email onto an Android platform means I can push the clunky worthless windows operating system into the trash bin where it has belonged since the day it was developed.

With the hardware that has been available for more than several years, the concept of the PC is dead. What passes as a smart phone today has more horsepower than is needed for communication purposes and is more than capable of replacing the PC. There has been work going on for several years in theatarea. But, there is not another operating system that can replace the functions that are available on windows based PC because the software does not exist. The lack of email in EPiM Android is a great example of this.

The day is not that far off when the PC is going to go the way of the cathode ray tube; for those that do not know what that means, do some homework.

I too have seen the rumor of email being added to Android; this because the data base that EPIM operates on belongs to Mozilla of Firefox fame and is used in Thunderbird which is what EPIM is built on. Mozilla has decided to port the database to Android. I think they understand that the PC is on the way out. All that is needed is a smart phone that can connect to a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I have been using this arrangement for several years thanks to the Samsung Note line of phones. But, the software is lacking for Android. But, it is starting to come to the marketplace as people realize there is a market for it. It has just taken much longer than some of us would like.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by a8907433 »

@Dziktor:

I tried many "free" solutions for email on Android, and none of them convinced me. Most "free" software are not free- you don´t have to pay cash, but you pay with your data. And you get advertising... - no solution for me. On PC I have...... had- now EPIM mail works well- I use EPIM. And on Android I use Aqua Mail. This is the best I could find, but it lacks spam filtering.
So, I am really looking forward to AEPIM´s mail module!

Another reason is, that I trust Astonsoft, and I rather like to have my most important data in one single database.
And, if Astonsoft decided to demand, say, 20€, or even 50€ for the app, I would pay for it!
So, developing an emailclient for AEPIM is no wasting of resources.
That´s my opinion.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by Dziktor »

If you connect a keyboard, mouse and monitor to your smartphone it's still going to be a PC, but with retarded OS. If smartphones are future of computing - it's not going to be bright. What you'll get with mobile OS'es will be cloud services, AI assistants, Tik-Tok, targeted ads, sandboxed apps and subscriptions for every service. Control over your own data is something that will be forbidden sooner or later... Anyway, that was not my point.

I think that EPIM development is really going nowhere. It tries to be a swiss-army knife of productivity tools, but in fact it's just what Outlook should be 25 years ago. EPIM is light years behind modern tools and it's not going to change if Astonsoft will spend all their resources on maintaining and devleoping obsolete or redundant funcionalities. What we get today is a set of basic mediocore features from the floppy disk era and the only added value is integration into sigle application and database file. Windows app is generally well made (especially calendar module). But the Android app is a total bummer.

Why should I ever use a calendar or e-mail module in Andorid-EPIM when I have much better apps for that, already built into the OS (for free). And why would anyone want to pay for it? To back up 20GB of old emails to a handheld device?

IMHO if EPIM has any future it would be a central hub that aggregates and stores all data in a local vault. Noone needs another Outlook clone for Android. For me a most useful part of EPIM is a notes module. It is still far better than OneNote, Evernote etc. But I can only use it on Windows, because android version is so clunky and backward. Instead improving what is left there, they would just add another useless module.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by Dziktor »

@a8907433

The biggest problem is that Astonsoft is a small company, that makes a niche software for 40+ nerds. So i doubt they have money and resources to develop and maintain a proper e-mail client all together with all the other stuff. It will take years to develop and finally we'll get something that is undercooked and barely usable (like the rest of AEPIM). And during that time all other parts will be untouched.

Maintaining a cloud service, fairly complex windows app and android app is a lot of work that needs money, time and skill. If something is for everything - it's for nothing. That's my opinion.

Users rarely request less features - they always demand more. But I would rather see Epim as a well made multiplatform database/notes tool that a mediocore complex tool for nothing specific.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by Steve Shank »

Just adding my personal take:
1. I'm happy with the paid version of AquaMail. Like some others, I'd rather pay with a few dollars than pay with my privacy. But, I manage my mail in Windows and don't bother with tags etc. on Android. I'll take care of that stuff at the office. All I need out of the office is in the cloud with IMAP, not locally stored. So, an email program is irrelevant for me.
2. I don't cloud sync my calendar. I sync directly between my android devices and my windows computer, so the calendar is important to me.
3. I need my contacts, tasks and calendar synced between my computer and android devices and I get that. - Still not doing their cloud sync, but not ruling it out.
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by M&M »

My suggestions:

viewtopic.php?t=38292
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Re: POLL: e-mail improvement suggestions

Post by a8907433 »

For the mail module in AEPIM I hope it will support POP3 so it can load the WEPIM database. I have stored Emails from the late ninetens on in my POP3 account, I don´t want to miss them in AEPIM!!
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