in Productivity, Reviews
Postbox: A Powerful, Fresh Mail Client
There have not really been any real alternatives to Apple Mail on the Mac apart from Microsoft Entourage and Mozilla Thunderbird and because of that it is with happiness that we are giving one of the latest mail clients for the Mac, Postbox, a spin.
The Interface
Postbox is developed both for Mac and Windows which as usual shows through in certain parts of the app. It feels more like a “macified” Thunderbird than anything else, which it, to a certain point in user interface actually is.
It is a bit of a mix between the traditional mail client and Safari in that it has tabbed views at the top, making it simple to switch between different areas of your mail organization.
Feature Richness & Extendibility
There is no doubt about it. Postbox is quite a feature rich application, supporting all from emailing to to-do items. The email comes with some solid organization features.
One of my favorite features when it comes to organization is their topics feature, not quite unlike tags. You create topics that you can later assign incoming mails to. This way, you can easily keep personal mail from work which is neat if you do both from the same application.
Postbox is very extendable
Postbox has its own extensions feature and from their website you can download quite a few extensions, adding features you might like to use, such as Growl notifications or canned message templates.
Social Media Sharing
When I got a little information bar asking me if I wanted to connect Postbox to Facebook for the first time, I wondered what on earth that was. So far in my world, my email has never tried to connect itself with Facebook, Twitter or FriendFeed which Postbox is capable of doing.
Sure enough though, you might get mails that you want to share and you do have the functionality, which I must say is interesting.
Conclusion
Postbox is a solid client. Perhaps it ought to be lifted a bit when it comes to some of the interface as it feels a bit cluttered like I always felt Thunderbird did in comparison with both Apple Mail and Microsoft Entourage.
There is no doubting the fact that it is powerful and has features that will help you sort your mail and organize it in a heartbeat. I am in love with the topics and tagging features already and definitely would wish to see that in Apple Mail for example.
Summary
Postbox lets you work with email the way you've always wanted. Powered by an ultra-fast email engine and a sharp-looking, intuitive interface, Postbox will help you focus, save time, and get more done.
Pros:
Cons:
- Postbox
- Postbox Inc.
- $29.95
- Mac OS X 10.4 or later
About Erik Bernskiold
Erik is the owner of the Bernskiold Media Group and is a Web Designer, Photographer and Software-Trainer. He is interested in all aspects of graphic design and media production as well as gadgets and technology.
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Using this app since two weeks and I’m quite satisfied as Mail.app is not the right client when it comes down to handling a lot of mails (besides, Entourage is a bad joke and not even a shadow of Outlook).
What I don’t quite understand about this review is: You seem to like the app, the only negative aspect you mention is the fact that you consider the interface a bit cluttered … and then only 4/10 points? Don’t quite understand this …
(personally I’d rate it around 7-8/10)
Whoops! It slipped when I added this, from my mind that I recently changed to a 10 scale instead of a five scale. 4/5 it should have read in that case, and 8/10! Thanks for the notice! Updated and fixed.
Okay, now we are cool!
Great to see it reviewed – I really like the app and I really appreciate the great student discounts the devs offer!
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