3D Mailbox - Making E-Mail Fun But Not Practical
Now I heard about this on TechCrunch. The headline was 3D Mailbox: Worst. App. Ever. So I was intrigued as worst app ever is a pretty low bar to actually get. So I read their review. It didn’t look good so far!
So then i watched the trailer for the software. It’s looks like someone had gone into Second Life and record some video from it. But then you realise its the actual advert. I have added it below.
After watching it I thought I would actually try it for myself so I downloaded the massive 72mb file. I think that file is quite big for a small e-mail client! Ayway I am running it right now and am going through the set up, I have included some screenshots below.
Update: But then again Halflife demo is not much bigger and that has a 3D shader built in.
After I installed the software I immediately started it up. The first time it runs it asks you for your rquest code and your e-mail address. Then you are asked to enter your SMTP settings etc. This is all fairly standard, similar to setting up Microsoft Outlook.
As I have my own hosting set up I entered my configuration manually. Next you go on to the main screen as it finishes loading the 3D UI up. The default “level” is Miami Beach.
Then once that has loaded I made sure I had an e-mail come in. By the way one setting you can change is to say that 3D Mailbox will not delete the mail off the server. This then allows me to carry on using outlook as my main client whilst testing this new program out.
When the new mail comes in it moves the camera to the entrace and your mail walks on and talks to a police officer. There is a spam filter built in that starts trainign after the first few emails. A nice touch, Outlook by default doesn’t have that!
Then your e-mail wal around in different ways depending on their status. Either jumping into the pool, going to the beach or sun bathing. Rober Savage the creator of this program says below:
There’s a metaphor for everything in 3D Mailbox. Good mail goes to the pool until you read it… spam goes to the beach… mail classified as unsure goes to the ice rink, etc
Right… Here comes my opinion. Well I think it’s a great idea to make an e-mail client more interesting. The Second Life phonemeno has increased the popularity of 3D worlds including MyMiniLife, we featured them a few months ago. But after all this it actually reminded me that an e-mail client is there for the pure function of sending and receiving e-mails. The way they have implemented it is great. But I don’t think I will be using it at all. It’s just a very odd program, very well made but serves no function at all. The website they have looks like a lot of work and money has gone into it and I think it’s a shame how little I think it will be used.
What is your opinion? If yuou want to download it you can go to the 3D Mailbox site.
Update: Taking into account some of the things Robert Page put into the first comment below I have update the post to suit.
Hey Ollie,
Thanks for doing your own research and not running with (some of) the lemmings into the sea of negativity.
I’m the creator of 3D Mailbox, which as you see is getting a LOT of buzz. Saying an application is the “worst ever” is actually a blessing, especially when the judgment is made by people who don’t even bother using the program and seeing the immense amount of useful features and fun it contains.
I appreciate you putting the screenshots of the app in your post, though there are a number of inaccuracies in what you say: “Ff there’s a spam filter I assume it will go here” — there is an integrated SpamBayes filter, and all you have to do is train a few messages for it to start learning on its own.
Also, new mail doesn’t walk aimlessly — there’s a metaphor for everything in 3D Mailbox. Good mail goes to the pool until you read it… spam goes to the beach… mail classified as unsure goes to the ice rink, etc. Actually, check out the screenshots page on our site and it explains everything:
http://www.3dmailbox.com/snapshots/index.html
Lastly, 73 MB is not a large download for a 3D shader-based engine + email client. Check out HalfLife2 for a filesize comparison
Thanks again for your mention!
That’s no problem. My review was based on about 20mins use with one e-mail coming in. It looks like alot of work has gone into it. I will update the inaccuracies.
As they say all publicity is good publicity!
This is a riot. I can’t believe anyone thought for a second that this would appeal to anyone.