I think all locals/natives to the 312 and 773 still refer to it as such. Ain't changing!
You can run your caldav/carddav service in your local network, if you are so inclined. You will get local sync, and the client authors do not have to build specific desktop-based tools.
I for one do not want to return 15 years back, to serial/irda/bluetooth sync, having to think about sync, and eventually forgetting. Running a local service is much preferable, with devices syncing themselves as they see fit.
At the end of the day, I want all my personal events, contacts, todos, and notes on my laptop and able to sync directly with my phone. I'm happy enough with my current bluetooth sync and wouldn't trade it for UI changes.
But for running on your laptop? Yes, nextcloud is overkill, it is not contacts/calendar server in the first place. I would look for smaller, more focused tools instead, baikal for example. For another inspiration, you can have a look at what davx5 -- the caldav/carddav provider for android -- tests against (https://www.davx5.com/tested-with).
It's very easy to install and does not require a DB. As a bonus, it stores everything as files which can be read and edited manually. It does require python.
The main issue is that I only touch it every five years or so, and at that point, I've forgotten what it is called or where it is running!
(I use synology's HyperBackup to E2E encrypt + backup it and a bunch of other docker containers.)
Here is a list of 11 options:
Seriously that's how most of the UI trends feel like
For myself I'm aware of a bunch of bugs in Thunderbird affecting my experience and I'd rather these were fixed first.
I'm going to go out on a limb and disagree. I left K-9 ages ago, because unfortunately for ages it had no Material Design.
These upcoming changes are a modernisation. That's good for mass appeal. Mass users don't want an app which looks antiquated.
As one who fairly loathes Material Design (especially on mobile), I was hoping cketti would fix what's wrong with Thunderbird, rather than Thunderbird ruining the best Android email client out there, which is now looking like an almost certainty.
I really hope there's a good fork.
I was using Outlook on Android, but I was finding it pretty heavy/slow. Looked for other alternatives, like K9 and Spark, and choose Spark exactly because of the UI/UX.
So here's one potential user who would welcome a more modern interface.
Maybe you should give it another shot – they changed the UI quite recently (a year ago?)
That's pretty spot on. Another example is Eclipse. I swear by it, and it handles everything for me. But when I show it to someone the first question is when did it last updated, because it looks very old.
Eclipse releases a new version every three months.
"This rotary phone in the office is perfectly fine and usable! The new-hires just need to learn how it works, and then it's the exact same thing."
Further, I have witnessed people not understand rotary phones. Plunk one down in front of 10 teenagers and I would wager few indeed would intuit it immediately.
Regardless, on the topic of drawing new users, if the users truly are "new", then any look will be unfamiliar to them, but yes, luring users over from competitors may be tricky.
I don't really know about the dated look, though. For example in computer UI design we had flat, then went shapely, then went flat again. It reminds me of architecture: there is always the disconnect between people who like an older style (like when Classical Mediterranean architecture came back in vogue and we saw a bunch of public buildings being built with all pillars and triangles) and people who want some kind of new experimental style (like when Jugendstil started appearing).
There is always a balance that can be found between finding a presentation that aligns with market trends and a presentation that stands out and draws attention. It's up to the people running the show where on the axis they decide to plant themselves.
Well, your example was training a chimpanzee to do it vs. can teenagers use it without training. And I think they can and maybe even think it is cool, but unless you want to harness that coolness retro factor it makes 0 sense to use a rotary phone for actual use. It is way slower and therefore less efficient. But of course it would beat a modern phone that just looks cool, but only randomly works.
Which would be my requirement for any tool. Functionality first, looks second.
To get some traction and momentum to actually become a serious alternative. New users can also mean new funds and not just more work(like it should be), like for example the blender foundation is proofing that this is possible. Make something that really works and once some actual buisnesses are using it, there will be ways for funding it.
Attempting to paint "strong usability" through the lens of existing users only (the guy who already knows how to use a rotary phone) is a lopsided view of the goals for an app creator.
An operator is like Siri or Alexa, but capable of passing a Turing test.
- you can blindly hit the keys on a dial pad if you remember their position, on a rotary you probably need to count the clicks
- on a rotary you probably can’t look back at the number you already inputed
- traditional ones won’t have * and #
- no speakerphone feature, which many older people would benefit of
- no mute
- no phone number memory/speed dial
It’s actually fun to think about how much it has changed since the earlier phones, as the land lines are progressively getting obsoleted as well.
I could imagine a modern version of the rotary UI, as a swipe input interface for instance, but it would still be clunky IMO
Constantly evolving UI thought experiments are largely responsible for the sorry state of software today.
Maybe the new-hires need a healthy dose of shut-up-and-listen, and do need to learn how it works.
The think there are also lots of UX improvements that would be great. Right now the threading UI is awkward. I'm really glad that swipe actions and swiping between messages have landed as well.
I like K9 but I can definitely see the benefit of better UX.
Little UI design changes are NOT what you should be spending time/money on; they are a waste of effort given K9's already strong usability. I acknowledge it's your time/money but this does not make the app any more appealing. I know I sound like a broken record [1] but, at minimum, I believe Thunderbird could take quite a few users (who prefer privacy-focused apps) from both Google and Microsoft (not to mention 3rd-party apps [2] [3] [4]) by integrating functionality at the local level. This would be a considerable (IMO) differentiation in functionality. I will continue to use Outlook until there is a significant justification to switch to Thunderbird. And until "Thunderbird for Android" is significantly differentiated in functionality (i.e., ignoring UI), it will remain branded in my mind as K9.
- Signed: someone who still calls a tall building in Chicago as the Sears Tower
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31728531
[2] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.callicia.b...
[3] https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-us/thunderbird/addon/mypho...
[4] https://generalsync.com/en/