smart technology for smarter small businesses
It is very common knowledge that Gmail is a free service that scrapes the content of your emails to target advertising your way. I thought that by using a third party email client – in my case Postbox and emClient – I could avoid being targeted by Google. Wrong!
I read online that Gmail scrapes the information contained in emails from online retailers such as Amazon and stores them in a Purchases Section of your account.
Newton was probably the best Android email client that has ever graced the pages of the Play store but it will cease to exist come late September. It follows in the footsteps of Sunrise as a stunning app that died an untimely death. Despite its brilliance, Newton never recovered from the decision to charge $50 a year subscription. So, the hunt was on for a replacement and I think I have found one with BlueMail.
I have never been a fan of web browser-based email interfaces, preferring instead to use a third-party email client. This started back in the dark days of the web with Eudora, The Bat!, Pocomail – the list goes on and on. Do a search here for Mailbird and you will find I was initially smitten, but a number of issues saw me transfer my allegiance to Postbox and that was when further issues emerged.
Sometime after I retired, I was approached to do some consultancy for a company and, recently, they updated the required email signature to include graphics. Now I could have used Outlook which does handle formatted signatures well but I consider this a piece of bloated crapware. Postbox would initially take the formatted signature, but lose the graphics when the app was shut down. That was when I discovered eM Client.
I have long maintained that if an app or service is of great benefit to you, then it is worth paying for. Hell, I even wrote a post about the services I am more than happy to pay for. But there is a band of people who believe that everything they want on the net is free and their right to use as such. A case in point is CloudMagic which recently returned as Newton with a stack of turbocharged added extras. A typical discourse would have been:
“Wow! CloudMagic is the best free email app for Android and IoS with some fab features. It really is head and tails above anything else on the market and I cannot envisage using another mobile email solution. Great, I have just tread that CloudMagic is changing its name to Newton and will have even more great value added modules. I can’t wait.
“Hang on, they want to charge for Newton? Screw that. I am dumping this and going with Outlook. It may be crap but it’s free!”
Great strides in mobile technology and communications have meant that the smartphone and tablet has become an essential tool for most workers as the move to mobile working away from a main office or headquarters is becoming more common. Part of the reason is that with the development of effective online collaboration tools, remote working and BOYD strategies enable employers to recruit from a talent pool outside of their geographic area.
A survey carried out by Wrike, which provides online task and project management services, reveals that mobile working is critical for a growing number of workers. More than 44% of the 850 people interviewed use their devices more than 40 times a day, primarily for picking up emails and to phone others.
What I find striking is that within the last two years how Bring You Own Device (BYOD) policies have evolved and been accepted despite companies voicing fears about security and data management when BOYD first started to come to the forefront of new working practices.