ESPIRIDION  Postbox has a few things going against it:

-It's based on a free alternative, yet costs $40 without adding much value. If I had to use something like this, I would probably use Eudora (Free).

-Only option to import email is from Apple Mail, which I don't use. I will add that this is the only option initially. It also includes options to import Mail from Communicator 4 and Eudora. I probably used both roughly 10 years ago!

-Version 1.1.5 identified an update. The downloaded update was also 1.1.5.

-Automatic configuration took a relatively long time, and in the end I had to manually correct some settings. It still would not work. I uninstalled, re-installed, tried to configure my account 2 more times, and it finally "seemed" to work.

Importing email from other programs requires this extension I found while testing Eudora instead:

http://nic-nac-project.de/~kaosmos/mboximport-en.html

The bottom line is that this is way overpriced for a version 1, paid email client. When I bought PowerMail years ago, its added value was immediately evident; incredible search speed. Same with Mailsmith; customization and power were its advantages. There's really nothing that impressed me about Postbox.

Postbox may become a great email client in the future, but for now I'll stick to Entourage for multiple IMAP and POP accounts, and Mailsmith just for fun for a POP account I seldom use. BTW, both integrate flawlessly with SpamSieve.

I have to agree with the rating of the previous reviewers and will give it 2 stars for now. For $40 I was expecting much more. Even for $20 -which was the recent promo price- I passed. I do hope this gets better, since the company seems to be somewhat responsive to customer's needs.  
(Version 1.1.5)

ENLIGHT  I was trying out the beta before they released Postbox and once I found out they were charging I declined the final release. I prefer the Mac mail program and haven't looked at any other mail programs since.  
(Version 1.1.5)

MIKENESMITH  In response to multiple users requests for SpamSieve integration (as the built-in spam filters in Postbox [and Thunderbird] are pretty useless, one of the Postbox developers passed along a wordy "screw you" [http://postbox.zendesk.com/entries/197286-support-for-spam-sieve].

Since most of the "billion users" noted don't appear to really care what email product they're using, the developers should be focusing on the minority of those who see email as a vitally important application for their workflow and are willing to pay for a premium product (instead of packaged Outlook/Entourage from MS, or freeware Thunderbird).

So Postbox developers -- you really ought to meet the needs of people willing to pay more for a viable product. Since you're making it even more difficult for plug-in developers than Mozilla, you ought to be more proactive at encouraging useful add-ons (rather than, for example, the extraordinarily useful "Hebrew date in status bar" or "world weather" ones).

But instead, the multiple users who have independently requested SpamSieve integration are told too bad for you:

SpamSieve requires AppleScript, so it would be a lot of work to get this up and running in Postbox.

When assigning priority to features, one of the things we look at is total addressable market (in addition to customer demand, engineering effort, risk, alternatives, etc.). For example:

- Features for both Windows and Mac users (billion users)

- Features for Mac users (50 million)

- Features for Mac users who are using a specific application (much, much less)

As we move down the funnel, the market gets smaller and smaller.

So the lack of SpamSieve support is due to a somewhat small addressable market, advancements in server-side spam filtering from ISPs, high engineering effort, and other features that appear to be higher in customer demand.

SpamSieve requires AppleScript, so it would be a lot of work to get this up and running in Postbox.

When assigning priority to features, one of the things we look at is total addressable market (in addition to customer demand, engineering effort, risk, alternatives, etc.). For example:

* Features for both Windows and Mac users (billion users)

* Features for Mac users (50 million)

* Features for Mac users who are using a specific application (much, much less)

As we move down the funnel, the market gets smaller and smaller.

So the lack of SpamSieve support to date is due to a somewhat smaller addressable market, advancements in server-side spam filtering from ISPs, high engineering effort, and other features that appear to be higher in customer demand.

Jul-08 2010 07:07.  
(Version 1.1.5)

LORD LIGHTNING  Well after a week of Postbox I'm back to Mail with Rocketbox and Letterbox- yes I was a fool for trusting the Postbox hype. All in all it is adequate - except that I can't fathom how to do some things and the web forum is pretty opaque.

For example, If I want to forward an email but not all of its images Postbox doesn't help with any obvious or intuitive way of doing this.

I have many mailbox folders I managed to import into Postbox - but they all ended up in the ACCOUNTS panel in a folder called LOCAL FOLDERS and not in the FOLDERS panel. When I click on this LOCAL FOLDERS icon the mailbox folders then appear in FOLDERS panel but disappear when I click on an email I want to drag to a mailbox folder.

I also don't appear to be able to use colour to code emails visually as I want to.

There is no link to the Postbox site from the application - well I can't find one.

RECOMMEND - NO! Not until it is a lot more mature and provides genuine capabilties that Mail and Thunderbird do. Yes it does some things they don't - but not the really important things I need - Folders that are located in the FOLDERS panel and stay open and also allow you to drag an email to them - preferably a highlighted ID line.

This still an aspirational application, not a mature one.

Jeez I feel ripped off.

Two stars at best.  
(Version 1.1.5)

LORD LIGHTNING  Well after a week of postbox I'm back to Mail with Rocketbox and Letterbox- yes I was a fool for trusting the Postbox hype. Al in all it is adequate - except that I can't fathom how to do some things and the web forum is pretty opaque.

For exaple, If I want to forward an email but not all of its images Postbox doesn't help with any obvious way of doing this. It may be possible but it is not obvious or intuitive.

I have many mailboxe folders I managed to import into Postbox - but they all ended up in ACCOUNTS in a folder called LOCAL FOLDERS and not in the FOLDERS panel. When I click on this LOCAL FOLDERS account the mailbox folders appear in FOLDERS but disappear when I click on an email I want to drag to a mailbox folder.

I don't appear to be able to use colour to code emails visually as I want to.

There is no link to the Postbox site from the application - well I can't find one.

RECOMMEND - NO! Not until it is a lot more mature and provides genuine capabilties that Mail and Thunderbird do. Yes it does some things they don't - but not the really important things I need - Folders that are located in the FOLDERS panel and stay open and allow you to drag an email to them - preferably a highlighted ID line. This still an aspirational application, not a mature one.

Jeez I feel ripped off.

Two stars at best.  
(Version 1.1.5)

L0XBY  decent alternative to entourage or apple mail. works well with gmail imap. can reply without quoting the original message while keeping it threaded; something you can't even do with the browser-based gmail.

however, i noticed every few minutes postbox will spike the cpu while it's sitting in the background. as there is no activity monitor within the app, it's impossible to tell what postbox is doing that would cause the cpu to be maxed out.  
(Version 1.1.4)

MIKENESMITH  A useful alternative to Thunderbird for users with relatively simple needs. However, not a great client for people with multiple email accounts on various protocols (eg, gmails + pop accounts + exchange server accounts). Managed to get all but one account working, loaded in about 70,000+ messages in various folders, then evidently made the mistake of trying to add an IMAP Exchange account. Worked fine at first, but upon trying to reopen Postbox it kept crashing and wouldn't even provide a crash log.

So, after all the time spent having to click every mailbox transferred, right-click and say "mark all as read", and on and on with that process, it simply wasn't worth doing again. (Yes, there's a menu item for marking all emails within a folder as read, but it doesn't work -- as multiple users have documented on the developer support forums). And this, then, isn't worth $40 (or $65, if you're foolish enough to believe "lifetime" upgrades will last for your lifetime in connection with this application).

While Search in Postbox is better than standard Thunderbird, it's not faster than Apple MAIL with Rocketbox (which is far cheaper than Postbox at $15). So for OS X users, a better option for the same cost would be Rocketbox + Mail Act-On. (And no, I don't have any connection with any of these companies, nor do I know any of their developers or other staff.) Also, since Postbox is based on T-bird 3, there is no SpamSieve option available, and the built-in spam filter is less than great.

Anyway, Postbox is fine for those looking for an alternative to Thunderbird with better search and lower-level email requirements. And for Mac users, it's much better than Mailforge (as of 1.4.7, though it's developer continues to make grand promises for v2+).

But why is it that none of these current email applications provide the speed, search options (and speed), filter options (and speed), and general stability of the old Eudora (v6+ on Mac, v7+ on Windows)? Even odder is that some of the original Eudora developers continue to work on the Thunderbird variant (Penelope), but that app remains a fairly useless beta with darn few of Eudora's old features.

Why can't Qualcomm just release the application code for the original Eudoras and let someone tweak those for use on OS X 10.5+ and Win 7?  
(Version 1.1.4)

BOB T  I have signed up for the lifetime use of this software.

I currently do not use it.

The spam filter is confusing, and, not very good, IMO. Many potential users have asked for SPAMSIEVE to be an add-on or the in-program spam filter. The author of Spamsieve has offered (many moons ago!) to develop his spam filter for this program.

The Postbox folks have not really explained why they do not want this integration with Postbox, unless I missed something in their forum?  
(Version 1.1.4)

FUHAYER  i do not think i will use this till they put unified inbox.  
(Version 1.1.4)

PROGRAMHAPPY  Please add an "Email" column so that we may sort emails strictly by email address instead of "Sender."  
(Version 1.1.4)