ChatterEmail is by far one of the most popular email email clients available.  Today we talk with Marc Blank about ChatterEmail, IM, and IMAP.

MTDN: I understand you’re ready to release a new version of ChatterEmail that supports pop3?



MB: Right. I’m working on adding POP3 support to ChatterEmail, and I expect the first beta that includes POP3 to be released later this week. I’ve resisted working on POP3 for a long time, but I think it’s a very good thing for my customers.



MTDN: It may even garner you some new customers. Personally, I haven’t tried it because I only have pop accounts.



MB: Among other things, I hope it helps make the point that “push” is only one of the unique features that ChatterEmail provides, and (in my opinion) not even the most important. ChatterEmail has been (properly, I suppose) pigeonholed as a “push” app, and that makes some sense, in that “push” is an easily understandable feature.



MTDN: So what would you rate as the most important feature(s)?



MB: I’m glad you asked … I think the most important feature is that ChatterEmail is asynchronous, which means that it’s running WHILE you work (whether in ChatterEmail or in another app) and it doesn’t tie up your Treo.



MTDN: I definitely agree with that. Those of us left out in the cold all this time because of our pop accounts have been drooling over that feature. You can’t find it in any other email client.



MB: So while you’re reading a message in ChatterEmail (or working in calendar, etc.) ChatterEmail is reading and sending your mail. All of the time invisibly



MTDN: And here people have said you can’t truly multitask/multithread on the Treo!



MB: Interestingly enough, people at PalmOne (including the #3 fellow there) have asked me how it’s done…



MTDN: I’m sure they’d love to know! There are a few things their engineers seem to have missed.



MB: I’m sure the engineers have an idea, but the marketing folks don’t necessarily realize what can be done. I’ve got lots of customers who are finally happy to have gotten rid of their Blackberry’s.



MTDN: I know that’s right. The Treo line has so much more to offer.



MB: No question.



MTDN: What other features set ChatterEmail above the competition?



MB: Well, ChatterEmail is a very powerful IMAP client, certainly far more so than VersaMail and SnapperMail. IMAP allows for real-time “always on” (as they say) access to email, and nobody is really taking advantage of this. So I am, in real-time, deleting, moving, uploading, loading, etc. messages from multiple folders on my server. The “offline” approach reminds me of batch jobs on mainframes in the 60’s and early 70’s.



MTDN: What inspired you to start with IMAP as opposed to the more mundane pop3?



MB: IMAP is absolutely ideal for the mobile environment, and most people have the ability to utilize it at little or no additional cost. But it is “new” (created only 11 years ago, as opposed to POP3, which has been around for 30 years). I wanted real-time mail; something like IM using email. And I did some research, and discovered that I could do exactly what I wanted with IMAP. And then, over time, I learned how much more powerful IMAP was, and how I could use it effectively.



MB: My users have driven a great deal of the functionality in ChatterEmail. I’ve got to say that they are the real reason I keep going.



MTDN: I’ve noticed - your users seem to be a downright fan club.



MB: I feel the same way about them; this is something that I miss from the early days in the software business (in the late 70’s and early 80’s). It’s very gratifying to work directly with your customers. I should say, “ones customers.”



MTDN: One of the nice things about the MTDN community is the bond forged between our Star Developers and the users.



MB: I agree; it’s a very inviting place to visit. The give and take is very valuable.



MTDN: And they certainly don’t have any qualms about giving you advice or pointing out trouble, do they.



MB: No, and that’s the best part. I think I’ve got some talent on the development side, but I don’t claim to know what “real” users need. Without them, I really wouldn’t know which way to move.



MTDN: That’s quite an admission. I can’t imagine that coming from some places where they think they can tell the users what they need.



MB: I’m not “religious” when it comes to my work; I’m very open-minded about what I’m doing.



MTDN: That benefits everyone.



MB: Absolutely. I have no trouble admitting when I’m wrong, or changing my mind 180 degrees about something. POP3 is a good example of that, as are the recent addition of SMS triggers. I don’t particularly like either one, but the bottom line is that people need them, and I’ll try to accommodate them if I have the time and energy.



MB: POP3 (at least thus far) has been very simple to add to ChatterEmail. I’m about two days into it, and it works fine receiving mail on my T650. There’s a lot more to be done, but basic functionality is pretty close.



MTDN: I’m all for that. My 650 is scheduled for delivery tomorrow…I think I’ll hold off on loading Snapper onto it and wait until your new version is ready and give it a spin. This is exciting!



MB: You should try them all; that’s the beauty of trial periods.



MTDN: I’ve been using Snapper for a year or so. But I’ve always heard such wonderful things about Chatter. I’ve just been waiting for pop3. Tell me about the SMS triggers.



MB: Oh, it’s a way of getting a “pseudo-push” experience, but it requires that your mail host can send an SMS to your phone when new mail arrives. It was pretty simple to add the capability to ChatterEmail; it took all of an hour. I suspect there are some tweaks still needed, but it appears to be quite effective.



MTDN: How does one determine that?



MB: Honestly, I don’t know (I don’t use the feature, since I use real push). You’d have to ask one of my users that asked for the feature!



MTDN: Actually, I’m not all that excited about the push experience - my mail will be there when I get to it. But the background fetch/send is another matter.



MB: The cool thing about real push is that you can have something approaching a conversation using it. People are astounded at how quickly I get back to them at times. But for personal email that isn’t necessarily timely, there’s no great advantage to it.



MTDN: Speaking of conversations…ChatterEmail is something that grew out of your chatter IM client, isn’t it?



MB: Well, yes and no. This all started because I wanted to keep in touch with a friend in NYC. I couldn’t find an email app that wasn’t slow, so I wrote a simple IMAP client. And then he said, “Why are you wasting your time with email. Just get IM on your phone.” But I couldn’t find a good IM app either, so I discovered Jabber and decided to write a client for that as well. And then I started letting some people on the boards use it. And they all had ideas for what it should do… This was over two years ago.



MTDN: I remember.



MB: It was (and to some extent is) a hobby of mine, in the sense that I’m doing what I enjoy. The project wasn’t started as a commercial enterprise by any means. I’m a big believer in the idea that you need passion to make great applications; it’s hard to innovate when it’s just a “job”.



MTDN: It’s especially gratifying to be able to earn a living doing something you are truly passionate about.



MB: Yes, the money part is entirely an afterthought. People have been telling me for a LONG time that I should charge, and then that I should charge more…. I have mixed feelings about it, frankly.



MTDN: It’s a tough decision.



MB: Having charged for the application, I feel a great deal of responsibility for making things “right” for my customers.



MTDN: So you won’t do like some of our favorites and charge exorbitant amounts every year for upgrades, real or imagined?



MB: I will NEVER charge for upgrades. Period.



MTDN: Music to my ears!



MB: I hate paying for upgrades, and I don’t much like hypocrites. If I add some substantial new functionality (i.e. something beyond email, like contacts or calendar sync), then that’s a different story. I’d package that part separately and charge for it; but I wouldn’t raise the price for the “main” application, and I wouldn’t make the new part a “required” upgrade. Every week, some old IM customer from a year or two back, asks if they can upgrade and use the new email app. And I’m happy to give it to them!



MTDN: Upgrades once again reminds me of our maddening rush to upgrade our Treos. Tell me how you came to the Treo in the first place.



MB: I’m a gadget freak. There, I said it. The Treo seemed to have the data functionality I was looking for…



MTDN: It’s cathartic to admit it. ;)



MB: Yes, I feel better now.



MTDN: What is the status of the old IM client?



MB: That’s a tough question (the IM client). The newest versions of ChatterEmail don’t have IM support (I was running low on memory in the app), and that has been problematic for some of my old users. I’m going to try to bring it back for them, but it’s hard to do. I haven’t given out new IM accounts in nine months now, so we’re talking about a relatively small group of people (I’d guess less than a hundred left at this point). Chatter made a terrific IM application, IMHO, but I don’t enjoy maintaining a server and having the ongoing support issues. What’s needed, I think, is something that talks directly to the various IM systems. But I don’t know of anything like that.



MTDN: How badly does the memory issue of the Treo 650 effect that?



MB: The T650 memory issue isn’t related, actually.



MTDN: That’s surprising.



MB: No, this is a technical issue related to background processing.



MTDN: It’s really nice for a change to hear someone not blaming the memory issue.



MB: The issue has never really bothered me, frankly. But I know it’s been troublesome for others.



MTDN: So another few days for the new release, eh?



MB: It will be a beta; not really a release. And it won’t have full functionality; my goal is POP3 without attachments for the first pass. And then on to attachments (which are a nightmare in POP3). Nightmare for users, I should say.



MTDN: How do you mean?



MB: Slow, painful, expensive (data and battery wise). IMAP handles attachments in a hugely better way. Ok, so let’s say I’m loading the first 20 lines of messages, ok?



MTDN: Ok.



MB: In POP3, I (or Snapper or VersaMail) can tell that the message is 250k, for example, but I have no idea whether that’s one attachment or two or twenty. And I have no idea what their names are. So in order to know what’s there, I have to READ it. If there’s a 1k attachment that I’m interested in at the end of that 250k, I have to read all 249k of what comes first to get there. Which means, I have to SAVE that 250k somewhere. (at least, temporarily) So I effectively have to read the whole thing just to know what’s there!



MB: And let’s say I then throw away the 1k attachment, but some time later, I want it again - I have to read the whole 250k again!



MTDN: But not so with IMAP?



MB: With IMAP, I get the attachment names and sizes immediately and can load whichever ones I want. To read that 1k attachment in the example I gave, I have to read 1k. So POP3 is ENORMOUSLY inefficient when it comes to attachments.



MB: Here’s another thing. Let’s say I want to read the first 20 lines. In POP3, I have to read the FULL headers and then the 20 lines. Now, let’s say I want to read the next 20 lines. I have to read the full headers and the first 20 lines AGAIN to read the next 20 lines! It’s insane, especially on a phone with limited bandwidth and battery.



MTDN: Why do you suppose more ISP’s don’t offer IMAP as standard instead of pop3?



MB: Most ISP’s do offer IMAP, I think. It’s just that most users don’t know what it is. That’s why I often sound so shrill about how horrible POP3 is; it’s really, really user-unfriendly. (Of course, if it’s just short personal mail, then none of this matters!)



MTDN: Maybe it’s time for a user revolt: IMAP for all!



MB: There’s a lot of inertia, and most people will stick with what they know, even if they realize it’s not ideal.



MTDN: The learning curve can be a killer.



MB: It’s not hard to use IMAP at all; in fact, they are virtually identical when getting started. I mean, you put in the server, login name, and password, and off you go.



MTDN: Sounds easy enough.



MB: That’s really all there is, but there are LOTS of options after that (for those that are interested).



MTDN: I’m sure you’ll find loads of interest!



MB: I guess we’ll see; I hope not too much!



MTDN: Marc, I want to thank you for your time and energy, both for your product, and talking to me this evening.



MB: No problem. As you can tell, I enjoy talking to people about it….



MTDN: I’m really looking forward to the release of your beta - I’ll be trying it as soon as it’s ready!



MTDN: I’m glad you do.



MB: Well, any time…



MTDN: I wish you lots of luck, and will see you in the forums!



MB: ok, thanks.



Discuss the possibilities of the new beta here.

Filed under: Editorials