SynapseLife is a suite of integrated online applications for managing various parts of your life. The company is currently accepting email addresses for beta release notification on the first of October.
SynapseLife is the first consumer play of Synapse Corporate Solutions, a four person Seattle team founded by Daniel Rust and Mark Michael. The basic applications will be free with premium applications available.
There’s eight ajax applications scheduled to be in the initial release. A contacts manager, calendar, email broadcast tool, to-do lists, a financial ledger, a feed reader, favorites and tagging. All of the applications will be fully accessible by mobile device; there will be three versions of the site, a text only version for simple phones, a version with more graphics for PDAs and the basic browser version.
The contacts manager will integrate with the email broadcast service, for sending email blasts to groups of people. Emails will go out through SynapseLife but will have your regular email as the reply to address.
The calendar app will include the ability to create events and manage RSVPs – invitees will receive emails containing a link to a page for your event where they can provide information like the number of guests they’ll be bringing.
The RSS feed reader aims to be highly customizable and there’s an online bookmarking function. Content throughout the suite will be searchable by tags.
The company plans to release an API to allow other functionality to be added or for Synapse to be plugged in to other systems by third party developers. The personal applications described above will be free and users will have the option to pay for additional features aimed at small business and entrepreneurial needs. Those features will be based on the company’s legacy web service, which will be upgraded for the demanding Web 2.0 aficionado.
This is a great example of the kind of lightweight bundle of applications I expect to see a lot more of in the future. Yahoo! Mobile offers a similar but different feature set.
How is this different than the 100 other calendar/contact managers out there?
plus feed reader, social bookmarking, to do lists, a ledger and on a phone. see above.
I like that they made it mobile-friendly. I imagine most of the value of a centrally located contact list or calendar like this is that it can replace Outlook on your PC, PDA, and everywhere else, without having to sync data, ever again. Pretty nice.
SynapseLife bears more similarity to LifeIO and Outlook than any of the stand-alone contact management, to-do list, feed aggregation or calendar applications. Here’s the problem – I don’t think consumers (even prosumers) want complex, monolithic applications. Rather, they want, and can more easily adopt, applications that perform a single function well, across multiple platforms and mediums. Apple figured this out a while back (see Mail, Address Book, and iCal + .mac and iSync) and now with Vista Calendar, Mail and Live, Microsoft is doing the same thing.
Isn’t this already a saturated market? Why butt heads with giants?
Applications that make our life more productive is the core belief and practice of Web 2.0. Allowing users for different walks of life to access this app. to make their lives more productive is a good business model. Life technology is the wave of the future. Remember, Different folks different strokes. Making this app accessible via mobile device will allow it to be widely used.
My to do List:
………………………
email SynapseLife
WELCOME TO WEB 2.0 !
Chubbs – the “why butt heads with giants” doesn’t make sense. From what I read, the Synapse team is 2-4 people. They’re probably cranking out code while chugging down coffee at their favoriate java spot – or working from their homes. The great thing about all of this is the barriers to entry are so low. Smart people creating innovative products. Bring it on! Competition is great. Giants are always looking for better products – if they’re smart. Goodnews news consumers sure are. Seems like a perfectly reasonable approach to pursuing a moderate degree of personal wealth. Rock on Synapse folks. Increasingly I’m using tools from the little guys and intend to explore this as well.
Marshall,
Despite it not yet being released, have you had a chance to try it out?
yes, it’s different. you no longer need a dozen of sites, you have nearly all-in-one. i like the look of it and will definitly test it, when i get the chance to.
(any idea, when that will be?)
sorry, just saw it: october. should have read it better, sorry
Based on the list of services, I don’t see how they offer anything that Yahoo! doesn’t already. Maybe not as pretty?
I guess Y! isn’t as mobile, but it’s pretty close. I can get my mail, weather, calendar, general news, contacts, and driving directions on my outdated Sony Ericsson.
I’d definitely use a net portal that had a well implemented RSS aggregator. That’s the problem with NetVibes and the others.
“synapse” is such a web 1.0 name!
it even has all of its vowels!
run for the hills, lads!
A site that provides the above services and moe that are available on a mobile device will be greatly apreciated! I’m keeping an eye on this.
It may be neat but I agree there are just too many of these “suites” that basicaly do the same thing. They don’t go on to handle more advanced use cases that people have in managing their affairs. How about after I book a flight and it gets added to my calendar automatically I’m presented with a list of my contacts in that geography which I can select to invite to meetings that can be automatically scheduled on my calendar? There are dozens of these but people keep recreating the basic stuff over and over. Google may eventually deliver some of this but I don’t know if they have such a plan.
Kris, those are some cool ideas. I agree that in integration lies a big pile of opportunity for innovation.
I have a feeling they’re going to do all those things poorly.
I’ve been watching this creative group (Synapse Corporate Solutions) for sometime now… If they evolve this product like they have their business products, it will grow to be more and more dynamic and feature-rich in the coming months… I will start using the product once it becomes available, and constantly be giving them feedback to ensure it will meet all the needs I can forsee.. thats what is great when a small young group produces functional products like this, they are accessible and will listen to the needs of the consumer… see if Yahoo or Google will hear your cry?
The SynapseLife Beta of 8 free web based applications was launched on October 5.
Users can now sign up for a free account at http://synapselife.com/
FYI – I just conducted a podcast interview with the founders of SynapseLife – check it out here:
http://www.cent...ith-synapselife
I was very happy to see SynapseLife come to the attention of TechCrunch, CenterNetworks, and other Technical Review Media. I am impressed by how small and young the Synapse Team is. Their Professional products and demeanor imply experience beyond their collective age. I am impressed. I am glad to finally get to know them.
Note that I have followed SynapseLife ever since it was initially announced earlier this year. When it finally launched the first week of October 2006, I was anxious to see if it came close to its earlier promises and performed an extensive review of the product.
It has an excellent GUI that is both pleasing and easy to use. Being a beta issue I expected to find bugs throughout the application, but was pleasantly surprised with how well it performs all functions.
Since I have a fair level of knowledge with similar applications, I found it very easy to navigate through and each application/module worked as it should, while often surprising me by providing with more functionality in a more intuitive way than I expected. Their professional roots are clearly reflected in a superb public product.
I have found that they are extending effort to add tutorial-type information for less experienced users on an ongoing basis. This is just further proof of their professional dedication toward their free but powerful SynapseLife product.
I am also impressed by how quick they respond to productive feedback. When I left feedback suggesting enhancements I would like to see in the SynapseLife application, the next time I log in it is usually available. They are very professional in their communication to their public and support their customers very well (if being a free product we can actually be termed as “customers.”
I will be using SynapseLife as my main data reservoir from now on, for it currently satisfies my needs, and I am anxiously looking forward to seeing the new enhancements and functionality they will be adding as the product evolves.
And as they have advertised… SynapseLife has become my “Home Page!” The Start of a Long and Lasting Relationship!
Sam Inspireus
I will be using SynapseLife as my main data reservoir from now on, for it currently satisfies my needs, and I am anxiously looking forward to seeing the new enhancements and functionality they will be adding as the product evolves.
And as they have advertised… SynapseLife has become my “Home Page!” The Start of a Long and Lasting Relationship!
Sam Inspireus