October 24, 2007

Worlds Worst Email App Gets Worse: Aircraft Simulation Meets Inbox

Duncan Riley

83 comments »

We first wrote about virtual worlds meet email inbox provider 3D Mailbox in July when I called it the worst app ever. Subscribing to the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity, the folks from 3D Mailbox have submitted their latest version for review by TechCrunch.

Have you ever wanted to see you email rendered as an aircraft at LAX? Perhaps you want to use a surface to air missile on Spam Air? Introducing 3D Mail Box 2:

I’m stunned and verging on speechless. This is how 3D Mail Box described the new service in their TechCrunch submission:

“Email meets flight sim. In Level 2 of 3D Mailbox, each of your emails is represented by a jumbo jet. Based on the country of origin/destination, over 80 national airlines are employed, along with thousands of real pilot-controller conversations. Cargo jets haul your attachments, and the integrated SpamBayes spam filter sends your junk to the airport boneyard.”

It’s not politically correct to repeat this (so don’t read on if you find certain words offensive), but someone described the new version of 3D Mailbox to me today as being “soooo retarded,” which I can’t help but think is an apt description.

Sphere It

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Comments

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JKK

October 24th, 2007 at 11:46 pm

Agreed. This is monumentally dumb.
Faramarz

October 24th, 2007 at 11:47 pm

Retarded is an understatement Duncan! I would be baffled to hear these guys are backed by some funds.

Whatever happened to ideas that bring value? soooo retarded
Yelp Sucks

October 24th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

hey, it’s definitely more exciting than podtech that’s for sure.
Derrick

October 25th, 2007 at 12:15 am

The website sells the program as “have fun destroying spam”.

I don’t want to have any fun destroying spam. I just do not want it to ever arrive in my mailbox.
dave

October 25th, 2007 at 12:17 am

this company is definitely a front for some money laundering operation…they’re just blowing money as a front…they don’t actually want users.
hans

October 25th, 2007 at 12:23 am

Ouch, I laughed so hard my abs are cramping.

The model itself has done well before. In Japan there was this app called PostPets that did well. But that was in an era ago and I think it was a passing fad.

The metaphor chosen by 3D must have fell down the three steps of the shortbus. The kicker is that they needed a team of 40 to churn this out. The CEO should be acting out ‘dumb and dumber’ instead of shakespeare (check out the about section on their site).

I hope this is all just some kind of gag site like that getafirstlife site.
Jazzy Jeff

October 25th, 2007 at 12:30 am

Soooooo retarded… but you still wrote a post about it.

Earth to Duncan: 95% of the sites/services/startups you blog about are no less useful.

You remind me of those news anchors that moan about the coverage given to celebrities.. as the same tired footage of them gets played endlessly in the background.
AW

October 25th, 2007 at 12:32 am

Why?!
AW

October 25th, 2007 at 12:34 am

I take that back. This was the most hilarious thing that happened to me all day.

Bravo!
Abhishek

October 25th, 2007 at 12:39 am

What a waste of good Engineering talent…

I bet they have a better bet at converting this into a game and making money that way.
Tcruncher2

October 25th, 2007 at 12:47 am

“Come journey to a land where dreams become real, come journey to the next dimension of email, come journey to 3D MAILBOX”

Oh my GOD —> I CANT WAIT!
Alex

October 25th, 2007 at 12:50 am

I actually thought this was a “cool” product. This should be embedded with some fad I’ve been hearing about called social networking platforms.
Someone today mentioned to me a company by the name of Facebook. Maybe Techcrunch should do a story on them:)

What’s Facebook
Tim

October 25th, 2007 at 1:08 am

Maybe their real strategy is this:
Make a product so strange, so fantastic and bizarre, that people will pay just to try it out.

Or maybe it’s just stupid.
Duncan Riley

October 25th, 2007 at 1:26 am

Jazzy Jeff
some people have no sense of humor, or in this case that person is you
Ross Dakin

October 25th, 2007 at 1:33 am

Get enough cargo in your SpamBayes and an overly compressed Samuel L. Jackson sound bite fires: “I’m sick of this m**** f****** SPAM in my m***** f****** email!”
Michael Sheehan

October 25th, 2007 at 1:56 am

Duncan

Normally I agree with your summaries and the first time you reviewed it I thought 3dmailbox was daft. But with “level 2″ I am starting to see some potential with the application.

Forget the stupid graphics they have opted for but instead consider the potential of creating a visual email application with more relevant and less infantile graphics. Think “Disclosure” - the Michael Douglas/Demi Moore movie.

It needs to be hosted though. The days of email residing on your PC are numbered.
Simos

October 25th, 2007 at 2:00 am

hey there, the video is no longer available…
Duncan Riley

October 25th, 2007 at 2:01 am

Michael (#16)
lol.

Simos
available for me on a reload. Odd.
Json

October 25th, 2007 at 2:17 am

Wait, what the hell was that?

WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!?!?!
Jonathan

October 25th, 2007 at 2:23 am

It’s just a bit of fun
Thayu

October 25th, 2007 at 2:24 am

I can just see people at work uninstalling Outlook or LotusNotes and checking mail with this… And I can see their managers asking them to pack up for good…
But hey, maybe there is a market for this somewhere… Nowadays, it seems like there is a market for everything!
Alex

October 25th, 2007 at 2:26 am

Simos,

You need to pay your broadband bill:)

Duncan,
That a boy start throwing swings (@Jazzy)…. You’re witty. I enjoy reading your posts.
BUT, PLEASE tell someone to stop writing about Facebook or at least scale back some. Facebook is mentioned in 5 of the 7 stories on the home page. We all realize they are growing and have potential to become a large company, but, they are doing something like $150M in revenue which probably ranks them 100th in the valley well behing CSCO @ $35 Billion or GOOG @ $11B or AAPL @ $20B or HPQ @ $90B or ORCL $20B………
Thierry Schellenbach

October 25th, 2007 at 2:31 am

This is great
Kow

October 25th, 2007 at 2:48 am

The only possible clients I see there are childs, who just get into the world of internet.

(I also laughed at the ad)

It seems that they can’t give up: if this stuff fails, they will surely buid an “FPS inbox” built on Quake 3 engine
Ryan Spahn

October 25th, 2007 at 2:54 am

Hmmm, just goes to show the old adage that any press is good press!

They must have made a nice profit from all the summer hoopla to continue development!
micfo.com

October 25th, 2007 at 2:58 am

I hardly think most of us are going to implement such feature though its look entertaining.
Jono

October 25th, 2007 at 3:02 am

Careful now, this company seems to get offended easily. Their interview with Download Squad was particularly humorous.

@Jason - do you work for the company?
Aaron

October 25th, 2007 at 3:19 am

what a waste of unnecessary graphics! plus its stupid, nobody even likes planes! i’m going to make my own program………………………with fish! muahahahahah
Yella

October 25th, 2007 at 3:40 am

I really had to laugh while watching the video but this idea is so ‘off-everything’, it’s amazing. I wish those guys good luck none the less, doin’ something unconventional is always great.
Duncan Riley

October 25th, 2007 at 3:48 am

Alex (#22)
I think the only Facebook posts Ive written in the last 2-3 months were related to the court case and one on a story about MySpace numbers slipping while Facebook is surging, but I fully take your point. I’m still on a self imposed won’t write about Facebook platform releases ban which I have no intention of lifting…if only because I get lynched in the comments every time I do write a post on the topic

jason (#24)
Like your mate Jazzy: lighten up. If you think 95% of the posts on TC are crap stop reading it. Some of our competitors write 30+ posts a day and cover the opening of a door, read them, you might get more crap but you might find more that you like Also I’m tempted to have a fake Steve Jobs moment with your comments: maybe we don’t want you reading TC either if you seriously think this email client is good (that last bits a joke btw, I think most ppl will understand a joke but I’m not so sure Jason )
Json

October 25th, 2007 at 4:26 am

Jason: “This program is a moment of fresh air don’t you think???”

Right. I inhaled plenty of fresh air whilst laughing hysterically.
GoogTube

October 25th, 2007 at 4:27 am

I just want to read email. What problem does this app solve?
David Bachman

October 25th, 2007 at 4:28 am

An elaborate spoof is my guess. . . I’m just saying. . .
Tim Waters

October 25th, 2007 at 4:33 am

If 3D Virtual Worlds become more pervasive, I think its not a great leap to think that normal desktop activities will be translated into that 3D environment.

Speculating now: instead of your flat windows GUI environment, you’ll have your own 3d place, and if you were a bit, erm, enthusiastic, you could have your emails arrive as jumbo jets, or maybe as little birds that sung from the trees, which sounds nicer to me!

…. Coming soon! 3D MailBirds!
Biff

October 25th, 2007 at 4:37 am

Proper shit.
Michael

October 25th, 2007 at 4:45 am

OK, this really IS stupid or maybe even a joke.
But if I put it into the context of Second Life, WoW and the experiments with 3D desktops (which, admittedly, seem to remain in experimental state forever) I get the feeling that some time in the future we might look back to this news item and think “well, it was a joke at the time, but the guy was on to something”.

–
http://viibee.com, online dating is fun again
joe

October 25th, 2007 at 5:25 am

I’m assuming this is an elaborate joke… shirley?
Vijay Chakravarthy

October 25th, 2007 at 5:31 am

Actually, I didnt see any email stuff in the video. Seems like someone just took a random flight video and layered in the 3d mailbox stuff.

Next up: Take clips from 300, and do the same. Spam? This is Sparta!! Kick spam down the well.
Dr. Not Evil

October 25th, 2007 at 5:40 am

It’d be rad if they scrambled fighters to shoot down spam. Like Iron Eagle but orders of magnitude more boring.
Tim

October 25th, 2007 at 5:53 am

If only it had guns and/or full nudity it’d be perfect.
Jenn

October 25th, 2007 at 6:29 am

I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve had some of the most frustrating experiences of my life at LAX. Why would I want to be reminded of embarrassing security check moments, flight delays, lost luggage, and screaming babies when I’m checking my email?
matt

October 25th, 2007 at 6:38 am

um, all the people that are saying this is fake/spoof, have you tried downloading and setting it up?

I’m not about to, but I’d be happy to read about someone else’s experience.
Ben S.

October 25th, 2007 at 6:40 am

I’m surprised they haven’t tried to incoporate a “Snakes on a Plane” plotline into the simulation.
Skunk

October 25th, 2007 at 6:44 am

I actually like my e-mails being a beautiful bikini-girl walking up to me!
Richard Corsale

October 25th, 2007 at 7:14 am

I used to sell affiliate tracking software (in 2000), and in that capacity I spoke with dozens of startups every week.. each explaining their respective business in detail. Every once in a while, we would get the totally hrumph eccentric entrepreneur. Who was reallllly out there, trying something far fetched and believe it or not SOME of them (like 1 in 10) were actually visionaries. I saved the craziest ones and still check in on them once in a while.

When I see this type of thing it reminds me of those days
jaike

October 25th, 2007 at 7:27 am

someone actually wasted time on this?
Dave Walker

October 25th, 2007 at 7:36 am

The video explains nothing! NOTHING! Actually, I like the video - it’s a bunch of captures from Flight Simulator 98 and grandiose, over-the-top movie trailer narration.

I want my FPS spreadsheet and my strategy word processor (gather 500 a’s before you can format the title?).

Oh, this is SOOO ripe for parody. YouTubians! Start your cameras! And maybe you too can get $100M in funding…
Amine

October 25th, 2007 at 7:40 am

Great!!! now I can use the “I did not get your email due to weather delays” excuse.
Jordan

October 25th, 2007 at 7:49 am

This is amazing! Go back to your spreadsheets, boring people. Too bad there’s no OS X version!
webonics

October 25th, 2007 at 7:57 am

What a horrible concept. Its sad that they obviously have talent and sophistication in programming to only turn around and waste those resources on such a bad implementation of what visual email could be.

Can we add it to the Deadpool already??
Yannick Desjardins

October 25th, 2007 at 7:59 am

Ok, I have a “retarded” son and normally I would take offense, but this thing is totally retarded.
Avante Tard

October 25th, 2007 at 8:01 am

I can’t wait until this hits the theaters!!!!
Adam

October 25th, 2007 at 8:08 am

I think we found the Star Wars Kid of Apps.
Vinny Pickles

October 25th, 2007 at 8:09 am

This is so retarded it doesn’t even deserve to get on the short bus! I mean, what kind of nanny-nanny tard-face spaz could think up such a retarded, retarded softwares?

I agree with Duncan: Tards should go to Auschwitz!
Catherine

October 25th, 2007 at 8:12 am

i think duncan has a secret crush on the 3dmailbox guy… he’s totally a sex bomb: http://www.youtube.com/marcelloroma
Rick Desmouceaux

October 25th, 2007 at 8:42 am

Turns out the guy behind 3D Mailbox is related to the Rockefeller family. You gotta be crazy rich to do crazy stuff like this.
Bryan

October 25th, 2007 at 8:51 am

I don’t know what everyone’s problem is. I’ve been searching for a way to fill up some screen real-estate with something useless and distracting. If it works like I think it will, maybe it can even help me get to the information I need even slower!

What brilliant idea.
Avinash

October 25th, 2007 at 8:56 am

Are these people serious??? 3D email box?? What a farce? These folks should get a life.
Bob

October 25th, 2007 at 9:03 am

Yeah, but if they had used the proper buzz words like “Semantic Web,” “Virtual World,” “Web 3.0″, “Yada, yada, yada,” they’d be hailed as the next coming of GooFaceTube.
Pete Iannone

October 25th, 2007 at 9:10 am

@Rick Desmouceaux

yeah, I read about him in SmartMoney last summer. They were the first to pick this up. “SmartMoney”…. coincidence? I don’t think so. It’s the Rockefeller stuff that got him picked up. He probably paid off Duncan, too.
Steve

October 25th, 2007 at 9:21 am

I have a 3D mail box so FUCK YOU Duncan.
Ed

October 25th, 2007 at 9:25 am

Oh come on! Nothing wrong with this. It’s so unique that it get’s everyone’s attention. I agree with #45, I want the hot avatars again not the planes.
Mark Woodman

October 25th, 2007 at 9:26 am

Congrats Vinny Pickles @65, you’ve officially become a troll and fulfilled Godwin’s Law in one swell foop.
Mark Woodman

October 25th, 2007 at 9:27 am

@55, that is.
Steve

October 25th, 2007 at 9:45 am

Catherine #56 is a whore.
Ryan H

October 25th, 2007 at 9:46 am

Duncan, can you review my app? Its an email spam filter, but instead of it doing its job in the background, I visually represent the spam filter as a fat concert bouncer, who stops evil spam from climbing on stage of my desktop. I’ve put in some pretty cool body slams and sleeper holds to keep it interesting. (j/k)
nitsuj

October 25th, 2007 at 9:48 am

this reminds me of the mom to the kid “open wide, here comes the airplane” *whirls spoon around head*
Edward Domain

October 25th, 2007 at 9:51 am

Well, I’ll say this: this article sure has generated a hell of a lot of comments! Sure everyone is slamming it, but a few years from now there will be an article on hilarious new media bombs/busts and you all know 3D Mail will be in it and you’ll get a little nostalgic laugh out of it. Like the “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” dancing banana perhaps. Of course, the dancing banana didn’t make money either.

3D Mail is definitely in the “love to hate it” category. Hilarious
Graham greene

October 25th, 2007 at 10:34 am

It is a joke…….it is a funny one and it worked…..many people believed it
Shiro Karataki

October 25th, 2007 at 10:48 am

I like 3d email!
Ricky

October 25th, 2007 at 10:50 am

You know, the irony is that with TechCrunch’s extensive coverage of 3d mailbox, the site probably has more users/visitors than most useful websites:P
jackmayhofferr

October 25th, 2007 at 10:59 am

waiting eagerly for the Adult Version
Carsten K.

October 25th, 2007 at 11:25 am

In a post-9/11 world, I think it’s in really bad taste to do ANYTHING with planes. Do they have them fly into buildings? I mean, that’s just sick.

And who cares if a South African Airways plane arrives from my buddy in Johannesburg? Do I really want to hear a South African accent talking to some real controller in LAX just to alert me to my mail arriving? Do I really want to feel like I’m in charge of one of the world’s major airports instead of just receiving a chunk of text? It’s sicko.
Exchange3D

October 25th, 2007 at 1:34 pm

Man…. this is retarded indeed
Steve Ballmer

October 25th, 2007 at 2:50 pm

“Worlds Worst Email App Gets Worse”
I thought you were talking about Lotus Notes! argh!

Worlds Worst Email App Gets Worse
Tell Dodo

October 25th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

What I envisioned is a flight sim that lets me load my email on a plane, then lets *me* fly it over the internet as if each hop were an airway, and then *land* it into the mailbox/airport of the recipient.

This is more like an airport simulator than a flight simulator…
John Stoltenborg

October 25th, 2007 at 5:25 pm

Someone make one for Facebook so I can watch my new friends fly in as planes.
mark

October 26th, 2007 at 12:22 am

While I have trouble believing this is real, doesn’t anyone remember the mac and flying toasters or that dog that ran around on the desktop dragging icons around? I’d include Xroach but I don’t think anyone ever made money off that.

Come to think of it, I miss Xroach.
Agoracom - TC40 Sponsor

October 26th, 2007 at 7:11 pm

Say what you will but “3D Mailbox” is funny. I went over to the site, checked out the videos/photos and it made me laugh. Then I came over here to read 79 comments (which I’ve never done) and laughed some more.

I’ll never use 3DMB but I’ll watch more of their videos as they release future generations…more than I can say for the plethora of “me too” apps I see here.

Regards,
George
Edner

November 4th, 2007 at 9:01 pm

seriously, i can´t believe this is real.. who paid for this stupid idea? how people are involved in such a stupidness project… is this truly for real?