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.
Do you find dealing with email boring? Would your day be brighter if your email was rendered as characters in a SecondLife style universe, complete with spam eating sharks? Were you dropped on your head as a child? Introducing 3D Mailbox.
We get to see a lot of new products and services at TechCrunch, many of them bad; usually it’s a case that they won’t get a run. Then there are those that are so bad they a worthy of mention. Crunchgear’s John Biggs summed it up well in an email to me (see their very brief coverage here): “I was so disgusted that I couldn’t write anymore”. 3D Mailbox has also received attention from the press; Michael Parsons at The Times Online described 3D Mailbox as “The worst software application I have ever seen…a waste of valuable processing power,” Richard Bartle in the Guardian notes “When I first saw the trailer, I thought it was a parody.” Sadly Richard, it’s not.
By all means, judge it for yourself. The 3D Mailbox client is Windows only with no plans for a Mac version.
