Chicago based 37 Signals, which has shunned venture capital in the past, has taken an investment from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos through his Bezos Expeditions fund. No word on the size of the investment or other details. 37 Signals says they aren’t interested in cash or contacts, they just want access to Jeff. In my opinion this is a great deal for both sides. Our posts on 37 Signals products are here. → Read More
Campfire, the new 37 Signals product, launched yesterday. It is a dead simple way to create a robust, permanent (with URL) group chat. Key features include embedded images, permanent URL for chat, no client to download (chat is in the web page), and easy file sharing. I’m basically thinking of it as a real time wiki or an easy to use IRC product with enhanced features. They claim it takes 10 seconds to create a new chat, and they are correct. It is dead simple to use and has an incredibly intuitive interface. It’s a great addition to the 37 Signals product suite. Pricing ranges from free to $50/month based on number of chat users and storage desired. To learn more about how Campfire works, take the tour. → Read More
37 Signals’ announced a couple of new features yesterday and today for their popular (100,000 users claimed on home page) and useful Basecamp project management product. First, Basecamp now hosts files directly on their servers without the need to set up your own FTP server. Files as large as 20 mb can be uploaded. Second, Basecamp has created a basic affiliate program. If an affiliate pushes new paying members to Basecamp, the user gets credits against their Basecamp fees. → Read More
Company: Rememberthemilk Launched: October 2005 Location: Sydney, Australia RememberTheMilk is a new ajax-rich to-do list that is similar to 37 Signal’s Ta-Da Lists. RememberTheMilk lists are organized by tabs. Items are easily entered (although there is an extra click in there that bugs me). Clicking between lists is very straightforward. Items can be easily reordered. And you can also share lists and/or choose to make them public. One thing RememberTheMilk does very well is to allow lots of metadata to be associated with a single task. Priorities can be set with a nice color-coded system, and there is flexibility in setting done-by dates. You can also add notes to a task. A really nice feature is the ability to add tasks via email. Reminders can be sent via email, instant messaging or sms. You can also subscribe to lists via RSS. Overall, using RememberTheMilk is a much richer experience than Ta-Da Lists. Setting date reminders is particularly useful. However, there is a definite tradeoff in ease-of-use. Using Ta-Da Lists require no training, while I seem to be referring to the RememberTheMilk FAQs constantly to understand functionality. RememberTheMilk was created by Emily Boyd, Omar Kilani and a stuffed animal named Bob T. Monkey (I prefer live mascots myself). → Read More
Service: Writeboard Company: part of 37signals Launched: October 2, 2005 37signals (creators of backpack, basecamp, etc.) launched Writeboard, an application to build sharable text documents online, today (Jason Fried’s post is here). It’s a nice collaboration tool, but recently released products such as writely and jotspot live have much richer feature sets. Writeboard, which is free, allows a user to create a new document very quickly, password protect it, and add users who can edit the document. Unlike competitive solutions, you must use a special markup language to format text (no wysiwyg), you cannot upload images, and there is no ajax or other functionality to move content around on the page. It is also a little buggy – comments are not showing up at all on our test page. Frankly, if it wasn’t 37signals, who generally create awesome applications, we would not be profiling it yet. However, our guess is that they will be adding functionality quickly. We are also looking forward to the launch of Chalk. SolutionWatch has posted a thorough review of Writeboard. → Read More
Company: BackPack What is it? BackPack launched in early May 2005, and it is one of the defining web 2.0 applications. BackPack does one thing very, very well – organize your personal information online. It has a basic package that is free, and it is one of the first applications built on AJAX and Ruby on Rails. If you aren’t familiar with these development platforms, all you need to know is that data transfers and page updates occur without submitting and refreshing, it is lightning fast and there are NO client downloads to deal with. BackPack is a perfect use of these emerging development technologies. To understand how this technology kicks web 1.0 in the pants, just compare it to Microsoft’s One Note (which I used for about 10 minutes before never opening again). At its core BackPack is an information management tool. It is one of the showcase applications created by 37 Signals, along with Basecamp (“Project Management Utopia”) and Ta-Da Lists (“Make Lists and Get Stuff Done”). In their own words, ““We call it useful” Some have called Backpack “a wiki with out the wacky.” Others have called it “blogish.” Others have said it’s a project management tool for all the little things in your life. Some say it’s a application that helps you get things done. Some have called it Basecamp’s little brother. Call it what you will. We call it useful and hope you do too. Last but most: Clear, Simple, and Fast. At the heart of Backpack is simplicity and clarity. Things work the way you’d expect them to work. Everything complex has been tossed so the tool is simple to the core. In fact, nothing takes more than a few seconds. Our “Ajaxed” interface elements eliminate reloading hassles. Backpack gives you the benefit of the web (centralized access, no install, no IT nightmares) without the downsides of the web (reloads, slowdowns, poor interfaces). Information management on the web has finally been realized. Backpack it.�? There are a number of suggested uses, with screenshots here . In our opinion, the key uses are to create pages of to do lists, planning for trips or events, taking and updating notes on products, etc. The great thing about it is how easy it is to create a new page, and add text and files, including images. You can share those pages with friends or the whole world. → Read More
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