[HN Gopher] Show HN: Emery - Personal productivity workspace
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Show HN: Emery - Personal productivity workspace
We're building an app that helps people manage their schedule,
tasks and notes all in one place. The goal is to create a
workspace, where people can manage their various priorities, both
personal and professional, see a single schedule combined of all
their calendars and manage their days without switching between
multiple apps. At the moment we've implemented Google calendar
synchronisation, basic tasks and notes. Also Emery has some things
we really wanted to see in other apps - private notes for meetings,
categories that can be used to group tasks/notes/meetings together,
weekly productivity reports. Happy to hear any feedback and answer
any questions!
Author : chernobai
Score : 47 points
Date : 2022-08-01 21:42 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (emery.to)
(TXT) w3m dump (emery.to)
| nsarafa wrote:
| Is there a mobile app in the works too? I usually plan from
| mobile and find doing it outside of a native app clunky
| chernobai wrote:
| It's still in planning at the moment
| sidcool wrote:
| I didn't like that Google is the only option to sign up. And
| didn't like the 7 day free trial on providing credit card
| process. And the price is steep.
| [deleted]
| pedalpete wrote:
| I mostly disagree with your comment. Google sign-up is fine as
| a starting point for a product, I find the price is probably
| quite reasonable.
|
| I can somewhat agree with requiring a credit card on sign-up,
| but it does give an idea of if people are REALLY willing to
| pay, or just kicking the can.
| chernobai wrote:
| Regarding Google - we're planning to introduce other methods
| later this week.
|
| Regarding credit card process - that's understandable.
| Unfortunately, that's the most robust way we know to measure
| how many people would buy a subscription.
| insightcheck wrote:
| I like the "Cancel in one click" message, and the drag-and-drop
| UI from tasks to calendar (plus Google Calendar sync), but I
| couldn't easily find (and still haven't found):
|
| -What platforms are supported (it looks like MacOS from the demo
| video, but I couldn't find whether there is an iPad or iOS app,
| or whether it supports Windows and Android; access and syncing to
| a mobile device is very important from my perspective as a user)
|
| -Whether it's possible to "Get started" without using the Google
| sign-on; I typically avoid using Google to sign in, and prefer
| traditional registration with an email and password
|
| -A clear and straightforward Privacy Policy, which would be a
| plus. You have one linked at https://emery.to/privacy/ , where
| you did write that users have the right to: "Restrict the
| processing of their Data. Users have the right, under certain
| circumstances, to restrict the processing of their Data. In this
| case, the Owner will not process their Data for any purpose other
| than storing it. [...] Have their Personal Data deleted or
| otherwise removed. Users have the right, under certain
| circumstances, to obtain the erasure of their Data from the
| Owner." The "under certain circumstances" seems vague, and I'm
| unsure what that means in practice.
|
| However, you have to scroll down quite a bit, and I'm not
| comfortable with the use of Google Analytics. I'm not necessarily
| against using the app just due to privacy reasons (though other
| users might be), but I wish I could find out in advance of
| signing up, how much data collection I could opt out of before
| signing up.
| chernobai wrote:
| - At the moment it's a web app for desktop browsers. Looks like
| we should be more clear on that on the landing page
|
| - We're planning to introduce other login methods such as
| classic emails later this week.
|
| - You're right, we have to be more clear and give more
| flexibility on the data collection front.
| paxys wrote:
| $7/mo is extremely steep for something that provides a very tiny
| subset of features of a hundred other productivity apps out
| there. And there are no mobile apps?
| [deleted]
| chernobai wrote:
| No, mobile apps are still in planning
| moltar wrote:
| Is desktop app native or electron?
|
| Will mobile apps be native or web view?
|
| I currently use Tick Tick which has a lot of overlap with Emery.
| The main reason I love it is that it is SUPER snappy.
| chernobai wrote:
| We don't have a desktop app at the moment, just a web app for
| desktop browsers. Planning to introduce an electron-based app
| later on.
|
| Technical stack for mobile apps is still an open question. Want
| to get the desktop app right first as most people we talked to
| prefer to use computers to organise their days.
|
| Despite using web stack, speed of the ui is one of the things
| we're proud of.
| hatware wrote:
| Too many "Get Started" buttons IMO. If you're running a test
| ignore me.
| [deleted]
| mtlmtlmtlmtl wrote:
| It looks nice, but, but, but... Are there plans for a desktop
| version, ideally something that could work without an internet
| connection? I fail to see why an app like this would require a
| server to be involved other than just at the moment of syncing
| between devices. And even then just to negotiate a handshake. If
| syncing is the only justification, having such a subscription fee
| seems unreasonable to me as a potential customer. And I don't
| even need sync.
| chernobai wrote:
| We're planning to introduce a desktop app with offline mode a
| bit later.
|
| Regarding syncing - it'll still be required for syncing between
| devices and Google calendar integration. Google calendar sync
| is being done on backend as it's the most stable way from our
| experience.
| rspoerri wrote:
| I would love to see more integrated workspace tools. Combining
| calendar, notes, todo is a good start. But i my needs are from
| source material to documents and presentations. I use currently
| vscode for this need using (common-) markdown as preferred notes
| format and lately using csv for tabular data and excalidraw for
| visual notes. As a teacher and working in different research
| projects i work mostly with external partners, so everybody
| brings his own tools and data formats...
|
| I like it because i can open a lot of files within the same
| application (pdf's, images, excel), unfortunately some formats
| need an external viewer (word, eml). I try to gather all data to
| my project folders. With every other notetaking tool i have to
| switch between a lot of different applications, because my notes
| are mostly based on other documents, communication or internet
| research (text, image, video, audio).
|
| Some of the plugins and integrated applications i use: - Vscode
| has todo applications that can gather all '- [ ] Todo's and add
| them to the sidebar, so i have an overview of all my project's. -
| I use Marp (with some markdown-it plugins) to generate
| presentations from my markdown files (building the files). Using
| Pandoc i can convert them to Word/PDF files (based on templates).
| Pandoc can also convert some formats to markdown. - I can
| download most websites and integrate it into my notes for offline
| (and future) reading using MarkDownload. I wrote a script that
| downloads linked images. github.com/jely2002/youtube-dl-gui is
| good to download integrated videos. - I use syncthing to sync the
| data across my NAS, desktop and notebook.
|
| What i am missing: - Viewers for file formats that are not yet
| supported (currently word & eml). - Collaborative editing of
| notes (github or similar is a possible solution with it's web
| editor) - Realtime collaborative editing (currently i can copy to
| another editor, edupad.ch) - Sync my meetings (date-time) i write
| down in markdown into my calendar (course-planning). I'm
| currently working on a ical generator for that reason, also to
| share calendar data to students or partners. - Integrating my
| bookmarks into the work process would be good as well.
| candiddevmike wrote:
| $7 a month, that's pretty steep. How'd you come to that number
| for a less featureful version of Google Workspace?
| steve-benjamins wrote:
| The right calendar, notes and task manager is worth way more
| than $7 per month to many people.
| [deleted]
| chernobai wrote:
| We had to start somewhere, so just picked a number we're
| comfortable with. Getting pricing right will take some time.
| awillen wrote:
| I just signed up for a trial. If it can replace my trusty
| notepad and paper, I can definitely justify $7 a month.
| chernobai wrote:
| Thanks! Let us know if you have any feedback during your
| trial
| candiddevmike wrote:
| You're just starting out, your costs can't possibly be that
| high. Maybe in two years you could charge $7 a month, but
| you're going to lose business doing it now. You also have no
| levers to turn to increase the price really, as anything
| close to $10 is nuts.
| sergiomattei wrote:
| Don't lower from $7. If anything, raise it _much_ higher.
|
| This is as someone who also worked on a productivity app and
| priced it at $5/mo.
|
| It's a mistake you only make once. The economics will never
| work.
| insightcheck wrote:
| For comparisons to other productivity software systems, it's
| actually comparable to Evernote at $7.99 USD/month, with
| similar functionality (except the drag-and-drop from tasks to a
| schedule).
|
| In contrast, Todoist is around $4 USD/month, which matches
| Notion's Personal Pro plan.
| octokatt wrote:
| Am I able to link to my own markdown docs, or do I only make
| notes in your closed app?
| chernobai wrote:
| In-app notes only
| heliostatic wrote:
| Love it! Reminds me of Daystack
| (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4045527) in a very positive
| way.
| chernobai wrote:
| Thanks!
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| Nice looking app and landing page. Well done on the launch.
|
| I am probably not a buyer of this product, because I don't find
| switching apps enough of a pain point. Happy to use Gmail and
| notion ... for now.
| chernobai wrote:
| Thanks for the comment anyway!
| davidbanham wrote:
| I like the concept, but the lack of a great mobile interface
| (either responsive web or app) is a real deal breaker. Signed up
| for the trial but will cancel, would love to hear from you again
| once the mobile side is ready to go.
| chernobai wrote:
| Well, given the amount of interest in mobile apps here, we'll
| think about prioritising it higher on our list.
| mattei wrote:
| Looks great, an "email sign up for updates" would be valuable as
| I'd give this a go once you announce an iOS mobile app. As it
| stands I'll have no way to know when that happens.
| chernobai wrote:
| Good idea, we'll think about adding it to the landing. Thanks!
| junwonapp wrote:
| Nice! Is there a way for users to export data? Similar to Notion
| export to Markdown and CSV.
| chernobai wrote:
| Not at the moment, but it sounds interesting. It'll definitely
| help people feel more safe about their data.
| insightcheck wrote:
| Just to let you know, the privacy policy makes it sound like
| users can. Under "The rights of Users," it states (source:
| https://emery.to/privacy/): "Users have the right to receive
| their Data in a structured, commonly used and machine
| readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it
| transmitted to another controller without any hindrance. This
| provision is applicable provided that the Data is processed
| by automated means and that the processing is based on the
| User's consent, on a contract which the User is part of or on
| pre-contractual obligations thereof."
|
| Maybe there is a manual option on the company's end that
| makes this assurance valid?
| chernobai wrote:
| Sure, we can accommodate it manually if the need arises
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(page generated 2022-08-01 23:00 UTC)