Windows: There are a lot of great desktop email clients available for Windows, but Mailbird promises to bring some elegance, simplicity, and useful new features to your desktop. We've been testing it for a few months now, here's what we think (and how you can try it out too).
At first blush, you wouldn't be wrong for thinking that Mailbird looks an awful lot like Sparrow, our favorite mail client for the Mac. Many of the same features are available in the same places: messages display on the right in a collapsable conversation view. Tags, labels, reply/reply all, and info buttons are all in the same places. Even the layout is similar. That's no mistake: Mailbird was clearly inspired by Sparrow's simple, functional design, and that's not a ding: why fix what's not broken? So Mailbird is like Sparrow for Windows...if Sparrow was kind of sucky. Here are the pros and cons.
What It Does Well
Mailbird does offer some great features on its own. It syncs perfectly with Gmail and can access all of your labels and folders. You don't get advanced features like canned responses and filters, but basic Gmail functionality is there, and we recommend having a desktop email client on hand for a number of reasons, even if it isn't your main source for email. Also, Mailbird is fast. Composing and sending messages is a snap, search is quick and accurate, and the app supports Gmail keyboard shortcuts, so if you're familiar with the web interface, you don't need to learn a bunch of new tricks.
Mailbird also has add-on "apps" to extend its functionality. Some of the ones pre-installed (but not enabled, you'll have to do that manually) include Dropbox for attachments, contacts, calendar, Facebook?which goes beyond just downloading profile images and contact information but also lets you post status updates and keep up with your friends, and even a Lifehacker app that brings you right to our site. The developers plan even more apps to extend the app's functionality as it marches towards public beta and eventual launch.
Where It Falls Short
It's not all roses with Mailbird though. For starters, the app in its current state only supports one Gmail account. No POP, no IMAP, not even more than one Gmail account if you have multiple. The developers say multi-account support is on the way, but it's hard to even discuss an email client without it. Instead, they're working on "multi-identity," or account aliasing, but that's not the same, and it's not nearly as useful.
The other major downside is Mailbird's pricing. While in beta, the app is free, and if you sign up using our invite link, you'll get six months of Mailbird Pro for free, even after the beta ends. After that, there'll be two versions, Free and Pro:
The free version will be ad-supported and attach a "Sent Using Mailbird" link at the bottom of your messages.
The Pro version will remove the ads and the signature link, and let you add as many accounts as you like (when that feature exists. This implies free accounts will either not be able to add multiple accounts, or only be able to add a few-the folks I spoke with didn't say.)
The Pro version will also cost you an annual subscription of $12 USD/year (you can pre-order now for $9/yr). You'll have to decide whether that's worth your money, especially compared to apps like Postbox (one-time fee), previously mentioned Inky (completely free), or our favorite, Thunderbird (completely free) with more forgiving price tags and more features, even if they're not as pretty, lightweight, or fast.
How to Get It
The team behind Mailbird plan to launch their public beta on April 2nd, but if you want to give it a try now, they've offered us 3000 beta invites for Lifehacker readers. You'll need to use the referral link below to grab it, but they're only offering Mailbird to the first 3000 people who click it. After that you'll be in line to join the public beta on the 2nd.
Mar. 26, 2013 ? Researchers from Lund University and the University of Oxford have been able to provide one answer as to why males in many species still provide paternal care, even when their offspring may not belong to them. The study finds that, when the conditions are right, sticking around despite being 'cuckolded' actually turns out to be the most successful evolutionary strategy.
The study, by Charlie Cornwallis and colleagues, is published 26 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology.
In many species, males put a lot of effort into caring for offspring that are not their own. At first glance this makes little sense, because natural selection should dictate that males only care for the offspring that carry their genes. However, this study suggests that the males are both more tolerant and more astute than previously assumed, and in fact adjust their care according to how likely it is that females are unfaithful, whilst also judging whether caring will potentially reduce the number of offspring they can have in the future.
The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 62 studies across 48 different species including insects, fish, birds and mammals. Overall, the researchers found that promiscuous copulations by females reduced the investment of males by 12%. Although parental care is highly variable across these species, the researchers were able to find a general explanation for why sticking around to care for the offspring is the better choice for some males that have been usurped. The reason is that males tend to be more accepting of offspring fathered by other males in species where the risk of cuckoldry is generally low, or when caring does not harm their future reproductive success.
"This, to me, shows the strength of natural selection, with its footprints clear in species from burying beetles -- which care for young over a few weeks by regurgitating dead mice -- to humans, who spend years providing for their children," says Charlie Cornwallis, researcher at the Department of Biology, Lund University. "These are complex calculations that males are making," he adds, "and it has been difficult to measure the relevant factors correctly, but looking across species has helped us work out what is going on. Moreover, a comparative study like this can guide researchers to the types of species and experimental cues that are likely to provide the most insight into paternal care in the future."
The study therefore opens up the possibility of more targeted research in the area. Now that the researchers know what factors are important, they can design studies to further test their findings and predict what males will do in species that have not yet been studied. For example, in species where the cost of caring is very low, males would not be expected to adjust their level of parental care even if the females are promiscuous. Rather than these males being 'duped', such tolerance has actually been favoured by natural selection.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Ashleigh S. Griffin, Suzanne H. Alonzo, Charlie K. Cornwallis. Why Do Cuckolded Males Provide Paternal Care?PLoS Biology, 2013; 11 (3): e1001520 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001520
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier mjdannen@utmb.edu 409-771-5105 University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Scientists also identify simple vaccine delivery model in 'breakthrough' discovery; Novel vaccine could arrive in veterinary market in as few as 5 years
Scientists are getting closer to a Chagas disease vaccine, something many believed impossible only 10 years ago. Research from the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has resulted in a safe vaccine candidate that is simple to produce and shows a greater than 90 percent protection rate against chronic infection in mice.
In a paper published online in PLOS ONE, the researchers describe how they identified and tested potential Trypanosoma cruzi (also known as T. cruzi or Chagas disease) antigen candidates and delivery models to establish the safety and efficacy of a vaccine formulation known asTcVac3. This potential vaccine could halt the irreversible heart and organ damage that afflicts approximately 30 percent of those infected with Chagas.
"This signals a scientific breakthrough unprecedented vaccine efficacy for a common parasitic disease with no cure for chronic sufferers," said lead author Nisha Garg, PhD, professor of microbiology, immunology and pathology at UTMB. "If this vaccine proves practical, it could be approved in as few as five years for use in canines, which are reservoir hosts of the disease. As many as 20 percent of dogs may be infected in Texas alone, developing the same heart conditions as humans but mistaken by vets for heartworm."
The study also provides further evidence that a human Chagas vaccine is possible, a topic of debate among some who still believe that Chagas heart disease is the result of an autoimmune disorder, she added.
T. cruzi, transmitted by the triatomine insect, or "kissing bug," is prevalent in almost all Latin American countries and is becoming more common in the U.S. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 10 million people mostly children are infected worldwide. Approximately 13,000 die each year from the complications of Chagas-induced heart disease a result of the chronic infection Garg and her team aim to vaccinate against. It is estimated that the global economic burden of Chagas is about $7 billion a year.
TcVac3: The Path of Discovery
TcVac3 is the result of rigorous computational/bioinformatics analysis and screening of the T. cruzi genome for potential candidate antigens over several years by Garg and her team. These analyses led the researchers to three potential antigens (TcG1, TcG2 and TcG4) for further investigation.
Next, they began testing these antigens and potential vaccine delivery models how the components are arranged in the actual vaccine to determine the best approaches.
Early experiments proved that delivery of the candidate antigens by a DNA-prime/protein boost approach, along with co-delivery of IL-12 and GM-CSF cytokine adjuvants meant to enhance the immune response, was effective in generating antibody and T cell responses capable of providing more than 90 percent control of acute infection and parasite burden in infected mice.
Recognizing, however, that this vaccine delivery model was quite complex, the scientists sought to simplify the vaccine using a DNA-prime/Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)-boost approach a delivery model that offers many advantages: it can accommodate multiple foreign genes in its genome; may be administered by a variety of routes; has an excellent safety record; and has been shown to generate immune responses to a variety of foreign antigens. MVA itself can act as an adjuvant since it provides a signal to the innate immune system and can boost T cells.
Based on preliminarystudies by the researchers that showed this delivery model to be potent, the scientists next tested the protective efficacy of TcVac3, constituted of just the TcG2 and TcG4 candidates and lacking the adjuvants, delivered by the DNA/MVA approach.
With two doses of the vaccine, the mice with TcVac3-induced antibodies exhibited 92 to 96 percent protection against chronic infection. They found that the DNA/MVA approach increased the vaccine efficacy enough to omit one of the antigens and the adjuvants, making it a much simpler but still highly effective vaccine.
"Because Chagas is most prevalent in developing countries, it is essential that a potential vaccine be inexpensive to develop and easy to deliver," said Garg. "TcVac3 accomplishes this goal, making it not just an effective candidate, but an ideal one."
Future research will determine if the vaccine composition can be simplified even further. In addition, the scientists are already conducting related trials in canines. Garg and her team are also working on pre-clinical trials of human patient samples, testing for immune response in patients that are already infected but not showing signs of chronic disease. Results of both studies are anticipated later this year.
###
Shivali Gupta, Ph.D., also contributed to this study. Funding for the research was provided by National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Molly Dannenmaier mjdannen@utmb.edu 409-771-5105 University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Scientists also identify simple vaccine delivery model in 'breakthrough' discovery; Novel vaccine could arrive in veterinary market in as few as 5 years
Scientists are getting closer to a Chagas disease vaccine, something many believed impossible only 10 years ago. Research from the Sealy Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has resulted in a safe vaccine candidate that is simple to produce and shows a greater than 90 percent protection rate against chronic infection in mice.
In a paper published online in PLOS ONE, the researchers describe how they identified and tested potential Trypanosoma cruzi (also known as T. cruzi or Chagas disease) antigen candidates and delivery models to establish the safety and efficacy of a vaccine formulation known asTcVac3. This potential vaccine could halt the irreversible heart and organ damage that afflicts approximately 30 percent of those infected with Chagas.
"This signals a scientific breakthrough unprecedented vaccine efficacy for a common parasitic disease with no cure for chronic sufferers," said lead author Nisha Garg, PhD, professor of microbiology, immunology and pathology at UTMB. "If this vaccine proves practical, it could be approved in as few as five years for use in canines, which are reservoir hosts of the disease. As many as 20 percent of dogs may be infected in Texas alone, developing the same heart conditions as humans but mistaken by vets for heartworm."
The study also provides further evidence that a human Chagas vaccine is possible, a topic of debate among some who still believe that Chagas heart disease is the result of an autoimmune disorder, she added.
T. cruzi, transmitted by the triatomine insect, or "kissing bug," is prevalent in almost all Latin American countries and is becoming more common in the U.S. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 10 million people mostly children are infected worldwide. Approximately 13,000 die each year from the complications of Chagas-induced heart disease a result of the chronic infection Garg and her team aim to vaccinate against. It is estimated that the global economic burden of Chagas is about $7 billion a year.
TcVac3: The Path of Discovery
TcVac3 is the result of rigorous computational/bioinformatics analysis and screening of the T. cruzi genome for potential candidate antigens over several years by Garg and her team. These analyses led the researchers to three potential antigens (TcG1, TcG2 and TcG4) for further investigation.
Next, they began testing these antigens and potential vaccine delivery models how the components are arranged in the actual vaccine to determine the best approaches.
Early experiments proved that delivery of the candidate antigens by a DNA-prime/protein boost approach, along with co-delivery of IL-12 and GM-CSF cytokine adjuvants meant to enhance the immune response, was effective in generating antibody and T cell responses capable of providing more than 90 percent control of acute infection and parasite burden in infected mice.
Recognizing, however, that this vaccine delivery model was quite complex, the scientists sought to simplify the vaccine using a DNA-prime/Modified Vaccinia Ankara (MVA)-boost approach a delivery model that offers many advantages: it can accommodate multiple foreign genes in its genome; may be administered by a variety of routes; has an excellent safety record; and has been shown to generate immune responses to a variety of foreign antigens. MVA itself can act as an adjuvant since it provides a signal to the innate immune system and can boost T cells.
Based on preliminarystudies by the researchers that showed this delivery model to be potent, the scientists next tested the protective efficacy of TcVac3, constituted of just the TcG2 and TcG4 candidates and lacking the adjuvants, delivered by the DNA/MVA approach.
With two doses of the vaccine, the mice with TcVac3-induced antibodies exhibited 92 to 96 percent protection against chronic infection. They found that the DNA/MVA approach increased the vaccine efficacy enough to omit one of the antigens and the adjuvants, making it a much simpler but still highly effective vaccine.
"Because Chagas is most prevalent in developing countries, it is essential that a potential vaccine be inexpensive to develop and easy to deliver," said Garg. "TcVac3 accomplishes this goal, making it not just an effective candidate, but an ideal one."
Future research will determine if the vaccine composition can be simplified even further. In addition, the scientists are already conducting related trials in canines. Garg and her team are also working on pre-clinical trials of human patient samples, testing for immune response in patients that are already infected but not showing signs of chronic disease. Results of both studies are anticipated later this year.
###
Shivali Gupta, Ph.D., also contributed to this study. Funding for the research was provided by National Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Joe Jonas was put in an awkward position this weekend, when he was forced to deny a rumor that he and girlfriend Blanda Eggenschwiler had made a kinky sex tape. According to a dubious report from the website Blind Gossip, Jonas, 23, and Eggenschwiler, 28, shot the video in a Buenos Aires hotel room during the Jonas Brothers world tour. The website went on to claim that Eggenschwiler, a former model whom Joe has been dating since November, had signed a deal to release the tape behind her famous boyfriend's back. It appears, however, that this tape will never see the light of day -- because it doesn't exist.
You want to build an online business and you are reading every eBook and blog going, you spend your spare time watching videos showing you how to build email lists and different ways to make money online. You buy all the latest Clickbank products that come flooding into your inbox promising abundant wealth from every social media network online.
You buy PLR products hoping to sell them as your own eBooks or you upload them to file sharing sites filled with affiliate links looking to make loads of affiliate commissions. You fill a blog website with loads of duplicate PLR content intending to make thousands in advertising revenue.
In a nut shell you try anything and everything in your desperation to make money online so you can leave the day job and yet you are no better off than when you started. What really is happening is that you are spreading yourself so thinly that you are not building a business you are just wasting your time and creating a lot of work and desperation for yourself.
What you need to do is focus on one thing at a time and work a plan around it then focus fully on it until you get results either good or bad. Obviously I don?t mean you should carry on for 5 years if the first 6 months has shown no positive results whatsoever.
People generally try something then they learn something new and move onto that for example, let?s say you have a blog and you want to get free traffic to it so you can generate revenue from affiliate commissions or advertising revenue. You read that writing great articles and offering them to blogs and websites was a great way to get traffic, you write a few, they get accepted but they are not published at the same time, over a couple of weeks your site hasn?t had much increase in traffic.
You realise that there is a bit of work involved in writing posts and while waiting for your article to get published you hear that people are making good money and driving traffic to their sites by creating short videos and putting them on YouTube so you leave off the writing and attempt to create your own videos.
Videos often need slides and they take time to create. if your videos are going to be educational then a short video can have a lot of slides, they can be harder to make than writing an article. After you have managed to knock together one or two dodgy videos and got them uploaded to YouTube you check your traffic stats on your site and your Clickbank account and see that not a lot has changed.
Meanwhile you have found a new blog to read and the owner has a podcast series and talks about how his traffic and reputation has grown thanks to his podcasts. His reputation means he is trusted and that trust means people buy from his site through his affiliate links.
Soooooooo what do you do? You get a cheap headset and download Audacity then start recording your own podcast series, you go through the process of getting it all set up on iTunes and unleash your podcast upon the world. But guess what? No one knows you, they have never heard of you so why would they listen to your podcast over those they do know?
And so your traffic stats on your site do not change, again you have tried something but it hasn?t worked. Now you have heard of this young lad who makes a fortune selling eBooks on Amazon Kindle, so off you trot and start compiling eBooks from PLR articles and even attempt to write your own.
You get your first couple of eBooks on Kindle and then wait for the traffic and money to come in but again nothing happens, while you wait for the sales to come in, you go back and write a couple articles to share on other people?s sites, you knock out another video and after a month or two attempt to record another podcast.
You might think that you are busy creating a lot of content and building a business but in many ways you are simply ?pissing in the wind?. You are just bumbling from one thing to another hoping for it all too eventually bring in results. You are fooling yourself; chances are none of it will amount to anything.
You need to decide what you are going to do and decide NOT to expect traffic or wealth to miraculously start flooding to you within a few weeks. Give it at least a few months and work really hard at it. Do not allow to be distracted by other new ?shiny? methods until you have fully tested out the method you are working on now.
If you write 2 articles a day and do that for 6 days a week for 3 months then you have 144 articles posted across the web instead of just a handful. If you made 3 videos a week for 3 months then you will have 36 videos all driving traffic back to your site. There are membership sites that do not have that amount of videos available.
I am not saying that you cannot make videos and do articles during the same time period if you can manage it but I am saying that you do not want to start one thing do a couple then move onto something else. Make a plan and focus on it, results come from the efforts you put in.
Will 5 articles have the same effect as 144 dotting across numerous different sites? No they won?t. Will 3 videos get the same results as 36 videos? Unless you have created a YouTube classic that goes viral then again the answer will be no.
The methods are often sound, they do work but many guru?s have made you believe that they should work in a matter of days with exciting statements like ?Young Spotty Teenager Makes $1599,45 In 1 Hour Using Only One 25 Second Long Video On YouTube And Also Beds Katy Perry Because Of It!?
In reality these things take a fair bit of work and time to get results and that requires focus, discipline and intention.? So now it is up to you, chose a method you think you can do or like, look at what is involved in its execution and create a plan of attack. Schedule time to do the work and set deadlines to get things done and focus on it fully. If you want success, then you really owe it to yourself.
Remember waiting for weeks for accessories to be available for your new phone? ? Being extra careful not to scratch your new gadget until some company had time to get the new device, finalize their case design, produce it, and get it ready to ship it? ?Apparently those days are gone, and accessories are available [...]
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Public release date: 26-Mar-2013
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and yet you are no better off than when you started. What really is happening is that you are spreading yourself so thinly that you are not building a business you are just wasting your time and creating a lot of work and desperation for yourself.
And so your traffic stats on your site do not change, again you have tried something but it hasn?t worked. Now you have heard of this young lad who makes a fortune selling eBooks on Amazon Kindle, so off you trot and start compiling eBooks from PLR articles and even attempt to write your own.