This is an incredibly, incredibly well done shutdown statement.<p>It explains clearly what happened; it isn't overly congratulatory to themselves; it puts a clear emphasis on how their users can export their data; it thanks those who helped them on the journey; it beautifully summarizes everything they built and stood for, from the solid typography, to the interactive timeline, to the team photos, to the simple, clean choice of a "Epilogue" as the title. And it'll be the perfect homepage come July 1st too.<p>Sad to see such a high-quality product shut down. I've looked to Readmill for design inspiration a lot over the past year.
This feels like a huge loss. Readmill stood head and shoulders above other reading apps like Kindle and iBooks in terms of design. It was also one of the few services that would let you upload ePub books to your account through the website and then sync your library to your mobile device.<p>"Now cracks a noble heart.—Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"<p>I wish the team all the best at Dropbox, and I'm sure Dropbox will benefit immensely from their remarkable talent for building amazing software. At the same time, though, I wish they would have just started charging $10 a month for the service!
Well, at least they're not pitching it as a grand success for all, and won't end up on <a href="http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/" rel="nofollow">http://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/</a>
I'm a huge fan of Dropbox. Here is my long-term wishful thinking of their acquisitions:<p><pre><code> - Audiogalaxy Dec 2012: online iTunes-like audio library, synced across/streamed to all of my devices
- Snapjoy Dec 2012: online iPhoto-like experience, synced...
- Mailbox Mar 2013: can Dropbox be the new Gmail? If Google search needs disruption, Gmail is no different
- Zulip Mar 2014: online chat and team collaboration with file/screenshot/text/etc sharing integrated to a whole new level. Maybe Droplr/CloudApp on steroids
- Readmill Mar 2014: online ezine/book library... maybe doc management?!
</code></pre>
Bottom line: to become everyone's all-in-one cloud, synced, folder. This would be the platform, a <i>~/user/</i> in the cloud<p>PS: from their Sold and Endorse acquisitions I can only speculate that they might have a(n) (e)commerce play in their mind.
Readmill was without a doubt one of my favorite apps. It did one thing, and it did it very well. Like many others, I wish it was going to be absorbed into Dropbox (like Mailbox was last year) and remain operational. Perhaps there will be some level of ebook integration in the Dropbox app in the future.
Why not make Readmill part of Dropbox app ecosystem (e.g. Mailbox)? Just a read, sync and backup app without the social network features. I really hate to do all this manually with yet another service.
I'm heartbroken by the loss of Readmill. Met some incredible people in the margins of books, and have had long and thoughtful conversations with fellow readers, authors, and myself.<p>Readmill have done an awesome job at giving us tools to rescue our data. But where to put it? How can we keep getting value out of the time we've invested into Readmill? I personally have over 600 highlights and tens of thousands words written in the margins, now locked up in a big JSON dump.<p>A few of us have banded together to build a tool ( <a href="http://readshelf.co" rel="nofollow">http://readshelf.co</a> ) to rehome your Readmill library. It'll sync your Readmill highlights up until July 1 (and you can upload your dump as well.) When Readmill shuts down for good, we're hoping there'll be a nice replacement service that we can integrate with—giving you some continuity with your library.<p>Of course, all of your stuff will be exportable in a useful format; lest history repeat itself. In fact, we're really keen to hear suggestions on:<p>- a sustainable business model for something like this<p>- some best practices around <i>your</i> data: access, portability, etc.
Disappointed to hear this — they've made by far the best reading app for iOS, and perhaps anywhere. The FAQ tries to preempt the "but why not implement X, Y, or Z potential revenue model?" question by saying they didn't think anything would work. But that's not satisfying; I don't want to believe that there really was absolutely no solution that would've made it viable as a business, or at least saved it from impending total shutdown. Always interesting (though difficult) to read these "we're closing up shop" notices, knowing how much history and context and problem solving went on behind the scenes that we'll just never be privy to. Hope they continue to do great things with the mobile reading experience at Dropbox!
Any more on the apparent $8 million "acqui-hire" by Dropbox?
<a href="http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/27/readmill-acqui-hired/" rel="nofollow">http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/27/readmill-acqui-hired/</a>
What? Another service I start to use and shutdowns just a few days later...sad!<p>That's a problem with free services, and sometimes even with some paid services.
They mentioned no new signups were allowed but I still managed to sign up via Facebook and created a new account. Not sure how to get a hold of them but they might want to know that.
What I felt bad about is all the bullshit they typed instead of just saying:<p>>> <i>Hey, we got acqui-hired by Dropbox and we are now shutting ReadMill down! Thanks for all the fish and hope you enjoyed ours.</i><p>That's it. That's all it would have taken.