[HN Gopher] Notion Acquires Cron
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Notion Acquires Cron
Author : talhof8
Score : 70 points
Date : 2022-06-09 16:10 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.notion.so)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.notion.so)
| PufPufPuf wrote:
| I wondered what Cron is/does, and found the least useful landing
| page I have ever seen. The whole information content is "it's a
| calendar app". https://cron.com/
| antiverse wrote:
| Ah, I'd really like to know what goes into trying to obtain a
| four letter domain like that.
| echelon wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20201022025721/https://martin.cr.
| ..
|
| Interesting history in this case - a personal domain.
|
| They probably emailed the owners with a good offer. Since
| this wasn't a domain broker, it was probably five figures
| instead of six or seven.
|
| I've managed to do this a few times.
| rmbyrro wrote:
| Did they run out of cash?
|
| Why sell it so early? There isn't an app publicly available
| yet, or even pricing...
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| That's it tho, it is a calendar app.
| joelrunyon wrote:
| Been a long time user of Cron. Hope Notion lets them run it as a
| separate app.
|
| I found Notion launched amazing out of the gate and has gotten
| progressively slower over time. I hope they don't do that to Cron
| :(
| raphaelschaad wrote:
| Yes, au contraire -- we want to help in making Notion as snappy
| as Cron!
| alephnan wrote:
| > amazing out of the gate and has gotten progressively slower
| over time
|
| Feel the same.
|
| This is one scenario where the founders who originally built
| the app turn their attention to fundraising and add a bunch
| more engineers
| vorpalhex wrote:
| Notion went from one of my critical apps to an app I try to
| avoid using because of this. Also their apps are genuinely
| terrible, which hurts.
| polote wrote:
| I struggle to understand this move.
|
| Will Notion gains new paying user thanks to Cron ? probably not
|
| Will it helps Notion improve its product ? Yeah probably on the
| calendar part, but that's only usefull for B2C, and notion focus
| a lot on B2B no (They even mention the workplace of the future) ?
|
| Is it a acqui-hire ? Then why keep the products separate ?
| d_watt wrote:
| Every B2B app I've ever worked on eventually needs some type of
| calendar view / integration.
| joelrunyon wrote:
| FWIW - here's the referenced Business Insider article on the
| story (https://www.businessinsider.com/notion-acquires-cron-
| calenda...) (requires a subscription)
| krono wrote:
| What does Cron bring?
|
| Their website[1] shows something that looks nearly identical to
| the MacOS default calendar app (edit: which is a good design to
| take inspiration from) but no list of features or much else of
| substance.
|
| Edit: Their docs[2] contain some more info
|
| 1: https://cron.com/
|
| 2: https://cron.com/docs
| bm5k wrote:
| I discovered cron looking for a way to manage my "two DayJob
| calendars with 85% duplicate events but 15% unique events".
|
| Specifically since I was annoyed at getting 2 notifications for
| every event that was duplicated on both calendars.
|
| And cron actually solved that problem by automagically
| recognizing duplicate events and only notifying once. I turned
| off all notifications in calendar.app.
|
| The only other differentiating feature I am aware of is how
| configurable the menu bar app is.
|
| Thankfully, I no longer have the original problem + I don't
| like things in my menu bar so I'm probably switching back to
| the built in app.
| alexarena wrote:
| Their availability sharing is top notch, too.
| bberenberg wrote:
| It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is
| super fast. I would say it's what I wish Apple would make the
| default calendar. The only downside I have to date is no iOS
| app. It's one of my favorite apps, unfortunately I expect
| Notion will ruin it.
| jandrese wrote:
| Are people using calendar apps that are slow? I can't
| remember speed ever being a problem on any of mine.
| qeternity wrote:
| > It's super fast, works great across multiple calendars, is
| super fast.
|
| But how fast is it?
| askafriend wrote:
| Super
| qeternity wrote:
| Super and also super.
| codegladiator wrote:
| definitely a 7 out of 9.
| bpizzi wrote:
| Yes, we are borg, we will adapt.
| dberg wrote:
| Goes to 11
| bberenberg wrote:
| Lol, fair, didn't reread and stream of conscious isn't the
| best. But yes, really damn fast ;)
|
| Leaving original up intentionally.
| DigiDigiorno wrote:
| I just assumed you were adding emphasis on how fast it
| was lol
| qeternity wrote:
| Haha just busting your chops.
|
| You've convinced me to try it out!
| op00to wrote:
| It's so fast you have extra time to talk about how fast
| it is .. twice! A glowing recommendation!
| gumby wrote:
| Doesn't look like it adds much of anything to the Apple
| calendar, which itself is a pretty minimal implementation. I
| actually found it worthwhile to pay $50 for Busycal which has a
| lot of features important to me (presumably not to most
| people). Fantastical also has a following at around the same
| price point, though it didn't do it for me.
|
| I wish notion supported the mac, but they just have a lame web
| view which isn't any better than using a web browser. Doesn't
| act at all like a native app.
| pmontra wrote:
| > Doesn't look like it adds much of anything to the Apple
| calendar
|
| Cron also runs on Windows. No idea if Windows comes with a
| calendar.
| jreynoldsdev wrote:
| Step #1 to being acquired by Notion, host your documentation on
| Notion.
| mnholt wrote:
| I thought their first product photo was the macOS calendar app
| with spotlight up in front of it.
| [deleted]
| ctvo wrote:
| > Cron and Notion have a lot in common. We share a sense of craft
| and an overlapping base of passionate users.
|
| I've never used Notion and been impressed by the craftsmanship of
| the product. It works, sort of, 90% of the time, but it isn't
| delightful, fast, or any other quality I'd associate with the
| craft / handsmade movement. Maybe I just misunderstand the word.
| Centigonal wrote:
| Notion has genuinely great UX, it packs a lot of complexity
| into a very easy-to-grok interface.
|
| Performance could be better, but that's a different dimension
| of craft. Kind of like a formula 1 racecar versus a classic
| corvette.
| pandemicsoul wrote:
| Incredibly bizarre to me that the press release doesn't include a
| link to the product. Especially considering that Cron is already
| a ubiquitous name for something else entirely.
| kn0where wrote:
| I thought this was about Unix cron and was quite puzzled for a
| few seconds.
| MereInterest wrote:
| I did a search, and apparently they also hold a trademark on
| "cron" within the domain of scientific and technical services
| [0]. That it was granted at all is absolutely ridiculous, given
| the history and omnipresence of "cron" as referring to Unix
| cron. Similar to the debacle about "Python" a decade ago [1],
| this raises a lot of red flags. When somebody picks a name that
| is already widely known in their field, I assume that they are
| either inexperienced enough not to know the term, or deceitful
| enough to try to profit from it.
|
| [0] https://trademarks.justia.com/900/03/cron-90003841.html
|
| [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-
| technology/2013/03/pytho...
| solarkraft wrote:
| Has anyone here used cron? What makes it "next generation"? What
| are the platforms it supports, what's the business model? The
| website doesn't tell much.
| skyleradams wrote:
| It's if Superhuman made a calendar app to go along with email.
| It's super fast and has good keyboard shortcuts, and implements
| advanced features like sharing availability Calendly-style.
| dvtrn wrote:
| I have to ask because people here keep talking about cron's
| speed:
|
| What functionality of a calendar is speed dependent? Genuine
| ask and not trying to be snarky, speed just hasn't ever been
| something I've ever had to worry about with a calendar tool
| so the notion (pun not intended) is merely a foreign to me
| personally.
|
| Is it opening events? Creating a new calendar item? Syncing,
| or something else?
|
| Where is the speed gained in from compared to Calendar.app?
| bzxcvbn wrote:
| These are all nice features, but hardly deserve the
| qualification "next generation".
| krrrh wrote:
| It's marginally better than the macOS stock calendar app, but
| pretty similar. Amongst people I know, windows users who have
| been used to google's web calendar are the ones who have gotten
| most excited about it because having a dedicated calendar app
| has its advantages.
|
| I find it less useful than the macOS calendar.app because it
| doesn't let me view my iCloud calendar which I use for personal
| events or birthdays from the iCloud contact database.
|
| The ui and interface is pretty snappy, and if notion is
| bringing on the team to speed up their client software it will
| be welcome.
| samtimalsina wrote:
| Everyone here talking about super fast, but that's one thing I
| haven't complained about my stock calendar app. Wish there were
| more screenshots.
| snickerbockers wrote:
| Yeah, I'm having troubles imagining what could possibly be
| "next-gen" about a calendar app.
| iloveitaly wrote:
| I've really enjoyed Cron. Great product, high feature velocity,
| building the right stuff for users. Happy for them!
| mnholt wrote:
| Exciting news. Sounds like Cron will remain separate while they
| work out a way to integrate into Notion.
|
| Off topic: Does anyone else have trouble using Notion because of
| the .so domain? We've had a number of corporate firewalls
| wholesale block the .so TLD and Notion is a casualty. Hopefully
| they switch over to .com soon.
| dfee wrote:
| i often times wonder if it's still "too early" to use an
| uncommon TLD.
|
| i guess Notion's success is evidence .com's may be overrated.
| (sure, an alternate reading is that they're successful
| _despite_ the TLD).
| optimuspaul wrote:
| Is Notion based in Somolia?
| pandemicsoul wrote:
| No, it's based in SF.
| vorpalhex wrote:
| > We've had a number of corporate firewalls wholesale block the
| .so TLD
|
| Your firewall is incorrect.
| wlesieutre wrote:
| You aren't the only one, and they were planning to switch to
| .com "as soon as their engineering team has the bandwidth", but
| that was two years ago so who knows
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/Notion/comments/f6x9mk/why_the_so_d...
| alexarena wrote:
| Recently started using Cron, happy to hear they plan to continue
| to develop it as a separate app + excited to see Notion take on
| more of the traditional office suite.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Here's the related announcement post on Cron's side:
| https://cron.com/blog/2022-06-09-cron+notion
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(page generated 2022-06-09 23:02 UTC)