
Show HN: Consol – Desktop First Productivity with End-to-End Encryption - chevas
https://www.consol.io
======
fweespeech
[https://www.consol.io/encryption/](https://www.consol.io/encryption/)

> At this time, Consol supports encryption only of certain content types, viz.
> notes, code blocks, and images, for users who have subscribed to the E2EE
> component. The other content types available in Consol are not yet
> encryptable.

> Notably, Consol E2EE does not yet support encryption of the titles of any
> content types. For example, if you create a Consol note and encrypt it, the
> text you add to the note’s body will be encrypted but its title will not be
> encrypted. For now, you should operate accordingly. We plan to improve this
> in the future.

> You acknowledge that if you encrypt an item after you create and add content
> to it, there may be a period of time in which your item’s body content is
> not encrypted while being stored in our database. To ensure the greatest
> security currently available in Consol’s system, you should, where possible,
> encrypt an item in its pageview before you begin adding content to it. It is
> better practice in Consol to encrypt an item first and only then begin work
> by adding content.

> This means that for certain content types that require creation and upload
> before the pageview is visible, such as uploadable or linkable images,
> Consol does not yet provide a way to encrypt such body data beforehand. You
> acknowledge and consent to the attendant risk that you must manually
> designate certain content for encryption after it has been uploaded.

I don't appreciate having to dig through your FAQ to find the holes and
caveats. There is literally no technical reason for this.

If you are going to make security promises like this you need to:

1) Actually have them implemented.

2) Have them secure by default.

~~~
dbcurtis
> You acknowledge that if you encrypt an item after you create and add content
> to it, there may be a period of time in which your item’s body content is
> not encrypted while being stored in our database

So.... the data goes across the wire in clear-text, and is encrypted later?
Ummm, sorry, no.

First off, I'm not interested in anything that stores data that I might want
to encrypt "in the cloud". It goes on my own server. Full. Stop. And sending
data across the wire in the clear and encrypting later? ? I mean.... ???

~~~
aaronbasssett
My reading of it is that it probably has an autosave feature so if I begin
typing "This is my super secret password: hunter2" and then click encrypt it
may have already sent the content over the wire before I hit the encrypt
button.

But that is just my reading of it, maybe the dev can correct me.

~~~
chevas
Yes, that will happen. Click "Crypto" first, then if you type content in the
item, it will be encrypted from the get-go. We're working on changing this so
you don't have to manually enable "Crypto" first.

------
afswashere
Well... I loved the video. It actually doesn't have to show what it's actually
for... you just have to make people interested enough so they will give it a
try and then make sure that they learn about all the great new stuff as they
use it. But again, you are going to hear all type of comments, positive or
negative, just try to not take all of them for granted. Keep doing your stuff
based on your guts and metrics. Good luck.

~~~
chevas
Really appreciate this. Building this is has been challenging.

------
chevas
We're bootstrapped. The primary reason I started Consol was because I wanted
to use it. One day at work I finally had it with existing tools and I started
designing what had been in my head for a long time. Soon after I recruited my
brothers. Many of you will immediately notice some missing features, such as
the ability to import/export data. Take a look at our first blog post for some
insight on what's missing and what's in the pipeline. Thanks in advance for
your positive and constructive feedback.

~~~
cwilson
I'm definitely intrigued. We've used everything under the sun and always end
up falling back to Asana (we're a small design agency).

Looking forward to trying this out!

Edit: You guys might want to be a bit more clear that you're requiring a
credit card to signup for beta access, even if you're not charging for 30
days.

~~~
chevas
Thanks for your feedback. The current flow allows me to see who's interested
in the product, but may not be interested in paying. If the price was front
and center from the get-go, I wouldn't have ever known of numerous users who
showed interest.

~~~
rpercy
FWIW, I'd be quite interested in paying, but I'm hesitant to provide my credit
card to a website with no track-record just to evaluate their product. I'd
happily provide my paypal info though.

~~~
chevas
Good to know regarding Paypal.

------
Shank
The video is really hard to follow. Memes and electronica don't really show
what it's actually good for.

The actual app looks really cluttered (with multiple left hand panes for
navigation). The "beautiful" statement seems more directed at the rainbow UI,
which seems more distracting than anything else.

------
deftnerd
Kind of frustrating that there was no mention of the pricing until AFTER users
enter all their information to request an "invite".

And since I'm not making an account now, I can't delete my submitted
information. Should I expect newsletters or spam now?

~~~
ponytech
Same feeling here. Plus you can't try the product without giving your credit
card number. Sorry, I pass.

~~~
chevas
Feedback like this was frequent. We decided to put up a pricing page.

------
philfrasty
Sounds like a very cool concept. Few things I noticed:

\- (not a native speaker) but the english-text in the video seems weird: „much
tools“, „very hassle“.

\- the landing page is too bloated in my eyes (colors, text), really hard to
get a quick grasp of what it is about

Good luck!!

EDIT: - text-color on the signup form is black with a black background. Not
sure if intended? Nearly impossible to read what I type. (FF 44.0.2)

~~~
joshmanders
> \- (not a native speaker) but the english-text in the video seems weird:
> „much tools“, „very hassle“

This is a play on doge speak[0]

[0]: [http://the-toast.net/2014/02/06/linguist-explains-grammar-
do...](http://the-toast.net/2014/02/06/linguist-explains-grammar-doge-wow/)

~~~
philfrasty
thanks for taking the time to explain!!

------
cheez
I think you've made a mistake in how you're marketing this. Who is your target
customer? Someone who already uses a smorgasbord of tools? I suspect that
they're going to find something to complain about every single feature of
yours. "I like the way A does B. You should do that too otherwise I can't use
it". You're setting yourself up for a huge support pain as well as possibly
demoralizing complaints.

So what are your killer features?

    
    
      0. All this stuff
      1. E2E encryption
      2. Cloud sync (presumably I could just store the DB on Dropbox)
      3. Ad-hoc organization via hashtags
    

You're going to have to market yourself as a project management system like
all the other project management systems.

------
pknight
Video and concept are really amazingly done. I still cringe everytime someone
uses doge speak, but the video otherwise was brilliant.

~~~
Jaepa
I felt like I was watching an eps of Silicon Valley.

------
adamwong246
So, a quick review from my beta access...

Consol is very very slick. It's definitely a UI for "power-users" /s and I
would prefer this over my current productivity stack, which is just gMail,
gCalendar, gTasks, etc. It's much more streamlined and very well thought out.
But I can't afford to be locked into these tools, especially not for 9 bucks a
month. Consol really is just a reimplementation of many of google's tools,
with tighter integration and less baggage.

I'd be jazzed if my boss bought a license for the whole company, instead of a
company google account. But until that happens, Consol will be, IMHO, a very
shiny ghetto. Because of the break with traditional tools, it will be hard to
build a user base because of a reverse network effect- I can't use Consol
effectively until other user's signup as well. IMHO that hurdle can only be
cleared by signing up whole teams, not individual users.

I would recommend tighter integration with existing services but that does not
seem to be compatible with end-to-end encryption. Perhaps it would be helpful
to introduce a migration tool for acclimating new users.

TL;DR A nice tool IFF you whole team migrates at once and you can make a clean
break with the past.

------
adamwong246
Very nice looking but seems awfully heavy. A dedicated in-app chat feature is
the metaphorical kitchen-sink.

~~~
cheez
It's an updated version of "The Law of Software Envelopment":
[http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg018352....](http://static.userland.com/userLandDiscussArchive/msg018352.html)

------
e12e
I know most people don't care, but your sign-up email is broken: there's no
plain-text part -- just some crummy html. I'm not sure if the fault is with
sendgrid or your system -- either way it's not that hard to have a proper
plaintext/ReST/Markdown part, and a html part... (which also encourages
testing across the myriad of email clients and webmail providers to see if you
manage to generate html that none of them botch up...).

------
tomchuk
The CC form only accepts a 3-digit CSC which prevents me from signing up with
my Amex.

~~~
cryptoglyph
I agree the input should allow 4 digits, but you should still be able to use
the three digit code on the back of the AMEX instead.

~~~
chevas
4 digits are now allowed.

------
vlokshin
The video you've done / pointing out the current status on this crowded space
-- really nice.

I don't love the onboarding (too many barriers to getting started) but you
guys seem like smart guys. I'm sure there's a reason for it and/or you'll
figure it out.

Good luck!

------
staticautomatic
I have no idea if I'm going to like the tool itself but hot damn that's a good
video.

------
samstave
Much want.

How get.

The fact that HN isnt an option on "how did you hear about consul" is an
oversight

~~~
c54
this is fixed! i just used that option a moment ago

gw devs / nice turnover / etc etc

------
Gmo
I know you say Desktop first (and I like that idea), but do you still plan to
do mobile apps in the future ?

I think I could definitely be a user of this app as I am searching for a
similar solution.

Also, you say in your video you can save code, does it include syntax
highlighting ?

Can you have a shared "library" of stuff with other people ?

Edit: Can you pay for instance 1 year in advance and not leave your CC details
on the server ?

I always prefer to renew manually than leaving ma credit card details all over
the place.

~~~
Gmo
Answering myself, I see that quite a lot of the answers are available in this
blog post :)

Please, keep updating it like you already did to track what you released !

[https://www.consol.io/top-10-missing-features-you-need-in-
co...](https://www.consol.io/top-10-missing-features-you-need-in-consol-and-
theyre-on-our-roadmap/)

~~~
chevas
Will do!

------
drcongo
I like the look of this, and have attempted to sign up to the beta. However, I
get this cryptic message about my (valid) credit card: "You must supply either
a card, customer, pii data, or bank account to create a token."

~~~
chevas
Really sorry to hear this. Standby, I'm looking into it.

~~~
jjbohn
I just got the same

~~~
chevas
It's fixed now.

------
NeckBeardPrince
[https://www.consol.io/pricing/](https://www.consol.io/pricing/) Just says
"Pricing" with no pricing details.

~~~
chevas
Standby, this is being updated.

------
kup0
That sure is a helpful pricing page... without pricing information being
available upfront, my interest in the product is lost.

~~~
chevas
Working on a pricing page. That's today's big feedback. You happen to see it
for short window before it was ready.

------
r3bl
Okay, I watched the promo video, read the homepage, took a quick look at the
Terms of Service, and I still have a bunch of questions. Biggest ones:

* Is it open source? (My assumption by skimming through the ToS is no, but I still haven't found a definitive answer.)

* Does it work on Linux? Or is it web-based maybe? How about Android?

* Is it going to be free? If not, what's the price of it?

~~~
chevas
1\. Not open source today 2\. It's web based only right now (native apps for
later) 3\. It's $9/mo base (+$7 to add End-to-end encryption)

~~~
SyneRyder
Awww. I was really excited until I saw it isn't a native app. My notion of
Desktop First is a native & offline app (a big benefit since I often need to
manage my task lists when I don't have net access).

~~~
chevas
We want the same thing. We love the idea of a native app that works offline.
It will happen.

