We've said it before in other venues, but it's worth repeating: when you become an adult, you get really excited over the strangest things. You know that part in the 1979 film
The Jerk when Steve Martin's character jumps up and down yelling, "the new phone book is here! The new phone book is here!"? That was us when we tried out
Deliveries: a package tracker by Junecloud. We tested Deliveries on an iPhone 5 and an iPad Mini 2, but there's also a Mac app, and everything syncs through iCloud.
Deliveries wants to be the one place a user puts all their tracking numbers, to see where outgoing and incoming packages are and when they will arrive. The list of services the app can track packages in is impressive: UPS, FedEx, US Postal Service, DHL, TNT, Canada Post, City Link, Royal Mail, with the promise of "and many more." The user can also input Amazon and Apple order numbers to start tracking fulfillment status before the order is shipped off.
The main view of the app is simple and utilitarian. Selecting a package will bring up a map, showing where the package is in relation to the user's current location. The user can edit the details, and give each package a custom name. In the case of Amazon or Apple orders, it will display what is in the order. Word to the wise: there's no way to remove that from the listing, as far as we could tell. So we just had to be at peace with the idea that somebody might get a glance of our screen, and know what brand of foundation garments we prefer.
Slightly embarrassing underwear orders aside, every time we interacted with the app we discovered a delightful new little touch that made the whole experience easier and more convenient. The first such discovery was when a friend emailed us the tracking number for something she had ordered online, for a project we were jointly working on. We copied the tracking number out of the email and opened up Deliveries. The app opened and immediately popped up a dialogue box that it recognized the contents of the phone's clipboard as a possible tracking number. Did we want to add it to our list of packages? Yes Deliveries, yes we do.
Next, we ordered something off Amazon to test how the order tracking works; these are the sacrifices we make for you, dear reader. Again, the app identified and guessed correctly the character string on the clipboard was an Amazon order number. Adding an order to the list involves entering login information to pull updates. The user will have to add login info for each order added to the list as it appears, but of course only has to do this once per service or site. The new really nice touch we discovered this time was the option on the bottom of the login box offering to import login info from 1Password. Now, we don't use 1Password, we use LastPass, but we tapped on it to take a look at the next screen. To our delight, we found we could enable LastPass as an option, and import our login credentials without having to switch between apps.
Deliveries for iOS is available
for $5 from iTunes. The Mac app
is $5 as well.
Who Deliveries is for:
Anyone who sends and receives many packages on a regular basis, particularly through a variety of carriers. It makes your life better, or at least mitigates the horrors of waiting.
Deliveries might not be as useful for:
People who don't receive or send that many packages, or tend to use one carrier or service that has its own app.
-- Michelle Elbert (
@mcelbert)
Top