Webware

Tungle, launching today, may be the meeting coordination utility to beat. Like TimeBridge, Jiffle, and other products in this new category, it lets you block off a bunch of times for a meeting you want to have with a person or group of people, and then it handles all the back-and-forth while your attendees figure out which of the available times they want to grab. Once the meeting is booked, it enters the appointment into your Outlook calendar and sends the recipients calendar entries, too.

Tungle's success is in its design. If you're setting up a meeting, you can select whole swaths of potential times, even if you just want the person on the other end to pick a 30 minute slot. You can also do cool things such as drag blocks across days (for example, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday) for open times. Tungle will excise times that you've already got booked (including times booked by other attendees on your Exchange server), and will make sure that your contact never gets the option to select times that are taken, even if they're scheduled after you send out the initial meeting request.

Tungle lets you create big blocks of potential times for meetings, but it won't double-book you.

Another unique feature: The capability to schedule two people into a meeting but not yourself--great for administrators. And you still get a confirmation when the meeting is set up.

When a meeting is finally locked in, the person or people you've scheduled get confirmation e-mails, and in the e-mails come calendar entries that auto-populate Outlook, Google Calendar, Entourage, and other scheduling systems.

Tungle lets you give some of your contacts access to your free/busy information so they can more easily initiate a meeting request with you. For people you'd rather keep at a more professional distance, you don't have to share anything about your schedule except episodically, when you want to set up a meeting with them.

It appears easy to use and mostly straightforward. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the desktop application to run on my system. Outlook is a "finicky platform" Tungle CEO Marc Gingras told me before I fired up the demo on my own PC. Prophetic words. My cursed laptop also rejects TimeBridge, by the way. I don't know what it is that keeps scheduling helpers from running well on my computers.

For people setting up meetings, Tungle is Outlook-only so far. But as I said, it sends confirmation e-mails to attendees that many calendar applications can read.

Tungle is free. Premium services (such as scheduling meeting rooms) will be available eventually. The company also plans to make money by linking to third parties such as conference bridges.

Once we can get these applications stable on a PC, we'll compare them.

This morning at DemoFall, we jump right in with applications to schedule and conduct meetings.

Tungle (previous coverage) is a plug-in that works with Outlook, and soon, Lotus Notes, Google Calendar and iCal. It's basically and IM client, a download that's preloaded with Outlook contacts. The other person you invite that doesn't have Tungle will get asked to join if you message them to set up a meeting. (Hmm, that could be annoying.) The company says to think of Tungle as your "private Exchange server to the outside world." We first saw Tungle at Under the Radar a few months back. The product has been simplified this time around so you can click on people's names and their availability calendars show up overlain on each other.

Vello is "the conference that calls you." Log into MyVello.com, contacts show up with phone numbers already plugged in. Just check the boxes and it calls everyone all at once. As Vello demonstrates this a series of cell phones in the auditorium start jingling all at once. If you miss the call, there's a 1-800 number to call back that routes you back in.

Tubes Network lets you share files on a PC without e-mail. It's named after the pneumatic tubes used to move docs at banks (not a "series of tubes" apparently). Using Tubes gives every file on your hard drive its own URL. So you drag and drop files into the Tubes window on the desktop. Users can also create a "Tubes" site that hosts all the photos, videos, etc. that have been uploaded. The site is private by default, but can be made public, and it's published at TubesNow.com. All the sites you've created are still available offline.

MyQuire is a project management tool that allows people to collaborate online in real time. See who's online, set up meeting rooms for live conference calls, and share control of documents. Participants get e-mails with to-do lists, meeting times and more. All the documents are viewable on the site, tasks can be added or checked off the list for everyone to see. Works for personal and professional projects, plus the aesthetic is very clean-looking.

Apprema lets business clients send collaborative e-mails. Pick a recipient and each person that is sending the note. Can add gifts to send as well: Starbucks, iTunes gift cards, and more. The gifts can be given online or snail mailed.

Prolify is an e-mail collaboration tool, so you can get stuff done even if you are checking your messages during a meeting, the company says. It lets users convert e-mails and attachments into a Prolify e-mail. Everyone on the e-mail gets access to the Prolify e-mail and the most current version of the documents. Information from the application gets sent to users' inboxes and then back to the application. Plus, it integrates with CRM applications and others.