Sparrow, the iOS and Mac email client was bought and killed by Google recently. Announced today: http://9to5mac.com/2012/07/20/google-acquires-sparrow-the-star-third-party-ios-and-mac-email-client/

It was the only half-decent alternative to the built-in Mail app for iOS.

Google has enough cash that I'm surprised they're not making bigger moves to snap up more good iOS apps.

"we will continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users"

"However, as we’ll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps."

They had an iPad version in the pipeline, as well as proper push notification support.

iPad app is cancelled. No new versions of Sparrow unless required for security reasons, if that. For all intents and purposes, like other apps acquired by Google before it (such as SageTV), Sparrow is dead.

The only thing that would make it "dead and buried" is if they removed it from sale/availability for download. Like they did with SageTV.

The indie app landscape is starting to look a little troubling, as Facebook is also on a roll with similar acquisitions.

They'll probably just make Gmail itself better, now.

But, I don't give a rat's ass about gmail. I do care about a nice email client that can be used with ANY email provider.

An inside source has give The Verge some info. Google bought them for their talent at making email simple and nice looking. That's a good move for Google, because Gmail is now and always has been absolutely BRUTAL in form and function. Huge POS.

Google apologist here, and I do say that calling it "dead" is a little harsh because you can still download it. But yeah, I'd call the iPad app dead and that sucks, as would any diminished support for the existing app, especially if they fail to update for security reasons


As usual, that's opinion, not fact. I adore GMail, both on the web and on Android. It's a great experience for me and has been for 7 years.

Gmail is great for me I don't know what I am missing I guess.

When development stops, the project is dead. It's that simple. I don't even think that point is worth analogies or comparisons.

With regards to GMail... The funny thing is, Google share the *same* opinion I've always expressed regarding GMail. They bought Sparrow and its talent precisely because the design of GMail is garbage.

Here's a nice video that expresses exactly my thoughts when I head the news:

Boing Boing's How to prepare for Google's acquisition of Sparrow video guide:
http://boingboing.net/2012/07/20/how-to-prepare-for-googles-a.html

Hey, I'm not trying to be contrarian, I just have high standards, and Google pushes and scrapes the bottom of the barrel in much of what they do.

Again, that's an assumption you state as fact, built upon your opinion which you also state as fact. Great job as usual.

They could just want to improve their iOS client, which isn't great. Frankly, I have no idea what Google wants Sparrow for, and if it's to make current GMail into something it isn't, then I have the exact same sentiment towards the acquisition that the video does, but in reverse.

You're missing brushed metal, turtlenecks, and kool-aid. Fortunately for you and me, Gmail does email just fine without any of those.

Clearly I am not using my computer and email correctly, because the only thing I do with my Gmail is, uhhh, yeah, that's it, I read and send emails. Sometimes I get really fancy and high-tech, and actually drag a file onto my Gmail window to include as an attachment.

I just never realized before how under-privileged I was having to use such a piece of garbage to read and send emails. Maybe if I knew more about computers I'd know better.

tanstaafl.

You power-user you. I never even knew you could do that -- I always just use the "Attach a file" link near the addresses box.

Peter

You can also ctrl-v an image (maybe more file types?) into Gmail using (at least) Chrome. It may just be for images as when I've done it with images in the past it puts them inline instead of attaching them.

I guess no one else read the inside info from The Verge. Google realizes, like Facebook, they need to hire great engineers who are also great designers, hence all the indie acquisitions.

GMail isn't necessarily much worse than other web mail, but it's certainly no better. Google will be releasing native clients for multiple platforms and it's a safe bet they will all be much more polished an unified in form/function than they have ever been.

Sparrow wasn't the email app to end all email apps, but it was arguably one of the better mobile email apps to date and about an order of magnitude better than the iOS built-in mail app in every single way except for lack of push notification - and that's because Apple forced the developers to disable it.

I didn't state anything as fact, I stated my perception and I stated why Google acquired Sparrow - which has already been confirmed, I'm just relaying the information.

I'm not the one drinking the kool-Aid because I certainly don't think that one platform/solution is the right fit for everyone. I think GMail is terrible. I thought Thunderbird was one of the worst email clients ever made. I think most of the built-in software for iOS sucks. If you don't agree that's fine. Use them. I don't and won't.

Some of the comments have come off as if people are taking this personally. I honestly don't care if you use GMail and you happen to like it. My thoughts on the subject should have no reflection on that - and most definitely aren't based on anything of the sort. I value everyone's opinion here, but I'm not put off because we don't agree on a lot of things and regardless of how anyone states their disagreement as long as it's not directed personally.

When you drag an image into the GMail window, if you drag it near the To: and CC: areas, it'll prompt for attaching it.

If you drag it over the email its self, it'll put the image in the body of the message. You can then resize it to three sizes.

I really like the concept gmail introduced (to me anyway) where you just save all your messages don't bother filing them or anything and you can do a search to find whatever you want. I archive all my emails and have no problem finding them years later when I need something from a message.

I used to need to think oh do I need to keep this message then if I do keep it where should I file it. I just click archive.

I knew about it, and I remember when they added it, too. It still pisses me off, because they completely broke the ability to select and drag blocks of text around in the edit box.

??

MY edit box is fully selectable/draggable. Unless I misunderstand what you are saying.

tanstaafl.

Maybe it's browser specific? I'm using Firefox 4.0.1. When I edit an email, and select a bit of text in my reply, and try to drag it to a new location in my reply (say, to re-order a couple of paragraphs), I can't drop the text into a new location. As soon as I start dragging, the address/subject area turns into a big target labeled "Drop files here to add them as attachments" and I cannot release my text in a new location within the edit box. Works just fine in non-GMail pages (such as this forum). I can't even select text in one box, and drag it into a new box (which I used to do when I wanted to move someone's address from the To: field, into the Cc: field, or vice-versa).

And, while I'm on the subject, GMail seems to have stopped working for me in Safari. Not sure what version -- I'm not at home on the Mac, ATM -- but it's OS X 10.6.something.

Oh, yes, you mean drag-and-drop text editing, that hyper-annoying feature that I keep having to turn off in every new OS and application that I install.

I don't find it hyper-annoying, but maybe that's because I know how to keep my thumbs off the track pad when I'm typing on a laptop, and on my desktop, the mouse is generally way the heck over there, feeling unloved.

Drag-and-drop text editing on gMail works fine for me using Firefox 14 under MacOSX 10.6.8.

Aha. Thanks for info. I suppose I ought to upgrade FF, then.

A good idea. I think that version is about a year old. Upgrading to the latest version gets you silent updates, so you won't have to worry about doing it yourself going forward. At least, I'm pretty sure they added that. It's one of my favorite things about Chrome.

And if you don't know how, there's usually a setting in the track pad drivers, and if that doesn't work, there are utilities for that. I think that I have TouchFreeze installed on the wife's laptop, but there are other, similar apps available.