Sparrow Releases App for iPhone

Gmail and the iPhone travel in similar tech-savvy circles. Nevertheless for whatever reason, iPhone users have never had a actually great way to check their Gmail.

Sparrow - the company that makes the eponymous Mac-based email client - is hoping it can change that. The company’s in short released its app for the iPhone, giving people a nice alternative to Google’s Gmail and Apple’s iOS-native Mail apps. One of Sparrow’s best features is the ability to check all of your emails in one inbox. And since it features full IMAP support, you can include both your Gmail and Yahoo accounts.

Obviously, threads are a big reason people use Gmail to begin with. Sparrow makes scrolling through conversations a lot easier than with the iPhone’s native Mail app. When reading an email, you can simply swipe up and down to browse through other messages in the thread, something so intuitive that it seems bizarre it’s unequalled to Sparrow. You can as well star and label messages, such as you can in Gmail.

The biggest miss?

The biggest miss? No push notification. The beta version as a matter of fact featured it, however Apple sadly nixed it because it used an API meant for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) apps like Skype that needs to constantly monitor for calls. That means you won’t be notified of new email immediately - a big minus if fast response times are an absolute must. Sparrow says it’s currently petitioning Apple to reconsider.

Windows expert Paul Thurrott got his hands on a copy of Office 15, currently available only as a secret Technical Preview which Microsoft hasn’t said much about.

The iPhone for the three Gmail accounts I use daily

I’m pretty sure Sparrow is going to become my go-to email app on the iPhone for the three Gmail accounts I use daily. Which leaves me wondering: What are the odds that we’ll get an iPad version, too?