Remember Sparrow? Of course you do – it was the best e-mail app for the iPhone, and the only app for Gmail that didn’t suck. Then Google bought it and killed it before the team could release its iPad version.
Well fret not, dear Gmail-using iPad user – we have good news. Evomail is a new thing which exists, and it’s kind of like Sparrow for the iPad.
Loren Brichter is a legend amongst iOS developers. The 28 year old developer is the creator of Tweetie, which eventually became the official Twitter app. He’s the guy behind fan favorite word game Letterpress. He’s the creator of ‘Pull To Refresh’, cell swipe and slide-out panels that have become synonymous features in mobile app development. Yet few people who aren’t app and design junkies even know who he is.
We’ve been waiting for someone to make a great iOS Gmail app ever since the Sparrow team was bought by Google this year. Sparrow is still great, and the Gmail app has gotten better, but the experience of using email on a smartphone still feels unnatural and archaic.
A few apps have tried and failed to change mobile email, but app development company Orchestra thinks they have the right answer with their new app Mailbox. Blending an email inbox with a Clear-styled to-do list, Mailbox provides a modernized take on mobile email that is simply beautiful.
Here’s what the app looks like in action:
Around the time that Google bought Sparrow, the Gmail team was given a mission to completely rebuild the Gmail app for iOS. After months of slaving away, the app has just been released on the App Store today and it comes with a number of new features that may have been borrowed from Sparrow, even though insiders such as MG Siegler claim the Sparrow team had nothing to do with the update.
Gmail 2.0 for iPhone and iPad is faster, sleeker and much easier to use. The minimal UI athestetics of Google Now have bled over with some of the popular features from Sparrow. The free update gives users multiple accounts, infinite scrolling inboxes, better search, and more.
Here are the release notes:
Kicking off this week’s must-have apps roundup is Nokia’s great new mapping app called HERE Maps. It’s accompanied by an awesome App.net client called Stream, a great new app that tracks who stopped following you on Twitter, and more.
Popular third-party mail client Sparrow was recently bought by Google, but that hasn’t stopped the app’s developers from pushing out updates for their existing user base. Today Sparrow for iPhone received a long-awaited update that brings support for the iPhone 5’s taller display and iOS 6’s Passbook.
This very update was rejected by Apple earlier this month because of a mixup with Rich Text support in iOS 5. Sparrow has obviously ironed out the kinks with Apple, as users can download the update now in the App Store.
Shortly after the iPhone 5 made its debut back in September, the team behind Sparrow announced that it would be updating its email client for the handset’s new 4-inch display — despite its decision to cease development of the app after joining forces with Google.
It seems we could be waiting some time for that update, however: Sparrow has revealed that Apple rejected its latest release for violating its App Store terms.
Ever since Google gobbled up the developers of Sparrow to put them to work on a Gmail app, the future of my favorite iOS email client has been in question, but the lack of iPhone 5 support was a particularly hard pill for me to swallow as I reviewed Apple’s latest handset.
Luckily, it appears that while Sparrow may not see many updates going forward, it will get iPhone 5 support, taking full advantage of the 1136 x 640 display.
When the Sparrow team announced that it had been acquired by Google back in July, the future of its popular email clients for Mac and iOS became unclear. We still don’t really know what will become of Sparrow, but its creators promised it would continue support its customers.
Staying true to that promise, the team has updated Sparrow for iPhone for the first time since its Google acquisition, adding support for Google Chrome, better IMAP compatibility, and more.
Remember Fluent? It was a webmail service which made your Gmail look like now-defunct iOS and Mac app Sparrow.
Now, like Sparrow (and the similar-looking Tweetie before it), Fluent is dead.
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