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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Sparrow today announced that its iPhone mail app [App Store] has been updated to version 1.2, bringing several new features including swipe navigation between messages and new support for composing in landscape orientation.
New features:

- Navigate between messages by swiping up and down
- Landscape composing
- Edit and create label/folder
- Localization in 9 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Chinese
Sparrow also provided an update on its efforts to add push notifications, revealing that Apple has declined to allow the feature directly and that Sparrow will have to implement its own solution. As a result, push notifications will arrive in a future update and will require a yearly subscription.

Article Link: Sparrow for iPhone Adds Swipe Navigation and Landscape Mode, Push to Require Subscription
 

Menopause

macrumors 6502a
Feb 26, 2011
663
1,807
Brilliant, now they'll have people shell out more money. As if the congested, confusing and inconsistent UI in the app wasn't enough.
 

stridemat

Moderator
Staff member
Apr 2, 2008
11,364
863
UK
I like the Sparrow app, but paying for push when it is included within the default Mail app is a big negative. I'm not sure if the gestures will make me stay alone.

Shame as I have been holding out for this for a while now.
 
Last edited:

jclardy

macrumors 601
Oct 6, 2008
4,139
4,319
Ahh yes, what a rip off.

I don't think you realize what they have to do here to get emails pushed to your iPhone...

You will have to log in to your email on their server, which will then get pushed emails from Gmail. When the server gets the email it then pushes to your phone.

What this means is that their servers will be essentially mirroring Gmail's, which is not going to be cheap for them. They won't have to store messages, but even still it will be a lot of bandwidth considering that each user can have multiple accounts.
 

charlieegan3

macrumors 68020
Feb 16, 2012
2,394
17
U.K
I don't think you realize what they have to do here to get emails pushed to your iPhone...

You will have to log in to your email on their server, which will then get pushed emails from Gmail. When the server gets the email it then pushes to your phone.

What this means is that their servers will be essentially mirroring Gmail's, which is not going to be cheap for them. They won't have to store messages, but even still it will be a lot of bandwidth considering that each user can have multiple accounts.

If they need more cash just ask for more money, don't try and mask it with upgrades.
 

Xytal

macrumors regular
Mar 30, 2010
172
52
I don't think you realize what they have to do here to get emails pushed to your iPhone...

You will have to log in to your email on their server, which will then get pushed emails from Gmail. When the server gets the email it then pushes to your phone.

What this means is that their servers will be essentially mirroring Gmail's, which is not going to be cheap for them. They won't have to store messages, but even still it will be a lot of bandwidth considering that each user can have multiple accounts.

Exactly.

If they need more cash just ask for more money, don't try and mask it with upgrades.

They aren't. They are clearly saying they tried, Apple isn't going to let it happen (big surprise), and they're going to do it this way. Besides, if you don't want push, you don't have to buy it. The way I get around it right now is let Mail still do my push, but open up Sparrow when I want to use it. Gets a little awkward, but it's the best I can do right now.

Depending on how much it ends up being, I may do it. We'll have to wait and see. And who knows, maybe iOS 6 will have new multitasking APIs that can be used. We'll just have to wait a month and see.
 

Dysfnctnl85

macrumors member
Jul 11, 2008
52
0
I regret the day I purchased this app to be honest.

Okay, I'll bite -- REALLY? Such strong language for $3.

----------

The way I get around it right now is let Mail still do my push, but open up Sparrow when I want to use it. Gets a little awkward, but it's the best I can do right now.

So I use my phone for work email and personal email. Honestly, removing GMail from Mail and using Sparrow exclusively for GMail has had a fantastic impact on my battery life (4 here), my phantom vibration syndrome, and my ridiculous need to know about every new email when it arrives.

I be it's lowered my blood pressure. You won't find this in the Sparrow description though!

----------

As if the congested, confusing and inconsistent UI in the app wasn't enough.

So...what is congested, confusing, and inconsistent?
 

leftynaut

macrumors member
Nov 10, 2009
66
85
another reason why I will never upgrade my iOS without a jailbreak available. love my Sparrow Push & Sparrow+ :)
 

hitekalex

macrumors 68000
Feb 4, 2008
1,624
0
Chicago, USA
Charging a fee for Push service is also against Apple App Store policies.

Although Apple hasn't been very consistent in enforcing this rule, I would find it amusing if they rejected Sparrow again on that ground.
 

mattraehl

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2005
384
1
What's the big deal with Sparrow? Why do people like it so much?

Much better GMail integration that Apple's Mail.app in 3 key areas:
- Tags
- Archive AND Delete buttons
- Search from your inbox searches ALL mail, not just your inbox.

And some other niceties:
- Send & Archive
- Attach images from mail composition screen
- Icons/Avatars
- Quick access to Inbox/Unread/Starred
- Nice gestures make easy access to lots of features without cluttering up the interface.

Best $3 I ever spent for my iPhone. And I don't miss push at all. Just check it a couple times a day, unless you're manning the nuclear missle silos there's probably not anything in you email that needs a response REAL FAST HURRY NOW.
 

pnyc

macrumors 6502
May 12, 2007
264
0
Brooklyn, NY
What's the big deal with Sparrow? Why do people like it so much?

It's just a better email client, but if you see nothing wrong with the stock iPhone mail app you probably won't need it. Still it's worth it to at least read the app features list to see what it can do. Here is a decent review of the app : link

The app really works great on a jailbroken iPhone with push enabled, all it needs is notification center support(allegedly coming soon) and it can be a complete replacement for the stock app.

I hate being limited to having to do every single thing on my iPhone "the Apple way" especially when I know that a better alternative exists and works perfectly fine on the software/hardware, I was stuck on an unjailbroken iPhone for a couple of weeks and could not stand how annoying it was constantly having to do 5-6 actions to achieve the same thing I was able to do on a jailbroken iPhone with 2-3.
 

farleysmaster

macrumors 6502a
Feb 8, 2008
814
183
London, UK
I quite like app, but after marking all but two emails as read in mail.app, quite a few were still showing as unread in sparrow (I also checked with 'mailroom' a web-client style gmail app, and the messages were showing as read, there).

I think the OS X app, originally had a similar problem. It doesn't fill me with confidence that it works properly.
 

Tilpots

macrumors 601
Apr 19, 2006
4,195
71
Carolina Beach, NC
What's the big deal with Sparrow? Why do people like it so much?

Great question. Not so great answers. I'm curious as to why MacRumors is pushing this app so hard, too. There's lots of great apps
out there, whats so special about this one? Doesn't the GMail app accomplish push already? Not trying to troll, I just really don't get it.
 

rwilliams

macrumors 68040
Apr 8, 2009
3,740
1,006
Raleigh, NC
I've mentioned this before, but I find the lack of push in Sparrow to be great. Before, I had my Gmail and work accounts set for Push in the Mail app, and the damn phone was always beeping or vibrating. While I still have my work email for my new job configured for Push (which I wish I didn't have to do), I've discovered that it's great not to be notified the instant something hits my Gmail inbox. I've become less of a slave to my email and instead go through and check it a couple of times a day now. Nothing that hits my personal Gmail account is so important that it has to be acted on the instant it arrives. I highly doubt I'll subscribe to Push when it's implemented. It's just unnecessary.
 

avanpelt

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2010
2,956
3,877
Unless I'm mistaken. . .

Can't people currently do Sparrow + Boxcar for no annual fee? The Sparrow dev team needs to just endorse a third-party solution for push notifications and stop whining about how Apple isn't letting them do what they want to do.

The Sparrow team knew Apple's policies before they started developing the app (or should have known, if they didn't.) To develop an app that realistically needs to have access to an API that Apple has no history of giving third parties access to and then whining because Apple won't give you access to it is just plain foolish.

I stopped using the Sparrow app and went back to native the Gmail app weeks ago because the Gmail app is universal and I think the Sparrow team consists of a bunch of crybabies. I got sick and tired of their "petition for Apple to allow push" and their whining in general.
 

Baumi

macrumors 6502
Mar 31, 2005
256
376
Push will require a subscription?

Wow.

Not so surprising – doing push mail on a large scale requires server power and bandwidth, those are running costs. If you want your service to be sustainable by itself in the long run (as opposed to hoping for Google or Apple to buy you out before you run out of venture capital), you have to have a constant revenue stream to pay for that. Charging people for using the server power and bandwidth seems to be the most straightforward thing to do. I'm not saying it's the only business model out there, but it does make sense, especially for a small company.
 

hitekalex

macrumors 68000
Feb 4, 2008
1,624
0
Chicago, USA
Can't people currently do Sparrow + Boxcar for no annual fee?

Not really. You'd have to auto-forward all your email to Boxcar servers in order to get notifications via Boxcar.. Which is a pretty terrible solution to push e-mail, if you ask me.

The Sparrow team knew Apple's policies before they started developing the app (or should have known, if they didn't.) To develop an app that realistically needs to have access to an API that Apple has no history of giving third parties access to and then whining because Apple won't give you access to it is just plain foolish.

I partly agree with you there - Sparrow shouldn't have expected preferential treatment. But to be fair - Apple's policies with regard to background APIs are rather horrid and need to be changed. Apple clearly needs to extend this API beyond just VoIP apps, to IM apps, email clients and other similar apps. Their current restrictions just hurt the developers and end users, and prevent many apps from being fully functional.
 

mikematzdorff

macrumors newbie
Oct 10, 2011
10
0
not worth it

for the few niceties that Sparrow iOS(and mac os x for that matter) bring, it's so limited vs the google native app (which is also lacking in certain areas) it's hardly worth it.
 
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