Alternative Email Client Sparrow Acquired by Google

[KnightWRX]

I think Steve Jobs said Google stole the iPhone concept, lock-stock-and-barrel, based on Eric Schmidt having access to prototypes as a member of Apple's Board of Directors. I think most Apple users recognized the truth to that.

What truth ? Eric never had access to prototypes as a member of Apple's BOD, he would remove himself from meetings about it, hence his eventual departure, on good terms, from the BOD in 2009.

Remember, Eric already had a mobile OS in 2006 when he joined, he had acquired Andy Rubin's Android Inc. start up in 2005, a company that was in existence since 2003, founded by a guy who had been doing mobile OSes and devices since 1998 with another startup called Danger Inc.

But let's not let facts get in the way of "the truth".

Are you happy believing in something that just isn't true at all ?

 

[Oletros]

WRONG! Owned several Motorola Android phones. You could NOT install other OS versions other than the ones they released without routing.

Maybe this is just Motorola, I personally cannot speak for other companies' Android products, but your statement is not correct for all Android phones.

The I correct, you don't necessary have to be root to install another version of the OS

 

[Mojo1]

I'm sorry, but with this move, I can't use Sparrow. I'm not a fan of Google's tactics, now they can more closely monitor our emails.

Sparrow did nothing to protect users from Google's scanning of GMail messages. The app is simply an alternative to the GMail Web browser-dependent interface.

If you want to minimize Google's monitoring of your online and e-mail activities you need to do the following:

1. Do not sign-in to your Google account when online.

2. Don't use GMail, period. If you are sending sensitive e-mail messages encrypt them. E-mail is the digital equivalent of a postcard.

3. Use alternative Internet search engines such as DuckDuckGo or Startpage. DuckDuckGo is a stand-alone search engine while Startpage utilizes Google but it does not log your IP address when you initiate a search.

4. Use a VPN service such as Witopia's excellent personalVPN that replaces your IP address with the IP address of the VPN server. VPN also prevents your ISP from monitoring your e-mail and logging all your online activities.

5. Utilize technology such as Ghostery to reduce online tracking and software such as Cookie to manage the cookies on your computer.

 

[KnightWRX]

WRONG! Owned several Motorola Android phones. You could NOT install other OS versions other than the ones they released without routing.

Maybe this is just Motorola, I personally cannot speak for other companies' Android products, but your statement is not correct for all Android phones.

Maybe you should have just read the friendly FAQ about Motorola Bootloaders

 

[Saladinos]

Why are people hopeful of updates to Sparrow or integration with Gmail? The whole "new things" part of the announcement and the lack of updates to Sparrow makes me think it's getting killed off.

,abbé well see it come back rebranded as Gmail, but I'm not so sure. This was likely a talent acquisition to improve Googles services, not Google buying a finished frontend.

 

[KnightWRX]

What I'm more surprised by is the fact that people actually are sad that a payed for e-mail client is going away. I haven't paid for a e-mail client... ever. So many good open source ones out there, and just plain free ones, not to mention web-based options.

Heck, I even rolled my own at one point, using Apache/mod_perl and PostgreSQL.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

WRONG! Owned several Motorola Android phones. You could NOT install other OS versions other than the ones they released without routing.

Maybe this is just Motorola, I personally cannot speak for other companies' Android products, but your statement is not correct for all Android phones.

The only requirement is unlock the boot loader which does void your warrenanty and they make it very clear when you do it that it will be happening.

Now if they lock the boot loader (generally at carrier request) nothing you can do about about unless you get a signed version.
Now I can install custom builds that are based on the offial OS on my phone with out unlocking it. Gingerblur was pretty common for a while which was a modifided version of the build for the Atrix. No unlock or root was required to do it.

Rooting is an entirely other matter.

 

[SeaFox]

How can they be any closer if they're already your email provider?

He never said Google was his email provider to begin with. I think he's worried Google will use it's position as owner of Sparrow to change the program where they are able to snoop the emails from other email providers you have Sparrow retrieving.

 

[scarred]

Just when I was warming up to buying Apps like this... I get screwed over. Only 5 bucks, but still makes me feel like I've been had...

 

[John.B]

Remember, Eric already had a mobile OS in 2006 when he joined, he had acquired Andy Rubin's Android Inc. start up in 2005, a company that was in existence since 2003, founded by a guy who had been doing mobile OSes and devices since 1998 with another startup called Danger Inc.

But let's not let facts get in the way of "the truth".

Are you happy believing in something that just isn't true at all ?

The first Android phones, back at that time, looked like a cross between a blackberry and those awful WinMo phones:

Only after Eric Schmidt saw Apple's iPhone, as I said, did Android become a copy of the iPhone. That's when Jobs made his "snarky" comments about Google, and it was when Schmidt had to start recusing himself from BoD meetings. None of this is in dispute by anyone except the Google faithful.

 

[KnightWRX]

The first Android phones, back at that time, looked like a cross between a blackberry and those awful WinMo phones:

Only after Eric Schmidt saw Apple's iPhone, as I said, did Android become a copy of the iPhone. That's when Jobs made his "snarky" comments about Google, and it was when Schmidt had to start recusing himself from BoD meetings. None of this is in dispute by anyone except the Google faithful.

Not this crap again. That's been debunked so many times I don't even know where to start. Let's not go there, you can't win. Android is not a phone. Android is an OS. iPhone is a phone. Let's leave it at that, reflect on that reality.

And Apple and Eric left on good terms, because Eric was already recusing himself from BOD meetings.

Steve never accused Eric of anything, that's all fantasy made up in forum posts on the Internet. Apple and Steve said good things about Eric when he left and confirmed he did so because his utility was limited on the board since he wasn't attending meetings where there were conflicts of interest :

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/200...t-Resigns-from-Apples-Board-of-Directors.html

Are you saying Apple is lying ?

 

[John.B]

If you want to minimize Google's monitoring of your online and e-mail activities you need to do the following:

1. Do not sign-in to your Google account when online.

That actually doesn't make any difference. Google has as much tracking information about you when you are signed out as they do when you are signed in. Better to use ad blocking software.

 

[rjohnstone]

WRONG! Owned several Motorola Android phones. You could NOT install other OS versions other than the ones they released without routing.

Maybe this is just Motorola, I personally cannot speak for other companies' Android products, but your statement is not correct for all Android phones.

You're confusing a locked boot loader with rooting.
You can install any (supported) version you want without ever rooting if the boot loader is unlocked.
Moto loves to lock and even encrypt their boot loaders.

 

[macpeach55]

My apologies, but still I believe the poster gives the impression that any Android phone can accept any Android OS without problem, and that is still wrong as a statement

 

[jaymzuk]

Seriously people—wake up and see the world for what it's becoming: an Orwellian dystopia.

So what you're saying is iAds good, Adwords bad? And solely based on the fact that Google's revenue streams are predominantly ad based means they'll do anything to steal your information* and sell it to all and sundry?

Just read the EULA and accept it, or don't use the service. It's not difficult, just make the decision and stick by it.

* This nondescript 'information' that is being sold. What is it, and why is it of significance? I know that the only email accounts that can be tied to me as a real, physical human being are my work and ISP mandated accounts. I use adblockers so ads aren't an issue, and this magical 'information' is something that I can't monetize and doesn't impact on my purchasing decisions.

 

[rjohnstone]

That was not the point of my post. The poster implied that ANY Android phone could load ANY Android version of the OS without routing, and that is incorrect.

For me it did not matter - I buy items for what they can do now, not what they might do in the future. So I did not need to read that FAQ before buying products that did what they advertised they could do

You're still wrong.
Rooting (not routing) is not a requirement to install an OS.
The boot loader determines this.

 

[John.B]

Not this crap again. That's been debunked so many times I don't even know where to start. Let's not go there, you can't win. Android is not a phone. Android is an OS. iPhone is a phone. Let's leave it at that, reflect on that reality.

I know this is hard for the Google faithful to accept, but this was the original Android OS on an Android phone, back before Google started copying the iPhone:

TheVerge.com documents another early prototype, circa 2006:

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/25/2974676/this-was-the-original-google-phone-presented-in-2006

Funny, that looks like a Google logo to me...

 

[KnightWRX]

I know this is hard for the Google faithful to accept, but this was the original Android OS on an Android phone, back before Google started copying the iPhone:=

You posting that picture ad nauseum doesn't prove your point since again : it's been debunked so many times. Have a read before reposting that picture again :

http://www.osnews.com/story/25264/Did_Android_Really_Look_Like_BlackBerry_Before_the_iPhone_/

That picture and the Android SDK showed up at the same time, and lo' and behold : Android was always an OS that was hardware agnostic! It could run on *gasp* devices like the one in your picture *AND* slab phones like the phone, or Slider phones like the initial Google G1 that shipped a year later. Yes, the first Google Android device didn't even look like the iPhone, if anything, it looked like Andy's previous Hiptop devices from 2002 :

Hiptop :

Google G1/HTC Dream :

Now I know this is hard to accept but : Android is its own product, it's a hardware agnostic OS, based on a JIT VM engine that runs bytecode compiled application for portability. It runs on now 2 CPU architectures, ARM and x86, and many different kinds of devices. That's because that's what it was designed as.

And who are you calling a Google faithful ? What makes me a Google faithful exactly ?

 

[rjohnstone]

I know this is hard for the Google faithful to accept, but this was the original Android OS on an Android phone, back before Google started copying the iPhone:

ImageImage

It wasn't. That device was never manufactured for public consumption. It was ONE of two hardware platforms they were using to test different OS builds.
Remember... Google doesn't build phones... they never have.
They write software.
The very first Android phone available to the public (G1) was simply a rebranded HTC Dream. It had a touch screen and physical keyboard.

 

[macpeach55]

You're still wrong.
Rooting (not routing) is not a requirement to install an OS.
The boot loader determines this.

Check my corrected statement, I admitted my error. Thank you for pointing this out.
But no matter how you spell it, write it or say it, you cannot simply put ANY Android OS on ANY Android phone, irrespective of their make or model, as the poster implied.

 

[Steve121178]

I'm sorry, but with this move, I can't use Sparrow. I'm not a fan of Google's tactics, now they can more closely monitor our emails.

 

[KnightWRX]

It wasn't. That device was never manufactured for public consumption.

Actually, yes it was. Not that exact prototype device, but Android to this day still works on those phones, because, again, Android is a hardware agnostic OS.

The Samsung Galaxy Pro :

Motorola Milestone Plus :

HTC ChaCha (Look at that Facebook button!) :

Android never was "A blackberry type phone and then switched to an iPhone type phone", Android never was a phone to begin with. It always was an OS, an OS you could install on different hardware designs and types, as long as drivers were made for the kernel.

I can't believe we still have to debunk this crap, all these years later and that people still believe the whole "Eric Schmidt stole from Apple, Steve said so!" when Steve said nothing of the kind and Eric never sat on meetings where Google and Apple had conflicts of interest, like iOS, iPad/iPhone and iAd meetings were.

 

[macpeach55]

Image

LOL! I understand Sparrow were selling these hats for 2.99 this last week, but now have handed them over to Google and will no longer be developing them further, but will release fixes if any tears appear in the near future

 

[freedevil]

Awaiting Spoogle!

 

[LagunaSol]

Eff you Google. That is all.