Honestly speaking, Sparrow is close to being the perfect mail client for the Mac platform, for me atleast. With Loren Brichter, developer of Tweetie and Dave Morin, CEO of Path joining Sparrow’s advisory team, one can only expect Sparrow to touch new level of awesomeness. Sparrow retails for $9.99 on the Mac App Store and is worth every cent. Sparrow combines a seamless flight booking experience, a curated list of boutique and luxury hotels and a dedicated professional concierge to manage your trip from start to finish. Booking your trip has never been easier. Search, compare and book your favourite full service airlines and hotels, all from the one Sparrow app. Curated hotels Our curated list of affordable boutique.
If you’re anything like me, you have plenty of email accounts. I use at least 5 of a daily basis. Traditionally, I have had 2 browsers open, each logged into multiple Gmail accounts, but no more. Sparrow has shown me a new way.
What Is it?
Sparrow aims itself at the Gmail / Google Apps crowd, providing a compelling interface for singular or multiple Gmail accounts. The app is simple enough to use, and provides a wide enough base of features to work for most people.
Ohai Twitter! Or not?
The thing that initially struck me about this app is how much it resembles Twitter – it’s a very beautiful and comfortable to use application. Switching between accounts is as easy as clicking your account’s symbol, and previews pop out from the app as you click on mail messages.
Strengths
What I really appreciated about Sparrow is that it really works well with most all of Gmail’s features – labels work like a charm, message drafts save directly to the source Gmail account, and in general, everything works, and quite well.
The interface is also a significant strength, appearing attractive, but also retaining the core functionality that it needs to drive Gmail and all its features. I also love its simplicity – giving you one simple interface, largely being able to do everything in one single window, and allowing additional options for people that need more.
Not For Everyone
While Sparrow will work very well for most casual users, I feel that the app is not for everyone. It lacks a certain set of features that will prevent me from allow it to replace Gmail’s already excellent web interface. First, there is no spam folder in the utility pane off to the left, although there are panes for starred mail, sent mail, drafts, and trash. It’s not a simple and intuitive process to read through your spam folder, although it is a simple matter to mark a message as spam.
Further, it doesn’t support viewing and editing Gmail’s advanced settings, such as rules, filters, forwarding, and so forth. Since I use these features frequently, and require them to be at hand, I cannot move into a program that does not include interfaces for these functions.
Closing Thoughts
Sparrow is a beautiful, well-designed, and extremely functional app, and I really enjoy the interface, and how well the implemented features function in my favor. I think casual users will find this to be a compelling interface to replace Gmail’s web interface.
To be truly useful for a large segment, however, they need to include better means for viewing other accounts besides Gmail, fuller support, and more advanced features.
Conclusion
While Sparrow won’t be replacing Gmail’s web interface, much less my mail client, I do feel they deserve a nod for their design, for the ease of use, and for the very compelling and friendly nature of their program.
At $9.99, Sparrow (App Store Link) does come at a cost, and many people may not find it worth it when their Mac already comes with an excellent free client (that supports Gmail fairly well), Mail.app.
For more information, visit Sparrow’s website. Sparrow can be through the Mac App Store. I really liked Sparrow, but felt it could do more and incorporate more features. For its merits, I grant it a 4 out of 5.
There is absolutely no doubt that Mail is one of the most important applications on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Yet, due to Apple’s strict policies regarding app submissions and to the difficulty that creating an email app implies, there were no worthy alternatives to the native email app for a while. Thankfully, with the arrival of Sparrow for iOS ($2.99) Apple’s own mail app has finally found a worthy contender.
Both apps are great though, so it is only fair to compare both in some key aspects to fully understand where each one excels and what unique features each of them brings to the table.
Note: This comparison was written based on Mail on iOS 6 and on the version 1.3.3 of Sparrow.
Speed
Both Mail and Sparrow proved to be speedy enough to not raise any concerns or present any usability problems. However, I found that whenever opening Sparrow, the app took between 1 – 2 seconds to start responding before becoming fully usable. My guess is that this is due to the great amount of data that Sparrow needs to load and to the mail engine that the app uses. Kodak esp c315 driver software for mac. I use an iPhone 4S, so I guess that those with an iPhone 5 (which runs a much faster processor) should see virtually no delay upon opening the app.
Once Sparrow is up and running though, everything goes smoothly. Even loading long conversations works perfectly.
On its part, Mail runs buttery smooth at all times and shows no delays whatsoever during usage. This is a prime example of the Apple’s hardware and software integration at play, which is impressive considering just how complex as=' srcset='https://cdn.guidingtech.com/imager/assets/WordPress-Import/2012/12/89416/Mail-App_4d470f76dc99e18ad75087b1b8410ea9.webp 292w' sizes='(min-width:976px) 700px, (min-width:448px) 75vw, 90vw'>
Compatibility
Both Mail and Sparrow now support every major email protocol, including IMAP and POP3, the two most popular ones. Exchange users wishing to rely solely on Sparrow are (sadly) out of luck, since Sparrow does not provide Exchange support yet.
One of the signature features of Sparrow on its desktop version has always been its top-notch Gmail integration, which was also a heavily advertised feature of its iOS app. In this regard Sparrow easily tops the native Mail app with the best Gmail integration of any iOS email app to date. Sparrow supports many of Google’s mail platform’s most important features, such as Starring your messages, Archiving and, most importantly, Labeling, with all of these working seamlessly on the iPhone.
Usability
One of the greatest assets of Sparrow is its focus on usability. The native Mail app offers a very useful platform for composing and reading email, yet it lacks some important features. Sparrow’s developers know about this and have implemented most of them in their email app, making it even more usable than the already great Apple’s native offering. Some of these features where Sparrow has established a clear lead over Apple’s Mail for iOS are:
All these small changes make for a big difference in real-life usage, and if you have to deal with tons of email frequently, then Sparrow will be like a godsend to you.
One aspect where Sparrow falls short though, is when it comes to landscape support, since it offers none at all, while the native Mail app does.
Additionally, due to Apple’s strict approval rules for apps, Sparrow is not allowed to fetch mail in the background. This means that it does not support push notifications and that you will actually need to manually refresh the app by opening it every time you want to check your email. This is a huge drawback and will remain so until Apple relaxes its rules in that regard.
Another aspect of Sparrow that might discourage some is that it was recently bought by Google. At first, it was thought that the app would stop receiving updates as a result, but it has actually received a few since, including support for Passbook attachments and for the iPhone 5 screen resolution.
Other important features like Unified Inbox, attachment saving and batch editing are all present in both Mail and Sparrow.
Is Sparrow Worth It?Sparrow Mail App
With the native Mail app being an already excellent choice for handling your email, getting a paid alternative might seem unnecessary. However, Sparrow is abound with little details that make handling your email a much better, faster and (let’s say it) fun experience. Best free mac app. The app doesn’t cost much ($2.99), but for many, its most serious flaw will be the lack of push notifications.
If you can live with that and are looking for a fresh take on email on your iPhone, then Sparrow is the better app. If email is just a casual activity for you however, then the native Mail app already offers what you need.
Sparrow Mail App For Mac Windows 10The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech. However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains unbiased and authentic.Also See#email #gmail Did You KnowBest Mail Apps For Mac
The term spam pre-dates e-mail.
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